Recommendations for Cypherpunks Books
Foobulus Baracculus
foobar_2001 at hotmail.com
Sat Jan 20 12:26:54 PST 2001
>>Can you distinguish a "cypherpunk" genre from a "cyberpunk" genre, and is
>>it a worthwhile distinction, and what are the features ?
>
>Yes, it is worthwhile. Good luck finding anything that is remotely
>acceptable.
Perhaps I can offer a starting point:
First tier (works that are specifically focused on cryptographic
technologies):
(1) - books on future worlds and spaces: in particular, those that explore
social, moral, political, technical, ethical issues (to be science fiction),
or those that merely explore worlds (to be fantasy)
(2) - books on cryptography theory and systems: from the basic theory
(cryptography primitives), to the high level systems (public key
infrastructure).
(3) - books on privacy, ethics and social questions: defining good and bad
cryptography in the various contexts (low level technical, high level
social), including politics (trade barriers).
Second tier (works that are more general and not specifically focused on
cryptographic technologies):
- second tier to (1) - general science fiction and fantasy exploration of
future worlds involving technology or otherwise, but not primarily focused
on cryptography (technical, social or ethnographical)
- second tier to (2) - general mathematics, communications and computing,
such as number theory, quantum computing, dna computing, internetworking
systems, identity management.
- second tier to (3) - general computing and technology issues of privacy,
ethics, sociology, ethology.
What I would enjoy reading:
- books on cryptoterrorism and cryptoliberation, where a major part of the
plot revolves around the use of cryptography technologies in terrorism or
liberation.
- books on cryptocommunities, where a major part of the plot revolves around
people that are "cryptoheads" and for which cryptography and technology is a
major part of their lifestyle (people who somewhat live, breathe and eat
cryptography).
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