A consequence of "progress" in Internet business models is that words adopt new meanings. Today the "consumer" is not only a client, but also a producer of "information." And the service provider is also a data consumer. In the model led by Google-Facebook the service provider consumes user data in exchange for *extremely* low cost … Continue reading Prehistory of Privacy

There is no Security consulting intervention that does not require organisational transformation. It is not only unsatisfactory, but definitely damaging to think otherwise. Security problems appear precisely then when the technology pretends to "automate" processes and safeguards that never existed or are weak in the organisation. Nevertheless the mirage of technology is still presented as … Continue reading Mirage of “Technology”

There is a philosophical sense in which all entities (beings) should be comprehended (not only re-presented) as bundles of actions or “activities.” In turn, every action should be understood as a perception. To that end, Carl Hewitt’s Actor Model has been the obligatory point of reference for any discussion of concurrent computation and concurrent hardware … Continue reading The Hewitt Actor Model and the Labyrinth of Metaphysics

"God is so far removed from us that we are incapable of deciding whether it is moving toward us or away from us." M. Heidegger, "Contributions to Philosophy," translated by Parvis Emad and Kenneth Maly, 1999.

"The whole world dies and is born in a long night of error and darkness. The gate of sentiment is closed tight, the lock of consciousness is hard to open. those who can shatter them with a blow, those who can throw back their shoulders and advance alone, cannot easily succeed unless they are bold … Continue reading The Night of Error

Carl Hewitt clarified the relationship between his formulation of the Actor Model and one particular version of it (Karmani & Agha, 2011). The following is a message from Hewitt sent to Lambda The Ultimate in 2013 (http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/4853 ). This is a good reference to better understand the Actor Model and how it can be “implemented.” … Continue reading On the Actor Model and “mailboxes”

“Men do not know how to make themselves important and make themselves great. Thus there are no lengths (of evil) they don’t go to. Since they do not make themselves important, things become important and their own state of being becomes unimportant. Since they do not make themselves great, things become great and their own … Continue reading “A Swindle”

"But how does the thinker shelter the truth of be-ing, if not in the pondering steadiness of the path of his questioning steps and their resulting consequences? Unpretentiously, as in a solitary field, under the big sky, the sower paces off the furrows with a heavy, faltering step, checking at very moment, and with the swing … Continue reading Sheltering