[Cryptography] Identity

[Eden]

On 12/12/22 14:34, Bertrand Mollinier Toublet wrote:
>> On Dec 11, 2022, at 7:17 PM, Peter Fairbrother <peter at tsto.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Peter Gutman's recent post reminded me of another naming question:
>>
>> What do you call an identity which is not linked (or linkable to?), but whose actions are controlled by, a real person?
>>
>>
> Tongue-in-cheek, that would be a sock-puppet, would it not?

    Thank you for saying "Tongue-in-cheek". As a database consultant 
i've worked with quite a few people who think that a human can only have 
one name. Is that a limitation of the tools some people must use, or a 
limitation in thinking about the question? Amusingly, years ago, i was 
kicked out of Facebook due to not using my "real name". "That couldn't 
possibly be a real name." It's amusing because i was actually using my 
"legal name" for that account! Good riddance. Since then i have created 
multiple accounts for many parts of my self: work; close friends; 
family; hobbies; etc. It should be obvious that even a telephone number 
can be assigned more than one name/persona, for example, "home" and "Mum".

    I would have thought that i was preaching to the choir here, but 
this keeps coming up. As iang has pointed out, "a pseudonym" is not 
necessarily a "sockpuppet", which has connotations of evil intent. My 
nickname(s) are just nym substitutes, not necessarily deceit. In fact, i 
like to keep my identities separated, so i don't usually mix their 
contexts and activities. And, i believe there are many other people who 
do the same.

    I apologize to all the systems that think that user count means 
human people count. They need to study humanity more, and not count 
productivity by lines of code.