-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I recently read Atlas Shrugged by Ayne Rand. I noticed two crucial technologies that seem like good analogs for cypherpunk technology. In case your not familiar with the story, the most productive industrialists, engineers, etc. decide to remove themselves from society until the government stops interfering. They create their own little community in a secluded valley where they can work without supporting the government. The first relevant technology is a mirror that hides the valley. The industrialists have built a small town, but from the air it looks like a barren desert. The mirror conceals their transactions from everyone else. This sounds like encrypted, untraceable communications and transactions. Black markets flourish, but from outside they look like barren static. The second technology is a self-destructing laboratory. This allows an engineer to experiment with secret technology without the need for physical security. When the police break down the lab door, they find nothing but a fine powder, and they can't even guess what he's been up to. This sounds like tamperproof hardware or software. To the authorized user, it's useful equipment. To everyone else, it's nothing more than random instructions. Did Ayn Rand anticipate crypto-anarchy? --- Yours Truly, ][adon Nash --- in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. --- ][enry David Thoreau, 1850 --- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3 iQCVAgUBLGOgRjIwr9YMSTuBAQEF9gQAuTn0qIBBg/rgJFFdpnaWZHeVQBc9BBX0 6MPz3a9FfOen4MSL00XD+dOn96Fc4gzXma6h1kXU70i8u5L/uysVJvSrBEPjQEHv Gt8JuWxgvZoQSAkrv0Q0KhKA6cI4Tv15PhGiEN2jGoBE2qHO9T1CTfrJSrF/FsZt RFYGUqK1KEo= =JvXB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------- Yours Truly, ][adon Nash -------------------------------- in founding a family or a state, or acquiring fame even, we are mortal; but in dealing with truth we are immortal, and need fear no change nor accident. --------------------------------- ][enry David Thoreau, 1850
hnash@mason1.gmu.edu writes:
I recently read Atlas Shrugged by Ayne Rand. I noticed two crucial technologies that seem like good analogs for cypherpunk technology.
Yes, lots of parallels. I read Rand when I was 16, was mightily influenced, but have been unable to read her since. Just the writing style, I suppose. Other people tell me the same thing, that you basically have to read her when you're young and impressionable. (put a smiley here if you like)
Did Ayn Rand anticipate crypto-anarchy?
Rand later in her life denounced libertarians, let alone the even more extreme anarcho-capitalists. And the crypto anarchists of today are beyond even anarcho-capitalism. But her ideas were of utmost importance. In fact, in 1988, I set out to write a novel that would "update" "Atlas Shrugged." It's still languishing, but many of the ideas I developed while attending Crypto conferences, reading Vinge ("True Names") and Card ("Ender's Game"), and exploring the implications of fully anonymous communication and trade found their way into my "Crypto Anarchist Manifesto" that year. So, I would agree that Rand was one of the prime motivators of crypto anarchy. What she wanted to do with material technology (mirrors over Galt's Gulch) is _much_ more easily done with mathematical technology. Someday I'll repost my essay "Libertaria in Cyberspace" to this List. -Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. Note: I put time and money into writing this posting. I hope you enjoy it.
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