Letter to the NYT
Feb. 17th, 2009 02:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertangoJohn Markoff ("Do We Need a New Internet?" 2/14/2009) saves the flaw in his argument for his last sentence: the goal of, "a completely trustable system."
This goal is without precedent. It does not exist in software, nor in the material world -- which is why we have police, attorneys, diplomats, and soldiers.
His suggestion for attaining this goal is what software expert Joel Spolsky has called, "the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make": Rewriting the code from scratch. Only it wouldn't be for one company, it would be for all of the Internet.
Rewriting the code is a mistake because it turns out the most arcane parts of it are responses to situations in the real world. Throwing out the code means throwing out that learning and experience.
"Reinventing the internet" wouldn't create something safe. It would only create something unsafe in different ways.
This goal is without precedent. It does not exist in software, nor in the material world -- which is why we have police, attorneys, diplomats, and soldiers.
His suggestion for attaining this goal is what software expert Joel Spolsky has called, "the single worst strategic mistake that any software company can make": Rewriting the code from scratch. Only it wouldn't be for one company, it would be for all of the Internet.
Rewriting the code is a mistake because it turns out the most arcane parts of it are responses to situations in the real world. Throwing out the code means throwing out that learning and experience.
"Reinventing the internet" wouldn't create something safe. It would only create something unsafe in different ways.
