What Would We Do Without Authorities?

Uncategorized 12 Comments

Richard Fernandez;

Google’s rejection of Symantec’s SSL certificates never made the major headlines but illustrates the role trust plays in society. If you’re connected to a bank or the Belmont Club chances are you are reassured by the little lock icon and https indicator in the address bar certifying you are logged into the real McCoy. The site sends your browser its SSL certificate, signed with the private key of a trusted certificate authority and the browser uses public key of the authority to verify if the certificate is real. Then it displays the lock. If the browsers mistrust the certificate it emits a warning instead. When Google determined Symantec’s Latin American partners had issued 30,000 certificates without proper verification Chrome developers degraded the certificates, potentially displaying “not secure” instead of a lock and a big red slash drawn through the “https”. Within days Symantec sold its business. Lose the trust, lose a billion dollar business.
The collapse of Symantec’s trust certificates underscores the weakness of authority systems. Who guards the guardians? Google checked Symantec but who checks Google? Today authority is under question as never before. When authority systems are mistrusted even the physical facts become doubtful.

12 Replies to “What Would We Do Without Authorities?”

  1. Imagine the level of trust required to maintain Trade Relations on the “silk road” before Christianity Emerged- BCE -.
    Imagine the cultures which grew during BCE to enforce Trust relationships.
    If Google or the other myriad of entities are using Trust as their foundation then the level of Accountability is necessarily equal to BCE “silk road” retaliation. Government is the ultimate foundation of internet interuse. The potential of Bankruptcy is the necessary level of recourse.

  3. Once again … Steve Bannon is RIGHT. PS … how many times has the media predicted Brannon’s demise? Speaks volumes to me. Trump knows that Bannon is his most valuable and effective advisors.

  4. “Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
    President Ronald Reagan

  5. Facebook and Google’s products are every bit a “Public Utility” as are my electric, natural gas, water, and sewer Utilities. There is a PUBLIC interest in regulating these Utilities … in PUBLIC VIEW … so their hardcore leftist owners and operators cannot restrict and/or punish conservative thought and information … so that FREE SPEECH is preserved.
    Do I “like” government regulation? Only when my constitutional rights require protection.

  6. Yepper; Will the Sleaze expropriate the power; academic; media; politico; Sure!
    But what makes America Great is the Sovereign Ordinary Citizen is able to bring back “the Great Experiment” with Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

  7. Jesus H. Chr*st.
    I can name a half dozen alternatives to Google and Facebook off the top of my head, plus another dozen free open source alternatives anyone can download and run on their own servers. I run a social network myself for a hobby gaming community.
    Google and Facebook are not public utilities. Google couldn’t even make a go of being a decent ISP. Anyone arguing for regulation of them as such immediately exempts themselves from being taken seriously on any IT topic forever.

  8. … and I can also buy a propane tank, solar panels, rainwater collection, and dig a septic tank … but it is about as impractical (here in the real world) as the “alternatives” to Facebook and YouTube
    Speaking of which … how’s that Snapchat stock price coming along ?

  11. Social media alternatives like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
    “I don’t know Internet besides Facebook and Google” != “These are public utilities”.
    Even if you don’t want to take the whopping five minutes of effort to sign up on any of those other social networks, you can rent a private server and install your own software for the princely sum of ten dollars a month. Cheaper if you hunt up a coupon.
    Claiming that Facebook and Google are public utilities because lots of people use them is like claiming the New York Times is a public utility because no one wants to read your mimeographed newsletter (which, to make the analogy complete, cost you $10/month to produce and disseminate).

  12. People who think Facebook, Google, Twitter, etc, should be regulated as “public utilities” are commies, pure and simple.

Proudly powered by WordPress & Skyrocket Themes

MENU

Navigation