Author
: Timothy C. May
Title
: Libertaria in Cyberspace
Subtitle
: Cyberspace more hospitable to ideas of liberty and crypto anarchy
Date
: September 1st, 1992
Source
: https://www.activism.net/cypherpunk/libertaria.html
Here are a few points about why "cyberspace," or a computer-mediated network, is more hospitable than physical locations for the kind of "crypto anarchy" libertarian system I've been describing.
Several folks have commented recently about ocean-going libertarian havens, supertankers used as data havens, and so forth. In the 1970s, especially, there were several unsuccessful attempts to acquire islands in the Pacific for the site of what some called "Libertaria." (Some keywords: Vanuatu, Minerva, Mike Oliver, Tonga)
Obtaining an entire island is problematic. Getting the consent of the residents is one issue (familiar to those on the this list who weathered the Hurrican Andrew diversion debate). Being _allowed_ to operate by the leading world powers is another....the U.S. has enforced trade embargoes and blockades against many nations in the past several decades, including Cuba, North Korea, Libya, Iran, Iraq, andothers. Further, the U.S. has invaded some countries---Panama- is a good example---whose government it disliked. How long would a supertanker "data haven" or libertarian regime last in such an environment? (Stephenson's fascinating Snow Crash didn't address tthe issue of why the "Raft" wasn't simply sunk by the remaining military forces.)
I should note that the recent splintering of countries may provide opportunities for libertarian (or PPL, if your prefer to think of it in this way) regions. Some have speculated that Russia itself is a candidate, given that it has little vested in the previous system and may be willing to abandon statism. If several dozen new countries are formed, some opportunities exist..
The basic problem is that
physical space
is too small, too exposed to the view of others. "Libertaria" in the form of, say, an island, is too exposed to the retaliatation of world powers. (I won't go into the "private nukes" strategy, which I need to think about further.)
A floating private nation (or whatever it's called) is too vulnerable to a single well-placed torpedo. Even if it serves as a kind of Swiss bank, and thus gets some of the same protection Switzerland got (to wit, many leaders kept their loot there), it is too vulnerable to a single attacker or invader. Piracy will be just one of the problems.
Finally, how many of us want to move to a South Pacific island? Or a North Sea oil rig? Or even to Russia?
Cyberspace looks more promising. There is more "space" in cyberspace, thus allowing more security and more colonizable space. And this space is coterminous with our physical space, accessible with proper terminals from any place in the world (though there may be attempts in physical space to block access, to restrict access to necessay cryptographic methods, etc.).
I won't go into the various cryptographic methods here (see my earlier posting on the "Dining Cryptographers" protocol and various other postings on public key systems, digital mixes, electronic cash, etc.). Interested readers have many sources. (I have just read a superb survey of these new techniques, the 1992 Ph.D. thesis of Jurgen Bos, "Practical Privacy," which deals with these various protocols in a nice little book.)
Alice and Bob, our favorite cryptographic stand-ins, can communicate and transact business without ever meeting or even knowing who the other is. This can be extended to create virtual communities subject only to rules they themselves reach agreement on, much like this very Extropians list. Private law is the only law, as there is no appeal to some higher authority like the Pope or police. (This is why I said in several of my potings on the Hurricane Andrew debate that I am sympathetic to the PPL view.)
And this is the most compelling advantage of "Crypto Libertaria": an arbitrarily large number of separate "nations" can simultaneously exist. This allows for rapid experimentation, self-selection, and evolution. If folks get tired of some virtual community, they can leave. The cryptographic aspects mean their membership in some community is unknown to others (vis-a-vis the physical or outside world, i.e., their "true names") and physical coercion is reduced.
Communalists are free to create a communal environment, Creative Anachronists are free to …