Name

A name is a handle, a tag we use to maintain trust. To provide this function, names should be hard to spoof and should have a way for proving ownership. Also, names are often hard to change, which is an unfortunate attribute in some situations.

I am dissatisfied with our use of names. With trust come also bias and lies, and by lowering our guards we not only justify discrimination but also make ourselves vulnerable with the false sense of safety. We should educate ourselves to treat everyone as an anonymous and refrain from letting the names become part of our decision in trusting someone.

Without considering collisions in the namespaces, I prefer having handles that are easy to obtain and switch between. We already put on different personas in different places and within different relationships, but single static names do not take this into account (beside nicknames or titles).