From: hughes@ah.com (Eric Hughes)
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 94 11:44:05 PDT
To: sbb@well.sf.ca.us
Subject: PHILIP ZIMMERMAN ARRESTED [NOT!]
In-Reply-To: <199404040108.SAA02235@well.sf.ca.us>
Message-ID: <9404041830.AA08146@ah.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


>The Zimmerman prank---I'm sure not funny for him---hardens my line
>further against anonymity online.  

You can't get rid of anonymity such as this without also getting rid
of pseudonymity.  The first use of a pseudonym is as good as
anonymous, because it has no past history.  If the user of this
pseudonym never again uses the name, then it has no future history.
A one-time pseudonym is an anonym.

An arbitrary string of letters only become a name if it is presented
as a name and if it has persistence.  Identity is a persistence
through time of a source, be that a source of speech or a source of
action.  Without persistence there is no identity, but rather only
unconnected assertions in a formal (and sterile) symbolic system.

Eric