3 Lecture Sept 11, 2003
Stories of Cyberspace: Special properties & the role of architecture
9/11/03
CSE 100 - Lecture 3
1
Four constraints on behavior (recap)
Law
regulates by sanctions imposed ex post If youre under age you cant smoke. Understandings about how I ought to behave One doesnt light a cigarette in a private home without asking the owner Regulates by price The price of cigarettes, including taxes, affects ones ability to smoke Constraint of the world as I find it, even if this world as I find it is a world that others have made Unfiltered cigarettes impose a constraint, if youre concerned about your health Code, p. 86-87
Social norms
The Market
Architecture
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Regulation in real space vs. cyberspace (recap)
Pornography is zoned from kids.
Law: Its illegal to sell porn to minors Norms: We shun those who sell porn to minors Market: Porn is expensive
Age in real space is a self-authenticating fact But Age isnt self-authenticating in cyberspace If you walked into a store,
and the guard at the store recorded your name; if cameras tracked your every step, noting what items you looked at and what items you ignored;
If any or all of these things happened in real space, you would notice In cyberspace, you would notbecause such tracking is not similarly visible.
Law of the Horse pp. 503-504
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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How is Cyberspace different from real space? Two stories.
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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The Story of Boral
A state, call it Boral, doesnt like gambling By going online, the gamblers moved into a world where behavior, so the argument goes, is no longer regulable.
Code p. 14
The architecture of cyberspace makes regulating behavior difficult, because those whose behavior youre trying to control could be located in any place (meaning outside of your place) on the Net.
Code p. 19
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Worms that sniff
Imagine a worm designed to do good (at least in the minds of some. Imagine that the code writer is the FBI and that the FBI is looking for a particular document belonging to the National Security Agency.
Code p.17
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Destroy 'pirate' PCs, says politician
A US senator wants to develop new technology which would remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music tracks. Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican representing Utah, asked technology chiefs at a hearing in Washington about whether they could develop ways to damage or destroy the computers.
BBC News, 18 June 2003 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2999780.stm
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Code Regulates Cyberspace
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Regulation by Code
In real space we recognize how laws regulate through constitutions, statutes, and other legal codes. In cyberspace, we must understand how code regulates how the software and hardware that make cyberspace what it is regulate cyberspace as it is. Code p. 6 Some architectures of cyberspace are more regulable than others. Code is a regulator, and the government has a greater interest in code that regulates better than others. Code p. 20-21
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Example: Two internet architectures
Chicago (Internet 1995)
Just plug computer into jack. Once connected, your machine had full access to the Internet that was complete, anonymous and free.
Harvard:
Machines must be registered. Only members of university community can register machines. All interactions are monitored.
Code p. 26
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Net95 : Imperfections of regulability No way to verify features attributes or of anyone No way to verify features or attributes of the data itself No way to make access to data depend on who the user is and on the data he or she wants access to.
Code 28
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Net95 : Imperfections of regulability
The New Yorker, ( 7/5/93 Vol.69 no. 20) 9/11/03 CSE 100 - Lecture 3 12
Architectures & regulation II
Chicago and Harvards architectures embrace different values
Chicagos based on 1st Amendment. Behavior is more controllable at Harvard: actions can be traced
Code (Architecture) Regulates Cyberspace
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Cybercommunities: AOL
AOLs emphasis has been on enabling people to interact, through chat, bulletin boards, and email. Formal rules: offensiveness not permitted, such exchanges expunged Architecture: As a member of AOL you can be any of five people. Architecture: There is no space where everyone gathers at one time The owners of AOL, however, can speak to all. Architecture: AOL can trace your activities and collect information about them. Architecture: When you buy with a screen name, AOL knows just who you are, it knows where you live in real space, and it knows your credit card number and the security it provides.
Code 67
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Cybercommunities: Counsel Connect
Legal topics are divided into discussion groups, with each group led by a discussion leadernot a moderator. Members get an account with their real name on it. Norms: the effect of being required to use your own name. Norms: the effect of reputation Norms: Typing reputation to a real name in a real community of professionals Architecture: Forcing all discussion into threads. Architecture: Like AOL, management controls what will happen in the space Neither is a democracy.
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CSE 100 - Lecture 3
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Cybercommunities: LambdaMoo
LambdaMOO is a text-based virtual reality. People from across the world link to this space and interact in ways that the space permits. Bungle had a special sort of power. By earning special standing in the LambdaMoo community, he had voodoo power: he could take over the voices and actions of other characters and make them appea...