fromcrossbowstocryptography

https://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/from-crossbows-to-cryptography.pdf
          
From Crossbows To Cryptography:
Techno-Thwarting The State
Chuck Hammill
weaponsrus@earthlink.net
Future of Freedom Conference, November 1987
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You know, technology—and particularly computer technology—has
often gotten a bad rap in Libertarian circles.  We tend to think of Or-
well’s 1984, or Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, or the proximity detectors keep-
ing East Berlin’s slave/citizens on their own side of the border, or the
sophisticated bugging devices Nixon used to harass those on his “ene-
mies list.” Or, we recognize that for the price of a ticket on the Concorde
we can fly at twice the speed of sound, but only if we first walk through
a magnetometer run by a government policeman, and permit him to
paw through our belongings if it beeps.
But  I  think  that  mind-set  is  a  mistake.   Before  there  were  cat-
tle prods, governments tortured their prisoners with clubs and rubber
hoses.  Before there were lasers for eavesdropping, governments used
binoculars and lip-readers.   Though government certainly uses tech-
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Hammill
From Crossbows To Cryptography
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nology to oppress, the evil lies not in the tools but in the wielder of the
tools.
In fact,  technology represents one of the most promising avenues
available  for  re-capturing  our  freedoms  from  those  who  have  stolen
them.  By its very nature, it favors the bright (who can put it to use)
over the dull (who cannot).  It favors the adaptable (who are quick to
see the merit of the new) over the sluggish (who cling to time-tested
ways).  And what two better words are there to describe government
bureaucracy than “dull” and “sluggish”?
One of the clearest, classic triumphs of technology over tyranny I
see is the invention of the man-portable crossbow. With it, an untrained
peasant could now reliably and lethally engage a target out to fifty me-
ters – even if that target were a mounted, chain-mailed knight. Unlike
the longbow, which, admittedly was more powerful, and could get off
more  shots  per  unit  time,  the  crossbow  required  no  formal  training
to utilize.  Whereas the longbow required elaborate visual, tactile and
kinesthetic coordination to achieve any degree of accuracy, the wielder
of a crossbow could simply put the weapon to his shoulder, sight along
the arrow itself, and be reasonably assured of hitting his target.
Moreover, since just about the only mounted knights likely to visit
your average peasant would be government soldiers and tax collectors,
the utility of the device was plain: With it, the common rabble could de-
fend themselves not only against one another, but against their govern-
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Hammill
From Crossbows To Cryptography
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mental masters.  It was the medieval equivalent of the armor-piercing
bullet, and, consequently, kings and priests (the medieval equivalent
of a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Crossbows) threatened death and
excommunication, respectively, for its unlawful possession.
Looking at later developments, we see how technology like the firearm—
particularly the repeating rifle and the handgun, later followed by the
Gatling gun and more advanced machine guns – radically altered the
balance of interpersonal and inter-group power.   Not without reason
was the Colt .45 called “the equalizer.”  A frail dance-hall hostess with
one in her possession was now fully able to protect herself against the
brawniest roughneck in any saloon. Advertisements for the period also
reflect the merchandising of the repeating cartridge rifle by declaring
that “a man on horseback, armed with one of these rifles, simply cannot
be captured.”  And, as long as his captors were relying upon flintlocks
or single-shot rifles, the quote is doubtless a true one.
Updating  now  to  the  present,  the  public-key  cipher  (with  a  per-
sonal computer to run it) represents an equivalent quantum leap—in
a  defensive  weapon.   Not  only  can  such  a  technique  be  used  to  pro-
tect sensitive data in one’s own possession, but it can also permit two
strangers to exchange information over an insecure communications
channel—a wiretapped phone line, for example, or skywriting, for that
matter)—without ever having previously met to exchange cipher keys.
With a thousand-dollar computer, you can create a cipher that a multi-
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