Why are we even bothering with this except to point out that the
poll was very poorly controlled and taken at a very emotionally
unbalanced time. Its wording purposefully took advantage of
that. We should be after the pollsters and those who would make
use of such spurious data rather than worrying that the people
will actually support any such thing.
- samantha
"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> > LONDON, Sept. 18 - A poll in the United States has
> > found widespread support for a ban on "uncrackable"
> > encryption products, following proposals in Congress
> > to tighten restrictions on software that scrambles
> > electronic data.
>
> The fact that Americans are silly enough to support this ban is irrelevant.
> What matters is that Congress can use such a poll to gain support for their
> proposals to tighten restrictions.
> If Congress can ban encryption products, they can ban scientific research that
> would lead to a technological singularity, and the same people who want to be
> safe and secure from encryption also want to be safe and secure from
> evolutionary phase transition. So this bodes ill for unstoppable technological
> progress. It may be difficult to explain to Congress why encryption should be
> legal, and it will be more difficult to persuade Congress that a technological
> singularity should be legal.
>
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