From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Thu, 27 Jun 1996 10:38:32 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Life imitates art (InfoWar, Sunday Times article)
Message-ID: <adf6f94c010210046b30@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 4:26 PM 6/26/96, Peter Trei wrote:
>Winn Schwartau is much too modest.

I don't think so. Read on.


>This led me to the most amazing discovery: Winn predicted the
>technologies used in the alleged attacks at least three years ago, in
>the self-published science fiction novel "Terminal Compromise." The text
>of this prescient work can be found on the web at:
...
>If I had predicted the future so well and so far ahead, I'd be shouting
>it from the rooftops, and use the strength of the reputation I'd
>instantly establish to set up shop as a professional prognosticator (for
>fat fees).
>
>I wonder why Winn hasn't bothered to bring this to our attention - and
>I hope that Peter Warren and the editors of the London Sunday Times
>have heard about his astounding foresight.

He _has_ been bringing it to our attention! In fact, he has been shouting
it from the rooftops. He has sponsored at least two "InfoWar" and/or
"InfoWarCon" conferences, including one in Europe and one in the D.C. area.
Robert Steele was a co-sponsor. (There have been many announcements here
and elsewhere on the Net about these conferences; I recall at least one
subscriber of our list went to one of them.)

He also wrote another book, "Information Warfare," and was essentially one
of the main folks interviewed in a BBC special called "The I-Bomb"
(Information Bomb), shown recently on A&E in the U.S. (I had about a minute
or so on this show, much to my regret.)

I have my doubts about "HERF" attacks being current realities, for various
reasons (some of which I wrote about in a recent post here), and I have a
few other doubts, but I certainly don't think Schwartau is being coy about
his involvement in this whole thing.

Whether it is hype to sell conference attendance seats, or to sell
consulting work, or is real, or is partly real, or is imagined....well, I
don't know.

I suspect the recent riding of this bandwagon by Deutch and Perry is easily
understandable: anything that triggers fear and uncertainty is good for
those seeking more control of cyberspace.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."