planetp@aci.net (Paul Hughes) writes:
>mark@unicorn.com 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.
>
>Thanks for saying it. I started to doubt myself here, because the David Brin I
>know is anything but a libertarian. As far as I know he advocates equality,
>equal tyranny and surveillance for everyone.
Brin advocates surveillance in most conditions, but doesn't advocate complete abolition of privacy or a ban on cryptography (at least he clearly avoided those positions in his book The Transparent Society; it's easy to imagine him changing his mind). The only steps he advocates for creating more equality involve empowering the average person to break up existing concentrations of power by surveillance. As long as he doesn't advocate that the government forceably help this along (he seems to waffle on that question), I approve of his efforts towards equality.
As for believing anarchists are evil: "these cypherpunks were among the most brilliant, articulate, knowledgeable, and boisterous T-cells our society could brag about producing so far;" - page 186-187 of The Transparent Society. He does believe cypherpunks are mistaken about the effects of widespread use of cryptography.
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