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2. Long Answer:
If a name query returns two answers (and today's systems may do just that, too --
see above "short answer") but we have a meta-system that is able to disambiguate
them for us or offer us a choice to do so (as we are used to, for example in multiple
dictionary meanings of a word), then we are fine. The point is that rather than trying
to be always decidable and complete (which WILL fail), we have a system that is as
complete as possible and leaves the decidability issue to a meta-system. Different
meta-systems may decide in different ways, but this is good too -- because you can
choose which meta-system to  use.

IMO, this is just an example that the DNS needs to move from art to science.
Part of this is that we need to find a logical way to describe the problems and the
solutions. In other words, part of the problem in the DNS discussions, IMO, is that
there is not even a language to describe the problem.  Public discussions should
help develop such language. And my thought is that if we are willing to use public
discussions to mine the gold of truth, then we need to be open and receptive to those
discussions.

Cheers,
Ed Gerck

>
> At 03:51 PM 7/30/2002 -0700, Ed Gerck wrote:
> >And I am waiting to hear some substantive technical arguments why a
> >name query cannot have more than one answer and still be resolvable,
> >when everything else we ask in life has more than one answer and yet
> >we are able to resolve them. To set the groundwork for an attempt to such
> >answer, let me recall that the DNS seems to be the only logical system that
> >tries to  be both complete and resolvable, when we know for a mathematical
> >fact that these two qualities do not go together for a system with a complexity
> >larger than arithmetics.
>
> Vint Cerf
> SVP Architecture & Technology
> WorldCom
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