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Comment by matheusmoreira | Hacker News Reader

Which is dehumanizing. We are not cattle to be identified and marked.

But you need a way to identify people. If there's no good way to identify real people (government issued ID number), those that need them will invent bad ones (SSN, phone number, maiden name, maybe more). And companies like Google have their own identifier for you already, anyway. And you can't travel anywhere without a passport that is another identifier, anyway.

I'm impressed how much Americans dislike the idea of a mandatory government issued ID. I don't mean it in a bad way - this sounds like a very principled and idealistic stance. I just really like my government issued ID, and consider it a reasonable tradeoff.

I'm not american. Not only do I want the government to know nothing at all about me, I also want it to be illegal for others to develop those alternative identification methods. Those who "need" such things should have to figure out a way to avoid needing it.

Interesting. How do you identify criminals. Or for that matter, how do you identify anyone? "Just don't" or ... Some other solution?

I assume their version involves another individual unaffiliated with government or private industry taking their hand, gazing meaningfully into their eyes, and tearfully proclaiming “I see you” before letting them through the border or into the bank vault or whatever.

Ah so you are the man with no name, I assume?

My parents giving me a name is one thing. The state giving me a number and arresting me if I fail to produce that number to police on demand is another.

It’s funny you think there’s a difference

It's funny you think there isn't a difference between the humanity of your parents and some faceless governamental bureaucracy.

It’s funny you think there is a separation between the two in any practical way.

Which one of those is problematic to you? The state giving you a number or arresting you if you refuse to identify yourself? Because you've given yourself a nice straw man to fight by conflating them.

Oh he knows that, but that’s all their type has: faux-bravado against imagined threats.

Not least: they’re ignoring that simply having an identity is a traceable & trackable thing… because that would derail their paranoid fantasies where they’re a hero, fighting against a dystopian world.

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