Re: Doctor Denning

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 7:33 PM 1/26/96, Peter Monta wrote:
>> I just read the new and improved Dorothy Denning essay at
>>
>>     http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu/crypto/Future.html
>
>This can be found at
>   http://www.cosc.georgetown.edu/~denning/crypto/Future.html
>
>> One should realize, of course, that whether Crypto Anarchy
>> prevails depends not upon the varied philosophical leanings of
>> citizen-units May and Denning, but rather upon whether our
>> mathematics is more powerful than their jackbooted thugs.
>
>What I found interesting was the lack of meat behind
>"Crypto Anarchy is Not Inevitable".  It seemed to boil
>down to the vacuous "if everyone could just agree that key
>escrow is a good thing, there would be no problem".

This is the main reason I haven't bothered to rebut her points: there were
essentially none to rebut.

(There are substantive criticisms of my points that can be made, including
discussions of what might be done to delay or even head off crypto anarchy
completely. I had dinner a few nights ago with David Friedman, author of
"The Machinery of Freedom," and he made some incisive comments about how
the State might go about heading off this future. I'm glad he's on our
side, and not the government's.)

Two other reasons I have not sought to rebut her analysis:

First, I doubt many people saw either my original article (available on Bob
Hettinga's page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/anarchy.html) or
Denning's reaction article.

Second, I stated my views, she stated her views, not much more to say.
Especially as she has not had an active presence on the Net, either in
talk.politics.crypto or in other forums I have seen, and thus a real debate
on the Net has not been possible.

Mostly I know I can't change her views, so why bother? Other people may
have their views affected by what I say, and for these people I have
certainly written enough.

--Tim

Boycott espionage-enabled software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."