AnarchoCyphertopian technologies (wasRE: [extropy-chat]Reccommendations for a mailing list)

[Samantha Atkins]

On Feb 11, 2005, at 2:53 PM, Greg Burch wrote:

>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Samantha Atkins
>> Sent: Friday, February 11, 2005 4:01 PM
>>
>>
>> Offhand i don't see why spam is a show stopper for these technologies.
>> What did  you have in mind?
>
> I've seen figures recently indicating that spam has become a 
> significant portion of all net traffic.  Bandwidth costs money and the 
> greater the volume of spam, the greater the cost of bandwidth.  
> Furthermore, spam is simply like litter -- it's an eyesore and 
> corrosive of community value.  It's not a show-stopper, but it's 
> rising to the level of a social problem.


But we have a huge glut of bandwidth (although not the last mile).

>
> Spam is similar to raod litter in some ways -- it's effect on the 
> value of a public good.  But spam is different in its source; most net 
> users aren't spammers and it's not a problem where a slight change in 
> the behavior of the majority of the population will fix the problem.


Perhaps if a significant number refused to respond to spam it could 
help.

>
> ... I'm not suggesting a solution in the above -- just musing.
>
>> Re terrorism and other incarnations of the four horsemen,  I don't see
>> that trading freedom, privacy and/or even having some wonderfully
>> useful tech for a bit of mostly illusory security against people doing
>> bad things using the system is a good decision.  Almost everything
>> useful can be used for evil purposes as well as good or neutral.
>>
>> Would you say more on what you believe needs to be solved and the
>> tradeoffs involved?
>
> One of the key elements of the modern salafist Islamic terrorist 
> movement is its use of the internet for recruiting, and for organizing 
> and publicizing its activities.  Without the internet, it would be 
> almost impossible to carry out a global terrorist plan.  I remember 
> that the paradigmatic "nefarious user" hypothetical pre-911 was almost 
> always centered around a contract hitman.  I'm not suggesting that the 
> use of the net by Islamic terrorists justifies destroying privacy or 
> other key elements of the foundational values of the old Cypherpunks 
> community, by any means.  I'm just saying that the negatives are 
> greater than were imagined by most people before 911.
>

The old underground cell system was pretty effective even without 
modern communication conveniences like the Net.   Technology multiplies 
and accelerates everything that can be done or done easier using it.  
This is no surprise around these parts surely.  The unexpected part of 
911 wasn't that they used what technology was available.  What tech 
they did use wasn't all that advanced.

- samantha