If anyone is curious, like me, what Cypherpunk means:
"A cypherpunk is one who advocates the widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a means of effecting social and political change."[0]
The Cypherpunk Library
31–40 of 113 posts
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#32Side note: I love literature, but I can not for the life of me understand how anyone can consider non-fiction enjoyable to read. Informative, perhaps interesting, yes, but enjoyable? Heck no. Take me as far away from reality as possible. Though, of course, to each their own.
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Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#33[dead]
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#34> THE CYPHERNOMICON I've peeked into that one. I've expected those people to be radical to some degree, but I didn't expect they write it down so clearly. This writing wants to see the collapse of governments and democracy. I find it painful to read such radical statements. So I didn't get very deep. But I am riddled how those people think a collapse of that scale will work out in their favor. They are deeply reliant…
This is the thing I don't understand about (a superficial interpretation of) anarchists; while governments are often not ideal, a lack of one wouldn't be better. And trusting people to self-organize is idealistic, but in practice it'd mean we go back to tribalism and "might makes right".
I get the impression that even the definition of "anarchy" itself is subject to anarchy, with lots of disagreements and infighting. The more even-keeled anarchists that I've seen stress that they're not against hierarchies, only involuntary hierarchies, with the idea being that individuals should be welcome to organize themselves into hierarchies into which they delegate power, as long as that power can be revoked at any time, which sounds like a reasonable proposition. And then there's crypto-anarchism, which is just right-libertarianism in a Scooby Doo monster mask.
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#35Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#36Side note: I love literature, but I can not for the life of me understand how anyone can consider non-fiction enjoyable to read. Informative, perhaps interesting, yes, but enjoyable? Heck no. Take me as far away from reality as possible. Though, of course, to each their own.
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What difference does it make?
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#37If anyone is curious, like me, what Cypherpunk means: "A cypherpunk is one who advocates the widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a means of effecting social and political change."[0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk
Funnily, this small library features works outside of it's domain, including a manifesto from PKK terrorist organization leader..
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#38Side note: I love literature, but I can not for the life of me understand how anyone can consider non-fiction enjoyable to read. Informative, perhaps interesting, yes, but enjoyable? Heck no. Take me as far away from reality as possible. Though, of course, to each their own.
Interesting– Conversely, that is exactly how I feel about reading fiction . To me, how can you possibly enjoy reading something some other person simply ... made up? Like an elaborate lie? Contrarily, non-fiction tells it how it happened within the very reality I myself live in , subject to the same laws of nature and real psychology , and therefore, and only therefore, able to teach me something about real life on t…
I have no understanding of your viewpoint. I wish I did, it sounds interesting. I do like a Crafting Interpreters or Mythical Man Month...
But I don't understand how those could not only be held to the same level as The Hobbit, but that you seem incapable of even reading Animal Farm.
Do you enjoy any fictional media? TV, movies, plays, interactive murder mystery dinners, tabletop games (d&d, etc)?
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#39Side note: I love literature, but I can not for the life of me understand how anyone can consider non-fiction enjoyable to read. Informative, perhaps interesting, yes, but enjoyable? Heck no. Take me as far away from reality as possible. Though, of course, to each their own.
Interesting– Conversely, that is exactly how I feel about reading fiction . To me, how can you possibly enjoy reading something some other person simply ... made up? Like an elaborate lie? Contrarily, non-fiction tells it how it happened within the very reality I myself live in , subject to the same laws of nature and real psychology , and therefore, and only therefore, able to teach me something about real life on t…
Perhaps unrelated, but that reminds me of the inevitable avalanche of identical replies to every submission on aphantasia, all proclaiming that, no, they do indeed find it odd that there are people who can visualise internally.
Do you enjoy watching movies or series, reading comics? Going to the theatre (as in - not movies, but actual theatre)?
Edit: Do note that I wrote enjoy - I've certainly read my fair share of non-fiction. A classic Agatha Christy murder-mystery, while set in the real world, is anything but realistic.
Re: The Cypherpunk Library
#40> THE CYPHERNOMICON I've peeked into that one. I've expected those people to be radical to some degree, but I didn't expect they write it down so clearly. This writing wants to see the collapse of governments and democracy. I find it painful to read such radical statements. So I didn't get very deep. But I am riddled how those people think a collapse of that scale will work out in their favor. They are deeply reliant…
This is the thing I don't understand about (a superficial interpretation of) anarchists; while governments are often not ideal, a lack of one wouldn't be better. And trusting people to self-organize is idealistic, but in practice it'd mean we go back to tribalism and "might makes right".
It's the anti-establishment impulse taken to extremes. Anarchism is one of the niche destinations of that mindset. Another, ironically, is full blown communism.
What's sort of funny, is how all these seemingly polar-opposite anti-establishment flavors are actually far closer to each other than they are to mainstream political left or right.
The anti-establishment part ends up overriding everything else
That's how you end up with Bernie/Trump crossover voters