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Imagine a future where everyone requires an online account to use a computer, where every computer can only run software approved by the few large corporations that issue those accounts, and where a government or governments have those corporations on speed dial, to periodically "suggest" to them which software and which users should be allowed to transact and communicate online.

If you can imagine that, then imagine that every human is given a number which is equivalent to (or even more significant than) their name, and that name/number appears in certificates which are signed by the name/number of a certificate authority's key. By accepting the signature, you have to accept an EULA that takes an hour to read, so no one does, and it changes every month anyway, with future changes automatically binding you.

Does that sound like a world where people are free?




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