the Tragedies of Pseudospoofing

["L. Detweiler" <ld231782@longs.lance.colostate.edu>]

I wrote another essay, `the Joy of Pseudospoofing', which I have been
refining and evolving, and will be glad to email it to anyone who is
interested. For now, I would like to address briefly the issue, `The
Tragedies of Pseudospoofing.'

Knowledge & Friendship
--

Consider the basis of friendship. In many ways, knowledge is
friendship. The more you know about someone, the closer you feel. And
in fact if you don't know certain things, about someone you consider a
close friend, you might be surprised or upset. `I never knew that! why
didn't you tell me?' or `you've been holding out on me! I'm upset!'
Also, many of our metaphors about friendship involve its basis in
knowledge, like thses. The whole idea of sharing knowledge is inherent
to the idea of trust that is so critical in true friendship. We trust
our friends not to betray us with sensitive information about ourselves
to our enemies. There are plenty of classic situations about this.

One really hilarious example, I recall, is that told in one Seinfeld
story, where Jerry (is that right?), in the middle of some `hot and
heavy' activity <g> tries to talk dirty to a girlfriend that was
Elayne's (his close personal friend) secretary. It backfires, the
girlfriend/secretary is incredibly upset and offended. Jerry, in total
desperation, as a last ditch effort, says, `now, of course, beyond
everything else, this is just between you and me.' The girlfriend
storms out the room.

Later, Jerry hears that Elayne promoted the secretary, or the secretary
was leaving her office. He drops all kinds of hints. `Was that *all*
she said?' He didn't want to be embarrassed by a frivolous girlfriend
in front of his true friend. Elayne shows no sign that she heard of
anything embarassing. But, later after she was walking out the door,
she snidely quotes the exact lines of Jerry's backfired dirty talk!
Jerry was betrayed by *both* the girlfriend and Elayne. And Elayne in
an extremely callously, manipulative way! She dangled the knowledge
above him, like someone teases and tortures an animal.

So, the point of all this is that `information control' is one of the
most crucial aspects of friendship.

Pseudospoofing & Friendship
--

Now, consider the ingredient of pseudospoofing, and how it completely
destroys all this trust. First, suppose that no one knows I am posting
under Jim Riverman. They would be really aghast to find out later, even
if everything said under Jim Riverman was wholly respectable (or
perhaps, especially in that case!). That is part of friendship:
exploring all the nooks and crannies of each other's personalities. Its
because of friendship that people say, `I want to get to *know* you' or
`you think you *know* someone...'When we come upon locked boxes, the
trust evaporates.

Also, consider that I write a lot of outstanding material on software
engineering under Jim Riverman. Everyone might get the impression that
L. Detweiler doesn't know squat about software engineering. And L.
Detweiler might even go to a job interview, where the interviewer was
also on the Software Engineering mailing list. `I'm sorry Mr.
Detweiler, your experience as I've seen on the list just doesn't cut
it. On the other hand, that Jim Riverman really knows what he is
talking about, but all he could do was recommend that you come. I
really am disappointed. Please have him come himself.'

In fact, if Jim Riverman did all the posting, people might think that
L. Detweiler didn't know squat about *anything*, when in fact L.
Detweiler was posting his brains out under another identity (so to
speak!). They might become alienated. `What has that L. Detweiler done
for the Software Engineering Mailing List, anyway?'

To bring this home, consider the following. Suppose that E.Hughes was
actually posting as H.Finney (my apologies to both of you, please just
grin and bear this, I need the effect). We would be startled to find
out that E.Hughes had such extensive legal experience with the ITAR or
capability in presenting outstanding articles and tutorials to
newcomers. In fact, people might even become disillusioned with, or
criticize, E.Hughes because they don't see the `leadership' posting
anything that helps newcomers, when in fact they are `posting their
brains out' (so to speak!).

Yet More Tragedies
--

Another problem with pseudospoofing is that of publishing. Suppose that
E.Hughes now wished to write a big article for RISKS about the ITAR. He
could not do so except under H. Finney without potentially compromising
a `crossing' (where someone discovers the correlation). So he would
have to post as H.Finney. But this would be a problem, because people
might send mail to H.Finney after seeing the great RISKS posting.
`Please come give a talk to our university for $10K'. H. Finney, if he
had the audacity to respond, might say, `I'm sorry, I can't make it,
but my friend E.Hughes can. I taught him everything I know.' If the
university even responds, it might be something in the form `why can't
*you* do it?' or `sorry, we're not interested.' H.Finney at the same
time craves reputation, but abhors recognition. A hellish life indeed.

Also, consider the problem of phone numbers. People like to maintain
relationships over the phone.  Cyberspace just seems too impersonal at
times. What happens when someone asks for the phone number of a
tentacle? Does Medusa say, `gee, my phone service is really bad, and if
you are looking for ways of getting in touch with me, the phone is the
worst of all. please send me a fax instead.' If the person trying to
maintain a friendship didn't go away right then, they'd be *un*lucky.
But in any case, they would feel quite upset and alienated. Any way you
look at it, they have been betrayed. The only question is, to what extent?

I think that this `cyberspace thing' is not about building
*reputations*, but about building *friendships*. A reputation is
nothing but condensed admiration that is synonymous with friendship.
And looking over the idea of pseudospoofing, I can't see how anyone who
practices it could conceivably have *any* friends, because of all the
details they have to hide from others. (Does a person with Multiple
Personality Disorder or a pathological liar have any friends?) But, at
the same time, I'm sure I will hear from many snakes and claiming it
*is* possible, and that *they* have friends. Maybe they are referring
to all their `friends' as the other tentacles around them!

What a pity. Like I was telling someone recently, `I really feel sorry for you.'