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Here's how I think of it: would it be acceptable today, in 2023, to write a book or produce a film that depicts slavery, and has characters who are slave masters and slaves? I would hope it's acceptable, stipulating a sensitive depiction, because masters and slaves are part of reality, they are part of history (and they are still current and happening in our world today). So if fictional masters and slaves are okay, then what are routers running OSPF? They're not human, and I hope nobody wants to anthropomorphize them so much that they could feel pain, or know injustice. So a router's master/slave relationship is strictly a technical fiction. Is it the best description of the relationship? Is it better than "leader/follower"? Perhaps; I know several other systems that qualify. Does this trigger African-Americans today who never were slaves? Perhaps. I'm just not sure of the wisdom to paper over history, to paper over reality, by saying these words are taboo because of what they represent, indeed, in a certain human context of usage. I could argue that if we're prohibited from depicting masters and slaves in books, films, and OSPF, then people will more easily forget what it means to be a slave, and thereby be condemned to repeat the past which they do not remember. Perhaps it would be more useful to retain "master/slave" relationships among computers, so that we can demonstrate how that works to our children, and show them why it is detestable to human beings. |