[p2p-research] Authority, Representation and Secession in a P2P Network

[Patrick Anderson]

Can the concepts of authority and representation be
used within a network that claims to be Peer2Peer?

Is it realistic to give *everyone* 'root' access to a shared resource?

Is it realistic to give *everyone* the keys to our community center?

There seems to be a need for gate-keeping - especially when
protecting ourselves from 'outsiders' that are not yet trusted.

But even within a trusted circle, is there a level of scale when
representation *must* come into play?

This seems a valid question considering the failure of
current 'authorities' and 'representatives' to achieve the
goals of those they supposedly serve.

But it also seems difficult to answer given the chaos
that might ensue if there were no 'levels' of access to ...
I'm not sure yet what needs to be constrained...

I wonder if part of it may be the need to "slow down" the
deliberation of change so we can discover what all other
co-owners want in each case.

But does such deliberation require 'representation' and
levels of 'authority', or could it be done in some other way?

If giving everyone 'root' access is wrong, maybe giving
any one person 'root' access is also wrong?

Is that why we tend toward *groups* of representatives?

But even in that case we fail to achieve freedom because
those committees almost invariably make decisions and
enact policy that suffers from the problem of "Tyranny
of the Majority" because there is not an easy way for
individuals and minority sub-groups to secede from the
majority without loosing all of their investments.

It is said these minorities have the "Right to Leave", but
that is not sufficient because they then relinquish all the
value they have added.

I think part of the solution lies in discovering a way for
these non-majority groups to 'split' or 'fork' those physical
resources during such conflicts.  But that pre-supposes
they had real ownership to begin with - which is usually
not the case, so real co-ownership may be a pre-condition
to sharing physical resources in a P2P manner.

* Notice even things you may not think of as 'physical' -
such as a wiki - really *are* because of the equipment
needed to 'host' that activity.