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When "just doing my job" saves the world. “My cozy armchair felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn't even stand up. That's

When "just doing my job" saves the world. “My cozy armchair felt like a red-hot frying pan and my legs went limp. I felt like I couldn't even stand up. That's how nervous I was when I was taking this decision,” he told RT. How well would any of us have done in that situation? It's tempting to think that we'd have said no, don't launch. But picture yourself as a military commander, raised in that lifestyle. Then add the natural inclination to freeze up and make bad choices under pressure. It's also a lesson in secrecy. We almost didn't hear about this story. It was kept secret for a decade. How many secrets are you sitting on, bound by your NDAs? Will you ever make the important ones public a decade later, or will you decide it's not your position, or that it might affect your career? It's easy to rationalize that it isn't our position to say anything about what we know. But it's also too easy. I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict.

abecedarius 9y ago
Not exactly that service -- too much uncertainty about when quantum computers will get cheap enough -- but https://defuse.ca/quantum-computer-time-capsule.htm https://defuse.ca/quantum-computer-time-capsule.htm
lawl 9y ago
> How many secrets are you sitting on, bound by your NDAs Zero. I don't sign NDA's.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Oh? I feel like that only works while you're young and in demand. Give it a decade or so. But I'm curious about your strategy. There are many contexts that you simply can't work for someone if you won't sign an NDA. It'd be interesting to know the areas where that isn't true.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    I work in cloud infrastructure, and I cannot recall anyone here signing an NDA. Instead, our senior architects are giving talks about our network design etc. at prestigious conferences to earn street cred for the company.
canoebuilder 9y ago
>I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict. That's a very interesting idea. What do you mean by the "requirements conflict"? Couldn't it be implemented with a dead man's switch where one would check in every year or so. Of course there would need to be some verification methods baked in to thwart pranksters.
- te 9y ago
  https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/
- YuriNiyazov 9y ago
  I don't know if that's what he meant by "conflict", but it does provide an incentive for one's death
- stordoff 9y ago
  > What do you mean by the "requirements conflict"? Possibly that such a dead man's switch would require the keys to be outside of your control to some extent - after all, if you die the day after resetting the switch, any infrastructure owned, maintained, or paid for by you might not exist for the switch to fire. If you give the keys to a third-party, you have to trust they aren't reading the contents and that their security measures are sufficient. It could be done on an ad-hoc basis if you have a trusted third-party (close friend, for instance), but it's difficult to see how it could be scaled into a service. Perhaps it could be split into two parties - you upload the encrypted notes to the service, but they don't get the keys. You pass the keys to a trusted third-party (i.e. the close friend), who can make the notes public by giving the keys to the notes holder, who (ideally) would verify the death via public records. This avoids giving the secrets directly to the friend (in case of disagreements etc.), and you can reverse the decision whilst you are still alive (by deleting the notes). Also, depending on the nature of the secrets, it does provide an incentive for death.
  - addHocker 9y ago
    You could make a time triggered death man switch that needs to be reset every year. Else your secret is decrypted
lordnacho 9y ago
> I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict. Don't people do this using a lawyer / testament? If you don't want the lawyer to know the contents either, encrypt it and give the key to another lawyer. Asking people to trust lawyers might strike some as being a bit optimistic, but I haven't come across problems with people who are privileged to my information yet. Doctors, lawyers, accountants. You might worry about the guy's infosec, but then I counter a lawyer is more likely to use a safe or other non-digital tech than most people.
ge0rg 9y ago
I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. That sounds like an awesome startup idea. Except that the startup will run out of money after two years and sell your secrets to the highest bidder. Or they will become big enough to be bought by one of the Internet majors who will just shut down the servers and keep the developers.
- pryce 9y ago
  I believe there is already a startup attempting to fill a similar niche called "Dead Mans Switch"[1] [1] https://www.deadmansswitch.net/help/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/help/
gruturo 9y ago
> How well would any of us have done in that situation? It's tempting to think that we'd have said no, don't launch. But picture yourself as a military commander, raised in that lifestyle. Then add the natural inclination to freeze up and make bad choices under pressure. Worse. Much worse. Imagine 1 further thought at the back of your head: Even if I get this absolutely right and avert WW3, there's an 80% chance I get shot and my family ends up in Siberia. My only way out of this is lucking out about the mood of my whole chain of command, up to and including the paranoid tyrant on top, who may worry I am creating precedent for not following orders to the letter. This may be how my life ends, and that's if I successfully avoid a nuclear holocaust.
branchan 9y ago
deadmann.com

abecedarius 9y ago

Not exactly that service -- too much uncertainty about when quantum computers will get cheap enough -- but https://defuse.ca/quantum-computer-time-capsule.htm https://defuse.ca/quantum-computer-time-capsule.htm

lawl 9y ago

> How many secrets are you sitting on, bound by your NDAs Zero. I don't sign NDA's.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Oh? I feel like that only works while you're young and in demand. Give it a decade or so. But I'm curious about your strategy. There are many contexts that you simply can't work for someone if you won't sign an NDA. It'd be interesting to know the areas where that isn't true.
- majewsky 9y ago
  I work in cloud infrastructure, and I cannot recall anyone here signing an NDA. Instead, our senior architects are giving talks about our network design etc. at prestigious conferences to earn street cred for the company.

canoebuilder 9y ago

>I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict. That's a very interesting idea. What do you mean by the "requirements conflict"? Couldn't it be implemented with a dead man's switch where one would check in every year or so. Of course there would need to be some verification methods baked in to thwart pranksters.

te 9y ago
https://www.deadmansswitch.net/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/
YuriNiyazov 9y ago
I don't know if that's what he meant by "conflict", but it does provide an incentive for one's death
stordoff 9y ago
> What do you mean by the "requirements conflict"? Possibly that such a dead man's switch would require the keys to be outside of your control to some extent - after all, if you die the day after resetting the switch, any infrastructure owned, maintained, or paid for by you might not exist for the switch to fire. If you give the keys to a third-party, you have to trust they aren't reading the contents and that their security measures are sufficient. It could be done on an ad-hoc basis if you have a trusted third-party (close friend, for instance), but it's difficult to see how it could be scaled into a service. Perhaps it could be split into two parties - you upload the encrypted notes to the service, but they don't get the keys. You pass the keys to a trusted third-party (i.e. the close friend), who can make the notes public by giving the keys to the notes holder, who (ideally) would verify the death via public records. This avoids giving the secrets directly to the friend (in case of disagreements etc.), and you can reverse the decision whilst you are still alive (by deleting the notes). Also, depending on the nature of the secrets, it does provide an incentive for death.
- addHocker 9y ago
  You could make a time triggered death man switch that needs to be reset every year. Else your secret is decrypted

lordnacho 9y ago

> I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. But those two requirements conflict. Don't people do this using a lawyer / testament? If you don't want the lawyer to know the contents either, encrypt it and give the key to another lawyer. Asking people to trust lawyers might strike some as being a bit optimistic, but I haven't come across problems with people who are privileged to my information yet. Doctors, lawyers, accountants. You might worry about the guy's infosec, but then I counter a lawyer is more likely to use a safe or other non-digital tech than most people.

ge0rg 9y ago

I wish it were possible to make a service that lets you upload encrypted notes that will be made public after your death. That sounds like an awesome startup idea. Except that the startup will run out of money after two years and sell your secrets to the highest bidder. Or they will become big enough to be bought by one of the Internet majors who will just shut down the servers and keep the developers.

pryce 9y ago
I believe there is already a startup attempting to fill a similar niche called "Dead Mans Switch"[1] [1] https://www.deadmansswitch.net/help/ https://www.deadmansswitch.net/help/

gruturo 9y ago

> How well would any of us have done in that situation? It's tempting to think that we'd have said no, don't launch. But picture yourself as a military commander, raised in that lifestyle. Then add the natural inclination to freeze up and make bad choices under pressure. Worse. Much worse. Imagine 1 further thought at the back of your head: Even if I get this absolutely right and avert WW3, there's an 80% chance I get shot and my family ends up in Siberia. My only way out of this is lucking out about the mood of my whole chain of command, up to and including the paranoid tyrant on top, who may worry I am creating precedent for not following orders to the letter. This may be how my life ends, and that's if I successfully avoid a nuclear holocaust.

branchan 9y ago

deadmann.com