Re: Thread 5: Defining the namespace

[Michael Dillon <michael@memra.com>]

On Fri, 27 Dec 1996, Einar Stefferud wrote:

> 	If God wanted the Internet to have a central control point, 
> 	She would have arranged for Internet Protocols to use one!

She did. One of the Internet Protocols that God designed is known as the
DNS protocol. When She designed this one God arranged to have a single
central control point for this protocol known as the root. She annointed
Paul Vixie, Her only begotten son, to manage the operations of this
protocol and She baptized Jon Postel as her one true catholic and
universal pope to issue entries in the root domain of the DNS.

> I suggest that you read the book "At Home in the Universe" by Stuart
> Kauffman, where the concepts of such self organization of bounded
> chaos are quite nicely developed.  The Internet is a region of bounded
> chaos, and its behavior is that of maintaining a boundary layer of
> chaos that is at the edge of order, but never truly ordered.

I haven't read this book, but the DNS in which the root is rigidly
centrally controlled and the leaves are utter anarchy seems to meet the
criteria. The two questions at issue in IAHC are where will the edge
of order be located, and how will the "ordered" area be structured.


Michael Dillon                   -               Internet & ISP Consulting
Memra Software Inc.              -                  Fax: +1-604-546-3049
http://www.memra.com             -               E-mail: michael@memra.com