4 ms·

>Put another way, what’s the most powerful force on earth? In the 1800s, God. In the 1900s, the US military. And by the mid-2000s, encryption. Because as Assang

>Put another way, what’s the most powerful force on earth? In the 1800s, God. In the 1900s, the US military. And by the mid-2000s, encryption. Because as Assange put it, no amount of violence can solve certain kinds of math problems. So it doesn’t matter how many nuclear weapons you have; if property or information is secured by cryptography, the state can’t seize it without getting the solution to an equation. Yeah, I stopped reading here. It's incredible how confident this person tries to sound when it's clear that very few of these statements are supported by evidence and also don't follow from each other. Bizarre stuff.

tablespoon 4y ago
>> if property or information is secured by cryptography, the state can’t seize it without getting the solution to an equation > Bizarre stuff. Yeah. No matter how much cryptography you have, a gun or bomb will still kill you. This idea that that state really cares about whatever junk you've encrypted sounds like the McGuffin in a cliche thriller.
- hef19898 4y ago
  Also, authorities confiacate quite some crypto all the time...
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tsimionescu 4y ago
> if property or information is secured by cryptography, the state can’t seize it without getting the solution to an equation. This sort of reminds me of the Eddie Izzard "Flags" bit, except that someone is trying to claim the land without the might of the British Empire behind them. Like, imagine the police coming to evict you from a house, and you confidently showing them that this ledger here says that it's actually your house.
jcranmer 4y ago
>> Put another way, what’s the most powerful force on earth? In the 1800s, God. I mean... that's not merely a statement unsupported by evidence, that's a statement that's demonstrably wrong. If I were to come up with a list of powerful forces in the Long 19th Century, "God" and "religion" wouldn't even come close to making it. It's a century that opens with the Enlightenment and reactions to it. The salient political features of the 19th century are the unhinging of the concept of divine right to rule, the social upheaval brought about by the Industrial Revolution, and the mighty juggernaut of nationalism that aroused passions and drove the world to several bloody conflicts, even in excess of the greatest and bloodiest wars of religion.
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tablespoon 4y ago

>> if property or information is secured by cryptography, the state can’t seize it without getting the solution to an equation > Bizarre stuff. Yeah. No matter how much cryptography you have, a gun or bomb will still kill you. This idea that that state really cares about whatever junk you've encrypted sounds like the McGuffin in a cliche thriller.

hef19898 4y ago
Also, authorities confiacate quite some crypto all the time...
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tsimionescu 4y ago

> if property or information is secured by cryptography, the state can’t seize it without getting the solution to an equation. This sort of reminds me of the Eddie Izzard "Flags" bit, except that someone is trying to claim the land without the might of the British Empire behind them. Like, imagine the police coming to evict you from a house, and you confidently showing them that this ledger here says that it's actually your house.

jcranmer 4y ago

>> Put another way, what’s the most powerful force on earth? In the 1800s, God. I mean... that's not merely a statement unsupported by evidence, that's a statement that's demonstrably wrong. If I were to come up with a list of powerful forces in the Long 19th Century, "God" and "religion" wouldn't even come close to making it. It's a century that opens with the Enlightenment and reactions to it. The salient political features of the 19th century are the unhinging of the concept of divine right to rule, the social upheaval brought about by the Industrial Revolution, and the mighty juggernaut of nationalism that aroused passions and drove the world to several bloody conflicts, even in excess of the greatest and bloodiest wars of religion.

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