From: Ted Anderson <ota+@transarc.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 08:15:15 -0800 (PST)
To: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
Subject: Re: Black markets vs. cryptoanarchy
In-Reply-To: <199611101939.LAA13170@netcom4.netcom.com>
Message-ID: <wmW_81eSMV0=1A_040@transarc.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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"Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com> writes:
> it seems to me the main proponents of "cryptoanarchy" tend to suggest
> a government structure is a completely useless construction. perhaps
> so but they would end up erecting othre systems to deal with the
> void they might not call "govt" but would have most of the features
> of one, imho. something "govtlike" is a measure of a civilized society,
> imho, hence my distaste in cryptoanarchy with its seeming naivete
> on the legitimate and crucial role of govt in a society. the specifics
> may vary between implementations, but imho in general something
> "govtlike" is crucial to civilized society.

This concluding paragraph got me to thinking of something I read
recently in "Bionomics" [1] about the public education problem.  The
point being made there is that injecting even a little real competition
into a monopoly situation improves things tremendously.  It is the
counter argument to the objection that allowing students choice of
schools will destroy the majority, as the "good" kids flee.  What will
happen instead is that most schools, seeing imminient flight, will take
measures to avoid losing students (and taking their tuition with them).
A few, that really can't adapt in time, fail and their students are
forced to seek other schools.  The result is that all schools, even
"public" schools improve dramatically.

It seems to me that the government as a whole may be subject to this
same force.  If cryptoanarchy can inject even a little real competition
into the business of government (in the "providing services crucial to a
civilized society" sense) it may succeed, even if few people actually
use bona fide cryptoanarchical tools.  If this is true, we can expect
existing government organizations to try to improve to avoid extinction
(some will doubtless try other things besides improvement).  Perhaps the
US Postal Service is a leading indicator of this process.  This suggests
that the transition to cryptoanarchy may be rather gradual and peaceful
after all.

Ted Anderson

I'm still behind on cypherpunks, so apologies if this response is dated.

[1] http://www.bionomics.org/text/resource/biobook.html

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