Why So Many Articles on Cypherpunks?

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Mr. Noise writes:

> Having received my copy of the latest Whole Earth Review yesterday, I
> expected to see a pile of messages about the article by Kevin Kelly on
> "Cypherpunks, E-Money, & Technologies of Disconnection"...but maybe,
> like me, you've all been too busy to read the article all the way through.
....

> Well, anyway, it seems Mr. Kelly has spent some time talking to list
> member (guru?) Tim May, Phil Zimmerman, & a bunch of other cypherpunk
> folk, so how about some reactions to the article from those he talked to?

I haven't seen the newstand issue yet and haven't thought too much
about it. Kevin Kelly first contacted me last fall because of some
posts I'd made on sci.crypt (Round 1 of the "key registration" battle,
before we knew the government planned this key escrow thing, happened
when I wrote an article for Extropians, Cypherpunks (very young then),
and sci.crypt entitled "A Trial Balloon to Ban Encryption?"). Kelly
talked to me, Eric Hughes, John Gilmore, circa December, and attended
two Cypherpunks physical meetings. (We had a debate around then about
whether journalists should be allowed, invited, or ignored...the
eventual outcome was that help should be provided to journalists
interested in these issues.)

Kevin Kelly visited my house near Santa Cruz and we talked for several
hours. He was also commissioning an article for "Wired" by Steven
Levy, who also talked to several of us. Hence the double articles,
which were both written at about the same time.

(There's also a Julian Dibell piece for "The Village Voice" in the
works...maybe the stuff he's aleady written is *it* , maybe there's
going to be more.)


> ...& is it me, or is the WER/WELL/cypherpunks/Wired/EFF/etc. crowd starting
> to get just a *little* inbred?  (In a nice way, of course...)  I feel as
> though Kelly, Sterling, Brand, Levy, et al. are my best buddies & I don't
> think we've ever exchanged e-mail (well, once or twice maybe), they just
> keep popping up everywhere I turn.  Heck, I may even have to write R.U.Sirius
> into my will, he feels like such an old pal...


I agree with Mr. Noise about this and am trying to "lay low" as much
as possible. However, if journalists are interested in our kinds of topics,
they'll write stories. The Cypherpunks list doesn't "assign" members
to be interviewed....the journalists sniff the air for interesting
hooks and angles to center a piece on. The work of Zimmermann is very
obvious (though he's not on the list...he did attend one meeting), as
are the obvious battles with the NSA being fought by John Gilmore. I
can think of several others who have stuff going on that would make
interesting stories.

For now, the "cyberspace" community is largely defined by the
magazines mentioned, and a few others ("Boing Boing," 'Extropy,"....).
Hence the incestuous nature. (Also, the editors and writers know each
other and have longstanding credentials in the hacker community.)

I hope this little summary gives some perspective on why so many
articles are now appearing. The timing is perfect, even if 98% of
Americans have never heard of Clipper.

-Tim


-- 
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Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
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