‘Mother of Internet’ Radia Perlman argues for centralized infrastructure
- Reference: 1669967887
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/12/02/mother_of_internet_radia_perlman/
- Source link:
Perlman said that conventional wisdom poses centralised systems as “bad” and decentralized as “good,” however decentralized entities are inherently problematic in multiple ways.
“Blockchain as a buzzword started as the technology behind Bitcoin. People made money on Bitcoin and the more hyped it was, the more start-ups leveraged the hype to claim their product has something to do with Blockchain” explained Perlman. “If you hear so much hype, eventually you assume well, it must be incredibly important.”
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“I think pianos are wonderful, but I wouldn't use them for mass transportation. Everything has a purpose,” added the inventor of the [2]spanning-tree protocol (STP).
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Perlman said the purpose of Bitcoin’s blockchain was to evade governing organizations like countries or banks, and while those systems can at times be corrupt, they also have their uses.
“Centralized means one organization is in charge. It usually does mean that there are multiple servers so it doesn’t mean single point of failure. And usually means that the data is stored in lots of places, so your data is not going to get lost. And especially if your data is stored in a public cloud,” said Perlman.
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The author and academic added that other added benefits are its clear who to blame when things go wrong and most applications require “adult supervision,” or someone to answer for the system’s problems.
“Now if you're using Bitcoin I'm not sure what you would buy with Bitcoin, probably something like a hitman. And if he doesn't kill, who could you complain to? How do you get your money back? So most of the time, centralized is exactly what you want,” she further reasoned.
[6]Jeffrey Snover claims Microsoft demoted him for inventing PowerShell
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In conversation with The Register after her presentation, Perlman said blockchain is more of a marketing term than an actual technology, a fad of the moment in its existing form that might have elements that play out in the future, but in essence isn't much different to a database and is often harder to use.
“I'm amazed that I am involved in this at all, because most of my thoughts are really anti blockchain,” Perlman told The Reg “I sort of don't think it's a fundamental technology that you should be focused on.”
Perlman’s spanning tree algorithm was published in 1985 and is fundamental to the operation of network bridges, and ultimately paved the way for the modern Ethernet to transform into a protocol that can handle large clouds.
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She is often referred to as the “mother of the internet,” a title she tends to laugh off.
Perlman told The Reg if she hadn’t written the algorithm, someone else would have, although she feels quite certain it wouldn’t have been done as simply or elegantly because she believes her superpower lies in simplicity and pragmatism.
So how does the "mother of the internet" feel about the network of networks she helped to enable?
“If you'd asked me that question 10 years ago, I would have waxed rhapsodic about how miraculously it was transforming society,” she told The Register . “But these days, I think it's the end of civilization.”
Perlman described AI algorithms that lead to polarizing rabbit holes of content as among the top dystopian characteristics of the internet. Worse than that, it allows disaffected extremists to connect with one another.
“If there's only 50 terrorists in the country, it's no big deal, unless they can all find each other easily,” said Perlman.
“I don’t see anyway out of this,” she told The Register. , then added that fixing the internet is something now up to the next generation.
“Sometimes when I'm giving a talk at a University, and I talk about all this doom and gloom stuff, then I smile, and I say but you're all students. If I were to say that we solved all the problems in the world, what would you have to do? So aren't you grateful to us that we gave you such a broken thing?” ®
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Re: Horses for courses
The blockchain is completely peer-to-peer with every peer communicating with every other peer. This is terrible for scaling (which is why Bitcoin can only process a handful of transactions per second)
That's only *one* reason why Bitcoin is terrible at scaling. There are other consensus protocols, like Raft, which scale pretty well for their use cases. It's the proof-of-work part of Bitcoin that bites, i.e. you have to burn real physical resources to be a significant part of the blockchain.
it's *only* advantage is that it is completely "trustless" in the sense that you do not have to trust a central controlling authority
Instead, you have to trust a cabal of mostly-anonymous shady organizations who are the big Bitcoin miners. If they collude, they *can* reverse a blockchain transaction. It doesn't happen very often, but it does - like when 184 billion bitcoins were created out of thin air by an integer overflow bug, and they decided that wasn't a good thing.
But they decide based on whether it's a good thing *for them*, not for anyone else.
Some common sense
Friday at last.
... described AI algorithms that lead to polarizing rabbit holes of content as among the top dystopian characteristics of the internet.
... allows disaffected extremists to connect with one another.
Yes, reads/sounds like common sense.
But that is only one aspect of the harm AI can unleash on civilization.
It can also allow a great many more dangerous things to happen/be done. eg: armed dog robots anyone?
... usually means that the data is stored in lots of places, so your data is not going to get lost.
I beg to differ.
This would happen only if you sufficiently stress the adverb usually .
And if the phrase "lots of places" includes your own mandatory/secure on-site mirror.
... especially if your data is stored in a public cloud.
Exactly my point.
"... its clear who to blame when things go wrong ..."
"... someone to answer for the system’s problems."
Right.
No need to explain or cite the many past examples to understand that this is not so.
Once the Shit Hits The Fan ® what you want is your bloody data back, not ASAP but right now .
Not to know the name of the dickhead that let things slip or the beancounter at the cloud facility who, in the name of shareholder dividends, decided to cut corners and caused the problem, among many other possible/usual causes or culprits.
Because once your valuable data went south, it is gone.
How much is that worth?
O.
“I think pianos are wonderful, but I wouldn't use them for mass transportation."
Wonderful phrasing.
Really hope to see to that used when more inappropriate blockchain usage pops up.
Or any other daft wrong-tech-wrong-place.
Horses for courses
In most cases, a centralised infrastructure is what you need because that's the one that can best scale, operate more efficiently etc. By "centralised" I don't necessarily mean there is one channel / processor, but that there are multiple levels of grouping, exactly like e tree from leaves to branches to bigger branches to trunk (and ideally having multiple trunks). Of course it requires trust in that 'trunk', but you also get legal oversight and ultimate responsibility.
The blockchain is completely peer-to-peer with every peer communicating with every other peer. This is terrible for scaling (which is why Bitcoin can only process a handful of transactions per second), and it's *only* advantage is that it is completely "trustless" in the sense that you do not have to trust a central controlling authority. But as Perlman points out, if you're transacting with an individual, you still have to trust that they will deliver what you are paying them for. Of course if I use bitcoin to order something online from a reputable company and it doesn't get delivered I can still sue the company just as if I paid by credit card, as long as there is a transaction record such as an email order confirmation - there is a public record of the actual transaction on the ledger. It's for illegal stuff like buying drugs or ordering a hitman that someone doesn't have any recourse if they're defrauded.
I also see here a very skewed view of Bitcoin - it's used to 'hide' from government, therefore is used mainly for criminal purposes. That reflects a complete misunderstanding of why Bitcoin is mostly used - as a store of value, not as a transactional currency. As many silk road drug dealers found out, Bitcoin is not, in fact, anonymous. It is at best pseudonymous, but real wallet owners can be identified through transfers within the Bitcoin network, and between Bitcoin network and fiat accounts. The main 'selling point' of Bitcoin is that no single entity can "cheat" by creating new Bitcoins without proof-of-work, the amount of Bitcoins mined is limited, and the ratio of newly-mined coins to existing coins is tiny (thus giving it value-holding characteristics much more similar to those of gold). On the other hand, value stored in fiat currency as cash or savings are eroded by inflation and cost-of-living increases, and "safe" investments give returns that are worse than inflation.