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From: Wes Kussmaul <wes@village.com>
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@cse.psu.edu>
Subject: Re: [9fans] Investigating the Plan 9 Operating System - OSNews.com
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:04:48 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <44C8D610.4090009@village.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <06d73c05da5799c7f0057e2bdb88a99f@mail.gmx.net>

Sascha Retzki wrote:
> In theory, you do not need authorities because everyone behaves. It's 
> called civilisation, I think this world should try that out.
The world is trying it out. It's alternatively called VeriSign, GeoTrust, Thawte, Comodo, etc.

As Matt Blaze puts it, "A commercial certification authority protects you from anyone whose money they refuse to take."

The problem with the no-authority-needed view of civilization is that it ignores the fact that there is some evil in everyone, and it will tend to prevail if allowed to.

Duly constituted public authority (as contrasted with MyNewCityHall(tm) brand Authority(tm)) is what tells architects and structural engineers and contractors that if they follow their natural instinct to cut corners and, say, a tunnel roof falls on someone, they'll lose their license to practice their profession. 

See quote in my sig below. 

-- 
Wes Kussmaul
CIO
The Village Group
738 Main Street
Waltham, MA 02451

781-647-7178


My uncle likes to say that the world’s biggest troubles started when the serpent said, “Try this fruit, and by the way if a bunch of people collectively calling themselves Arthur Andersen signs something it’s the same as if a person named Arthur Andersen signed it.” I don’t get the serpent and fruit part. Must be some Swiss mythology thing. He can be a bit obscure. 

                         P.K. Iggy
                         _How I Like Fixed The Internet_
                           (Tales from the Great Infodepression of 2009
                           and the prosperity that followed)





  parent reply	other threads:[~2006-07-27 15:04 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 68+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2006-07-19 21:47 csant
2006-07-19 22:25 ` David Leimbach
2006-07-19 22:28   ` David Leimbach
2006-07-19 22:38     ` csant
2006-07-19 23:50       ` erik quanstrom
2006-07-20  6:39         ` csant
2006-07-20 14:50         ` Ronald G Minnich
2006-07-20 15:08           ` Wes Kussmaul
2006-07-20 16:47           ` David Leimbach
2006-07-20 18:42             ` Ronald G Minnich
2006-07-20  0:06     ` Federico G. Benavento
2006-07-20  1:00       ` David Leimbach
2006-07-20  6:48         ` Christoph Lohmann
2006-07-20 12:25         ` Re: Re: [9fans] Investigating the Plan 9 Operating System - Brantley Coile
2006-07-20 13:32           ` Benn Newman
2006-07-20 16:30         ` Re: Re: [9fans] Investigating the Plan 9 Operating System - OSNews.com Lyndon Nerenberg
2006-07-20  0:06   ` Geoffrey Avila
2006-07-19 22:52 ` LiteStar numnums
2006-07-20 14:51   ` Ronald G Minnich
2006-07-23 14:14 ` LiteStar numnums
2006-07-23 14:13   ` erik quanstrom
2006-07-23 15:02     ` matt
2006-07-23 20:07   ` csant
2006-07-23 21:24     ` Federico G. Benavento
2006-07-23 21:29       ` csant
2006-07-23 22:22       ` Dan Cross
2006-07-24  6:03         ` Federico Benavento
2006-07-24 22:09       ` Plan 9
2006-07-24 22:18         ` andrey mirtchovski
2006-07-24 22:25         ` Federico G. Benavento
2006-07-24 22:39           ` jmk
2006-07-24 22:44             ` Ronald G Minnich
2006-07-25 14:44               ` Dave Lukes
2006-07-25 16:07                 ` elbing
2006-07-25 16:41                 ` ems
2006-07-25 16:56                   ` Ignacio Torres Masdeu
2006-07-25 17:27                     ` ems
2006-07-25 17:33                       ` Michael Baldwin
2006-07-26 18:20                         ` Dan Cross
2006-07-25 17:52                       ` Iruatã Souza (muzgo)
2006-07-25 19:15                         ` Skip Tavakkolian
2006-07-25 21:42                       ` Sascha Retzki
2006-07-25 18:55                         ` ems
2006-07-27 15:04                         ` Wes Kussmaul [this message]
2006-07-27 15:40                           ` Ronald G Minnich
2006-07-27 18:23                             ` Wes Kussmaul
2006-07-27 20:20                               ` Nicolás Victorero Mier
2006-07-28  2:29                               ` erik quanstrom
2006-07-28  9:48                                 ` Harri Haataja
2006-07-28 10:59                                   ` erik quanstrom
2006-07-28 14:01                                     ` David Leimbach
2006-07-28 13:54                                       ` erik quanstrom
2006-07-28 15:35                                       ` Skip Tavakkolian
2006-07-28 14:05                                 ` Wes Kussmaul
2006-07-23 20:49 cse.psu.edu!9fans-bounces+9fans-archive=plan9.bell-labs.com, Andrew Hudson
2006-07-23 21:01 ` andrey mirtchovski
2006-07-23 21:20 ` csant
2006-07-25 19:47   ` Francisco J Ballesteros
2006-07-25 22:01     ` John Floren
2006-07-25 23:06     ` csant
2006-07-23 22:09 ` Federico G. Benavento
2006-07-23 23:40 ` David Leimbach
2006-07-24  5:41   ` Christoph Lohmann
2006-07-24  8:19     ` Bruce Ellis
2006-07-24 15:04       ` John Floren
2006-07-23 21:19 Andrew Hudson
2006-07-23 21:45 ` andrey mirtchovski
2006-07-23 23:44 ` David Leimbach

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