[smoldesu]

> his budding metaverse — tramples relentlessly over a new kind of human right that is not talked about enough.

Which human right is that, again? Your attention span? Your willingness to sign abusive contracts?

I wish Cory Doctorow would meaningfully refute these problems instead of fetishizing them for science fiction purposes. He's worse than Stallman in that respect - he acknowledges that we have these complex society-level issues, and instead of devising a solution he steelmans an insane opinion and waits to be proven wrong. Again, I don't even disagree with a lot of his thesis statements - the Metaverse is probably a net negative for humanity, and copyright law shouldn't be the be-all end-all of information. I just disagree with the hyperbole he uses to frame these discussions, because it makes all of us look like fools by extension.

If fixing society was as easy as reading more Doctorow, everyone would do it. Scratching our Black Mirror itch doesn't usually come with a solution proposal, though.

> The longer your name is, the more untraceable you become.

For some reason I don't believe you, Mr. Doctorow.

[anonymouskimmer]

> > > The longer your name is, the more untraceable you become.

> For some reason I don't believe you, Mr. Doctorow.

Yeah. My name is shared by more than 10 living people who are known enough to have Wikipedia entries. I think I'm a bit more untraceable, as long as you don't know my SSN, address, or workplace.

[smoldesu]

It's just basic information theory. Adding more entropy to your name makes you unique. If that is not a hidden identifier (names are not) then people will use all of that information in concert to more effectively track you. His entire thesis here feels like he misread an XKCD comic and refuses to admit it...

And I'm only frustrated because it's a shame. I like Cory Doctorow for the lip service he gives to open source and individual freedom, but he has repeatedly dropped the ball on anything that isn't fiction authorship. Nevermind the fact that he's embarrassingly wrong with this statement - if his memo to the man is naming his kid something long and unintelligible, that makes him about as revolutionary as Elon Musk.