X-Message-Number: 2452
Subject: CRYONICS: Identity and the internet
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 23:07:29 -0500
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <>


> Message: #2450 - Identity and the internet
> From: Ralph Merkle <>
> Message-Subject: CRYONICS Identity and the internet
> Date: 	Wed, 10 Nov 1993 17:42:50 PST
> 
> The following article might be of interest to readers of this list:

The author of that document is widely believed by many people,
including a bunch of well known Extropian types who hang out on the
Cypherpunks list, to be literally insane. He believes, for instance,
that Tim May has been pretending to be J. Dinkelacker, and that
Dinkelacker doesn't actually exist. When people pointed out to him
that he could simply call them both up and check, he ignored the
suggestion. He believes that people are plotting against him, he
believes that a bunch of people, including me, are part of a
nationwide anarchist conspiracy, and he believes that everyone who
disagrees with him is in fact a member of that conspiracy. I'm being
literal here -- you can reread the reposting if you like in the light
of what I've said.

That mentioned, the issue of whether certain people on the cryonics
list like "Clarissa Wells" and the like are real or not doesn't seem
very important to me. One should be paying attention to what people
say, and not who says things. If people steer clear from arguing
or thinking ad hominem, they shouldn't have to care about who is the
origin of an idea -- they can stick to whether the idea is true or
false. Mr. Detweiler seems extremely concerned that people's
identities might become clouded in an internet where people can lie
about who they are regularly. However, this is not a new problem, and
indeed, who people are shouldn't matter much except in circumstances
such as entering into business or personal relationships -- if you are
simply speaking with someone what they have to say is much more
important than who they are.

Perry

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