i want you to do a few quick things. First, listen to the following (at least, the first four minutes, preferably, the first ten or so).
Feel free to listen to the rest of the RadioLab show if you want later. i'll wait 'til you come back.
Ah, good, there you are. Now, feel free to look over the following articles.
Much like how technology hasn't quite seeped into our chimp brain, i don't think that concepts like "Freedom" and "Privacy" really have sunk in for most folks yet either. Make no mistake, you'd notice in an instant if it was gone, right?
i'm not quite so sure about that either.
Right now, people are exchanging elements of their private information for gain. We're all aware of the threat of "Identity theft" and probably even know someone who's had their identity stolen in some way or another, but that still doesn't stop folks from handing it over to companies for no real reason. (Yes, i'm sure that Blippy will take steps in the future to solve the problem, but honestly, that's like saying "Well, the next cat won't get out of the bag as easily.")
Same with freedom. The internet works because it was built from the ground up not to rely on a single point. Spend any amount of time with any protocol and you'll see that same pattern over and over again. Even with DNS, the directory computers use to figure out who you want to talk to, things are designed so that nobody has complete control. What it does mean is that it takes a bit more work to get things working, but you really can't argue with the result. While your internet may be down, the actual internet has never fallen over.
So when i read things like what Facebook is proposing for centralizing identity on the web, i can't help but think that it's the complete opposite of how the web is supposed to work, and the problems that it presents.
See, Freedom generally isn't free. It involves effort. In an ideal world, we would each control our own identity, friends, activity streams, and content. Perhaps via an online presence we could buy like a domain. Yeah, it might require more effort than logging in to one site and growing virtual carrots, but then again, you got to do more to your car than just top off the tank every week too. (i'll add that some of the solutions i noted earlier aren't perfect either since they still rely on a single point of failure. Better solutions would establish a web of peers that could interchange information.)
i'm taking baby steps with some of this now. My "networking" page does a few of these, and i'm adding to them as i get time. (Heck, a fairly simple php script works as a personal "mini-fier" as well as a friendly bouncer to get you info about me.
Sadly, i have a feeling that i'm increasingly abnormal in these sorts of things.
