<nettime> (fwd) Cypherpunks Final Exam

[t byfield <tbyfield@panix.com>]

----- Forwarded 

Date: Sun, 7 Nov 1999 07:14:55 -0500
From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Subject: Cypherpunks Final Exam

[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: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: BPM Mixmaster Remailer <remailer@bpm.ai>
Subject: Cypherpunks Final Exam
Sender: owner-cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Reply-To: BPM Mixmaster Remailer <remailer@bpm.ai>

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. 

----- Backwarded

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