The Philosophy of Identity

Andreas and Chris Eliss' discussions on philosophy on Let's Talk Bitcoin were kind of mind blowing to me and especially memorable.  Eye-opening.  I enjoy listening to Chris talk on the crossover between technology and philosophy and have noted a number of developers talk about approaching technical problems with philosophy as one of the cornerstones required to solve.  The approach taken for the inception/development of Counterparty is an example of this (proof of burn).

In terms of identity, we are now witnessing the clash of personal identity and reputation in the digital age.  Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Github, StackExchange, Twitter, Instagram, Quora - the list of reputation systems goes on.  Personal identity and reputation are becoming one, and eventually there will be a single technical construct that represents both.  That construct needs to be way beyond a like, a rating out of five, an upvote or a downvote.  It needs to be far, far more enriching than that.  Otherwise the definition of identity will be a perverse reflection of true identity and reputation.  It's going to happen and we cannot let Facebook et al be 'It'.

Blemishes on reputation - that terrible Facebook post you made when you were fourteen, the embarrassing picture of you on Instagram - they will be recorded forever, but ever-changing social norms and the social capacity to forgive mistakes will change over time as we share more and more.  Social forgiveness will prevail within reason, however I remain more terrified of today's identity systems than anything else in modern day life.