[mikepalmer]

Reminds me of a question I have been wondering about: Can you formally specify what is the purpose of a suitcase?

In principle, you could dump all your clothes, toiletries, etc. in a pile on the airport checkin counter, and if system were organized enough, it could deliver all your stuff to hawaii and lay it all out on the hotel bed for you.

E.g., a robot would scan all your belongings at the airport, and dump them all into a big pipe... each item would get properly routed to your hotel room... kinda like how the internets work!

Is it just a question of organization? "Everything in this suitcase belongs to this person and should move together to the same destination."

[TeMPOraL]

I can invent on the spot 10 uses for a suitcase that have nothing to do with moving things belonging to a single person together. First of all, you may have a couple packing their items in one suitcase. The suitcase may be used as a chair, as a table, as a structural support, to protect from rain, sun, lasers, alpha and beta radiation, it can be used as a weapon or as a shield, as a makeshift hammer, etc.

The problem is in your questions. "Purpose" is not something that is a part of an item. It is a part of our mind.

[jonahx]

> "Purpose" is not something that is a part of an item. It is a part of our mind.

I love this insight.

[stordoff]

> kinda like how the internets work!

Using this analogy, isn't a suitcase roughly equivalent to a packet? It's tagged with source/destination, and basically standardised so the routing gear doesn't need to care about the specific items you are routing.

[andrewingram]

You know, I think the analogy might actually be the wrong way round....

[jstanley]

The analogy goes even further!

At certain points along a route, deep packet inspection is performed, and some packets will be modified to remove contents that the country in question does not want to route.