[MUD-Dev] Wild west (was Guilds & Politics)

[JC Lawrence]

On Mon, 22 Dec 1997 08:57:02 PST8PDT  stad <Ola> wrote:

> The main thing is, being logged is unpleasant.  If people monitor
> you, it means they don't trust you, that they are going to use that
> information to your disadvantage. That isn't freedom.  Freedom is
> what MUDs are about?

Okay, what about if not only everybody is logged, but everything that
happens in the entire universe is logged?  There is no more
discriminiation for living or inanimate objects -- everything is
logged.  Where is the suspicion and lack of freedom there?

Even that to the side, what freedom is abridged or compromised by the
fact of logging?

> A robust systems should protect the users from the admins!!! I'm
> serious!

I don't doubt your sincerity.  I do heavily question the value and
negative results of protectionism.

> I'm against all kinds of unnecessary monitoring and storage of
> information.  Especially information that can be used in combination
> with other pieces of information.  The computerized society ought to
> provide freedom. Unfortunatly, so far it is a threat to personal
> freedom.  I view this type of control as perversion.

There are two original sins:

  1) Being there.
  2) Communicating.

Everything else pretty well stems from there.

Whether we like it or note we are about to enter an age where the flow
of data is both uncontrollable and uncontrolled.  Govt's and other
such may attempt to delay this change.  They can do nothing to avert
it entirely.  It is, quite literally, inevitable.

There are a lot of values implicit in the old way of controlled
dispersal of data, largely guaranteed privacy, austere avaialability
of communication and tracking etc.  Attempting to preserve those
values when the physical universe principles they rely on are no
longer present in any degree is difficult to support other than as a
comforting sense of self delusion (not that we are there, yet)..

I'm not going to claim that I like the idea at a personal level.  I do
think that we'd better get damned used to thinking that way, along
with its implications before we are caught as the social equivlents of
King Canute (pick your spelling, there are many) trying to stem the
tide by royal decree.

> Logging all the activity of 100 users because 1 user occasionally
> say or do something some of the other users dislike is bad... Very
> bad...

An underlieing principle I would champion here:

  Don't penalise the "Good guys" for the sake of <whatever> the "Bad
Guys".

Violation of that principle is a base foundation of current society.
Its been a long time since that point has been effectively attacked or
questioned.

--
J C Lawrence                               Internet: claw at null.net
                                           Internet: coder at ibm.net
----------(*)                        Internet: jc.lawrence at sun.com
...Honourary Member of Clan McFud -- Teamer's Avenging Monolith...