[HN Gopher] The Cypherpunk Library
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The Cypherpunk Library
Author : yu3zhou4
Score : 360 points
Date : 2026-06-08 08:32 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.cypherpunkbooks.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.cypherpunkbooks.com)
| proxysna wrote:
| Looks really nice, but 10 fps in Firefox.
| yreg wrote:
| Buttery smooth for me in Firefox (mac)
| tangerine67g wrote:
| nice work, interesting page
|
| 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
| totetsu wrote:
| 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.
| aa-jv wrote:
| 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 ..
| ycombinete wrote:
| What is this very mild cyberpunk motif doing in my cyberpunk
| library website?
| unprovable wrote:
| Nice - can't wait to see how it grows!
| ramon156 wrote:
| the hover animation on the books in `/` slows down my Firefox
|
| Cool project nonetheless! Enjoyed browsing through the options
| sen wrote:
| If a site like this isn't using your browser to mine bitcoin
| I'd be incredibly disappointed.
| esher wrote:
| Nitpicking on style: hover animation on the books could not be
| capped by the container size and just overflow the content.
| Great case for page transition. Move the 3d book into the space
| where it will be located with single view.
|
| Firefox user here too.
| juleiie wrote:
| 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.
| sdellis wrote:
| I really hope this is sarcasm.
| juleiie wrote:
| Why would that be sarcasm on a site that calls itself
| "hacker"news?
|
| We aren't exactly law abiding citizens, more anarchists
| really.
|
| That comes with certain mindset about the copyright. I can't
| remember the last day I didn't violate some kind of law of a
| corporate state. It's spiritual almost, highlight of the day.
|
| You can be sure that whatever _you_ posted online that had
| any value, have already been on _my_ hard drive two times
| over. Sometimes even modified and passed along.
|
| What are you going to do about it?
| ur-whale wrote:
| > Why would that be sarcasm on a site that calls itself
| "hacker"news?
|
| Let me beat that dead horse once more for you:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture
| juleiie wrote:
| Someone certainly wants you to think that way. Keep
| slurping it up
| vitalyan1234 wrote:
| > a site that calls itself "hacker"news?
|
| H in HN = D in DPRK
| raffael_de wrote:
| Privacy for the citizens and transparency for the government.
| Sadly, all democracies are right in the middle of establishing
| the polar opposite.
| jesterson wrote:
| Middle? We are way past the point
| Yokohiii wrote:
| > THE CYPHERNOMICON
|
| 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.
| Cthulhu_ wrote:
| 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".
| jvanderbot wrote:
| 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.
| BigTTYGothGF wrote:
| Cloak of Anarchy, Larry Niven.
| skinfaxi wrote:
| We have a bunch of temporarily embarrassed tribal warlords
| among us.
| kibwen wrote:
| 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.
| jancsika wrote:
| > as long as that power can be revoked at any time
|
| I understand the idea that "justice delayed is justice
| denied." But within reasonable governance time-frames for a
| municipality/region, why would revocation latency be a
| litmus test for the _type_ of governance model?
|
| This just sounds like an implementation detail masquerading
| as a philosophical ideal.
| SmirkingRevenge wrote:
| 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
| t-3 wrote:
| How is it ironic? Anarchists were a big part of the First
| International and left-anarchists can usually be considered
| to be socialists. They are not polar opposites, rather
| communism and (left-)anarchism are the statist and
| republican/federalist (loosely authoritarian and
| libertarian) expressions of the same underlying ideology of
| human equality.
| Yokohiii wrote:
| > expressions of the same underlying ideology of human
| equality
|
| I have no clue how any equality minded person could vote
| republicans or trump.
|
| I get that you want to point out the overlap of the
| ideologies, but I don't see how they are remotely
| attributable to the current political landscape.
| (Strictly in the equality matter)
| t-3 wrote:
| I didn't mention anything about the current political
| landscape? I did write republican/federalist, but
| republican is meant in the dictionary sense, not the US
| political party.
|
| Trump is not a socialist or an anarchist of any kind (I
| have a hard time believing he has any political ideology
| or even ideas about governance at all), and neither are
| the vast majority of the political establishment.
| Yokohiii wrote:
| Well the previous commenter mentioned the trump/sanders
| crossvoting, I guess you just ignored that to focus in
| the ideologies.
|
| Maybe it just reads weird or I read it weird, to read
| trump at some point and someone else ending the sentence
| with equality.
| SmirkingRevenge wrote:
| Ah interesting history there, thanks. Maybe I'm using the
| term incorrectly
|
| The continuum I was picturing is: big central planning
| government <--> little-to-no government (anarchy)
|
| In any case, I guess I'm just restating a version of the
| old horseshoe theory
| some_furry wrote:
| > 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.
| nyc_data_geek1 wrote:
| 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.
| some_furry wrote:
| Sure, but these are still Societies.
|
| Not the absence of a society, where utter lawlessness
| reigns. Most people's colloquial idea of anarchy is a Mad
| Max film.
|
| I'm not being dismissive at all of anything except the
| public's misconceptions.
| nyc_data_geek1 wrote:
| Understood, apologize for my misconception of your
| assertion. Mass media, of course, is only too happy to
| cultivate such misconceptions on the part of the public.
| Cassell wrote:
| 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.
| AnimalMuppet wrote:
| The way they would self-regulate (self-organize) _is_ into
| tribes /gangs. And that works (for some value of "works")
| until one tribe/gang becomes too powerful.
| Cassell wrote:
| Maybe so
|
| It's interesting to think about the 'best' way to
| organise a society; its enticing to think that society
| could be contained in a single encompassing structure,
| but such a structure is impossible.
|
| Human-implemented anarchism might be futile, because it
| is already implemented, and there is no sovereign with
| agency above our institutions. It becomes apparent, in
| the second quarter of the 21st century, that any co-
| operative agreements and intergovernmental treaties are
| just as vulnerable as gang treaties.
|
| If the world only stratified, with no balkanisation, it
| would form a homogeneous structure, but something
| prevents this. What?
| jancsika wrote:
| > The way they would self-regulate (self-organize) is
| into tribes/gangs.
|
| I assume you mean "gang" in the sense of, "Hey honey, a
| non-rivalrous gang converted this luxury hotel into a
| mutual aid hospital, let's go get that rash looked at."
|
| If not, your assertion is at odds with what Orwell
| described in _Homage to Catalonia_.
|
| I'm not even a fan of anarchism, but I am a fan of
| reading about these things.
| Cassell wrote:
| This is an interesting subject; would you recommend any
| other books? For someone with very little knowledge of
| things like this.
| kakacik wrote:
| 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.
| clarkmoody wrote:
| The collapse of the government does not imply the collapse of
| civil society.
| pstuart wrote:
| People who want to get rid of "the government" are not thinking
| too deeply.
|
| "Government" is the creator and enforcer of the rules of
| society; it's merely a matter of flavor of what that looks
| like: democratic, Church, warlord, corporate state, etc.
|
| Nature abhors a vacuum and a power vacuum will always be filled
| -- I'd rather it be a democratic version, which is the least-
| worst option.
| my_throwaway23 wrote:
| 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.
|
| Though, of course, to each their own.
| contingencies wrote:
| If you don't enjoy learning you may be in a minority here.
| my_throwaway23 wrote:
| It sounds almost as if you're saying learning is only
| possible by reading, which, I would argue, most of the
| history of humanity proves false.
| tommica wrote:
| Stupid take, one can learn from fiction too.
| my_throwaway23 wrote:
| And not everything's about learning. You are allowed to do
| things strictly because you enjoy doing them, with no
| ulterior motive.
| tommica wrote:
| Agreed, but the poster made it about that, thus my
| response. I thoroughly enjoy fiction and non-fiction -
| and rarely learn anything from them :D
| chimpanzee2 wrote:
| 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.
| zorked wrote:
| "non-fiction tells it how it happened"
|
| oh sweet summer child :)
| nilamo wrote:
| I have no understanding of your viewpoint. I wish I did, it
| sounds interesting. I do like a Crafting Interpreters or
| Mythical Man Month...
|
| 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)?
| chimpanzee2 wrote:
| > 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_.
| bazoom42 wrote:
| This is fascinating. Do you enjoy music?
| anthk wrote:
| How about short jokes, or Unix fortune files?
| alchemism wrote:
| "All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely
| players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one
| man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven
| ages."
|
| -- William Shakespeare, Fantasy Author
| DonHopkins wrote:
| By "shaping my own reality" do you mean taking
| hallucinogenic drugs?
| my_throwaway23 wrote:
| 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.
| chimpanzee2 wrote:
| > Do you enjoy watching movies or series, reading comics?
| Going to the theatre (as in - not movies, but actual
| theatre)?
|
| 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.
| exhumet wrote:
| 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.
| DonHopkins wrote:
| As long as you're so good at shaping reality, could you
| please do something about the fascist takeover of the US
| government?
| dfansteel wrote:
| Both are valuable and present in a well rounded life. The
| Diary of Anne Frank and Those Who Leave Omelas cause you to
| question life in different ways.
| anthk wrote:
| >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.
|
| This is me trying to pick up most bullshit written from
| humanities or arts; a 99% of it it's carefully crafted
| nonsense for ahem mainly emotionaly driven women and artsy
| people with very subjective opinions instead of accepting the
| reality as is.
|
| Elaborated jokes OTOH can be trully clever and a good source
| of laughs and fun.
|
| Also, Discworld from Pratchett, as they have obvious magical
| analogies to real life devices and scientific procedures.
| speed_spread wrote:
| You have to make your own stories as you go along. Plug that
| fresh knowledge into hypothetical scenarios from stuff you've
| learned before.
| lkm0 wrote:
| If you can read French, I recommend Saint-Simon as the
| quintessential counter-example. In English, I found "Why I
| Write" by Orwell very entertaining.
| glitchc wrote:
| You have to read better non-fiction then. Take history for
| example. Certain real events are more fascinating than any
| fictional story, and the right author can take you on an
| unforgettable journey, unfolding the world as it developed.
| spidey1 wrote:
| do you have any recommendations?
| bushwart wrote:
| In Stahlgewittern by Ernst Junger, there should be an
| English translation.
| kriro wrote:
| 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.
| phyzix5761 wrote:
| 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]
|
| [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypherpunk
| slybot wrote:
| Funnily, this small library features works outside of it's
| domain, including a manifesto from PKK terrorist organization
| leader..
| danubis wrote:
| Did you read it?
| slybot wrote:
| Yes, did you? Anything Cypher, punk or cypherpunk inside
| that you can point out?
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > Anything Cypher, punk or cypherpunk inside that you can
| point out?
|
| Why would you assume they read it when they haven't even
| answered _that_ first question yet?
| beej71 wrote:
| While I don't claim to follow the whole thing, it does
| have a section titled "Liberating democratic civilization
| from the State", which certainly smells cypherpunky.
| observationist wrote:
| https://www.cypherpunkbooks.com/book/definition-of-
| democrati...
|
| The book in question. What was the intent or purpose of
| coming at this sideways?
| slybot wrote:
| This is a work written by the terrorist organization leader
| after incarcerated on 1999. While this carefully selected
| piece doesn't, the larger work of five volumes named
| "Manifesto of the Democratic Civilization" goes into the
| manifestation of his terrorist movement.
| kgwxd wrote:
| They call themselves "PKK Terrorist Organization"?
| slybot wrote:
| They do call themselves, "Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane"
| (PKK) which literally means Kurdish Workers Party. It
| doesn't mean whether they call themselves terrorist or not;
| USA, UK, EU, NATO and many others call that way.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Workers%27_Party
| agentbraker wrote:
| Great work! Open access to knowledge is always a win.
| ricksunny wrote:
| The crypto-oriented 4Seas coworking in Chiang Mai set up a very
| nice exhibit to cypherpunks as laid against the history of
| cryptography. I took pictures as the exhibit is supposed to have
| been taken down by now:
|
| https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/113373898014727437041/pl...
|
| I have photos of the individual exhibit pieces too if anyone's
| interested.
| drannex wrote:
| Certainly interested - are they shared anywhere?
| zeafoamrun wrote:
| Lots of "digital cash" books there. I have to say that Bitcoin
| and Ethereum have not lived up to their cypherpunk ethos.
| alice-fishr wrote:
| Site wants to access other devices on local network, o rly?
| ur-whale wrote:
| Nice to see Tim May writings on HN
| rhgraysonii wrote:
| It might be helpful to rotate the books on the frontpage so that
| that you can read them by binding without tilting your head.
| jrochkind1 wrote:
| back when crypto meant crypto not crypto
| drannex wrote:
| This is a very pretty layout and all, but the site itself needs
| more of a mission statement, to stand for something other than a
| dozen or two direct sources. Perhaps it can grow (and it should!)
|
| But, if anyone here is serious about this, and our hacker
| histories, please see the Cyberpunk Project Library, which
| features much more articles on all of this and then some:
| http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/ ("Last updated somewhen on
| 1998")
|
| There is another site that was built around the same time
| (92-2003?), that tracked privacy and other cypher/cyberpunk
| writings on a much larger scale (and other Extropian) writings,
| particularly by ~sasha (RIP), but I am unable to find it in my
| links right now.
|
| Perhaps its time to rebuild and expand, and the Cypherpunk
| Library could be the place.
| ktallett wrote:
| Is anyone going to the neocypherpunk event in Berlin this
| weekend?
| firefax wrote:
| I thought we had this, and it's called anonbib?
|
| https://www.freehaven.net/anonbib/
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(page generated 2026-06-09 05:02 UTC)