From: Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 95 03:01:28 PDT
To: Black Unicorn <unicorn@polaris.mindport.net>
Subject: Re: cryptography eliminates lawyers?
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950913180804.6269A-100000@polaris.mindport.net>
Message-ID: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950914054153.8806C-100000@panix.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




On Wed, 13 Sep 1995, Black Unicorn wrote:

> But won't clients insist on proper credentials in one form or another?  
> Doesn't the practicality and accountability of a centralized authority 
> (or several authorities) provide the best answer to this?  Who is going 
> to accept my signature promising that I did indeed get a law degree and 
> pass the bar?

An educational institution can certify its own graduates --- it does 
now.  Competing credentialing institutions is exactly what I would be 
looking for as opposed to today's coercive monoply.  

No matter how skilled, it is illegal for an unlicensed person to practice 
law, medicine, or many other professions in any state.  The nets weaken 
these restrictions because they allow action at a distance.

Note the other effects of the nets.  They make it hard to tell that you 
*are* working which reduces the impact of regulations of work by 
"illegal aliens."  Thus if I am wandering through the South of France 
while writing the 'Great American Novel' I am unlikely to get busted for 
violation of work restrictions.  The nets expand the number of jobs I 
can do while innocently wandering the South of France.  I can or will 
soon be able, for example, to manage a large international corporation 
from anywhere.

DCF

"Who actually prefers Le Massif Central to those hot and crowded southern 
climes."