[cap-talk] A can of worms, or, "why do we care so much about identities?"

[Jed Donnelley]

At 05:57 PM 12/10/2006, David Hopwood wrote:
>Karp, Alan H wrote:
> > Valerio Bellizzomi wrote:
> >
> >>I get the feeling that we are going into a can of worms.
> >>Question: why do we care so much about identities?
> >
> > We are opening a can of worms, but it is a very important can of worms.
> > People assume that identity has a meaning external to the system it is
> > being used in.  That leads to lots of mistakes, mistakes that I say are
> > due to the fallacy of identity.
> >
> > How do you know me?  Might Alan Karp be a pseudonym MarkM uses to make
> > points that he doesn't feel comfortable making himself?  Might Alan Karp
> > be a pseudonym used by all HP employees when writing to security mailing
> > lists?  In truth, the identity you attach to Alan Karp has very little
> > value to you outside of what is on this list.
>
>For a fascinating account of an actual case of a constructed on-line identity,
>see <http://sandystone.com/pupik/violation-and-virtuality>.
>
>(Pretentiously written, to put it mildly, and slightly fictionalized, but
>nevertheless worth reading to the end IMHO.)

I read most of it and scanned the rest.  There is a lot of text there.

Still, I'm struck most by how the situation in computer systems seems
much simpler to me.  Just thinking in terms of public/private key
pairs, they can be created, the public key shared, trust developed,
etc. regardless of the nuances of self behind the identity.

--Jed  http://www.webstart.com/jed-signature.html