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diff --git a/content/about/philosophy.md b/content/about/philosophy.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..556071f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/about/philosophy.md @@ -0,0 +1,56 @@ +--- +title: "Philosophy" +date: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00 +publishDate: 2019-02-28T09:52:26+01:00 +author: "Dimitri Staessens" +images: [] +draft: false +tags: [] +--- + +<center></center> + +During his entire scientific career, Edsger Dijkstra broke a lance for +the creed -- which he attributes to Tony Hoare -- that [*simplicity is +prerequisite for +reliability*](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD06xx/EWD619.html). He +spent a lot of time and effort convincing his contemporaries in the +computing science community that *elegance is not a dispensable +luxury, but a matter of life and death*. Dijkstra was painfully aware +that [*simplicity is very hard to +achieve*](https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD08xx/EWD896.html) +and grossly underrated, even to the point that the academic and +economic reward systems work against any attempt do so: "*complexity +sells better*". With some computer engineers living by the motto *move +fast and break things*, Dijkstra would most definitely [not have been +happy](http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD12xx/EWD1213.html) +with much of the current state of affairs of computing science. While +he always will be considered one of the greatest computer scientists +that ever lived, his passionate message to diligently strive for +elegance seems to be all but erased from the collective consciousness +of engineers and computer scientists. Are we further away today from +computing's central challenge than we were [almost 20 years ago] +(https://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/EWD/transcriptions/EWD13xx/EWD1304.html)? + +<center> {{<figure +class="fl" +src="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/move_fast_and_break_things.png" +width="200">}} +</center> + +The current TCP/IP network stack has a long development history, and +its technical debt is leading to inefficiencies that allow hackers to +infiltrate networks with childish ease. In order to get to a +trustworthy and secure communications infrastructure, the structure of +the Internet needs to be drastically revised. The current protocols +have so much deprecated, unused and unnecessary bits and fields, that +trying to guard against every possible exploit is inefficient and +virtually impossible. + +Ouroboros is a new decentralized packet transport network for POSIX +operating systems that aims to accepts Edward Snowdens +[challenge](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/edward-snowdens-other-motive-for-leaking/370068/): +to build a network infrastructure that will "*enforce a principle +whereby the only way the powerful may enjoy privacy is when it is the +same kind shared by the ordinary: one enforced by the laws of nature, +rather than the policies of man*." |