[I would not normally forward this along -- it isn't, by my lights, interesting enough. However, the vision of #11 is so astounding to me (even though I suppose it shouldn't be) that I felt I had to pass the whole thing along so that it would be in context. --Perry] --- begin forwarded text Date: Sat, 6 Nov 1999 13:20:02 -0800 (PST) To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: BPM Mixmaster Remailer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Cypherpunks Final Exam Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: BPM Mixmaster Remailer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> This is from http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/finalexam.html, by Marc Stiegler, sci-fi author and a pretty smart guy. Should be a required test for those who want to call themselves cypherpunks. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a slightly modified version of the Final Exam I recently gave to a class of college students taking a special advanced course on The Future Of Computing. A number of friends to whom I showed it suggested that it might be a good Final Exam for people considering passing thousands of new laws and regulations, to make sure that the Web is "safe", and to eliminate the "Wild West nature" of the Web. If you can answer all these questions, you probably know why thousands of new laws are not the right way to make the Web "safe". Final Exam A new version of the Web springs to life with the following enhanced capabilities: Unforgeable pseudonymous identities Bidirectional, typed, filterable links Arbitrage agents Bonding agents Escrow agents Digital Cash Capability Based Security with Strong Encryption Pick any 5 of the essay questions below. Identify which advanced features listed above are needed to solve each problem, and explain how those features would work together. Note: I doubt that anyone will choose Question 11 as one of their 5 questions to answer, because it requires a far more extensive answer than the others. But...if you can answer Question 11 in your own mind, even though you choose not to write up that answer for this examination, then a most remarkable thing will happen: you will walk out of this class with something profoundly worth knowing. 1) Searching for a decision analysis tool on the Web, you find a review in which the reviewer raves about a particular product. You buy the product and discover it just doesn't work. You desire to prevent this person's ravings from harming anyone else--and you desire to prevent the product from disappointing anyone else. 2) A product you buy based on a rave review opens your email address book, grabs your entire list of friends, sends itself to them, and sends your password files to a mysterious IP address. It's too late now, but which features would you install before ever touching your computer again? 3) A product is advertised on the Web. It sounds good, but the offerer has no Web reputation. What arrangement would you consider adequate to go ahead and procure the product (Note: there are several possible answers; give 2 entirely separate solutions, and that is considered answering 2 questions). 4) You start receiving thousands of emails from organizations you don't know, all hawking their wares. You want it to stop, just stop! 5) You wish to play poker with your friends. They live in Tampa Florida, you live in Kingman. This is illegal in the nation where you happen to be a citizen. You want to do it anyway. 6) You hear a joke that someone, somewhere, would probably find offensive. You wish to tell your precocious 17-year-old daughter, who is a student at Yale. The Common Decency Act Version 2 has just passed; it is a $100,000 offense to send such material electronically to a minor. You want to send it anyway--it is a very funny joke. 7) Someone claiming to be you starts roaming the Web making wild claims. You want to make sure people know it isn't really you. 8) You have brought out a remarkable new product. There is a competing product making claims you know are false. You want to make sure anyone going to their site finds out your product is better. 9) Your elderly aunt sees a drug advertised on the Web that promises relief from arthritis. She dies shortly after starting to take the drug. You think the drug, and the company that made it, is at fault. Meanwhile the company is sure they didn't have anything to do with it. You want justice. 10) You are the CEO of Bloomberg News, one of the most prestigious (and expensive) stock information services in the world. An article circulates on the Web, based on a mock-up of the Bloomberg News information page, claiming that PairGain Corp. will be acquired by ECI Telecom. PairGain stock rises 32% in 8 hours. Investigators later find that the false report was created by a PairGain employee about to cash in his options. You want to ensure that your brand is never used like this again. 11) You live in North Korea. Three days ago the soldiers came to your tiny patch of farmland and took the few scraps of food they hadn't taken the week before. You have just boiled the last of your shoes and fed the softened leather to your 3-year-old child. She coughs, a sickly sound that cannot last much longer. Overhead you hear the drone of massive engines. You look into the sky, and thousands of tiny packages float down. You pick one up. It is made of plastic; you cannot feed it to your daughter. But the device talks to you, is solar powered, and teaches you how to use it to link to the Web. You have all the knowledge of the world at your fingertips; you can talk to thousands of others who share your desperate fate. The time has come to solve your problem in the most fundamental sense, and save the life of your daughter. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
