BABYL OPTIONS: -*- rmail -*- Version: 5 Labels: Note: This is the header of an rmail file. Note: If you are seeing it in rmail, Note: it means the file has no messages in it.  1,, Mail-from: From tcmay@netcom.com Sun Sep 11 23:37 EDT 1994 Received: from SOUTH-STATION-ANNEX.MIT.EDU by martigny.ai.mit.edu with SMTP (1.37.109.4/16.2) id AA06213; Sun, 11 Sep 94 23:37:51 -0400 Return-Path: Received: from netcom14.netcom.com by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA09341; Sun, 11 Sep 94 23:37:48 EDT Received: by netcom14.netcom.com (8.6.8.1/Netcom) id UAA26930; Sun, 11 Sep 1994 20:37:05 -0700 From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Message-Id: <199409120337.UAA26930@netcom14.netcom.com> Subject: Re: Cyphernomicon To: hal@MIT.EDU Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 20:37:04 -0700 (PDT) Cc: tcmay@netcom.com In-Reply-To: <199409120211.TAA23744@mail3.netcom.com> from "Hal Abelson" at Sep 11, 94 10:11:34 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 4072 *** EOOH *** Return-Path: From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May) Subject: Re: Cyphernomicon To: hal@MIT.EDU Date: Sun, 11 Sep 1994 20:37:04 -0700 (PDT) Cc: tcmay@netcom.com In-Reply-To: <199409120211.TAA23744@mail3.netcom.com> from "Hal Abelson" at Sep 11, 94 10:11:34 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Length: 4072 Hal, > By way of introduction, I teach computer science at MIT and I'm one of > the three or four people behind MIT's distribution of PGP 2.6/2.6.1. > It's been an interesting experience. On Friday, for example, Jeff > Schiller and I met with Phil Zimmermann in the morning and with Jim > Bidzos in the afternoon. Our goal, by the way, is to turn PGP into an > international standard under the aegis of the Internet Engineering > Task Force. Not everyone is signed onto that yet, but we're getting > close. > > Anyway, so much for my cypherpunk credentials. And I have long relied on your "Structure and Interpretation..." as the seminal book in my library...I'm just upset that I got the brownish (I'm partly color blind) cover with a dust jacket and not the color cover. (I was a Lisp programmer in my later years at Intel... I used to use MacScheme. I think I even bought a tutorial version connected with your book, but I don't recall using it. My hot interest now is SmalltalkAgents, for "protocol ecologies," about which my ideas are just starting to form...it may take a few more years.) So I'm honored to have your request, and you can do with as you wish. My main concerns were two-fold: 1. That people would split the doc up, make various connections, and then be upset when the orignal doc changed. (Or expect _me_ to only make changes to the docs they'd already Webified.) So long as you don't mind this situation, I don't. 2. Credit. You know the problem. If "Structure" got fragmented into a hundred small chunks and scattered.... > I'm writing to ask your permission to do exactly what you said you > didn't want done with the Cyphernomicon -- taking it and splitting it > up and putting it on the web. > > The reason is that I'm teaching a class at MIT this fall on legal an > ethical problems arising from the net. One of our main topics is > crypto. The class readings are mostly on the Web, so students can > get at them easily. You might want to look at the class home page > http://martigny.ai.mit.edu/6095, since you write that you have lynx. > > I'd like to include the Cyphernomicon in the reference material. I'd > do it by splitting it up into chapters, linked to from the table of > contents. I'll put a link at the beginning of each chapter to your > copyright statement, together with a note that this is a snapshot of a > rapidly changing document, and that people who want an up-to-date copy > should get it from you. I plan to leave the database up on the Web > permanently, but if you want, I'll remove this copy of the > Cyphernomicon at the end of the semester. > > Can I have your permission to do this? Sure. But clearly there are weak spots, flaws, incomplete sections, etc. I just got so tired of it dominating my life that I had to release it, flaws and all. Also, the politics may not be to everyone's liking. I don't advocate, for example, untraceable markets in abhorrent acts (contract killings, extortion, etc.), but I think they're inevitable (to some extent) and this will not sit well with many. In particular, a journalist could have a field day with selective quoting of the stuff on "crypto anarchy." (Though the journalists like Kevin Kelly and Steven Levy have done an excellent job on covering this stuff.) I have no idea, for example, how MIT might react to having these ideas openly available. I obviously see no problem in having anyone old enough to think for themselves having access. But not all agree. So long as my words are not edited or bowdlerized, use them as you wish. Thanks, --Tim -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."