Tim May 1992 Post on Future of Cyberspace/Cryptology/Digital Money/Transnationalism

juan juan.g71 at gmail.com
Sun Dec 23 14:03:45 PST 2018


On Sun, 23 Dec 2018 09:47:23 +0000 (UTC)
jim bell <jdb10987 at yahoo.com> wrote:

>  On Saturday, December 22, 2018, 7:06:34 PM PST, juan <juan.g71 at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
> > From: tcmay at netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
> > Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 11:06:29 PDT
> >>>> To: cypherpunks at toad.com
> >>> Subject: Some (Pseudo)Random Thoughts
> 
> 
> >> Networks are multiplying beyond
> >> any hope of government control, 
> 
>     
>  >   prophetic words. Except the prophesy was 100% wrong =) =(
> 
> But I wouldn't blame Tim May. 

	To be fair, here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcC0RNsallc  is Tim May stating 

	"The US and other societies around the world are facing a turning point, a fork in the road where one path leads to a surveillance society effectively where people have television cameras recording their actions and conversations on a computer, all their transactions at stores, everything is completely tracked. 

	The other path, the other fork in the road moves in a direction where governments can't even collect taxes anymore because they don't know what interactions people are making. People are buying things and information from other countries and they won't even know in what countries the transactions are taking place."


	That's a 1997 japanese documentary about crypto. By the way, looks like the japanese 'forgot' to include you Jim. Then again, the video comes from the japanese government...



> 26 years is "forever" in technology.   26 years ago, very few people had even heard of the "Internet".  

	Actually in the last 26 years there hasn't been any significant 'technological' change *at all*. The only thing that happened is that microelectronics got relatively cheaper.

	But as Tim May himself makes it clear, the  very serious threat to freedom that 'technology' represents was well known at that time.

	And it was even better known and explained in 1962 

	Aldous Huxley - The Ultimate Revolution (Berkeley Speech 1962)
	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WaUkZXKA30
	
	And in 1948 - 1984. 

	And in 1931, Huxley again. 

	And speaking of the internet being unknown, well it's funny that the internet was very well described already in 1909 

	THE MACHINE STOPS by E.M. Forster (1909)
	http://archive.ncsa.illinois.edu/prajlich/forster.html

	And lastly in 1895, another prediction of the 'progressive' 'accomplishments' of 'technology'. 

	The Time Machine by H. G. Wells
	http://gutenberg.org/ebooks/35	

	And all that is off the top of my head. I'm sure there must be more...

> 
> 
> >> bandwidths are skyrocketing, CPUs are
> > >putting awesome power on our desktops, 
> > >PGP is generating incredible
> >> interest, and social trends are making the time right for crypto
> > >anarchy.
> 
> 
> >And yet, 25 years later, we are closer than ever to crypto-techno-totalitarianism.
> 
> 
> Don't blame me! 


	Haha, I don't blame you =P


> I told everyone in 1995 how to get rid of all government.  I wouldn't have been surprised if it had taken 10 years, but so far, it's been 23 years.  


> Ever heard the joke whose punchline is,  "He sent two boats and a helicopter!   What more did you want?"   https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/fumbling-change/200905/two-boats-and-helicopter-thoughts-stress-management     


	Haha, the joke seemed somewhat familiar, but I didn't remember all of it. 





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>                  Jim Bell
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> Two Boats and a Helicopter: Thoughts on Stress Management
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> I think about this joke a lot more than I wish I did.
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