We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do … We don’t much care if you approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down.
Predictor: Hughes, Eric
Prediction, in context:In his classic essay “A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto,” which was spoken or published in various forms (this one from March 9, 1993) Eric Hughes writes: ”We cannot expect governments, corporations or other large, faceless organizations to grant us privacy out of their benificence. It is to their advantage to speak of us, and we should expect that they will speak. To try to prevent their speech is to fight against the realities of information. Information does not just want to be free, it longs to be free. Information expands to fill the available storage space. Information is Rumor’s younger, stronger cousin; Information is fleeter of foot, has more eyes, knows more, and understands less than Rumor. We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place. People have been defending their own privacy for centuries with whispers, darkness, envelopes, closed doors, secret handshakes and couriers. The technologies of the past did not allow for strong privacy, but electronic technologies do. We the Cypherpunks are dedicated to building anonymous systems. We are defending our privacy with cryptography, with anonymous mail-forwarding systems, with digital signatures, and with electronic money … We don’t much care if you approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down.”
Biography:Eric Hughes co-founded the Cypherpunks with John Gilmore and Tim May. This group included cryptographers, privacy advocates and digital anarchists. They were known for a densely written e-mail list generating megabytes of issue-oriented scientific discussion weekly. He was the author of the Cypherpunk Manifesto. (Research Scientist/Illuminator.)
Date of prediction: March 9, 1993
Topic of prediction: Communication
Subtopic: Security/Encryption
Name of publication: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Title, headline, chapter name: A Cypherpunks Manifesto
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Crypto/Crypto_misc/cypherpunk.manifesto
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney