[DonCarlitos]

And still, the rich get richer, the powerful even more so... cutting barbed wire hasn't changed anything. Casts some serious shade on the power of crypto-anarchy to change anything. Anarchy, like libertarianism, are lovely notions with no direct roots in reality. Here's hoping blockchain democratizes and makes more transparent at least part of the puzzle.

[19eightyfour]

It's not that there's anything wrong with the technology. It's just that people can be exploited. And they get exploited. So the hierarchical power structures remain in place.

Seriously, what better dream to plant in the slaves' minds but the idea that "a simple little computer program" can set you free? And what better way to control them and stifle their rising-up than by the constant deception that they have more power than they do? Fools. They're all god-damned fools.

People talk about VR being 10 years away. We've already been living in it for ages. The Matrix. Democratic Theatre. We've all been living in a dream world. I think we like it here. Because, IMHO, most people would rather blame a higher power for their sh*t than take responsibility to control their own lives.

And whether that higher power's the state or some religion, doesn't matter. It still sets up the same power dynamic that makes most people, IMHO, slaves.

[Bakary]

Living in a dream world is what being human is about. Objective reality doesn't exist for us, and even if we could somehow perceive it, it would have no use to us. We assign value to things but that value only exists in our own minds. It's impossible to not be a slave. If not some organization, it will be to your own biology.

[eeZah7Ux]

> what better dream to plant in the slaves' minds but the idea that "a simple little computer program" can set you free?

Yet when people overthrow tyrannical governments to then establish democracy the planning is done secretly.

And when tyrannical governments come to power the first thing they do is monitor and restrict communication.

This has been true many times in history in the last hundreds years.

[19eightyfour]

I don't believe in encryption as a tool that can give any real asymmetry to an individual or conspiracy against the State. I get that you do believe it can.

Another point is -- all governments monitor communications and we don't call them tyrannical. Take the Germans. They're notorious. But people consider the Germany government quite liberal.

Restricting communications does not have to be a tool of "cruel, unreasonable, oppressive or arbitrary use of power or control." It can be deliberate, reasoned and helpful. China restricts their communications and they enjoy a lot of civil harmony, and a huge amount of national pride.

The media in the US practice a form of "information restriction and control" by tightly directing the narratives, and editorial perspective ( and sometimes even the facts ) that people are consuming. That's been the case for a long time. No one's calling it a tyranny, even tho plenty of Americans distrust authority.

I think your model of tyranny and your belief in crypto are unrealistic.

The reason I don't believe in crypto is because I consider everything as "security theatre." IMHO, every single cryptosystem that exists has already been broken. The pretense that it hasn't is just a charade.

Note: I believe in the strong version of the above statement. That RSA / EC / AES / DES and so on are broken. But the weak version, that protocols, physical monitoring, side channel attacks, and other vectors make every practical cryptosystem broken is kind of born out by the events of the last few years.

Whether you believe in the strong or the weak version of that statement the net result is the same, no? I think so, anyway.

[robotiamsowhat]

Few loose marbles for your jigsaw, use as you please.

Lucky unhappy creature, you nailed it (at least if you ask me). Twice.

Circles of dreamers, merrily dancing around technodgod of their choice. Hail Crypto!

"Optimism is cowardice", Spengler.

I am afraid that most people only care about just one thing, and dreaming does not stand in a way of it, maybe even helps.

Feels terrible, to be shaken out of the dream, eh? OTOH, a real porridge, poor smell but what an honor!

Universe goes towards maximum entropy, so reason is, in fact, against the odds. Squared, if it happens on top of life.

It might be good nobody takes words too seriously. Blaming the messenger is not nice on the receiving end. The species is going to harvest all that it saws, both short and long term.

[INTPenis]

I believe it is changing things but far away from western society.

I believe that instead of using force on nations in the middle east for example you only need to use information. The people will seek out information and this will cause them to question the status quo simply by comparing their lifestyle and culture to someone elses.

Deep down most people all want the same things.

Bombing them into oblivion only hurts this because they distrust any information coming from the aggressors.

Looking at western, developed societies - what I like to refer to as e-nations instead of i-nations - I don't believe it has changed much. You can look back before the information age in Europe and still find the same basic elements in society. People with so much freedom that they can travel the world or volunteer in other parts of the world to make a difference. Altruism in other words.

But in many other parts a larger portion of the population are still living hand to mouth and without any safety nets. Simply spreading information about the world to them will cause them to question their situation.

This is likely what caused the arab spring. People in those nations were connected to the rest of the world and refused to accept what previous generations had taken for granted.