From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 10 Sep 1996 03:30:43 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Conservation Laws, Money, Engines, and Ontology
Message-ID: <ae5983cb1202100435c4@[207.167.93.63]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 4:03 AM 9/9/96, Greg Kucharo wrote:
>  One thing that occurs here.  I imagine a scenario where you have a
>"share" of resources on a system(and ISP for example).  You're metered as
>to how much you can post or store.  Actually as it is now posting is
>regulated through extra payments per meg above the limit.  Spam is being
>somewhat regulated by Terms of Service type things, but my point is what is
>to prevent pooling resources among several system to achive the same Spam
>pursuits some have.  Say for example that an individual gets several
>accounts to balance the load at thier point.  The Usenet for example has no
> "choke point".  How could ISP's apply conservation here?  If you limit the
>amount of traffic you still aren't holding back the flow of "spam".
>  Here's where reputations could come in.  You cound't open a new account
>anywhere without a good "reputation".  This could aid in balancing the load
>of certain people.

The most basic principle is this: those with resources they control (and
"own") set the rates and policies.

We don't have to figure out how the pricing will ripple down the line, or
whether what some call "spam" will be controlled.

(My view is that the whole focus on "spam" has been singularly unfruitful.
We don't call magazine or television advertising "spam," though it meets
operational definitions of spam, or velveeta, or whatever the latest terms
is. While much advertising is disgusting, unwanted, noisome, etc., we
understand that the publisher of a magazine can choose what to include and
we can choose whether to buy it or not. (Television and radio are somewhat
different, due to the FCC licensing and limited bandwidth, but the
principle is the same.))

Thus, when carriers of packet traffic begin market pricing of packets, the
pricing will ripple back. Eventually. (Or not, should some steps in the
chain decide not to pass on costs...)

I expect the failure of the Internet to have proper conservation laws to be
solved in this way:

Removal of Market Distortions + Auctioning Mechanisms + Several Large
Network Crashes = A More Rational Market Model for Network Usage

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."