-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/19720.html <A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/news/culture/story/19720.html">Culture News from Wired News </A> ----- The First True Cypherpunk Novel by Declan McCullagh 3:00 a.m. 17.May.99.PDT Randy Waterhouse and his cypherpunk business partners are about to do what everyone else has only talked about: open the first true offshore data haven on a remote Pacific atoll. If they can launch a new electronic currency backed by a few hundred metric tons of Nazi gold, well, that's an even more efficient way to wreck those antediluvian nation states. Waterhouse's problem? Not everyone agrees the gold stash should be his. One other thing: He doesn't quite know where to find it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ See also: When Geeks Inherit the Earth ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon is a novel with all the unearthly precision and complexity of a data-scrambling encryption algorithm. It's a world awash with the detritus of fin de siècle civilization and depicted with unusual fluidity and grace. The book chronicles the cypherpunks' efforts to launch Epiphyte Inc. and the dogged code-breaking exploits of Waterhouse's grandfather half a century earlier. Lawrence Pritchard Waterhouse is a socially inept -- and quite probably deranged -- math whiz who joins Alan Turing in tunneling through the Nazis' World War II ciphers. Their efforts are so successful that the Allies form Detachment 2702, a super-secret group designed to prevent Germany and Japan from ever learning that their codes have been broken. Stephenson ties the two plots together in a bulky, though manageable, package that seems destined to become the first true cypherpunk novel. There have been other paeans to geeks, of course. The concept of nerdling-engineer-as-hero dates back to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and beyond. But the idea of cryptographer-as-world-conqueror is a new one, and nobody is as well-equipped to explain it as Stephenson, a writer fluent in the gutter patois of Linux hackers and cryptographic algorithm designers. He even includes a complete working cryptosystem: Solitaire, crafted by real-life Applied Cryptography author Bruce Schneier. In the book, Randy Waterhouse relies on Solitaire, which uses a deck of cards, to pass secret messages back and forth to a fellow prisoner. The novel takes many circuitous detours through untamed areas of Stephenson's fertile imagination. We learn about the unsurprising transparency of leftist San Francisco Bay Area academics and the sheer nefariousness of lawyers scheming to file class-action suits against technology firms. There is a mouthful-by-mouthful -- and rather useless -- description of Cap'n Crunch cereal. One hilarious passage about a church organ in Australia could be lifted right out of the pages of a novel by British humorist Tom Sharpe. Stephenson puts his research on undersea cables for a December 1996 Wired magazine cover story to good use in describing how the data haven (called the Crypt) will be linked to the Internet. It's all terribly geeky, though in a way that's certain to appeal to the many fans of Snow Crash and his previous works. It's already a popular read: On Sunday, Cryptonomicon was in sixth place on Amazon.com's bestseller list. But at 917 pages (including a short appendix with info on Solitaire), the book may not have a broader appeal. Even Stephenson's electric prose and well-conceived characters might not be sufficient to tempt first-time readers to page through the entirety of the Cryptonomicon. Related Wired Links: Free Love and Free Speech 18.Jan.99 The Crypto Underground Meets RSA 18.Jan.99 Homeless Cypherpunks Turn to Usenet 17.Feb.97 Have a comment on this article? Send it. Copyright © 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! 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