Encryption in Fiction (DKM's _The Long Run_)

[Patrick G. Bridges <patrick@CS.MsState.Edu>]

As a sideline to all of this serious discussion:

I was re-reading one of my favorite SF books the other day, Daniel
Keys Moran's _The Long Run_ (published by Bantam, ~1989, now out of
print, despite its popularity) and it has an interesting anecedote to
the Clipper debate:

In _The Long Run _(tLR), the Network on Earth is essentially uncontrolled
despite the best efforts of the government because it was created without their
direct control; it's creation was over and done with before they could get
their nosy little fingers involved. Meanwhile, the Lunar network (separate from
the Earth network becasue of the time it takes data to go from earth to the
moon and back) is stricly controlled by the Lunar Information Network Key
(LINK), an encryption system which monitors all traffic on the network and must
approve all transactions.  (Of course, all government transactions are
"pre-approved"...)

Sounds sort of cliiper-esque, eh?

Of course, the hero of the book, Trent, doesn't like this system...  :-)

If I get a chance and there's the demand, I'll type in Moran's description of
the LINK...

Good reading if you can find it.

-- 
*** Patrick G. Bridges  		patrick@CS.MsState.Edu ***
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