Auctoritas and Whuffie
Just finished reading Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom on my Nokia N800, and have been thinking about his delightful abstraction of personal worth and economics, Whuffie. The basic idea is that a person’s worth is derived from other’s opinions of them, and particularly influential people’s opinions…and what makes it hilarious and scary is that in the Bitchun Society a person’s moral worth can be constantly updated and checked. Sort of like an eBay seller’s rating, only affecting your choice of parking places and how strangers react to you. It’s an interesting amalgam of a bunch of stuff in the process of happening online, but it’s amusingly similar to one of the meanings of auctoritas in Latin. The most influential senators in the Roman Republic often had no official position but could sway debates and make policy based on their accumulated reputation for wisdom, good policy, and/or being a powerful ally (or dangerous enemy).
So, what’s this blog for? To give me a place to talk about ancient history, gadgets, ebooks, libraries, and whatever else seems worthwhile.
Tags: doctorow, romans, whuffie
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