AP deconstructed: Why it has not happened yet, and will not

[Steve Kinney]

Listen up you punks...

I will assume that readers already know how "Assasination Politics"
a.k.a. AP works.  If not, look it up:  I consider it a brilliant idea.
But like many brilliant ideas, one can find structural flaws if one
looks closely enough.  Here's my set:

1)  AP treats anonymity on the networks as a 'primitive', that is, a
Platonic ideal:  One either has anonymity or not, and if one does,
nobody can remove it regardless of resources brought to bear.

I see anonymity on the networks as nearly always relative and nearly
never absolute.  To achieve absolute anonymity, an individual must
commit "the perfect crime" by connecting to the networks once, briefly,
by physically breaking in at an access point not personally associated
with him or herself.

If not seen coming or going (a tricky prospect in 'civilized' countries
these days), and all digital fingerprints left behind present a generic,
non-traceable profile, success:  Unbreakable anonymity.  But any lesser
feat of operational cyber-warfare leaves some smaller or larger
probability that the message in question will be attributed to the right
person.

I say "message" rather than "messages" because each instance of 100%
anonymous network access presents a fresh challenge.  Re-using the same
access point and/or techniques could potentially create an identifiable
profile.  "Really anonymous" network access presents as a job for well
trained intelligence officers and/or assets, not John and Jane Q. Public
looking to fund the removal of a politician they don't like.

Designers and operators of anonymizing overlay networks generally agree,
their tools do not by themselves provide "life safety" grade protection
against an adversary with global network surveillance capability.
Within the borders of a given State with a highly funded intelligence
establishment, such global adversaries already exist.  If AP rears its
very interesting head, the first response from the community targeted
for termination would include command directives and blank checks to
turn the AP process inside out.  Thus would exploitable gaps in network
surveillance close up fast.

AP depends on the ready availability of anonymity to thousands or
millions bettors, and dozens or hundreds of professional assassins.
Participation in any 'lottery of the doomed' (RIP Spain Rodriguez - and
Trashman, agent of the 6th International) would immediately become a
Federal felony with stiff minimum mandatory sentences.  The
unavailability of absolute anonymity for assassins, or even half-assed
anonymity for John and Jane Q. Public, would at best seriously degrade
the whole program.

2)  Large numbers make fools of us all.  AP appears to presume that
abusive politicians. and the cartels of billionaires who elect and
direct them, can not out-spend 'honest' participants in AP by orders of
magnitude at need.  Well... they can.  And if required, they will.

Bounties on actual and perceived "enemies of the State and ruling class"
participating in the AP process would greatly exceed bounties on State
and corporate offenders within weeks of the first pay-out by an honest
AP game.  Massive bounties for "information leading to the arrest and
conviction" of AP operators and anyone collecting bets made in that
lottery would greatly exceed those available to "honest" assassins who
play by the rules of AP.  (Anyone here naive enough to believe that AP
lotteries can not and will not be outlawed within days of a perceived
reason to do so?)  Combined with top priority directives to /all/
intelligence and law enforcement agencies to shut that shit down PRONTO,
hostile AP-like games would create a steep uphill climb for honest AP
participants and winners.

For a quick correction to "common sense" assumptions about income
disparity in the USA - which is less than asset disparity by a couple of
orders of magnitude - see http//lcurve.org

3)  As a general conclusion, I think that for AP to work as intended and
usher in an age of NAP based Anarchist society - an objective no truly
sane individual could oppose IMO - it would be necessary for only
"honest" lotteries that deny targeting of "Libertarian" figures to
present games.  But two can play at any game, as long as the second
players in question happen to be filthy rich.

In real life, "Operate an AP lottery, die within weeks of announcing it
to the public and getting enough capital under management to motivate an
assassin."  Or in a best case scenario, pull 20 years without parole in
a Federal prison.  That same sentence would also be available to any
random participant who happens to get "outed" by any of several
technical means readily available to the NSA and comparable signals
intelligence services.

I do believe that the above factors explain why Assassination Politics
has not been implemented in the 20 or so years the instructions have
been floating around.  As far as I know, nobody has even tried.

Alas, for those who want to Change The World from the bottom up, it
looks to me like conventional populist political warfare - the darkest
of the Dark Arts - in the sense that nearly nobody outside agencies
tasked to prevent it knows the first damn thing about how it works -
remains the only game in town.

:o/





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