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I'm not convinced that, for 99.9% of use cases, anonymity is a feature. I think it's far more likely that the easy anonymity that has been the default for much

I'm not convinced that, for 99.9% of use cases, anonymity is a feature. I think it's far more likely that the easy anonymity that has been the default for much of the existence of the Internet has harmed society. I get downvoted whenever I say this, but anonymous speech is only allowed by recent technology and has never been a part of our ancestral environment.

potatototoo99 4y ago
Freedom of speech is also a recent invention.
hairofadog 4y ago
I’m not downvoting, but I think the concept of anonymous speech goes way way back to the origins of writing, doesn’t it? The change in recent years is that it’s extra hard to stay anonymous, what with the surveillance economy?
- wussboy 4y ago
  Perhaps. But if you consider: 1. The cost of printing/transcribing something 2. Literacy rates 3. Constraints tied to physical distribution ...the reach of that potentially "anonymous speech" was the tiniest fraction of what we experience today. And even then it wasn't necessarily anonymous, unless you just left books lying around?
  - hairofadog 4y ago
    I think it was pretty doable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anonymously_published_works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anonymously_published_...
    - wussboy 4y ago
      I won't argue that it wasn't possible. But that link shows 20-40 books, and covers 3000 years of human culture. That's about one anonymous book per century. I think we need more anonymity than that. But I think the amount of anonymity we have now is disastrous to civil society. Appreciate the link though. Thanks for engaging.
- im3w1l 4y ago
  Well, with a rumor, the original source is obscured. So in a sense they are getting their info out there anonymously (to all but the first-hand confidantes).
pixl97 4y ago
What are you calling recent? The printing press? Spartacus? The reason you get down votes is its a relatively dangerous line of thought in itself that plays into the hands of authoritarians that would love to track every bit of information to an individual.

potatototoo99 4y ago

Freedom of speech is also a recent invention.

hairofadog 4y ago

I’m not downvoting, but I think the concept of anonymous speech goes way way back to the origins of writing, doesn’t it? The change in recent years is that it’s extra hard to stay anonymous, what with the surveillance economy?

wussboy 4y ago
Perhaps. But if you consider: 1. The cost of printing/transcribing something 2. Literacy rates 3. Constraints tied to physical distribution ...the reach of that potentially "anonymous speech" was the tiniest fraction of what we experience today. And even then it wasn't necessarily anonymous, unless you just left books lying around?
- hairofadog 4y ago
  I think it was pretty doable: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anonymously_published_works https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anonymously_published_...
  - wussboy 4y ago
    I won't argue that it wasn't possible. But that link shows 20-40 books, and covers 3000 years of human culture. That's about one anonymous book per century. I think we need more anonymity than that. But I think the amount of anonymity we have now is disastrous to civil society. Appreciate the link though. Thanks for engaging.
im3w1l 4y ago
Well, with a rumor, the original source is obscured. So in a sense they are getting their info out there anonymously (to all but the first-hand confidantes).

pixl97 4y ago

What are you calling recent? The printing press? Spartacus? The reason you get down votes is its a relatively dangerous line of thought in itself that plays into the hands of authoritarians that would love to track every bit of information to an individual.