[ExI] quote for the day

[Anders Sandberg]

On 2016-03-24 13:43, spike wrote:
> Well sure Anders, but do let me press this just a little harder, for 
> it is important.  Infidel out drinking with her sorority buddies, 
> better call a taxi, Uber driver takes her somewhere and handcuffs her 
> to something that won’t move, no struggles for she is unconscious, 
> Uber driver calls her confederate in Iran who delivers the ransom 
> demand to the University.  There are no descriptions of anyone, for 
> the Uber driver had a fake license plate on her car, which no one 
> noted anyway, the kidnapped passenger cannot describe anyone, for the 
> driver was wearing a hajib and the victim is alone when she comes to 
> her senses.  They pay, find the victim unharmed, Mohammad and his 
> concubine get away with the money.

That thought experiment crashes because of Uber. Remeber, Uber makes 
jitney cabs realistic because it connects customers and drivers and 
ansures reputations for both. Maybe not perfectly, but the shady driver 
now has a GPS-linked trail and inks to the kidnapped customer, residing 
in a cloud service that cannot be tampered with.

But sure, you can replace Uber with someone pretending to be a proper cab.

Really serious crime typically requires physical presence and physical 
actions, but these are increasingly traceable. Really *profitable* crime 
on the other hand can be virtual and hands-off.

In my assassination paper I argue that we can design online currencies 
and contract systems to allow neutralization or even tracing of odious 
contracts, but it is a design-time consideration to add this feature.


-- 
Anders Sandberg
Future of Humanity Institute
Oxford Martin School
Oxford University

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