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

[Mirimir <mirimir@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/15/2014 09:52 PM, Paul Syverson wrote:
> 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.

Got it. And yes, there's no assurance that biometrics can't be hacked.

>>> 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

I only know of Quine through Douglas Hofstadter's books. I'm reminded of
the thought experiment in _I Am a Strange Loop_ where someone is
precisely duplicated. Identical initially, they immediately diverge. In
a world where that were possible, what would identity mean?
-- 
tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe or change other settings go to
https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk