[cap-talk] Definition of "authority"? r.e. technical term for computer systems

[Karp, Alan H]

Jed wrote:
>
> Let me see if I follow this.  In this case "you" have
> permission to communicate openly on the Internet.
> That means that in principle you can read the Web
> page in question (typing monkeys).
>
The URL could be unguessable so that I can only contact the server if I have permission.
>
> In the human social sense, if I was given a
> blanket privilege like "eat anything you find",
> then I would say that I have "authorization"
> (from the owner) to eat the chocolate, otherwise
> not.
>
We are using the word "authority" in a particular way.  Other forms of the word, such as "authorization" may or may not have the correspondence they do in English.
>
> In that case I would say that the object that Alice gave
> to Bob only granted him the "permission" to write even
> numbers into the file.  Not?  Alice clearly didn't give
> Bob permission to write openly to the file.  That
> permission, which Alice has, was attenuated - as MarkM
> suggests - so as to result in the reduced ... I would
> say "permission" that Bob was given.  Would others say
> the "authority" (that Bob was given?)?  If so, what
> permission was Bob given?
>
Bob has permission to talk to Alice.  Alice has permission to write even and odd integers into the file.  Bob sends messages to Alice requesting that integers be written to the file.  Alice only writes the even integers that Bob requests.  Alice uses her permission and behavior to grant Bob authority to write even integers to the file.

________________________
Alan Karp
Principal Scientist
Virus Safe Computing Initiative
Hewlett-Packard Laboratories
1501 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
(650) 857-3967, fax (650) 857-7029
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alan_Karp