Geeks and Spooks

Bruce Sterling, a science fiction writer, gave an interesting talk recently about the state of cryptography today. He talks about what we all thought the net would be like today and how it’s ended up where it is. Where did all of that ‘geeks’ will rule the world stuff go? Well, he says:

“So where are these imaginary earthshaking geek outlaws who laugh in derision at mere government? Well, they do exist, and they’re in Redmond. The big time in modern outlaw geekdom is definitely Microsoft. The Justice Department can round up all the Al Qaeda guys they can wiretap, but when they went to round up Redmond, they went home limping and sobbing, and without a job. That is a geek fait accompli, it’s a true geek lock-in. In 2001, Microsoft has got its semi-legal code in every box that matters. They make those brown-shoe IBM monopolists of the 1950s look like model public citizens.”

It’s pretty long, but worth it for those interested in ideas for what the future might be like and some ideas for what it should be like.

“Well, my first suggestion would be crypto in passports. Because passports suck. It’s time we dumped these ludicrously insecure and easily forgeable paper passports, and went for something a lot chippier. … You know what I want? I don’t want a national ID Card. I want a Global Coalition Visa. … Like it or not, we’ve got a huge global diaspora now. It is a fact of life. … Fear and ill treatment shut down tourism faster than anything short of open warfare. That is bad for all of us. Killing off tourism harms our civilization and impoverishes our cultures. People in civilized states shouldn’t routinely treat one another as criminal suspects. I don’t want to get done-over for three hours every time I get off a plane in London. When I go to London, I go with empty suitcases. I don’t plan to stay, but I am better news for the London economy than a lot of the people who live there.”

The conclusions in particular hold some intersting ideas.