Blog Post 10/6/2008

So much time, effort and money is spent on securing our data so that those people determined to steal our identity our our ideas won’t. Under our current systems of finance and competition it makes a good deal of sense as to why we wouldn’t want our identity or ideas stolen. The question I’m going to pose though is whether or not our current systems are actually functioning the way they should and, if not, isn’t there some way that we could make our data significantly less valuable so as not to have the fear that forces us to go to drastic measures to protect our data in the first place?

I don’t in the least believe that this is a simple problem, I’m merely going to break things down into some simplier ideas for the sake of getting the old brain moving. I’m not a security expert but I’ve got a reasonable amount of experience with it so as to not feel that I’m completely out of touch.

• How can we separate our ID from data?
• How often is our individual ID actually important?
• When protecting ideas what are we actually accomplishing?
• What would make the protection of ideas less worthwhile?
• What power are we giving to data and ID theifs that we could take away by being more transparent?

I think some of the keys to the kingdom here relate to a subset of hacking that occurs less and less these days in comparison to truly criminal hacking. Many hackers have set about tasks to liberate knowledge and to make ideas and tech developments available to everyone. As a society we have placed value on ideas and even call such a think Intellectual Property. Being that I am someone who creates a sea of intellectual “property” through my various blog postings, articles, commentary, contract building, procedure and policy creation etc. I should find comfort in laws that protect my ideas from being taken by others. Surprising to many though is that I give them all away.

You see ideas are very personal things. An idea I have may be very similar to one that someone else is having in this world but only I will see it exactly the way that I see it. I can share that idea with someone else but, much like Quantum Physics, that idea changes merely through the other person viewing it. Perception of an idea automatically changes that idea to fit something the viewer can comprehend.
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A current film out right now “Flash of Genius” tells the story of an individual who designed the first intermittent windshield wiper; the idea was subsequently stolen by Ford Motor Company. This is exactly the sort of thing that most people fear happening, and thus the reason so many ideas never become more than a fleeting thought.

What if we remove the value from the idea and instead focus the value on the individual? How could that be done – don’t we derive value through money and money is derived through sales. This is the leap of faith that I’m talking about. Rearranging the whole system, removing the value of sales, the value of money in general. We live in a time where money is essentially of no value to us anymore. We are living in a time of systems where money is just another system input. Why not manipulate money out of the system?

Once money has been removed from the system then we could look at personal ID. Identity is so important to people, even in societies where standing out as an individual is considered offensive people have an intimate knowledge of themselves and desire to let themselves be who they are. From the standpoint of individual traits and interaction identity is very important but what about from a standpoint of ownership? If we remove money from the system is it really as important then to protect ID in the way that we have had to up until now? By using systems to provide for the needs of everyone, even for individual needs, can we remove the ownership issues which remove the need for mass individual identification?

On a broader scale couldn’t this fundamental change to the systems we use to function (or disfunction) as a society then also have radical impact on what we need to accomplish from security from a physical standpoint. The stepping down of great military and police force?