From: Jason Joel Thompson (jasonjthompson@home.com)
Date: Sun Dec 03 2000 - 20:31:13 MST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Zero Powers" <zero_powers@hotmail.com>
> > Someone who prefers powerful information to free information.
>
> Implying somehow that free information is less powerful than hidden info?
Not necessarily, but rather that the usefulness/value/power of information
is more important to me than its "freeness."
> If so, how? Why? Examples please.
Laws of scarcity. Maybe you think it would be nice if every kid on the
planet could have a mint copy of Action Comics #1, but you can't argue that
such a distribution wouldn't destroy an interesting market.
Further, while there is value in information being known, there is also
value in secrets-- and information that I know that you do not is often
consequentially more powerful.
For instance-- I know the password to my bank account and you do not. As a
result of the security afforded by this state of affairs, I decide to store
my funds in said account. The password information is now powerful-- it
grants access to my money. In the absence of my ability to keep this
information secret, I will not store my funds in such a manner, and password
information is suddenly valueless.
>
> > Someone who prefers personal empowerment to the empowerment of the
> > collective.
>
> What is a "collective" other than a set of "personal" entities? If
persons
> as individuals are empowered, doesn't that also simultaneously empower the
> collection of those persons? Or are you saying that empowerment is OK for
> you, so long as it isn't available to your peers?
Mm, not really. Rather, the empowerment is also (equally) available to my
peers, but independent from my acquistion of it. We are each free to
empower ourselves as seperate entities who are possessed of differing
information matricies-- which are shared and not shared to varying degrees.
The distinction between individual and collective in this context is
critical. And yes, if individuals are empowered, the collective is also
simultaneously empowered, but that is symptomatic-- the relationship is not
symetrical. I see plenty of evidence in practice that individual
empowerment is the very best way to ensure wide-spread empowerment-- and
much evidence of mis-guided attempts to empower the collective that often
does not accrue effectively to the individual.
> > Someone who believes that maximum power is not found in totally free
> access
> > to information, since that is a disempowerment of our ability to make
> > information secure.
>
> Sounds nice. But isn't that similar to saying that strength is not strong
> because it disempowers our ability to be weak? Or wealth disempowers our
> ability to be poor?
Absolutely not, except insofar as you believe that weakness and poorness are
desirable. Security of information is very desirable. Unlike you, I do not
believe the spectrum of information security moves from positive to
negative, but rather from undesirable extreme to extreme.
>
> > Instead, rather, (as in most things) there is a point
> > of maximum resonance found on the line of tension between the extremes
and
> > this is where the most interesting things happen. (i.e. Chaos <-->
Order
> ::
> > Complexity)
>
> Not sure I follow. But I think you're saying that if we had all the
answers
> (i.e. unfettered access to all information) life would be a boring bummer.
That's not really what I'm saying, but I do sort of agree with this
conclusion. What I'm really saying is that control over information is
desirable, as is access to information. Easily replicating information is
desirable, as is secure information. The ability to discover secrets is
desirable, as is the ability to create them. Information is powerful, but
in many cases that power derives from secure ownership (as per my password
example above, for instance.)
> Perhaps. But I think we've got a l-o-o-o-o-n-g way to go before we have
to
> deal with that problem. The universe has hidden her secrets quite well
and
> we are only beginning now to hammer out the tools that will help us build
> the tools that will help us ferret out those secrets.
Well, as far as this goes, I happen to believe that we will never know
everything. (There will always be another veil.) Again, in some ways I
believe that hidden information is very powerful-- I have, for instance,
argued that we necessarily do not have the ability to understand/manipulate
all the information of which our intelligence consists, and if we did we
would no longer be intelligent.
--
::jason.joel.thompson::
::founder::
www.wildghost.com
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