FW: RE: [cap-talk] Firefox breaks the principle of identifiability

[marcs]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: marcs [mailto:marcs at skyhunter.com] 
> Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 12:10 PM
> To: 'Discussion of E and other capability languages'
> Subject: RE: [cap-talk] Firefox breaks the principle of 
> identifiability
> 
> 
> > But I think Ben Laurie has gotten at a much more serious problem. 
> > Suppose I ask my bank how much money they'd be willing to 
> put behind 
> > their word when they introduce me to Paypal.  I think 
> they're going to 
> > laugh at me.
> > 
> > Moreover, I think they may be right to laugh at me.  They're in the 
> > business of managing money, not in the business of introductions 
> > (that's the Yellow Page's business).  Why would being good at the 
> > former imply that they are good at the latter?  To put it 
> another way, 
> > sure, I trust them to do the former, but why should I trust 
> them to do 
> > the latter? I think we've got an example of a standard fallacy when 
> > reasoning about
> > trust: "I trust X for purpose P" doesn't imply "I trust X for
> > purpose Q". 
> 
> Which brings us close to the fascinating idea of ratings 
> services (which in an electronic version would have to 
> perform the introduction as part of the service, it seems to 
> me). There are good analogies in the physical world, such 
> Consumer Reports. Such services have an appropraite place, 
> along with systems like google, for helping people establish 
> trust relationships.
> 
> --marcs
>