On Killing Blaster

An Metet anmetet at freedom.gmsociety.org
Tue Apr 13 14:29:06 PDT 2004


Major Variola writes:

> Language is how you manipulate people from a distance.   Much
> more convenient than hitting them.
>
> Crypto *can* keep bits free.  And so maybe language.
>
> But Men with Guns control physical reality, which limits what
> those bits can do.  Read the archives on the problems with
> linking "credits" to dollars or physical merchandise.

Fine; you are questioning the feasibility of the cypherpunk model for
achieving freedom through cryptographic anonymity.  It is true that
power in the physical world can, in principle, prevent the operation
of the information infrastructure necessary for the cypherpunk dream
to be realized.  Whether it can do so without also impairing "good"
information transfers to an unacceptable level remains to be seen.

But suppose you're right; suppose men with guns keep crypto anarchy from
working, and the only recourse is to use force of your own.  Then what are
you doing here?  This list is for discussing and implementing cypherpunk
concepts.  If you deny them, you should go elsewhere to pursue your goals.

The practical problem with using force is that people will fight back.
And there are far more of them than you.  In a democratic system,
government policies have widespread support.  If you start knocking off
California legislators you will soon find the massive might of the State
directed against your health and well being.  Your goals of anarchy and
freedom are never going to be popular enough to let you win by using
force in this way.

Some have said they want to use cypherpunk technology to facilitate
their plans for using force to fight the oppressors.  They can set up
assassination markets; or more simply, hire hitmen anonymously using
ecash.  In this way they can bring force to bear without risk.

But this reasoning is self-contradictory.  If force is necessary, it
is because cypherpunk technology has failed.  As you predict, "Men with
Guns" will be controlling the bits via their control of physical reality.
There will be no anonymous assassination markets to help you pursue your
violent goals.

But the reverse is true as well: if and when such markets come to exist,
it can only be because the cypherpunk dream has succeeded beyond our
wildest hopes.  A world in which such applications exist despite the
most stringent efforts on the part of the State to eradicate them is one
in which cypherpunks have truly succeeded in burrowing so deep into the
information infrastructure that they can never be stopped.  It is a world
in which anonymity is preserved, one where contracts and payment systems
have been developed for even the most risky and uncertain enterprises.

If cypherpunk technology works to this degree, then it will open up
tremendous new opportunities for people to evade the power of government.
The one overwhelming trend as we move into the 21st century is the power
of information.  This is why governments more and more are trying to crack
down and limit its propagation.  If cypherpunk technologies are able to
transcend these restrictions, as is implied by the potential existence of
assassination markets, there is essentially no limit to what they can do.

The physical world is going to be increasingly less important as we go
forward.  What counts is the flow of information.  That is what needs
to be protected and made free from interference.  If we can achieve
that, the physical world won't much matter.  You won't need your guns,
and assassination markets, if they exist, won't be a force for freedom,
but merely another hazard of the physical world, that most people avoid
as much as possible.





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