Building an Alternative Theory of Identity

If you've been reading my previous identity posts, I've been introducing some new concepts to the identity realm. These have been inspired by my readings of Kripke, who published a seminal work in 1970, Naming and Necessity, which according to the Wikipedia entry, "re-structured philosophy and made metaphysic respectable again".

To appreciate where I am coming from, or to better understand what I am trying to convey to you - I'm not interested in solving the Single-Sign-On (SSO) problem, or building another SAML or Federated Identity solution - as most vendors are doing a great job of this already. I am trying to understand, what are the necessary concepts required to build a new social institution that is built upon an alternative identity.

'A new social instituition?! An alternative theory of identity?!', you ask. 'That's pretty crazy!!'.
Well so be it! To paraphrase a tired cliche, to better understand the box you're in, figure out what it looks like on the outside and understand the table it sits on.

I came upon this thinking, when one of my public sector colleagues made the very intriguing statement several months back that 'we have an implicit identity management scheme throughout our systems of government'. In Canada, we have formalized privacy as an 'institution' by means of legislation and the creation of an Agent of Parliament, namely the Privacy Commissioner. So the question came to mind - what if we formally institutionalized identity - what would it look like? Would we have an Identity Commissioner? What principles would this institution have? And, what powers? You have to think about all this stuff, even before you start designing systems that support the institution.

As I've been thinking about this question, I've found that Kripke's writings are shedding a different light on the identity management problem and providing useful avenues of thought.

I haven't yet tackled, Kripke's original work, Naming and Necessity (I have to buy it from Amazon or check it out of University Library, once I find my alumni card). But I have found several derivative works on the web that have helped me immensely, in particular this essay by John Burgess from Princeton. Burgess does a particulary good job of describing the shortcomings of the Descriptive Theory of Reference and its band-aid, the Cluster Theory. These two theories fall down when taking into account the problems of error and ignorance. In a nutshell, if I knew George Bush, but thought he was the 41st President of the United States (his dad), or didn't know that he was the 43rd Prez, does this diminish the reference that I have of him? The fundamental shortcoming of the descriptive theory, is that no matter how well or completely I describe someone, these descriptions still falls short of the absolute reference I desire.

Kripke offers an alternative view - one based upon the historical chain - the causal event chain, that begins with 1) baptism - an act of ostension (picking out) and bestowing a name (the baptiser being the first user of this name) and, 2) transmission, the subsequent use of this name by later users to pick out the same thing that was baptized. This posting is getting long - I'll elaborate historical chain concept in a subsequent posting

So, in building my alternative theory (enough to develop a new social institution, that is) this is the concept inventory so far:

• Social Actions, and Social Relations, courtesy Max Weber,
• Absolute Reference and Identity, courtesy my own musings
• Historical Chain, consisting of baptism and transmission, courtesy Kripke.

And, to act out this theory, we have our IDM Dramatis Personae, consisting of Alice, Bob, their friends, enemies, etc.

'til next time

Any comments on this blog or welcome or mailto: - tim.bouma @ sympatico.ca (only human-generated mail is welcome)

Tim Bouma

Tim Horton's IPO - best thing since the Netscape IPO

Attention all Americans,

In case you missed it - According the Globe and Mail today, - this is truly the most exiting IPO, since the 1995 Netscape IPO.

Investor appetite for Canadian coffee and doughnut icon Tim Hortons Inc. surpassed already lofty expectations Friday, with the shares jumping about 30 per cent on its first day of trading

(see full article Tim Hortons IPO )

In truly Canadian fashion, many of the reader's comments are about how bad the coffee is, and how they won't be successful in the US market. To be successful in the US, I proposed that we change the name to Stan Mikita's Donuts.

Identity Management - A Play Overview and Dramatis Personae.

If I were to write a play about Identity Management, this is the play overview and the characters I would use (courtesy Answers.com ). Note to cryptographers - you should already be familiar with Alice and Bob.

So here we go:

Play Overview:

The play begins with Alice wanting to send a message to Bob, her true love. After going through the whole cryptographic rigamorole, and sending intimate messages to one another, Alice begins to doubt Bob's true identity. Thus, she begins a quest to find the truth by asking their mutual friends, Carol and Dave for proof. As with any good play, plot complications and evil characters arise; Eve, Mallory, and Oscar (Alice's unrequited lover) thwart her at every turn. The chain of events involve exceptional malice and spite and culminate in an appearance before the courts, where Justin, the judge resolves the dispute, uncovers the truth, and puts the bad guys in jail. All ends swimmingly, as Justin is suddenly called to preside over an impromptu wedding ceremony. Who gets married to whom? You'll have to wait for the play to be written before you find out!


IDM Dramatis Personae:

The cast, in order of the alphabet:

Alice and Bob. The main characters. The first known archetypal individuals used to explain cryptographic protocols. These characters were invented by Ron Rivest but he never did explain the relationship between the two of them. This play hopes to explore that aspect.

Carol and Dave, third and fourth participants in communications between Alice and Bob. All four are close friends, but we're never sure how close or what the word "friend" really means for them.

Eve, an eavesdropper, is a passive attacker. While she can listen in on messages between Alice and Bob, she cannot modify them.

Isaac, an Internet Service Provider (ISP). As a result of the Patriot Act, Isaac and Plod (the police officer) have become very good friends.

Ivan, an issuer (as in financial cryptography). No connections with the Russian counterfeiting ring - shame on you for thinking that.

Justin, from the justice system. Clean as a whistle - until he whets his whistle.

Mallory, a malicious attacker; unlike Eve, Mallory can modify messages, substitute her own messages, replay old messages, and so on. The problem of securing a system against Mallory is much greater than against Eve because Mallory has violent tendencies. To further add to the intrigue, Mallory has two evil identical twins of the opposite sex named Marvin and Mallet. I guess that makes them identical triplets - andthe opposite sex thing really throws a good wrench into the main plot and provides great basis for an identity-crisis sub-plot.

Matilda, a merchant (as in ecommerce or financial cryptography). Matilda sells something to do with images, but you'd better ask Steve what exactly this is.

Oscar, an opponent, is usually taken as equivalent to Mallory.

Pat or Peggy,, a prover, and Victor, a verifier, who often must interact in some way to show that the intended transaction has actually taken place.

Plod, a law enforcement officer (P for police, also "Officer Plod" inspired from the children's TV show Noddy). Plod has a secret MD5 hash problem.

Steve, an agoraphobic extrovert, obsesses over Steganography. Steve used to work for a unnamed Port Authority but the fresh air in the vast expanse of the dock container-yards was too much. Due to what might be considered a career-limiting-move (if they find out), Steve quit and found better, more profitable things to do with his time.

Trudy, an intruder: another alternative to Mallory. Could the triplets actually be quadruplets? To sort out this evil quadrangle will require some pretty sophisticated biometric technologies.

Trent, a trusted arbitrator, is some kind of neutral third party, whose exact role varies with the character and topic under discussion. Trust, in Trent's view, is merely a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Trent has aspirations of running for President.

Walter, a warden, may be needed to guard Alice and Bob in some respect, depending on the gravity or absurdity of the situation.

Zoe, the last party to be involved in a cryptographic protocol. Zoe's always the last to the party, but she more than makes up for it by being the last to leave!!!

Absolute Reference and Identity

Human beings crave absolutes.

Like a craving for chocolate -we desire things that comfort and satisfy us. Absolute references are something we crave - because we want things in our life that don't change. We want things that are constant - they're the same every time we encounter them. For some, it's mom's home cooking, or the bedroom that hasn't changed since the teenaged years, despite moving out. On a grander scale, an absolute reference might be someone's belief in, unchanging god, or a set of humanistic or nationalist principles that they are willing to die for.

With more earthly matters, we need absolute references as a basis to our relationships in family and society. My mother will always be my mother even if she decides to change her name. My first point is that we try to relate to people with the best absolute reference we can - in the case of my mother - it's that mother-child bond, which trumps any name. To this day, I don't call my mother by her real name - still mom. For others next best absolute reference is their given name. People to whom we have lesser relationships, we use their name, and that's how we build relationships and function in a larger society.

My second point is that identity is a function that serves to provide this absoulute reference. My observation is that the prevailing schools of identity management a) don't recognize the distinction between absolute reference and identity, and, b) follow the Descriptive School of Reference. The implication of this school of thought on identity is that if you gather enough information about an individual, the more sure it's him/her.

In keeping with Kripke, I believe that a) absolute reference is distinct from identity, and b) we should follow the Casual Theory of Reference, where our best references are actually arise from an unbroken chain of historical events (cause and effect). This is the avenue we must explore if we are to understand the nature of identity. I'm not advocating either/or. In both schools a different light is shed on the problem.

My personal prize in these musings is a simple yet profound insight that can shift our thinking as we craft policy, build system, and invent technologies.

'til then

Tim Bouma

Ottawa Chess-in-the-Street

An announcement for an event that I'm organizing in my community

Hi everyone,
The details have been finalized and I am pleased to announce "Chess in the Street" to be held as part of Ottawa's biggest street festival WESTFEST, on Saturday and Sunday, June 10th and 11th, 2006.

The official announcement on the WESTFEST site :

"Chess-in-the-Street is an outdoor chess event that takes the game of chess from the parlour to the street. Chess-in-the-Street will have numerous activities appealing to everyone: from kids to adults and from those who have never played before to the seasoned tournament player. With each game you play, your name will be entered in a draw for prizes. Chess-in-the-Street will also have GIANTCHESS!, a giant-sized chess board on the street. There will be a Simultaneous Chess Competition in the afternoon each day, featuring a ChessMaster who will battle 15 simultaneous chess opponents. June 10th, 11th, 2006, 10 am through 4 pm Richmond Road & Roosevelt Avenue".

Some items of note:

First of all, this is an OUTREACH EVENT, not a tournament. The theory goes, that there are tons of people who are aware of chess, but not aware of what chess can offer to them (like the author, two years ago) The success of this event depends only upon the people discovering the wonders of chess in a novel and festive setting.

Second, the author would like to thank the gracious support of the producer of WESTFEST, who managed to squeeze us into this very popular event (expected attendance of 30,000-50,000.) To appeal to kids, a big part of WESTFEST, we have situated Chess-in-the-Street within the WESTFESTKIDSZONE to encourage kids, their parents and any brave adults to play with one another.

Third, the author would like to thank the Chess-and-Math organization (in particular, Larry Bevand and David Gordon) for their enthusiastic support and lending us the GIANTCHESS set for the occasion.

Finally, we're still looking for volunteers and sponsors to help - mostly to hang out and encourage people to play - we'll be having 8-10 boards open during the course of the day, and if there are sufficient and willing chess souls out there, we're planning to conduct simuls to wrap up each day. If you wish to help out, please let me know at: e-mail:tim.bouma@sympatico.ca
All in all, Chess-in-the-Street should be quite a spectacle. If it works this year, we may consider growing it into an annual festival event, including rated tournaments etc. But for now, the focus this year is simply to bring "Chess-in-the-Street".

Thanks to all, who have made this a happening, and thanks in advance to those willing to pitch in.

Does Hamlet have an Identity?

This question popped into my mind yesterday. "Does Hamlet have an identity?"


This question was inspired by several things.

First , due to my ponderings of identity as a reference, courtesy the philosopher, Saul Kripke, who came up with the Causal Theory of Reference and Theory of Proper Names (the Bart Simpson version of this can be found here )

Second, upon reading an article by David Weinberger, entitled The Year of the Unique ID. where he discusses how we should uniquely identify Shakespeare's creation of Hamlet, as a work, expression, manifestation, or item.

I realized through my hazy Kripke lens, I should ask the silly but profound question "Does Hamlet have an identity?". Some might say, this is a ridiculous question, because Hamlet is a fictional character. Practically speaking, yes, but by pursuing this question, we can learn more about the true function of identity - a question that gets easily swept under the rug.

I'm on work time right now - so I'll keep the following short: I'll pose some related questions.

Does Hamlet need an identity? - Hamlet himself, does not - but we need to ascribe him one - if we are to have a conversation about him. We need to have a common reference. Shakespearian scholars need to give Hamlet an identity, if they are to analyze his motives, feelings, etc. If we can't arrive at a common or definitive reference (it's just some guy in a play) - then we can't progress very far on Hamlet.

What exactly is Hamlet's identity? If you take the identity management vendor approach - it's his name, date-of-birth, SSN, plus some biometric. Heck, I'll have to re-read the play to see whether Hamlet has blue eyes, but I don't think I'll be able to scan his irises?

What does identity really serve? My hunch is that identity serves our need as human beings to have absolute references (as best we can) to one another. My friends and family want to know me as 'me", regardless of my name, date-of-birth or where I live. These things only serve to help my friends and family relate to me. They might be ascribed to me as my "identity", but I'm starting to realized these things are not actually my identity. They're only things that help other people relate and interact with me.

I believe if we figure out how we relate to Hamlet as a fictional character, we can apply this to the real world, and better undertand how others (and their supporting systems) should best relate to me as a real character.

That's it for now!

Tim

Identity, Reference and Social Actions

Related to the work I am doing, I am pondering how the concepts of identity and reference tie to one another.

So my starting thesis is this: the whole point of any identity mangement system is to account for individuals (we're talking people identity management systems) by having the best and most reliable reference to this individual as possible - that is, their identity. In 99% of the cases, identity is the default reference, because it reflects how we relate to other individuals, how we function in society and how we build our institutions.

This line of thought is reminding me of Max Weber's concepts of social action, and social relation.

Some Weber definitions courtesy of http://www.wikipedia.org

Social action - refers to any action that takes into account actions and reactions of other individuals and is modified based on those events.

Social relation - refers to a multitude of social interactions, regulated by social norms

I believe that the basis of any social action or social relation requires a reliable reference - the indentity of the individual.


So my thinking goes like this -

1. The systems that we are trying to build, exist to enable social relations and facilitate social actions. If these systems are legal (we can't always assume so) they are backed up by a mandate.

2. The basis of any stable social relation or any effective social action is a stable reference. Since we are dealing with individuals, the identity of this individual is this most stable reference.

3. Hence, any system that we are trying to build dealing with social relations and social actions, to be most effective, must have identity at its core.

I'll explore this topic in subsequent postings

That's it for today.

Me and the boys

I'm just trying out the image upload - it seems to work... So here I am (the dad in the blue oxford shirt) and my two older boys, Noah,6 (left) and Yannick, 4 (right), and yes, I have a third boy, Phoenix, 2, who doesn't play chess yet, but rather feeds the pieces to our dog.

I'm thinking of doing the Sicilian...

No, the Sicilian is not a ballroom routine - it's a chess opening. Anyway, I was terrible at ballroom dancing - the foxtrot, the merenge (see, I don't even know how to spell it!), and I may take it up again upon my retirement and there's nothing else to do on the cruise ship.

The Sicilian is this: 1.e4 c5 - which means, White's King Pawn advances two squares to e4, and Black advances his Queen's Bishop pawn two squares to c5. This ...c5 move is the primary characteristic of the Sicilian. - so I need to be Black, if I wish the Sicilian to be my weapon. The whole point of the Sicilian is to wage an asymmetrical battle for the centre: while White is trying to occupy (e4), Black is trying to exert immediate influence (c5 - controls d4). ...c5 is usually shored by by ...d6.

That's it for now - so you know the Sicilian, out of the starting gates at least! Next post I'll talk about the next few moves.

Does anybody read this stuff?

Just curious, I am dabbling - haven't produced anything of quality in this blog yet. I suspect my total readership is at, or about zero, but hey this is all about process.

As I said in my earlier post, this is an experiment and we'll see where it leads....

Well it's a nice day - sunny, but still the bite of winter. Took my Boston Terrier for a walk at lunch, but he wasn't too crazy about the intermittent terrain of pavement, snow, puddles of water and ice. It was pretty tough on his feet - he's content to lie in the sun in the family room all day, instead.

Cryptology

I am reading a very interesting book on cryptography- Codebreaker's Victory - How the Allied Cryptographers Won World II - more to come....