[Cryptography] is this feudalism?

Henry Baker hbaker1 at pipeline.com
Mon Mar 7 10:56:48 EST 2016


At 11:25 AM 3/6/2016, J.M. Porup wrote:
>On Sun, Mar 06, 2016 at 08:38:38AM -0800, Ray Dillinger wrote:
>> On 03/06/2016 07:33 AM, Perry E. Metzger wrote:
>>
>> The current state of the art is that providing secure systems
>> for people who do not participate in working to secure their
>> systems is extremely hard.  Is this feudalism?
>
>Feudalism was a system of government (or protection racket, take your pick) in which armored thugs on horseback ("lords") protected their vassals ("users").
>
>Apple protects the peasants, but must pay fealty in turn to the might-is-right gangsters at the FBI.
>
>Does this metaphor seem useful to you in terms of better understanding the problem, and explaining it to lay people?
>
>Thoughts welcome on or off list.

Be careful what you wish for.

Some historians attribute the rise of kings & nation-states as a way for the ordinary citizens to rid themselves of their hated local lords.

But this strategy may have achieved escaping the frying pan by going directly into the fire.



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