From: "Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@netcom.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 94 21:31:51 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Snore...Re: e$: buyinfo, internet commerce, and GMU
Message-ID: <1702.pfarrell@netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Longtime c'punks push D now...

Just in case we have a zillion newbies, which I doubt, but judging from the
email I've gotten on the PJD piece, I can't tell...

I'm at GMU, as are Peter J Denning, the SO of Dorothy Denning, and lots of
other folks who agree or disagree with c'punks, including the department of
PSOL which is a spinnoff of the Econ department (which hard-core
pro-market), Brad Cox of Objective C and superdistribution fame, etc. Peter
was my MS/CS advisor, and may still be my PhD commitee chair.  Please at
least look at the .sig.

  tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)  writes:
>> There are some people from GMU (Program on Social and Organizational
>> Learning") talking [stuff elided]
> Brad Cox at GMU is one of the "superdistribution" advocates. In
> addition to his article in the latest "Wired," he's had pieces in
> "Byte" and elsewhere.

The GMU econ/PSOL folks were heavily into AMIX, which was a commercial
faliure.

Cox is getting a lot of press and is positioning his team to get some
serious NIS&T money. There are serious privacy problems with Cox's
superdistribution. There may be solutions, but so far, nothing that I've
seen mitigates the 1984 aspects of Cox's ideas.

I agree with Tim's comments on the snore factor of IMP-interest. Those folks
couldn't get past credit, let alone get into untracable digital cash.

If you take the time to read the PJD post that I sent out, even non-c'punks
see digital cash, credentials without identity, and other technological
ideas as both good and inevitable. Of course, six months ago, it looked like
eric and sandy were starting the first intergalictic bank of e$. I was ready
to sign up and deposit real money so I could join Tim in the Caribbean RSN.

> I'm gonna miss these parties when I move to the Caribbean!)
Gee, I thought you got 180 days in country once you are an official
Ex-patriot. That is a lot of partying...


Yo Tim, where is the F-ing FAQ so the newbies can have a clue?

Pat

Pat Farrell      Grad Student                 pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu
Department of Computer Science    George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
Public key availble via finger          #include <standard.disclaimer>