From: walter kehowski <wak@next11.math.pitt.edu>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 94 06:06:17 PST
To: peace@BIX.com
Subject: Re: BIX musings on Zimmermann
Message-ID: <9402241406.AA05846@next11.math.pitt.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


#################################
peace@BIX.com muses on Zimmerman:

I think about that, it was Isaac Asimov in his story about an invention
which allowed people to see back into time. Suppressed by the Government,
it was independently re-invented by a professor who only got curious about
the topic when he realised it was classified. The catch; when does time begin?
one second ago?, one nano-second ago?. With the invention, privacy became
a thing of the past; you could go anywhere, see anything. Its kind of a neat
twist on this issue. The government would have us believe encryption is a
*bad thing* because bad guys will use it to hide their activities.
#################################

You've joggled my memory. The Isaac Asimov story referred to in "BIX musings  
on Zimmermann" is "The Dead Past". Another twist on this issue is that the  
government was cast as the good guys actually protecting the rest of the world  
from the wide spread use of the "neutrino-gravitic" time-viewing technology  
whereas the scientists were acting out of "misguided" notions of freedom of  
access to the information and technology. When the scientists are finally  
apprehended they gloat over the fact that the technology is now freely  
available. The gov't failed to stop them. (The time-viewing apparatus is easy  
to build.) When the official makes clear what the consequences are (the past  
is now dead - anybody with a TV set can now monitor anybody anywhere anywhen),  
the scientists are ashamed of themselves. However, it's important to note that  
the government was not above using the technology to suppress the spread of  
the technology. What such a monitoring agency would become in twenty years or  
so is clear. Just how paranoid could it get? ("Crisis and Leviathan" - When  
the crisis has passed, the institutions set up to deal with it remain.) It is  
interesting to speculate on the analogy between Zimmerman's PGP and Clipper  
and the "neutrino-gravitic" time-viewing technology which the government is  
not above using for ostensibly noble ends. 


Walter A. Kehowski <wak@next0.math.pitt.edu>