I’m also interested in history. I write history. In terms of historical research, do you work with Academia Historica at all on digitizing archives, and things that they could be doing?

You mentioned defense, for instance. Whether you’re advocating for it or not, but what do you think, in the defense sphere, they could be doing with these tools to be more effective?

Isn’t that what education is?

Or enlighten them?

You don’t try to change them?

You’re essentially satisfied with her performance so far, and that she’s exceeded your...?

Are there things that you think she should be pressing harder on, or that she isn’t?

How would you evaluate President Tsai’s performance in office so far?

Fair enough. We could talk about modern Taiwanese politics or world politics a little bit.

Being a conservative anarchist, you don’t share the desire to necessarily further the elimination of the state system or...?

For instance, somebody like Stephen Bannon, President Trump’s new advisor, he said, "I’m a Leninist..." I’m paraphrasing him, "...because I want to tear down the state." He was an active...

Right, but it’s not what anarchical means.

That doesn’t sound anarchical to me.

I’m trying to imagine what does your ideal system look like. What’s the utopia in your view? I know you’ve called yourself a conservative anarchist. You’ve explained that a little bit. What would the ideal political system look like?

How not necessarily? How so?

Let’s talk a little bit about, you’ve talked in some of the interviews you’ve done about the state system and states. In one of them, you referred to states or the state system as a useful illusion. That seems to imply to me a teleological notion of progress, that the ...

Does President Tsai share your views about this entirely? Are there points of difference between the two of you on aspects of this, or do you feel like you’re basically on the same page about it?

For instance, in diplomacy, there’s a lot of occasions where it might be desirable to have private negotiations, and then...

You do feel like there is a role for privacy, even in the governmental sphere?

In one of the interviews you did, I saw somebody ask you a question like that ‑‑ about thoughts being published ‑‑ and you said, "Well, not yet, but hopefully someday," or something to that account. Were you joking about that?

No? How not?

The counter value to this is privacy, right?

Would you say, is it a Silicon Valley ethos? Is it something that came out of Silicon Valley, or did it come out of somewhere?

What about seminal texts? If you were giving somebody a syllabus or three or four books to read.

If you could name a few of the intellectual godfathers of this movement, who would they be?

I thought maybe we could talk a little bit about your political values. You’ve talked a little bit about this. Again, I have some follow‑ups about it. You’re an advocate of, you say, radical openness. Is that a way to...?

They were journalists, you were saying, at one point, and your father was an academic?

Where in mid‑Taiwan?

Moving on, one more biographical question that I wanted to ask. You talked about you were born here in Taipei. Can you talk a little bit about your parents? Were they born here? When did they come here? That background.

One more question on this, and then we can move on. I’m curious, as we’re talking about it, theoretically, if there were a local Taiwanese hacker who revealed information about a controversial weapon system being developed here, or something like that, you’re saying you would have to judge the merits ...

It depends on the content?

I don’t mean you, personally. I’m not asking whether you, personally, are revealing. I’m saying, in general, theoretically speaking, you would be...?

Would you be comfortable if a hacker in Taiwan revealed Taiwanese government intelligence secrets? You would be comfortable with that, or encourage that?

What about Snowden, hero or villain?

Yeah, in the Wikileaks sense or whatever.

Just so I’m clear, she’s not using that term in the...

You’re still a part of hacking culture.

Why would President Tsai say "a former computer hacker"?

Have you also, in the past, done black hat hacking, if that’s the correct term?

She said, "A 35‑year‑old former computer hacker." When I read that, it got me thinking. There are different definitions of the word hacker, and I wanted to make sure I understood that. When she says "hacker," which definition is she using?

I don’t know if you saw this, in "The Economist," around a couple of months ago, President Tsai did an article. She mentioned you.

Birthday, I saw you say. I just wanted to make sure I get the age right. April 18th, 1981.

Digital Minister. Is there one that you prefer over the other, or that’s more accurate?

I’ve also seen it as "minister without portfolio." I just wanted to clarify what the...

Is that the best title?

Exactly. What was your title? I’ve seen it as "Digital Minister."

Thanks for seeing me. I looked over a lot of the background, so hopefully we don’t have to go over every detail of the biography but can talk in some specific follow‑ups to some of that. There were a couple of biographical things that I wanted to check to make ...