From: blancw@pylon.com
To: solman@MIT.EDU
Message Hash: 15af720c404d08c496007f6d5724ff65ae2b6638e6207e0372d06689ffdba5c1
Message ID: <199409012015.NAA08436@deepthought.pylon.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1994-09-01 20:15:29 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:15:29 PDT
From: blancw@pylon.com
Date: Thu, 1 Sep 94 13:15:29 PDT
To: solman@MIT.EDU
Subject: Re: Problems with anonymous escrow 2--response
Message-ID: <199409012015.NAA08436@deepthought.pylon.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Responding to msg by solman@MIT.EDU
The skills of an entity without any reputation capital are
absolutely worthless. But usually an anonymous entity will come
around brandishing all sorts of certifications (reputation
capital).
..........................................................
Well, I was thinking that certifications & reputations wouldn't
mean all that much to me, nor either knowing or being
unfamiliar with someone's identity (or pseudonymity). I would
be more convinced with a demo. Something which could
demostrate facility or ability would be more valuable to me
than a second-hand proof. I realize some professions cannot
provide such demonstrations, but I myself would rather have a
way of making decisions based on the excercise of first-hand
judgement whenever possible.
This anonymity/identity and certification/reputation business
looks to me like trying to have one's cake and eat it, too, as
the expression goes. A featureless landscape with remote
associations to actual substance so as to both please the
aloof-ers & appease the uncertain. It's a bit odd, because for
every method which is found by which to hide, another method is
found by which to reveal what was heretofore undetectable in
Nature. While scientists push back the envelope & reveal what
was previously 'invisible' to our eyes, others work to effect
stealth techniques against the tools of Consciousness. Kind of
strange, though interesting.
Blanc
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