How does one know if one owns something?
#AskNostr
#Ownership
#Philosophy
Discussion
You exert your control over such owned object whether it's a physical object or a concept in your mind.
Physical control.
Ownership, always and everywhere, starts with what you can defend.
In nature, you own something you defend against decay. If you have a cabin in the woods, you have to defend it against pests, rot, weather damage, etc.
In civilization, ownership is what the law permits. That is, your property is what you can defend (enforce) legally.
In #Bitcoin, ownership is pure knowledge—access to information. You either know the keys or you don’t. Your exclusive knowledge means defending this secret.
In all cases, therefore, ownership is essentially information. That is, “in formation”.
Your cabin is yours when it is “in form” (not decayed). In civilization, you assert domain by informing others of your legitimate title claim. In Bitcoin, you own the coins that you can sign for—you can put transactions “in form”.
Your post came at the right time. I’ve been contemplating security/ownership/posession/privacy lately.
It occurred to me that all security is security by obscurity.
Working definition of security: intentional, differential accessibility. That is, something is secure if it is accessible to a select few, and not others.
Working definition of obscurity: that which is unclear/unknown. Lack of information.
So consider your smartphone. You can get into it because you know the pin. An attacker without the pin can’t access it without difficulty. The asymmetrical difficult is what makes it secure. If you use face unlock, the information is the geometry of your face. Your face is “in form”. Your attacker lacks this form, making access difficult. Likewise for a key in a lock, etc.
The security of anything comes down to differential information. Knowledge is power.
Working definition of privacy: the ability to selectively reveal or conceal personal information.
Therefore, privacy is security. Without privacy, the information is not secret. If not secret, it’s insecure.
Tyrants of all stripes cannot stand privacy. It is by denial of privacy that they deny security, and by denying security, they deny property.
It’s all related.
Ask the government who owns what.