Subject: [iucg] The ALFA wager

From: JFC Morfin <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 19:28:52 +0200

http://wikalfa.org/wiki/Le_%22pari%22_d%27ALFA_-_the_ALFA_wager

Dear IUsers,

FYI, in order not to delay the coming ML-DNS draft, debate and 
experimentation now RFCs 5980++ have been published but IAB has not 
yet answered my appeal, I have introduced on the public domain 
http://wikalfa.org site a first draft of the "ALFA wager". The "ALFA 
wager" underlays the concepts of the Free Architecture for the 
technologies of our facilitation of the physical, digital  (internet) 
and semantic (intersem) areas. The ALFA wager  interoperability with 
Internet architecture was not certain until the publication of 
IDNA2008 which fully matches its prerequites listed at the end of this memo.

Critics welcomes.
jfc

-----

The ALFA wager uses the following logic:

     * the Internet has now proven that it has become the first 
universal created by man and, as such, a universal fundamental 
element, as are the cosmos, life, thought, etc. yet artificial.

     * its architectural description is based on the principle of 
adaptability (in response to the RFC 1958 principle of constant 
change) and on the principle of simplicity, which the RFC 3439 has 
identified as necessary for a system of a very large size.

     * it interfaces nature and must, therefore, be conceptually 
interoperable with it: since it cannot change nature, it must adapt 
to nature. Therefore, its simplicity can only match the simplicity of 
nature. This simplicity was introduced by the Maupertuis' principle 
of least action, which is confirmed by every scientific work for the 
last two and a half centuries. In its last analysis, the principle 
means that nature goes to the simplest.

     * the wager is to consider the Maupertuis' principle as 
tautology: nature does not go to the simplest. What nature does is 
what we coherently perceive as the simplest for us and our artifacts 
and similarly binds the other universals.

---

The wager is, therefore, to say that the Internet is a technology 
that in order for it to work the best it must be consistent with 
nature and, therefore, respect the same underlying metatechnical 
principles. The development of the Internet is thus an opportunity to 
discover these principles when it works well, and to research them so 
that it works better. Therefore, when seeking to better insert the 
Internet in the everyday life of all our universes, we have found a 
bench-test, accessible to all, for comprehending the whole Universe.

  This means that we can probably in turn use what we will have 
discovered in order to document these universes of ours in a simple 
and consistent manner to our physical, digital, and semantic 
mechanics; this is so that they can in their own turn facilitate our 
individual and shared control and deeper comprehension of them and 
our continuous improvement of the internet architecture and technology.

This wager of a metatechnical convergence, as a foundation for the 
interoperability of the universe to be described to machines, should 
permit us to stay in the area of the sole technical modalities of 
production, acts, and utterances. This means to stay in a "techne", 
which is verifiable by measures, while still permitting the 
facilitation of semantic intercomprehension in personal areas 
concerning the "being" (qualified of "metaphysis") and the "doing" 
(qualified of "metapraxis": legal, ethics, etc.) where technology 
does not belong. This purely technical positioning should be a 
guarantee for philosophical freedom and for the protection of the 
personal and community empowerment of the user.

---

This wager, which seems to decide on many philosophical debates, only 
claims to be acceptable:

     * if the possible limitations to the growth of the digital 
ecosystem involve circumstances and not principles.

     * if the open space (from atom to star) remains equivalent in 
size to the other universals of which it facilitates the access to users.

     * if one sticks to the sole area of the facilitation 
technologies for the intercommunication of signals, interoperation of 
contents, and intercomprehension of meanings.

---

In such a context, the ML-DNS documentation is an initial proposal to 
improve the Internet in the direction that was introduced by RFCs 
5980-5984 and an applied exploration of the principle of subsidiarity 
that they seem to imply and of the precautionary principle that they 
seem to require.

---

The resulting ALFA architectural requirements are:

     * adaptability in response to the RFC 1958 induced principle of 
permanent change.

     * respect of the RFC 3439 principle of simplicity in a way to 
correlate with nature

     * application of the principle of subsidiarity (as illustrated 
by RFCs 5980-5984)

     * use of the precautionary duty in system adminance: design, 
security, deployment, administration, operations, maintenance, and 
the provision of tools and information to the system governance.

There is, therefore, a need to explore an extended systemic theory 
and a form of metatechnical reasoning that respect them, to imagine 
an architecture that integrates them, to test them in improving and 
extending the Internet, and thereby to develop a general culture that 
encompasses them.