Re: [XPOST] A unique number for every "person" - can it be done?

From: gerard46 (gerard46_at_rtt.net)
Date: 02/27/05 

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 21:15:13 GMT

| Willem wrote:
|> Ioannis wrote:
|> The simplest idea I can come up with would be to find a way to
|> mathematically encode one's fingerprints, since they are unique

| Not absolutely unique, it's just that collisions are so unlikely that we
| can treat them as unique for present day purposes.

Yes, that's true. Of course, one could eliminate the collisions by just
introducting more data points, that would be a formidable task to do,
and impossible for some of the existing fingerprints.

| If the population size increases a few orders of magnitude (i.e. we will
| have colonized most our galaxy) then you're bound to have collisions.
|
| My idea is to have a code that is made up of your name, your mother's name,
| your grandmother's name, etcetera, until it is unique. That is, if your
| code happens to collide, you can add names until it is unique.
|
| (This assumes that no parent will name two of their kids exactly the same.)

Also, this assumption can't be made. I know of two instances where the
parents lost a baby (very near birth) and named the next same sex baby with
the former. I'm not sure that's allowed anymore where one has to apply for
a SSN at or near the birthtime. Of couse, this is all mute since there are
a lot of people who don't know who their parents are, let alone their
mother's/grandmother's maiden names or grandparents. And I won't even go
near the cases of incest. There is still the case of translating some name
to (say) a Latin alphabet or whatever the database will hold.
And, of course, there is the matter of surrogate fertilization, in-vitro
fertilization and other such things, and in-vitro brings up the definition
of who/what is the mother/father, and not to mention, throw in the adoption
quagmire. What "mother" does one mean? Birth-mother, legal mother, etc...
There are lots of kids out there that WANT to know who their birth parents
are, but the records are sealed, and other records are lost, destroyed,
misplaced, or misfiled. And on and on it goes. There is a lot of politics
involved and also privacy concerns. _______________________________Gerard S.

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