the Social Security Number, has absolutely no measurable connection with the actual person, the level of trust that can be placed in identification through the Social Security System is negligible to non-existent. As a consequence, the Social Security Number is essentially useless as an identification mechanism. Nevertheless, it represents one of the more prevalent identity systems in use within the United States.

Relative to current technology, the only viable marker for establishing uniqueness for a person is a biometric characteristic of the person. There are a number of characteristics that can be used: DNA, retinal patterns, iris patterns, fingerprints, palm prints and even footprints. Each of these characteristics has many positive features to recommend their use as a marker, but most also have features that argue against their use. For the moment, we will simply assert that from among these characteristics, there are available one or more appropriate markers to be used in an effective identity system. So, what is so important about a biometric characteristic? These are the only features currently available that have an extremely strong association with the person. As a consequence, they are difficult to impossible to counterfeit if the markers are measured with a trusted system. Using a biometric marker, both steps of the enrollment process that we mentioned above are readily accomplished. If a person is already present in an identity system, then a one-to-many comparison of their biometric marker with those already in the system will determine whether they’ve already been enrolled. Within the vocabulary of identity systems, the term identify actually refers to just this type of comparison. The second step of enrollment is accomplished automatically; the marker is essentially provided by the person to the system, not the other way around. Perhaps the strongest feature of biometry based identity systems is that they constitute an extension of the mechanism that humans use for establishing identity within relative small groups.

The biometric comparisons that we utilize through interpersonal identification are daunting when compared to existing technologies for machine-effected identification. We humans use facial recognition, voice recognition, physical response recognition, auditory recognition and cognitive response recognition; and, we do this simultaneously and seemingly effortlessly. As we noted when considering some of the physiological aspects of both humans and computers, Richard Feynman assigned tremendous value to efficient, reliable identification through miniaturized variants of computers that approximate our natural abilities for interpersonal recognition. Indeed, without attributing a moral value to the proposition, we suggest that such identification has been a central aspect of the evolutionary benefits derived from social groups. The identification mechanism alluded to by Feynman is, at its base, simply a biometry based identity system for which, today, the technologies exist so as to allow such a system to be fully implemented on personal electronic devices. Now, once we can establish an identity, how do we attach specific rules to it?

Complementing the concept of identification that flows from social ecosystems is the concept of authority that applies to that identity. Both identity and authorization entail not only information, but processes affecting and effecting that information as well. Within an interaction, specific parties (entities) to the interaction can be ascribed the authority, or permission, to participate in various ways. I obtain authority to operate a motor vehicle on public roads by acquiring a driver license, a credential that grants certain authority to my identity. I obtain authority to purchase some item by presenting the necessary form of payment to the satisfaction of the seller.

These examples seek to illustrate the distinction between the character of these two processes, that is between identification and authorization, as well as the mechanisms used to effect them. Identification flows as a unique characteristic of the human body. Authorization flows from a

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