Cypherpunks

A series of conversations about the internet, privacy, digital surveillance, the militarisation of cyberspace and more, from the people whose vision of digital freedoms has been under siege by both state power and corporations the world over for many years now. And it is not only specific topics on technology but also occasional philosophical forays into questions of types of freedoms and their fundamental nature.

This book is really a footnoted conversation between Julian Assange, Jacob Appelbaum, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Jérémie Zimmermann, some big names in the internet/activist/anarchist/online security communities. It would have been great to see this as a video, but in some cases the footnotes are essential.

Their conversation reminds me of the discussions we have in Talk Club (a local, salon-like discussion group): no holds barred, anything goes, blue sky solutioneering. But these guys are not only really smart, they are professionals in their fields. When they riff upon one another, sure some batshit crazy stuff comes out, but more often than not the reader is nodding his head along to some brilliant comment or another.

See the rest of my review on my blog: chadkohalyk.com/blog/2013/06/23/cypherpunks/