Re: [XPOST] A unique number for every "person" - can it be done?

From: TGOS (tgos_at_invalid.invalid)
Date: 02/28/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2005 23:43:07 +0100

On Sun, 27 Feb 2005 22:38:48 GMT Jacob Sheehy <jacob.sheehy@gmail.com>
wrote in comp.programming:

> Rather than reply with possible methods that could be used here, I
> have to question the morality.

Assigning numbers itself can never be an ethically problem.
Only how you use them might be.

> By the sounds of it, you want to subject every single person on the planet
> to this system.

No, I want to give anybody on the world the chance to get a unique id. I
don't plan to assign it to people. They will assign it to themselves or
they won't. I just try to set up the rules how he does so, to be sure,
he really get's a unique one (and not one used already by someone else).

> You want to force every individual being to have an
> identification number?

No, I don't force anyone to do anything :)

> So that they can be tracked, and watched?

Has your car a unique licence plate? Does that mean the police always
know exactly where you are when driving in your car? :P
 
> What *purpose* does this ID number serve?

It uniquely identify you, your work, your namespace and so on.

If I write a program and say (c) by John Smith, it means nothing. There
are how many thousand John Smith? Okay, then I'm John Smith from New
York. Take a look at a phone book and tell me how many John Smith there
are in New York?

That's because a name means nothing, a place means nothing, not even the
combination may mean anything.

You are afraid of big brother? Well, I tell you how big brother works.
Big brother works with central databases. And we have a lot central
databases. We have one for driver licenses, for car plates, for house
numbers, etc. Even DNS system on Internet is a central database,
although it is decentralized somehow (but a database is a database, even
if you split it up and distribute all around the world, it stays a
single database) and e-mail is, too.

How are Java classes namespaces defined? Via DNS names. How are XML
namespaces definded? Via URL addresses (that also base on DNS names).
How does Apple identify developing companies? Via DNS names.

Why? To avoid collisions and because it is a single database and every
key is unique.

Why are single databases used in all these cases? To avoid conflicts. If
everyone would be allowed to choose whatever house number, car plate,
DNS for his page, developer ID, e-mail and so on he likes, how likely
would be collisions? Very likely. And none of these systems would work
if they were full of collisions.

To avoid that, people and companies need unique identifiers.

E.g. you want to give every person in the world a unique IP address. It
can only be done with central databases. Only then you can avoid giving
the same IP to more than one person.

I believe, central databases are bad. I believe everything must be
decentralized and without central control, because I believe central
control is bad.

To decentralize everything, you need a way to distribute a limited range
of numbers, names, addresses, resources, identifiers, etc. to people,
without using any databases and without having any person controlling
this distribution, but still make sure there are no dupes. And how this
could be done is what we are discussing here right now. 

-- 
TGOS

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