At 09:37 AM 8/1/01 -0700, Tim May wrote:
>Exactly so. This list, like so many other lists, is gradually moving
>toward "public politics" and "the law" as the focus of many members.
More public policy than "public politics," but the general point is true.
I'm not sure what the reason is. Perhaps a combination of more stuff
happening by the Feds than, say, eight years ago. It's true we had SJG and
CDA (well, starting in 1994-1995) and crypto restrictions and CALEA
(starting in 1994) and Clipper. But that's a pretty short list compared to
what DC is involved with today.
Also many of the broader cypherpunkly themes have been well thought out and
well-discussed. Some people have gone on to create companies around these
ideas; most of those have failed, or at least have not been wildly
profitable successes. Other cypherpunkly projects, like Freenet, have their
own lists and networks of programmers, who may not even read cypherpunks.
Some things have remained constant for the past four years or so: The
number of remailers, to a first approximation, and the number of years
before digital cash happens. :)
>We risk becoming just a pale--a very, very pale!--imitation of the
>Cyberia-L list.
Nah. Cyberia's gone downhill. Folks there have fled to private law lists
too (I'm on one).
-Declan
