Reading notes of "Code", partial
这篇书评可能有关键情节透露
Not by making one of them change his or her behavior, but by changing the laws of nature to eliminate the conflict altogether. –In cyberspace
In that world, should we code problems away, rather than learn to work them out, or punish those who cause them?
The network removed the most important constraint on speech in real space—the separation of publisher from author.
This is the second theme of this book: There is regulation of behavior on the Internet and in cyberspace, but that regulation is imposed primarily through code.
Whether a part of cyberspace—or the Internet generally—can be regulated turns on the nature of its code. Its architecture will affect whether behavior can be controlled. To follow Mitch Kapor, its architecture is its politics.
And from this a further point follows: If some architectures are more regulable than others—if some give governments more control than others— then governments will favor some architectures more than others. Favor, in turn, can translate into action, either by governments, or for governments.
Either way, the architectures that render space less regulable can themselves be changed to make the space more regulable.
Nor should we think too narrowly about the competing normative com-
munities into which a Jake might move. “Escape” here can be good or bad. It
is escape when a gay teen in an intolerant small town can leave the norms of
that town through a gay chat room on America Online;25 it is escape when a
child predator escapes the norms of ordinary society and engages a child in
online sex.26 Both escapes are enabled by the architecture of cyberspace as we
now know it. Our attitudes about each, however, are very different.
1. Regulability
2. Regulation by code
3. Latent ambiguity
4. Competing sovereigns
Regulability is thus a function of design.
In that world, should we code problems away, rather than learn to work them out, or punish those who cause them?
The network removed the most important constraint on speech in real space—the separation of publisher from author.
This is the second theme of this book: There is regulation of behavior on the Internet and in cyberspace, but that regulation is imposed primarily through code.
Whether a part of cyberspace—or the Internet generally—can be regulated turns on the nature of its code. Its architecture will affect whether behavior can be controlled. To follow Mitch Kapor, its architecture is its politics.
And from this a further point follows: If some architectures are more regulable than others—if some give governments more control than others— then governments will favor some architectures more than others. Favor, in turn, can translate into action, either by governments, or for governments.
Either way, the architectures that render space less regulable can themselves be changed to make the space more regulable.
Nor should we think too narrowly about the competing normative com-
munities into which a Jake might move. “Escape” here can be good or bad. It
is escape when a gay teen in an intolerant small town can leave the norms of
that town through a gay chat room on America Online;25 it is escape when a
child predator escapes the norms of ordinary society and engages a child in
online sex.26 Both escapes are enabled by the architecture of cyberspace as we
now know it. Our attitudes about each, however, are very different.
1. Regulability
2. Regulation by code
3. Latent ambiguity
4. Competing sovereigns
Regulability is thus a function of design.
