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EGO ID and Nanotats for Forks

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Sun, 2016-03-13 08:11

Maskin

EGO ID and Nanotats for Forks

When making forks (alpha, beta, delta) they presumably have the same Ego Id and nanotat as the original (at least in the Planetary Consortium (Mars), but with a sub-id. I think the nanotat validity depends on the issuer and their authority, but it would make sense if this is chained back to previous issuers when an ego was previously sleeved, egocast, etc. a bit like bitcoin transactions. All encrypted. Thus continuing this thought the further you trace the chain by verifying a nanotat chain with multiple issuing authorities the more assured you can be that it is genuine. With fake ego Ids you can create a fake chain (just buy some Ids from a corrupt official, lax hab, etc.), but in the case of an existing ego Id (i.e. copying a nanotat) it would have to be accepted up the chain or immediately be discovered as an unauthorised copy at even a cursory identity check. Presumably the whole ego Id and nanotat system relies on this. Am I thinking right here? Am I missing something? If so every fork that needs a nanotat (legally required in PC territories) must get permission to make the fork and presumably each fork must be given its own sub-Id. This also makes it trivially easy to enforce fork laws and issue fines if forks are not merged/terminated in the required timeframe. It also means that black clinics cannot make legal forks, only forks with fake Ids. These will work fine (although quality and thus "suspicion rating" will vary) until they do something suspect or try to enter high security areas and are submitted to a brainscan, but will not grant them access to the original's rep/accounts/etc. I'm trying to understand how to handle Ego Ids in my own heavily modified Ego Hunter scenario. I have several alpha and beta forks running around and I'm trying to understand what their Ego Ids must be, what nanotats they might have, their legal status and how easy it might be for them to travel, use rep, etc.

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Transhuman Mind

Mon, 2016-03-14 10:25

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

I thought nanotats were just

I thought nanotats were just for morphs, like 'VIN numbers' for cars.

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Tue, 2016-03-15 13:55

Maskin

I don't know what VIN numbers

I don't know what VIN numbers are, but yes nanotats are for morphs and seems to be the primary method for people to Id themselves. Thus I wanted to better understand how Ego Ids are assigned - in particular in the case of forks and black sleeving clinics on Mars. I pretty much came to the conclusion that black clinics can only really provide fake Ids, although I suppose if they have back-channels to corrupt "people" in the juristiction's Id department they could get official fork Ids rubber stamped. There is a bit more about all this in Panopticon and it seems ego Ids cross-juristiction and after ego-casting are really unreliable. Identity theft is going to be a big problem. If you are a person of power/wealth/means you will have to make sure you are properly registered and monitored in all juristictions that matter to you so that nobody uses you Id (and thus credit, rep, do crime, etc.). Again Panopticon talks a bit about the private Extropian companies that provide such services.

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Transhuman Mind

Tue, 2016-03-15 14:20

ORCACommander ORCACommander's picture

VIN, is short for Vehicle

VIN, is short for Vehicle Identification Number. It is used in the untied states in the databases of who owns what vehicle(s). It is one of the primary ways of contacting an owner if a vehicle is recovered in a case of theft for example.

Tue, 2016-03-15 14:40

uwtartarus uwtartarus's picture

What I mean is that

What I mean is that regardless of ego, a morph has a NanoTat to identify it. Independent of ego sleeving it. If I recall it correctly. It helps identify Synths disguised as biomorphs, or Furies disguised as splicers, and that the morph has x, y, and z implants.

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Exhuman, and Humanitarian.

Tue, 2016-03-15 22:48

Lazarus

uwtartarus wrote:What I mean

uwtartarus wrote:
What I mean is that regardless of ego, a morph has a NanoTat to identify it. Independent of ego sleeving it. If I recall it correctly. It helps identify Synths disguised as biomorphs, or Furies disguised as splicers, and that the morph has x, y, and z implants.

I think it only does this indirectly, by which I mean that the nanotat gives an ID and then that ID can be queried through the mesh which will identify the specifics of the morph. This is important because it means that there are ways in which some of that information can be blocked or faked.

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My artificially intelligent spaceship is psychic. Your argument it invalid.

Wed, 2016-03-16 01:41

Maskin

The nanotat (nano-tattoo) is

The nanotat (nano-tattoo) is just a way to encode your ego Id, like an electronic Id card, and should not be confused with the Id itself. Infomorphs and AGI use encrypted codes embedded in their brain-state software. Nanotats can contain more than just the Id, such as the brainprint and various other information about the person the authorities want to have readily available (likely also containing biometrics like the morph type and implants in the inner system). Separate from Ego Id - which is per ego, not morph, everyone also has a unique mesh Id. This is your online Id, and quite unreliable as it can be faked and obfuscated. Panopticon In inner system body banks and egocasters are accountable for Id verification against local databases (relying on brainprint). It is often impossible to fully verify Ids from foreign jurisdictions. Note the SAPIENT initiative used by the LLA and PC, but which after 7 years is still not used fully everywhere even in the inner system (and rejected by the Morningstar Constellation!) which would help defend against identity theft and create a common fork identification standard. So, Id systems are a mess and criminals and those that wish to swap their Id have a relatively easy time doing so. "..nature of resleeving makes identification a difficult task, compounded by the lack of a centralized system-wide verification system. There is more, but in short those jurisdictions that care about identity verification must keep records of new arrivals (with brainscans) and the verification from the jurisdiction they traveled from." I recommend reading Panopticon for a lot of useful info on Ids. Also, I would think that while PC jurisdictions rely on official databases for Id, anarchist factions likely use some spontaneous system (ala bitcoin verification) to verify Ids for the purpose of reputation, etc.

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Transhuman Mind