From: rishab@dxm.ernet.in
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 94 01:29:18 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Force is not physical
Message-ID: <gate.u2TwRc1w165w@dxm.ernet.in>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


elton@sybase.com:
> "Rule", or "political ... control" are only ever exercised through force.
> People keep using that word, "enforce", without looking carefully at it.

"Force" is not necessarily physical and cannot be equated solely with the
monopoly over guns. This whole thing started in the context of governance in
cyberspace. In cyberspace, if you loose your net connection, right to post,
read whatever, you're dead. You could be 'killed' by a coalition of system
providers, or a 'government monopoly'. You _will_ follow the rules, won't you?

The point of this discussion was a model government for cyberspace (and here
the sense of 'governance' is administration), and its possible extension to
brickspace. It is not true that cyberspace is invincible, that the Net can't
be tamed and all that rot. The Internet cannot be censored as long as a part
of it exists. The money, power and intention could destroy it completely, 
which would of course be foolish in the extreme. Assuming that it survives,
'untamed', how is it to be run, and how will it affect the way the rest of our
lives are run?


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Rishab Aiyer Ghosh             "Clean the air! clean the sky! wash the wind!
rishab@dxm.ernet.in                   take stone from stone and wash them..."
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