Re: Gingrich, Moynihan step down

Dan Clemmensen (Dan@Clemmensen.ShireNet.com)
Wed, 11 Nov 1998 19:22:15 -0500

tsoon wrote:
>
> >Is this the same "ban cryptography, total surveillance, anarchists are
> evil"
> >David Brin who's posted here in the past, or is this another David Brin
> >I've never previously heard of? If it's the former I don't know how anyone
> >could call him a libertarian.
>
> I don't know about this. I probably wasn't a subscriber then. My ref to Brin
> is 2nd hand knowledge though I'm a 100% sure of the rest, so I may be
> wrong.
>
David Brin is a very smart and future-oriented type guy, but he does not consider himself a libertarian, at least as of last May when he spoke at the foresight fellows conference. At that point, he wasn't speaking of banning cryptography, and I don't recall that he called for banning cryptography (except perhaps for its use by the government) in his book. Rather, he believes that cryptography and other attempts at secrecy are futile in the face of future generally available surveillance technologies.