2015
The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work
The argument that cryptography is politics — and that its authors are responsible for who it empowers.
“Cryptography rearranges power: it configures who can do what, from what.”
Not neutral tools
Rogaway rejects the fiction that crypto is pure math deployed without values. Ciphers protect dissidents and criminals, corporations and users. Design choices pick sides even when the code looks apolitical.
A moral wake-up for the field
The talk (later paper) landed at a moment when surveillance and bulk collection were live debates. Rogaway asks researchers to articulate social benefit as clearly as security proofs.
Read with Shannon 1949
Shannon formalized secrecy. Rogaway asks what secrecy is for. The archive needs both: the physics and the politics of hiding information.
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Constructor Theory of Information
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Attention Is All You Need