Re:The Web of Alexandria
by mindslight on Wednesday May 27, 2015 @12:29PM
(#9612484)
> If early 1980s Henry or Paige wanted to spend all evening talking on the phone and keep a recorded copy of their conversations, they could have
The key word being wanted. Most forms of person-to-person expression were default ephemeral. And failing that (eg a written letter), generally required explicit copying. Contrast with an email - by the time you even read it, how many copies have been made and where do they reside?
I completely agree about "enforcement" being laughable, but there is room for parties voluntarily agreeing to not permanently record things. It can even be beneficial to a would-be recorder (eg legal discovery). Of course it can be quite beneficial to defect. But that calculus may even change as non-signed logs start to hold less weight (eg OTR's auto-repudiation).
However, none of that really applies for explicit publishing mediums like the web. The next generation of content-addressable systems will be ultimately based on persistent data structures, with garbage collection of older versions only being necessary as a storage optimization.
The key word being wanted. Most forms of person-to-person expression were default ephemeral. And failing that (eg a written letter), generally required explicit copying. Contrast with an email - by the time you even read it, how many copies have been made and where do they reside?
I completely agree about "enforcement" being laughable, but there is room for parties voluntarily agreeing to not permanently record things. It can even be beneficial to a would-be recorder (eg legal discovery). Of course it can be quite beneficial to defect. But that calculus may even change as non-signed logs start to hold less weight (eg OTR's auto-repudiation).
However, none of that really applies for explicit publishing mediums like the web. The next generation of content-addressable systems will be ultimately based on persistent data structures, with garbage collection of older versions only being necessary as a storage optimization.