-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 10:39 PM -0600 on 2/17/03, Neil Johnson wrote:
> However, for you new subscribers, I'd like to point out Tim's > record for predicting the coming revolution. See my perennial .sig, below... It's an *old* racket, the prediction business, maybe even older than other forms of, um, commerce. And, of course, the business still thrives, in both amateur and professional forms. The chestnut about economists and recessions comes to mind. In re Mr. May in particular, I'm reminded of the words of the esteemed Mr. Olsen on the subject: "When I was your age we didn't have Tim May! We had to be paranoid on our own! And we were grateful!" --Alan Olsen Finally, it's safe to say none of us would be here, still, after most of a decade in my case, if it wasn't for Tim. Like him or not, heck, know of him or not, Mr. May's influence is ubiquitous on the net, and by extension, the world at large. He figured out most of the stuff most of us here hold to be true about the structural impact of cryptography on ubiquitous networks, however much we may quibble about mere minutiae, like the imminence, or not, of violence -- political, or otherwise. Some of us hear "Helter Skelter" and see a race war, others just see yet another cheezy amusement park ride. In that vein, cypherpunks is like any good carney sideshow. You pays your money, and you takes your chances. In the meantime, no amount of wishful thinking makes any prediction happen, no matter how much you want it to happen. I've been on the wrong side of wishful thinking around here once or twice, and both times, someone went to jail instead. You pays your money, etc... Cheers, RAH -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0 - not licensed for commercial use: www.pgp.com iQA/AwUBPlHWKsPxH8jf3ohaEQKZJACg3Fwb9+C6v85Q+d2OZRsNpJiLhp8An1Pc UGwVRQ5L+UcyxD57eRC8Ir5A =uPok -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- ----------------- R. 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'
