If anyone is curious, like me, what Cypherpunk means:
"A cypherpunk is one who advocates the widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a means of effecting social and political change."[0]
if it wasnt for needless landing pages where would we ever get a chance to use all the cool animation features browsers have accreted over the last 20 years.
Even worse than a redundant/useless landing page, is a page with an invalid certificate. Nothing nopes me out harder than having to tell my IT-governed browser to ignore the site operators faulty administration of their domain ..
I've been a bit out of the loop with Austrian Economics (last re-read of Human Action was ~15 years ago). I'm very well read in it and enjoy the aesthetics of the theories and the history of thought books but got very tired of the online flame-wars and the political side in general (both the pro- and anti-Austrians). So Praxeology of Privacy sounds like an interesting read, I'll give it a go this year.
Side note: I love literature, but I can not for the life of me understand how anyone can consider non-fiction enjoyable to read. Informative, perhaps interesting, yes, but enjoyable? Heck no. Take me as far away from reality as possible.
Interesting– Conversely, that is exactly how I feel about reading fiction.
To me, how can you possibly enjoy reading something some other person simply ... made up? Like an elaborate lie?
Contrarily, non-fiction tells it how it happened within the very reality I myself live in, subject to the same laws of nature and real psychology, and therefore, and only therefore, able to teach me something about real life on this earth.
Perhaps unrelated, but that reminds me of the inevitable avalanche of identical replies to every submission on aphantasia, all proclaiming that, no, they do indeed find it odd that there are people who can visualise internally.
Do you enjoy watching movies or series, reading comics? Going to the theatre (as in - not movies, but actual theatre)?
Edit: Do note that I wrote enjoy - I've certainly read my fair share of non-fiction. A classic Agatha Christy murder-mystery, while set in the real world, is anything but realistic.
but often the fantasy does help shape your reality and identity. an author finding a way to vocalize and make a concept or feeling tangible like its coming out of the mouth of someone that you can respect or despise with such strong emotion is extremely powerful. and sure you can get that from nonfiction (which i also do love some of the driest science texts lol) but there is something amazing about seeing how something could play out, or how it would be to experience this reality. maybe you just havent found what clicks for you yet or what perfectly speaks to you and maybe you never will, but its not worth writing it ALL off. for me at least it's the emotional resonance you can find with fiction that makes it all the more worth it. Do i agree with Char Aznable no, do i agree with Amuro Ray? yes. do i find merit and incompatibilities in both of their ideologies? yes. has it helped me see the kind of world that the creator wishes to envision and wants to make us question for ourselves? yes. its the connection. i just love it.
and dont write off comics either, there is some genuine phenomenally emotional works in that medium.
I've peeked into that one. I've expected those people to be radical to some degree, but I didn't expect they write it down so clearly.
This writing wants to see the collapse of governments and democracy. I find it painful to read such radical statements. So I didn't get very deep.
But I am riddled how those people think a collapse of that scale will work out in their favor. They are deeply reliant on technology and the first thing to happen on collapse, is that many lights turn off.
This is the thing I don't understand about (a superficial interpretation of) anarchists; while governments are often not ideal, a lack of one wouldn't be better. And trusting people to self-organize is idealistic, but in practice it'd mean we go back to tribalism and "might makes right".
The idea is it wouldn’t work on trust, each element would be bounded by forces other than a single structure; getting to the state in which self-regulation is possible is the difficult, or maybe impossible, part. When in the regulated state, power grabs wouldn’t work.
> This is the thing I don't understand about (a superficial interpretation of) anarchists
I think most superficial interpretations of anarchists are based on edgy LARPers rather than real political ideology.
Fun fact: Anarchy means "without rulers", not "without laws" or "without social order". There's a wide diversity of political thought under this umbrella, but the key underlying common denominator is (on some level, at least) a rejection of hierarchy (and often a rejection of capital).
Though it's fun to imagine what the philosophical and political beliefs that underpin a colloquial understanding of the word might look like, the answer is usually simply: Teenagers.
Maybe don't be so dismissive of that which you lack a thorough understanding.
Recommend reading "Against the State" by James Stout, wherein he describes history of various Anarchist societies, including Barcelona during Spanish fascism, Myanmar where they are very successfully fighting the junta which wrested control from their civilian government, and Rojava where he personally visited and gives a firsthand account.
There was this really good short story illustrating this: (edited to add: "Cloak of Anarchy", Larry Niven, thx to below).
A park where anything goes ... because sentry robots keep the peace. When the robots break, things get scary quickly.
I've become convinced that a well-governed society is the perfect foundation for a limited anarchist commune set up on property legally purchased. Libertarian, essentially. Or Amish.
I get the impression that even the definition of "anarchy" itself is subject to anarchy, with lots of disagreements and infighting. The more even-keeled anarchists that I've seen stress that they're not against hierarchies, only involuntary hierarchies, with the idea being that individuals should be welcome to organize themselves into hierarchies into which they delegate power, as long as that power can be revoked at any time, which sounds like a reasonable proposition. And then there's crypto-anarchism, which is just right-libertarianism in a Scooby Doo monster mask.
Its not a rational position, rather a kneejerk emotional one. Various other extreme positions share the same setup (nazism, communism etc).
Try talking to some anarchists and its pretty obvious their ideas don't go deep nor can stand well some questioning. Once you are in fairy land, anything may seem like a good idea to tackle ie some injustice.
It's the anti-establishment impulse taken to extremes. Anarchism is one of the niche destinations of that mindset. Another, ironically, is full blown communism.
What's sort of funny, is how all these seemingly polar-opposite anti-establishment flavors are actually far closer to each other than they are to mainstream political left or right.
The anti-establishment part ends up overriding everything else
That's how you end up with Bernie/Trump crossover voters
Everything on the Internet is public domain, up for grabs
In the past you could argue about legal stuff but now the LLM training companies have proven that beyond all doubt, it is not only possible but even legal to use any Internet material as you see fit.
"A cypherpunk is one who advocates the widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a means of effecting social and political change."[0]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk
I don't think you need a pretty landing page and the content of https://www.cypherpunkbooks.com/collection
could directly live under
https://www.cypherpunkbooks.com/
it's a website with information and I really want to see the collection and information insteda of just a single headline with an animation
Though, of course, to each their own.
To me, how can you possibly enjoy reading something some other person simply ... made up? Like an elaborate lie?
Contrarily, non-fiction tells it how it happened within the very reality I myself live in, subject to the same laws of nature and real psychology, and therefore, and only therefore, able to teach me something about real life on this earth.
Do you enjoy watching movies or series, reading comics? Going to the theatre (as in - not movies, but actual theatre)?
Edit: Do note that I wrote enjoy - I've certainly read my fair share of non-fiction. A classic Agatha Christy murder-mystery, while set in the real world, is anything but realistic.
I really for the most part do not. I've not even seen any of the big oscar winning pieces everyone keeps talking about.
As I said to another commentator on here as well:
Without any disdain, I cannot bring myself to watch hours of another person's fantasy, when I could instead be shaping my own reality.
and dont write off comics either, there is some genuine phenomenally emotional works in that medium.
But I don't understand how those could not only be held to the same level as The Hobbit, but that you seem incapable of even reading Animal Farm.
Do you enjoy any fictional media? TV, movies, plays, interactive murder mystery dinners, tabletop games (d&d, etc)?
Nope, I truly live under a rock when it comes to those.
I've been wanting to watch the big ones (Hobbit, LotR, ...), but – and I say this with no disdain:
I simply cannot get myself to consume hours upon hours of somebody else's fantasy – when I could instead be shaping my own reality.
Do you happen to be female?
Reading interests are a notorious and particularly distinct one :)
https://awriterofhistory.com/2025/01/31/reading-preferences-...
Obv these types of distributions always have overlaps.
It's sad knowing how his mental health deteriorated over the years and he spiraled out the way he did.
I've peeked into that one. I've expected those people to be radical to some degree, but I didn't expect they write it down so clearly.
This writing wants to see the collapse of governments and democracy. I find it painful to read such radical statements. So I didn't get very deep.
But I am riddled how those people think a collapse of that scale will work out in their favor. They are deeply reliant on technology and the first thing to happen on collapse, is that many lights turn off.
I think most superficial interpretations of anarchists are based on edgy LARPers rather than real political ideology.
Fun fact: Anarchy means "without rulers", not "without laws" or "without social order". There's a wide diversity of political thought under this umbrella, but the key underlying common denominator is (on some level, at least) a rejection of hierarchy (and often a rejection of capital).
Though it's fun to imagine what the philosophical and political beliefs that underpin a colloquial understanding of the word might look like, the answer is usually simply: Teenagers.
Recommend reading "Against the State" by James Stout, wherein he describes history of various Anarchist societies, including Barcelona during Spanish fascism, Myanmar where they are very successfully fighting the junta which wrested control from their civilian government, and Rojava where he personally visited and gives a firsthand account.
A park where anything goes ... because sentry robots keep the peace. When the robots break, things get scary quickly.
I've become convinced that a well-governed society is the perfect foundation for a limited anarchist commune set up on property legally purchased. Libertarian, essentially. Or Amish.
Try talking to some anarchists and its pretty obvious their ideas don't go deep nor can stand well some questioning. Once you are in fairy land, anything may seem like a good idea to tackle ie some injustice.
What's sort of funny, is how all these seemingly polar-opposite anti-establishment flavors are actually far closer to each other than they are to mainstream political left or right.
The anti-establishment part ends up overriding everything else
That's how you end up with Bernie/Trump crossover voters
Cool project nonetheless! Enjoyed browsing through the options
In the past you could argue about legal stuff but now the LLM training companies have proven that beyond all doubt, it is not only possible but even legal to use any Internet material as you see fit.