5 ms·

But if you've written notes in your notebook that are comprehensible only to you, should you be compelled to explain to the authorities what they mean?

by lutorm 16y ago

oiuhjygtfghjnmk 16y ago
That was one of the jokes with the original wording. To cover encrypted, as well as enciphered, text it said something like "any clear text that has a hidden meaning". Which immediately made most of literature and theology illegal. You couldn't posses a poem or a bible unless you could explain to the police any hidden symbolism! Pictures of the police kicking down doors and shouting "you're nicked - now explain what the poet really meant by a host of yellow daffodils"
patio11 16y ago
This is talking about the Color of Bits, to quote a famous article on the subject of computer programmers discussing law about computers. http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php Computer programmers think, aha, I can apply an arbitrary algorithmic translation to input A and get output B, and applying the law to B would be absurd, so therefore applying the law to A is also absurd. What they fail to realize is that bits have color -- a type of metadata that law algorithms can see and operate on which your computer algorithms are ignorant of. You think that encrypted contents of a computer harddrive is a logically equivalent operation to writing things in a form only comprehensible to oneself. This is only true if you're Colorblind.
- mindslight 16y ago
  > You think that encrypted contents of a computer harddrive is a logically equivalent operation to writing things in a form only comprehensible to oneself. This entirely depends on whether you view your computer as an extension of your personal consciousness or as being an external service that you're interacting with. I'd rather a society where computers act as individuals' agents, rather than people being at the mercy of the computers.
- ovi256 16y ago
  This color is what normal people call intention. Big file that is storing your n-th computed prime : innocuous. Big file that is storing pirated movie, even if called "n-th prime" : not OK.

But if you've written notes in your notebook that are comprehensible only to you, should you be compelled to explain to the authorities what they mean?

by lutorm 16y ago

But if you've written notes in your notebook that are comprehensible only to you, should you be compelled to explain to the authorities what they mean?

oiuhjygtfghjnmk 16y ago

That was one of the jokes with the original wording. To cover encrypted, as well as enciphered, text it said something like "any clear text that has a hidden meaning". Which immediately made most of literature and theology illegal. You couldn't posses a poem or a bible unless you could explain to the police any hidden symbolism! Pictures of the police kicking down doors and shouting "you're nicked - now explain what the poet really meant by a host of yellow daffodils"

patio11 16y ago

This is talking about the Color of Bits, to quote a famous article on the subject of computer programmers discussing law about computers. http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php http://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/lawpoli/colour/2004061001.php Computer programmers think, aha, I can apply an arbitrary algorithmic translation to input A and get output B, and applying the law to B would be absurd, so therefore applying the law to A is also absurd. What they fail to realize is that bits have color -- a type of metadata that law algorithms can see and operate on which your computer algorithms are ignorant of. You think that encrypted contents of a computer harddrive is a logically equivalent operation to writing things in a form only comprehensible to oneself. This is only true if you're Colorblind.

mindslight 16y ago
> You think that encrypted contents of a computer harddrive is a logically equivalent operation to writing things in a form only comprehensible to oneself. This entirely depends on whether you view your computer as an extension of your personal consciousness or as being an external service that you're interacting with. I'd rather a society where computers act as individuals' agents, rather than people being at the mercy of the computers.
ovi256 16y ago
This color is what normal people call intention. Big file that is storing your n-th computed prime : innocuous. Big file that is storing pirated movie, even if called "n-th prime" : not OK.