Privacy vs. Pseudospoofing

["L. Detweiler" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>]

Hello everyone. I am a bit unclear as to what cypherpunks are really
promoting as far as privacy vs. pseudospoofing. The lack of official
comments by head cypherpunks make this difficult to sort out. Clearly,
you are in favor of some forms of pseudospoofing. Here is a list of all
the various forms I can think of. Please indicate which ones you are in
favor of. These are just some tentative names I'm coming up off the top
of my head for terminology.

pseudonymity: a name that is not traceable to a particular human being.

1) straight pseudonymity: the audience is aware of the fact that the
name is not traceable. (e.g. anon.penet.fi aliases, some book pseudonyms.)

2) semipseudonymity: the audience is not aware of whether or not the
name can be traced, and makes no assumption.

3) quasipseudonymity: the audience tends to assume from context that
the name is traceable, but it is not. I think email addresses fall in
this category, but (unfortunately IMHO) that is increasingly becoming the exception.

4) pseudoanonymity: the audience is deliberately deceived into thinking
the name is traceable when it is not. (e.g. a tentacle saying `I am a
real person.' or someone else vouching for them.)


Now, I have no objections to 1-2. And one can indeed have privacy with
them. But it seems to me that all the cypherpunks are promoting 3-4 in
the name of `privacy'. But it seems to me that (3) is misleading, and
(4) means active lies. These are not privacy. These are the tools that
criminals use to evade punishment for their crimes.

Also, one *must* make the distinction between *active* and *passive*
pseudonymity. If I read a book, I am not conversing with the author. I
am not asking him any questions about his identity. This strikes me as
harmless in most cases even if the reader is tricked into thinking the
name is `traceable'. But the interactive pseudonyms, those possible
with the internet, are extremely dangerous, because someone can
actively lie to me when I ask `who are you?'. And it really discourages
me that all you cypherpunks (e.g. J. Gilmore) think it is all the same
thing, Privacy.

So, which do you favor? (Please do not continue to obfuscate the issue
by pretending that they are all identical.)

Cypherpunks, I don't think you all understand the whole purpose of
names in the first place. They were invented so that we could function
as a society. The ability to `trace' a name to a human being is a very
basic aspect of social interaction and ettiquete. Every day that you
corrupt that trust you are not only breaking down governments, but
honest interactions. 

I am beginning to think that not only do the leaders have secrets from
the  followers, they have secrets from each other. Imagine one leader
asking the other through a tentacle, `what do you think of so-and-so'? yee, gad.

Where is your trust, cypherpunks? Why are you so paranoid? In my
experience, the people I have met that are the least trusting of others
are also the most paranoid. But they are also the most secretive
themselves. When you keep secrets from other people, you begin to think
the whole world is keeping secrets from you. Is all of history a big
lie to massage the egos of some people? The Bible is probably entirely
fictional too, right?

Don't you people know you are playing with fire? Active pseudoanonymity
is used to start riots and wars. I plant people around the mob or in a
country who agitate for the destruction of everyone. And real people
get caught up in the passions. Perhaps you think you can control this.
You are mistaken. He who lives by a mob, dies by a mob.

What is the consensus on that delightful little Nazi story about
pseudospoofing for espionage purposes? A glorious example of the
delights of pseudoanonymity? Something to strive for? This is the story
that I was going to send you all when your leaders told me what they
knew about pseudospoofing, that I was talking about for a long time.
But S.Boxx sent it before I had the chance. 

BTW I have misplaced the comments from the leaders that said they
didn't pseudospoof, could someone email them to me?