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

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> Samantha Atkins wrote:
> >> I suggest that such countries be made to take
> these problems seriously.
> >> Mandatory blocking of net traffic from ISPs
> within nations that fail 
> >> to implement effective anti-spam laws might be a
> good way to start.
> >
> > Severing the digital nervous system of a country
> to force compliance 
> > with foreign dictates is a clear act of war.  What
> a brilliant solution!
> 
> It's clearly *not* an act of war, anymore than
> refusing incoming 
> phonecalls from someone you don't like is an act of
> war.

Actually, these days it's analogous to blockading the
ports of a country and refusing to let its ships sail.
The country's ability to do business with the rest of
the world is severely curtailed, which the country may
take as an act of war.

Unfortunately, in many of these cases, it's like
blockading the coasts of a country that has at most a
few fishing boats, no ports, and no merchant fleet.
(Certain low-brow types might call this kind of "war",
in the absence of any actual military conflict, a
"cripple fight", characterized by ineffectual gestures
both ways.)  Especially if the main effect of the
blockade is to stop people trying to smuggle in books
and literature to educate the peasants and show them
how to make their dictators irrelevant.