NODE 3210e2d1in celebration of informational "vandalism"
Zooko Journeyman <zooko@xs4all.nl>Sun, 26 Oct 1997 01:11:23 +0800
Forgeries motivate people to adopt digital signature
technology! Spam motivates people to develop better filtering
techniques! Cracks motivate people to adopt secure systems and
to back-up their important data! Mailbombs and SYN floods
motivate people to acquire denial-of-service-attack-resistant
services! Trolling a la D.M.Vulis separates the tough and
realistic from the fragile psyche and nascent censor!
In the world of physical interaction, attacks or acts of
vandalism are the components of evolutionarily stable
(more or less) strategies of extortion and oppression.
But in the world of information exchange, no such strategy
is evolutionarily stable, and each attack is best regarded
as an opportunity to up your tech and improve your capabilities
while simultaneously defending against further attacks.
:-)
Z