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Power Blocs in the Crypto Debate
We're seeing an interesting debate about the nature of power in Washington,
the role of different lobbying groups, and why things are as they are.
At the March meeting of the Cypherpunks in the Bay Area, I outlined a
fairly straightforward model of the power blocs jockeying for position and
influence, and discussed when and how the interests of the blocs
intersected with the interests of other blocs.
This model has a lot of ancillary conceptual baggage, which I'll try to
explain as I go along.
At the simplest level, there are 3 main _blocs_ in the crypto debate:
* Public groups, users, citizens, Cypherpunks, EFF, EPIC, etc.
* Corporations, sellers of tools, exporters, etc.
* Government, law enforcement, FBI, NSA, etc.
(I almost consider adding "the press" as a 4th group or bloc, but choose
not to expand the bloc list too much. As we will see, their role is
somewhat different, anyway.)
Text messages like this one are poor for discussing dynamics, best done on
blackboards with dynamic arrows, erasures, etc. But this is the diagram I
put up at that March meeting:
Public/Users
/ \
/ \
/ \
Corporations - - - - - Government
Simple, yes. Some points about these blocs:
* Forget teleology--these blocs have no "ultimate goals." No grand mission,
no longterm ideological direction. Self-reproduction is vastly more
important than "evolution" (which implies some guiding hand toward some
higher state).
* This is a slight exaggeration, as certainly many individuals in these
groups _believe_ they have longterm goals or ideologies. My point is that
viewing these blocs as organisms is more on target than viewing them as
ideological units. Thus, corporations succeed and get bigger and spread
their "memes" around. Government agencies which control power get
larger...it's not that they "seek" to get larger, as is popularly thought,
it's that differential reproduction and growth favors such policies...like
branches growing toward the sun and outgrowing their neighbors (and then
the genes of the trees which grew are more common, due to survival, than
the genes of trees which did not grow, for whatever reasons).
* Certainly subcomponents of these organisms may "decide" that certain
policies will enhance their individual growth rates, or personal happiness,
etc. Thus, their are apparently groups within PGP, Inc., as disclosed at
that same March CP meeting, which see it in their interest (and they will
claim, in the mother organism's interest, whether true or not) to establish
closer working relationships with agencies in government. Other names for
this opportunistic, not suprising behavior: empire-building,
brass-polishing, careerism, greed, etc.
* These blocks are "basins of attraction," and are like any other game,
hobby, interest, or career. People start following football and then begin
associating themselves with some team. Or they take up a hobby and this
becomes their world, a world they follow closely, root for, lobby for, etc.
They are "organisms," with their own (apparent) lifecycles, habits,
instincts, etc.
* Memes. Enough said. (If anybody doesn't know about memes, do a Web
search, or read Dawkins' "The Selfish Gene.") Evolutionary game theory,
Axelrod's "The Evolution of Cooperation," and Wright's "The Moral Animal"
(to name but a few of the many important books in this area).
* Recall De Tocqueville's circa 1840 famous words of warning about the
American experiment (paraphrased from memory, and translated): "The great
American experiment in democracy will last only until the voting public
discovers it can pick the pockets of others at the ballot box." This is
another way of expressing this "bloc" idea. Special interest groups,
lobbying groups, etc.
OK, so let's look at crypto:
Users of crypto, concerned citizens, the
public
Cypherpunks, EFF, ACLU, EPIC, etc.
/
/
Public/Users
/ \
/ \
/ \
Corporations - - - - - Government - - NSA, FBI, military,
/ law enforcement, regulators,
/ SEC, FCC, etc,
PGP, Inc., RSADSI, Cylink
Verisign, Netscape, etc.
Now this diagram can't capture the dynamics, and may even look "obvious" or
"banal." But some structure is useful in analyzing group dynamics.
For one thing, it's useful to note that the interests of corporations, for
example, are not at all the same as the interests of users. Even if they
make some of the tools users want to see! Corporations are organisms, and
will cut deals with the other players to enhance their own growth
opportunities...either as an overall corporate goal or due to sub-corporate
group manouverings, as with the groups within PGP, Inc. working on key
escrow schemes with government agencies and committees--these subgroups may
even see themselves as the "true spirit" of the companies, and/or may make
power grabs to make their memes the memes of the larger company...this
happens every day.
And each of these groups splits into multiple pieces.
Some groups get sucked into the "orbit" of the other power blocs. Thus, as
we have been discussing with Declan, journalists and lobbying groups in
Washington (the arguable "fourth bloc" (fourth estate) that could be used
for them) find themselves powerless unless they suck up to the government
or one of the other power blocs. The rules of the FDA, for example, start
to become the rules of the journalist...or at least he starts "playing the
game."
Likewise, a journalist based in Silicon Valley will socialize with other
Valley folk, will follow the successes and failures of Valley companies,
and will almost always come to think of the Valley as "his team." Like a
sports team, or hobby, or game, or any other such "basin of attraction."
(Regionalism is not necessarily the most important. Journalists will still
remain "loyal" to their profession, lawyers to theirs, programmers to
theirs, etc. They will look to their professions for advancement,
power-building, etc. Part of the game. Growth, and memetic
self-reproduction.)
But "company towns" like Silicon Valley, Washington, and New York City
exert a powerful influence on those living in such areas...
Back to crypto.
The interests of these groups are not at all coincident, and we must never
lose sight of this. Roughly speaking, these three major blocs fit as
follows:
* Corporations survive and grow by selling things and driving out
competitors. Crypto and software companies want to sell licenses, browsers,
etc. Netscape wants to sell stuff. (I slip, like anyone, into saying
"wants," implying some teleological wish or goal...and to some extent this
is how the company will frame the issue...but a more accurate picture is
that Netscape will cease to be important if it doesn't sell enough products
and will become a dominant force if it sells a lot of products--the
translation to "wishes" and "goals" happens in the usual way.)
* Government is like a giant corporation. (Arguably, one could collapse
that leg of the tripod and call it "Washington, Inc.") Advancement for
individuals and departments comes as power grows. Every sub-bloc is looking
for those warming rays of the sun to extend its branches and leaves.
Empire-building and self-perpetuation. "The only purpose of a politician is
to stay in power." Nietzsche's "will to power." Or differential
reproduction. Republicans and Democrats jockey for more power, and to stay
in office.
* Washington, Inc. gets bigger and bigger because no forces effectively
exist to limit growth. Each department or office seeks to grow maximally,
as this enhances the careers, salaries, and power of individuals and other
departments. Lacking any natural predators, and facing no physical limits
to growth, this organism balloons larger and larger every decade, despite
minor year-to-year attempts to "reduce the size of government."
* These organisms seek mechanisms to enhance their growth and power.
Economists speak of "rent-seeking," as when the "Doctors, Inc." bloc seeks
to enhance their power, compensation, and self-perpetuation by making it
hard for others to become part of their profession. (High-falutin' notions
that doctors guilds exist to provide maximum health care quality benefits
are utterly trivial compared to the game-theoretic, rent-seeking,
empire-building reasons...they form a guild because they _can_ form a
guild.)
* What about the third leg of the tripod, the "public"? Even there the
mechanism involves growth, survival, the will to power. Cypherpunks seek to
have an influence, even to be interviewed by Japanese television!
Individually or as part of "Cypherpunks, Inc.," they seek influence,
growth, power. (Of course, these tendencies are influenced by external
factors. For example, those of us living far away from D.C., or even fairly
far from San Francisco, take a dimmer view of influencing legislators and
reporters than those living close enough to get partially pulled into their
orbits, their games.)
* And the various "public interest" factions all have their own goals,
strategies, and notions about growth and power. EFF once sought to be the
dominant "third leg" power broker, had some defeats, and then essentially
left Washington to lick its wounds and (maybe) to regroup or to alter its
focus (which it appears to be doing by concentrating on legal cases, a la
Bernstein). EPIC has its notions of growth, Voter's Telecomm Watch its
notions, etc.
* Some groups are more explicitly ideological, some are more willing to
compromise. Cato is ideological, NRA is once again ideological (after a
period of trying to cozy up to factions in the government as a way of
growing and gaining influence...failure cause them to retreat to their
"ideological corner").
Enough for now.
The important thing to remember is that allies are not permanent, that the
ills of Big Government can be seen in organistic, Darwinian terms, and that
"good and evil" have very little to do with anything.
I hope this diagram helps a little, at least in explaining some of my
views. Your mileage may vary.
--Tim May
There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
[email protected] 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."