4 ms·
Before we start tossing about accusations against "this guy", let's take a step back to recognize the following simple facts: 1. The author is Orin Kerr, a nat
by arjunnarayan 12y ago
Before we start tossing about accusations against "this guy", let's take a step back to recognize the following simple facts:
1. The author is Orin Kerr, a nationally recognized Law professor, and co-blogger at the single most influential Law blog - the Volokh conspiracy.
2. His highest cited academic paper (421 cites, which is a lot in law world) is titled "The fourth amendment and new technologies: constitutional myths and the case for caution", so this is literally his domain of expertise, so maybe you might want to acknowledge the possibility that he knows what he is talking about.
3. He actually changed his mind based on additional evidence that was presented to him in the form of counterarguments. Given how rarely this happens, anybody capable of doing this in a public forum automatically gets +10 Respect points from me.
4. He has a technical background, as timsally pointed out, including mechanical engineering degrees. Now if he has such trouble grappling with the subtleties of cryptography and security threat models, maybe that is also partially our fault as security practitioners. We should acknowledge that.
5. I am aware that this all sounds like an elaborate appeal to authority, but given the cavalier way people are criticizing the author (as opposed to his arguments), I thought these facts should be stated.
- GuiA 12y agoThat's great. While I read his articles, I didn't bother to read the name of the author because the validity of a reasoning should be independent of who wrote it. Reading his original article just gave me a headache for the reasons cited in my first comment. I will agree fully with you on 3), and partially on 5) (only partially, because on one hand I agree with the premise, but otoh if you're in a position of authority your job is precisely to understand despite potentially poor communication from other experts). (I'm also not sure what my "accusations" are.)
- arjunnarayan 12y agoI apologize. I wasn't really replying to you, but also to many of the comments on this story that have been more insulting to Orin Kerr. E.g. "It is completely irresponsible of a man of his intelligence/qualifications to post something", "He still sounds like a government key escrow apologist,", "you should lose your fucking license to practice law.", "Sounds like an apologist and a shill for the entitlement mentality". I disagree with your sentiment that we should weep for the future of our world governments. I think things are slowly changing around in the right direction, and a lot of that is thanks to people like Orin Kerr who are capable of changing their minds when presented with hard evidence.