Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet

So for starters, if you want a preview of this book you can watch the Julian Assange Show episode titled Cypherpunks 1 and 2 (available various places, I watched it on Hulu) . The audiobook is a text version of a conversation between Julian Assange, Jeremie Zimmerman, Andy Müller-Maguhn, anbd Jacob Appelbaum, and the show is the video of part of the interview, though the book has the entire conversation.

The book provides a very realistic, and often unseen look at freedom or lack thereof, as well as various ways the government is trying to limit privacy and free speech on the internet through various things like SOPA or through Facebook. The audibook also talks a lot of the various ways "Cypherpunks" are able to maintain their autonomy, against the will of the government.

I really enjoyed the audiobook, and finished it easily within two days. Once I started it I couldn't put it down.... I think I listened to three and a half hours straight after starting it.

We all need to understand the threats to the Internet, and we need to understand how the Internet is being used against us. This discussion is mostly about how governments and corporations work together to gather our information to be used however they want whether for us or against us.

Powerful topic and unique format (the book is mostly discussions between Julian Assange & three other hacktivists, and I found the format refreshing and easy-to-follow). Definitely recommended.

A perfect precursor to this book would be "This Machine Kills Secrets", which provides a great overview of the backbone historical details of modern encryption, all in an easy-to-understand and open-minded narrative.

This entire four hour audiobook is merely a transcript of a conversation between four activists (with the exception of a short intro by Julian Assange). The narrator literally has to cite who is speaking as each speaker changes. Believe it or not, that didn’t harm the book or pace. However, as I listened to these guys talk amongst themselves about the future of the Internet, I felt like I could overhear the exact same conversation at the corner Starbucks. These four activists are essentially of the same mind, so they lob each other softball questions and go on long-winded anti-government and anti-American rants.

The conversation began to just sound like stoner talk.

Nevermind the MAJOR paradox they embody…a crusade for transparency by a group called ‘Anonymous.’ Nevermind that we have not elected then. Nevermind that we have no idea who they are.

These so-called cypherpunks are not unintelligent people. They are simply passionate about digital privacy in an irresponsible (and illegal) way. Luckily, I have faith that men and women of intelligence have the ability to self-correct, to recognize their contradictions, to evolve in a more constructive way. They just need to stop romanticizing their role as a “high tech rebel elite” and subject themselves to the laws of society, to be a part of society not apart from it.

Still, this is probably the great debate of our time. Hearing their point of view is critical in understanding the nature of problem. We regular people, the general public, are all in the middle. On one side we have a large central government invading our privacy and/or spying on its public, while on the other side we have these guys….a secret network of digital hackers who steal information and target businesses and groups that oppose them. We regular people really have no protection from either group.

If cypherpunks believe in transparency, then they themselves must be transparent. Otherwise, their strict culture of secrecy and their militant use of digital espionage is, in itself, the very antithesis of what they claim to fight for.