Re: [tor-talk] Social Research on TOR in Turkey during March2014

[Paul Syverson <paul.syverson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 09:26:59PM -0600, Mirimir wrote:
> On 10/15/2014 08:57 PM, Paul Syverson wrote:
> > On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 06:15:37PM -0600, Mirimir wrote:
> >>
> >> "Web of Trust" is problematic for those who chose pseudonymity. Over the
> >> years, I've come to trust several pseudonyms based on interactions via
> >> discussion forums and email, signed documents and software, apparent
> >> integrity, and so on. Nobody except me knows mirimir's true name, but
> >> everyone can judge me by what I've said and done.
> >>
> >> Purists want DNA swaps these days, I guess ;)
> 
> Well, I meant "swabs", but "swaps" also works (not sexual, data).

Ah I was reading "DNA swaps" in the sense of the Vincent and Jerome
characters swapping identitities in Gattaca rather than the sense of
swapping credentials to authenticate each other. Hence my amusement.

> 
> > Not sure why a web of trust approach should be considered incompatible
> > with grounding trust in a pseudonym or what you mean by "true name"
> > (some sort of Vinge reference?), but in any case that's the best
> > Freudian typo of the day.
> 
> Yes, _True Names_ is an all-time favorite. By "true name", I mean the
> name on my various government-issued IDs. That name is associated with
> my fingerprints and photo, and perhaps even with DNA sequence data.
> 
> It's encouraging that you don't consider WOT and pseudonyms necessarily
> incompatible. But then, you helped invent Tor. Some do argue that WOT
> means little without reliable identification, verified face-to-face.

Depends what you're trying to reliably identify, and let's completely
sidestep the criteria for "reliable" in the various popular
authenticators you cited are. (I disagree with Quine on much, but I do
accept his maxim, "No entity without identity"---although unlike Quine
I would understand both of these stochastically.) Sorry, need sleep
and am straying well into not-torritory.

-Paul
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