At 6:02 PM -0800 2/14/00, Anonymous Sender wrote:
>Here a punkly (?) site seems to suggest that trusting the government
>is a reasonable policy.
> This problem exemplifies the problems you encounter when dealing with a
> web of trust model. You must actively monitor those to whom you give your
>trust, or it may bite you later. While dealing with large, central companies
>such as Verisign or the Post Office may be evil, at least they're a known evil
>entity. The option is the possibility of hundreds of evil people running
>around
>abusing your trust.
>
>http://www.shmoo.com/
Yet another wrongheaded interpretation of "trust." Insofar as key signings
go, political views are not important. Golda Meier could have signed the
Ayotallah Khomeini's key with complete equinimity. Think about it.
If I were to meet Fidel Castro, and were to become convinced that the guy
in military fatigues I was talking to was in fact the same "Fidel Castro"
that I have been seeing since I was a 9-year-old, I would probably sign his
key (maybe for a box of good cigars).
[Modulo the issue that some folks in Washingon who deserve to be executed
have probably made it a crime of some sort to sign the key of an Unapproved
Person.]
That I would sign his key means that I am expressing a level of belief that
the person presenting the key is the owner of that key. Not that he is
"Fidel Castro," per se, and certainly not that I agree with his policies or
that I think he has TOW missiles, or whatever.
Somene seeing my name on the list of signatures attached to "Fidel Castro's
key" simply tells someone: "Tim May had some level of confidence that the
key belongs to someone that Tim thinks is Fidel Castro."
(I believe the calculus for thinking about webs of trust is the
"Dempster-Shafer theory of belief." Search on Dempster-Shafer. I wrote a
fairly long article a few years ago on why this is the best calculus. The
archives, such as they are, may have this article.)
Key signings have nothing to do with support of opinions or policies or
beliefs about weapons deals.
In this particular instance, the Iranians and Hezbollah are on the side of
right in battling the Zionist insect that preys upon the life of the people.
--Tim May
print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<>
)]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
"Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
