[E-Lang] Possession as Metaphor (was: Pet Extensions and such (was: what is good about E?))

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

> > I would have thought you are trusting me to only hand the key to someone
> > that can be trusted at least much as I can be trusted with your car
keys.
> > E.g. the valet may give the keys to another valet.
>
> Why would I trust you to do that? I might _hope_ you would, but I can
> only trust you to do that if I have mind control over you.

So first, Ken is right, and his suggested rewording on the tutorial is a
good one [Ken, do you mind if I steal it?]

However, trust is a statement of expectation, not a statement of absolutes.
In every act of trust, there exists some probabilistic expectation of
failure. Mind control is not called for. Rather, a cost/benefit analysis
between risk and value has presumably been done, and based on this the risk
of cap transfer is justified.

However, this all fails to consider Trojan horses. Regrettably, the
intentions (good or bad) of the receiving program are not all one needs to
consider. This is why mandatory access controls may be necessary in the real
world.


Jonathan