Happy Thursday everyone! Another week and another month is nearly over. As March draws to a close we can already see that this year will be one of huge technological development. #chatgpt in particular has our heads spinning as we try to understand how we will integrate new technology with society.
During this integration, it’s critical that we slow down and take stock of the big picture. A quote from the 1993 Spielberg film, Jurassic Park, has always stuck in my mind when considering the intersection of #people and #technology. In a sobering warning, mathematician Dr. Ian Malcolm asserted “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” This fictional caution still holds very tangible meaning for us now.
Under the radar, this month saw New South Wales release their #digitalidentity system under the Service NSW app, something they are calling its “Holy Grail” Digital ID implementation. Anyone with a cursory understanding of computer #engineering understands that there is no such thing.
The collection and centralised storage of #identity #data is not like other types of data we routinely collect and process. Identity data is inextricably linked to real people’s lives and its handling is not something to be relativised. To help us explore this #future, we should arm ourselves with the lessons of the past.
On June 11, 1872, a man named Erwin Cuntz was born in Freiburg, Germany. He grew to become a both a lawyer, and the architect of the technology that would later become the Volkskartei (German population registry).
The innovations of Cuntz’s proposals are easily missed, yet they form the basis of modern centralised identity registries. Previously, population data was catalogued or indexed based on variable qualities such as residential addresses, rather than fixed qualities such as race and birthday. Although individuals were still captured by such systems, with their characteristics able be used for statistical and planning purposes, significant overhead was incurred when an individual needed to be found by name in real time.
Cuntz proposed a pivot from household based geographical indexing towards individual based indexing, a concept he referred to as the Personalitätsprinzip (personage principle). Cuntz’s identity-based indexing provided the Nazi State with immediate access to an individual’s records, avoiding the laborious needle-in-a-haystack search through each household’s data that a hunt for an individual would have otherwise required.
When integrating our personal identity traits with the burgeoning field of technology, it is imperative that we as engineers and social scientists alike consider far more than the simple drawcard of #digital convenience. There’s more to connectivity than a digital ID. Why not put the screen down and connect with another #human being today?
Hey Paul,
Looking great man, the only thing we need is a book, so then we can promote on socil media 👍👍👍
Wim
Appreciate it Wim. The book is coming along nicely and I’m in the process of networking to expand its reach. I’ll be sure you end up with a signed copy.