Re: Thread 5: Defining the namespace

[Einar Stefferud <Stef@nma.com>]

Hello Michael -- 

I still think the fact of the existing rigid central control of TLDs
is just an accident of history, and that it need not be so;-)...  It
is just a vestigial tail of the centrally controlled ARPANET.

What is so is that the "root" needs to behave as though there is only
one to support the way the Internet works, but that is not the same as
saying that there must be one central agency that decides precisely
what TLD names may be used.  It is the protocol that makes it behave
like a single point that is critical, not the authority that makes it
actually be a signularity.

If the draft can be adjusted to reflect this distinction, I will be
happy with it.

Cheers...\Stef

>From your message Fri, 27 Dec 1996 22:30:27 -0800 (PST):
}
}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.
}