At 9:13 PM -0500 3/10/00, Secret Squirrel wrote:
> > On SportsNight (the best show you're not watching, according to TV
>> guide), there was a reference to anonymous remailers this past Tuesday.
>> Is this the first mention in pop culture?
>
>Maybe the first one on TV, but remailers have been mentioned in
>various pieces of fiction, for example:
>
>| This month (May 1998) in the literary journal "Playboy", there is a short
>| fiction piece by Brendan DuBois entitled "Netmail". The story involves a
>| case of blackmail using a nymserver which is very similar to
>| anon.penet.fi, but transplanted just across the water to Sweden
>| (anon.service.se). Even child porno pics get worked in.
>|
>| Oh, there are pictures, too, for those who don't like fiction.
>
>and of course Stephenson's book.
There have also been more-than-trivial mentions in _several_ other
novels. I don't recall all of them...possibly Payne Harrison's "Black
Cipher," though I don't plan to comb through it for references.
Two that I recall for sure are:
Paul Erdman's recent novel, "The Set-Up." The American banker sets
up contacts through Cypherpunks-style remailers to protect his
safety. (Erdman is of course famous for such novels as "The Crash of
'79" and "The Silver Bears." He was imprisoned by the Swiss in the
mid-70s and now lives in Sonoma County.)
The other is Eric Harry, in the novels "Protect and Defend" and
"Invasion." In both novels, characters make use of anonymous
remailers. (Eric Harry wrote the excellent "Arc Light," about a war
between the U.S. and Russia, and an interesting SF novel, "Society of
Mind." The two most recent novels mentioned above are extremely
detailed--perhaps too detailed--accounts of wars in China and with
China invading the U.S. I'm reading "Invasion" right now, and it is
too implausible to enjoy fully.)
While on the subject of novels, the most interesting novel I've read
in a couple of years is Greg Egan's "Permutation City."
--Tim May
--
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Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
