Thursday, November 6, 2025

Pale Worm

 One of the most famous definitions is in The Cyphernomicon by the cypherpunk writer and engineer Tim May,[1] which states:

8.3.4. "How will privacy and anonymity be attacked?" [...]

  • like so many other "computer hacker" items, as a tool for the "Four Horsemen": drug-dealers, money-launderers, terrorists, and pedophiles.

17.5.7. "What limits on the Net are being proposed?" [...]

  • Newspapers are complaining about the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers

Wikipedia 

  May refused to downplay the risks that these new technologies introduced.

“Privacy has its price,” he simply argued. “The ability of people to plot crimes and commit crimes behind closed doors is obvious, and yet we don’t demand secret cameras in homes, apartments, and hotel rooms!”

Besides, for May, crypto-anarchy was not some faraway utopia that required widespread support for his ideas anyways: rather, he almost considered it a fait accompli. He understood that the road to get there could be riddled with setbacks and repressive laws, justified by policy makers that stoke fears about the “Four Horseman of the Infocalypse”: terrorists, pedophiles, money launderers, and pornographers. But Cypherpunk tools were cheap to distribute, easy to use, and they couldn’t be un-invented. In the long run, May believed, success was virtually guaranteed.

Grokipedia style - Aaron knows better than Mong


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