The Espionage

Michael Arrington of Techcrunch posted an article about OpenID yesterday about the big four (Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and AOL) becoming issuing parties of OpenIDs but not relying parties of OpenIDs.  In English that means that you can get an OpenID at Yahoo, but you can’t use your Yahoo OpenID at AOL, for example.  Even though AOL is an OpenID provider, they are not a consumer, and therefore you can’t use your Yahoo OpenID to log in to AOL.  There is an interview posted on the Yahoo Developer Network between Yahoo Rep Christian Heilmann and OpenID advocate Chris Messina concerning Yahoo’s implementation of OpenID.  In that interview, this exact topic comes up.

Christian (Yahoo Rep):  In December you published a wishlist on OpenID and support by Yahoo! was one of the wishes. Have you taken a look at what was done, how do you think we are doing so far and what would you want to see next?

Chris:  Well, I think it’s excellent to see Yahoo! become a provider. That’s huge and really gives OpenID a needed push in both its longterm viability and in validating the investment people will make in becoming OpenID consumers. But providing OpenIDs is the easy part; for Yahoo to really earn full credit, it needs to consume OpenIDs, and so I’m hopeful that that will happen in time as well.

Translation:  “You half assed it”.  To be honest, the blame should fall on OpenID.  I wouldn’t have built the libraries to allow providers denial of consumer support.  All or nothing.  But alas they did not do that.  The shame of it all is that OpenID is a good idea.  Unfortunately, the message being sent is “don’t be a consumer”.  That’s the wrong message.  You should not have given the choice.

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Trinity: Morpheus believes he is the one.
Cypher: Do you?
Trinity: It doesn’t matter what I believe.
Cypher: You don’t, do you?
Trinity: Did you hear that?
Cypher: Hear what?
Trinity: Are you sure this line is clean?
Cypher: Yeah, of course I’m sure.
Trinity: I better go.

Are you sure this line is clean? What line? What does that even mean? Let’s use The Matrix to further define identity systems.

Remember our definition of identity? An identity is the perception of an entity by a witness within the context of space time. When Trinity asks Cipher if the line is clean in the beginning of The Matrix, she is really asking Cipher if there are any unwanted witnesses. Have you ever excused yourself from the room because of a cell phone conversation? Why did you do that? You did that because the secrets exchanged in the conversation were to be shielded from unwanted witnesses. This is privacy. Security is the shield for doing so. In this case, what shield is used? Simply space time. Relocating puts unwanted witnesses out of earshot. The shield is not always that simple.

Internet transactions generally rely on the Secure Sockets Layer (or SSL) to exchange secrets. SSL depends on encryption for its shield. Data is encrypted on the origin computer by a key. The encrypted message is then sent over the channel. The destination decrypts the message by the same key. This is how the internet shields its private messages.

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I was driving home the other day on the Hutchinson Bypass. It is a toll road that runs between Delmont and New Stanton (southeast of Pittsburgh, PA). It was late evening, but the the Hutchinson is a new road with many street lights.

So I am driving home. Well up ahead I can see red tail lights on the side of the road. Sometimes police cars sit on this road to catch speeders. My initial perception is to define the entity ahead as a police car. It has red tail lights just like a police car. It was on the side of the road like a police car. I have no choice but to assume it to be. I slow down just in case. As I approach, it becomes clear that the entity is not a police car. It is a semi truck! This is really fascinating to me. Somewhere on the Hutchinson Bypass, a witness (me) saw a police car (first perception of entity) morph (change perception) into a semi truck (second perception of same entity). An entity’s identity changed right in front of me. I got to thinking that this probably happens all the time, but we never think of it in this way!

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I started dreaming up Spyshakers back in 2003. Back then I was fresh off my philosophical courses at Saint Vincent College. I had an outstanding professor at Saint Vincent. His name was Dr. Guess. He doesn’t teach philosophy anymore (I believe he went into High School Chemistry?). I like to say that he had to quit teaching philosophy because I answered all his questions. Haha. We had good discussions though. I had a lot of fun in Metaphysics. I came to peace with many philosophical questions that I had. Those answers influence everything. They establish beliefs. It is funny how close belief and fact are related. If 2 + 2 = 4 is a fact, don’t I first have to believe in the 2, believe in the +, believe in the = and believe in the 4 for the equation to even make sense?

Mind you before I go further my major was not philosophy (it was Computer Science). I have not been in college for a while! Nevertheless I tried to build Spyshakers around philosophy when possible. I will explain over time.

Enter the concept of an identity. If you want to build the world’s premier identity website, it would help to construct the definition of identity. Merriam-Webster defines identity as “sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing”. At the time of writing Merriam-Webster has four definitions for identity. Lets break down the aforementioned. If an identity is sameness in all that constitutes the objective reality of a thing, is my sameness as a baby equal to my sameness as an adult? Hardly. What is the difference between the two identities? Many things. When did the sameness change? Vaguely and through time. By who’s testimonial did anything change? By the perception of someone who witnessed. No wonder everyone has such a hard time coming up with good identity solutions. The definition is wrong! Haha.

A better definition of identity would be “the perception of an entity assigned by a witness in the context of time and space”. If perceptions are being assigned within time and space, that means the identity of an entity is subject to change. In English that means identities for real world things can change!

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