At Mon, 5 Jun 2006 15:21:35 -0600, "Christopher Nelson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > My point is that the degree of trust that you can place in random people > is inversely proportionate to the percieved benefit they obtain by > harming you in some way.
Although it may be that some people perform sometimes such calculation, I don't believe that it is true in general. In addition with what else you said, it reveals a basic mistake you are making: > Trust, in life and in networks, must be *earned*. Trust is something very personal. It is something that comes from the subject that trusts, not from the object being trusted. The subject may use calculations like you propose to determine trust, but this is not necessarily so. Trust also comes with its own reward. I may choose to trust somebody even if according to your proposed calculation he didn't earn it, or even if the trust may be misplaced, and I may have very good reasons to do so. I may forgive[1]. Forgiveness is an act of healing, primarily for the person who forgives. When I was in YMCA, there was a group of teens who came to the club and did all sort of nasty things: I think they stole some stuff, and destroyed some other. The house kept the doors open for them anyway. At that time, I couldn't understand why. Today, I think I know (and religion had nothing to do with it). Yes, it is true that the factors you mentioned are some of the factors often considered, usually intuitively, when to decide if and how much trust to place in somebody. But there are many other factors. The traditions and expectations of the people surrounding us. Our mood of the day. The circumstances of the situation. Our will to take risks, or our fear to avoid them. Our irrationality. Our determination to not let the abuse by a few deny us from the richness of the gifts from the many. I still don't know if you and I actually disagree on something specific. What I wrote was in response to Jonathans assertion that there is no "absolute trust", which he suggested as a discriminating factor when choosing between two system designs. It appears to me that this argument is not as strong as he thinks it is, because in many examples the differences between the system designs will vanish in the noise of our lifes, so to speak. Thanks, Marcus [1] http://www.forgivenessweb.com/ _______________________________________________ L4-hurd mailing list [email protected] http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/l4-hurd
