From: Seth Morris <Seth.Morris@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Tue, 22 Feb 94 23:00:37 PST
To: pdn@dwroll.dw.att.com (Philippe Nave)
Subject: Re: Education needed, but what specifics?
In-Reply-To: <no.id>
Message-ID: <9402230700.AA19126@lambada.oit.unc.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text


> Seth Morris writes :
> > 
> >  For some time now, I have been kicking around ideas for games related to
> > crypto, and I have decided that it may be an excellent education/propoganda
> > tool.
> 
> Interesting.. Interesting..
> 
> > 
> >  Perhaps the game should make frequent mention of PGP, RSA, Chaum and
> > other sources in the literature (a door with a bibliography!)?
> 
> Getting better...
> 
> > 
> Whoa... is this thing supposed to be a *game*, or a training school for 
> net.guerilla.warfare? I may be a minority of one, but I'm not going to
 Point well made, and I did allude to the possibility that some would see
it as that (although I think I was unclear about specifics, I had nothing
actually _training_ like in mind certainly!). This is to be a game,
primary emphasis on fun. I find that I learn best when I'm having fun,
and my experience with rpg's and wargames has been that I think about
the implications and inspirations for the games I play.
 (Has anyone else read the story about the USG using games to manipulate the
voters? Where they make a voting game to increase turnout in a manner
similar to Monopoly's supposed influence on people during the depression?)

> risk *anything* by trying to hack mail systems, trace their logs, or 
> spoof. Quite frankly, I can't be bothered - apart from a sort of 'James 
> Bond' thrill, that sort of thing has no appeal whatsoever. Hopefully, I'm
> just missing the point here, but I wonder how smart it is to advocate
> 'hacking net services' in a game that is supposed to introduce people to
 Understyood, and agreed. All simulation, not like reality. I haven't ever
commited such silliness myself (part of why I'm asking for ideas), and I
see no reason for anyone else to.

> strong crypto. Although it might not be very thrilling, my hope is that 
> Mom and Pop Citizen will one day use PGP (or <insert-favorite-crypto-here>)
> on their routine e-mail - they may never know or care about telnetting to
> port Q-47, and I don't think that matters much. Be careful with the game;
> don't overemphasize the cloak-and-dagger to the point that Average Citizen
> gets spooked off strong crypto.
 I'm hoping that the game would emphasize that anyone could _need_
strong crypto, and anonymity, and digital cash, etc. Also that understanding
your network makes you and everyone else safer.
 
> Don't take this as flame-bait, please; this just posting just hit me at
> the right time to provoke a philosophical outburst. While it is fun for 
> the cypherpunks to skulk around and spoof each other, we must not lose 
> sight of a large segment of our intended audience - namely, those people
> who might hop on the strong crypto bandwagon so long as the 'skullduggery'
> factor does not get too high. I think there is a large market for crypto
> services that is completely detached from the 'full blown' cypherpunk 
> agenda of anonymity, remailers, untraceability, etc. 

 Have you played the game "Neuromancer" based on Wm Gibson's novel? My
thought all the while reading the book was that it's make a better game than 
novel, and I was right. The game focuses on finding and infiltrating
systems on the net with emphasis on tracking financial transactions and
reaching secure(?) meeting places with other net underworld figures.
 The game was immensely popular, and could have used more "puzzle-like"
elements, more data presented to the player, and an interactive option.
 That is more like what I'm proposing. 

 The players I know of BBS door games in Tucson, Arizona (where I'm
located physically), would like to see more control than would make
the game "friendly." Understanding that their sysadmin can follow the
sendmail logs might encourage users to use crypto on their mail, and
use remailers (even non-anonymous remailers, just designed to take
the tracking away from their own sysadmin and put it with one they
have CHOSEN to trust). I know a lolt of sysops, and you'd be surprised
how much email is read.
 Also, if more people are thinking about didgital cash, anonymity, 
encryption, and the lack of proivacy they have (and how public their
lives may become if governments/corporations/"unfriendlies" of all types
were the ones controlling information entirely vis a vis clipper, 
storuies of sysops reading mail, stories of corporations reading
mail, stories of operators listening in on phone calls, ...), the
more solutions will emerge, and the more prepared the  people already using
computers to exchange ideas will be when confronted with the options
that take away privacy as opposed to those which enhance it.

 Perhaps I should send you a plan of what I'm thinking? Storyboards? I do
**NOT** want to be seen as suggetsing/writing a manual on net.warfare,
but the cyberpunk novels are already pretty closeto  to what I'm thinking
of and without presenting real dangers, I don't know how to suggest people use
real solutions. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 (Glad I didn't mention the proto idea of having users use hunter-killer
viruses... that'd get me in trouble!)

 I appreciate criticism. Disagreement isn't flamage. Indignation isn't
necessarily ad hominem. Please help me prepare a concept that won't
cause these reactions in the non cypherpunks-friendly communities.
 Ideally, the abstract for the gam,e shouldn't raise too many eyebrows
in comp.virus, talk.politics.crypto, or anywhere else.
 It certainly should be something sysops would be willing to use.

 Seth Morris (Seth.Morris@LaUNChpad.unc.edu)