Re: the power of cryptography

[mgraffam@idsi.net]

On Sat, 12 Feb 2000 k92t3rd@hushmail.com wrote:

> At Fri, 11 Feb 2000 11:49:02 +0000, matthew.gream@camcon.co.uk wrote:
> 
> >. If ever there was the ideal society,
> >then such little call would there be for these devices of confusion.
> 
> The only ideal society I can think of where " little call would there be 
> for these devices" would be one brought into being via genocide on the
> scale of nothing we have ever seen. Hardly anyone I am familiar with
> would consider a society where there is no privacy, nor need for it, ideal. 

Perhaps I'm being dense. Consider the situation were people mature
to the point where laws against, say, murder are irrelevent because
murder NEVER happens. Clearly this situation is closer to my ideal society
than one in which we a) need to punish murders b) need to deter others
from murdering. 

Given that, it seems to me a society in which cryptography and locks are
not needed because privacy is respected with such absolutivity as soon
above is also closer to my ideal. 

Of course, infringing on the individual is never my intent; perhaps
you can show me where the above and/or my ideal is well.. less than
ideal?

Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam@idsi.net)
"Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine."
                        Henry David Thoreau "Civil Disobedience"