The thing that should not be

I'm of two minds about The Silk Road.

I suspect that "Derrill can't hold his liquor" could be said about cough medicine, so my opinion may not be strongly informed, but I am firmly opposed to the use of narcotics or intoxicants of any kind. I'm pretty sure that the utility of doing so is not worth the relevant consequences. That's the first thing.

The other thing, and the problematic part, is that I'm overjoyed to see people make the internet do things it isn't supposed to do. I don't think The Silk Road is such a great thing in and of itself, but the anti-establishment ideals behind it appeal to me. Further, I'm pleased as punch to learn of Bitcoins, though I suspect I may never use them - the most subversive thing I do is read books on my phone using Google Reader AND Kindle!

Some years back, I read Neuromancer - I read part of it in Asimov's, without really knowing what I was reading, before later reading the book. Since about 1994, maybe 1996, I've believed that Gibson was something of a prophet. He never had the technical side of a lot of it exactly right, but the place in his stories where technology t-bones society is the part that I find more and more accurate.

Bitcoins and this use of Tor are more pieces to the puzzle Gibson presents, and I enjoy watching society's blind, fumbling assembly of it.

-- "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers."