to the indicated content. Thus, each of these pronouns requires interpretation or specification within the full context of the interaction.

Once the discrete entities noted within the imperative are identified, or more appropriately, authenticated, then the logic suggested by the remainder of the construct can be addressed. Its inferred elements complete the deictic description by establishing time and location for the impending transaction. As we have noted previously, application of policy directives can be made contingent on either. The urgency of application of policy within the transaction relates to the needs. Reference to authority to have and to provide the indicated content dictates the connection of differential identity and experiential identity within the context of the interaction. Moreover, when presented in extended form, the transaction entails the exchange of consideration with all the required facilities of a content system that we discussed in Chapter 6. Taken in total then, this ostensibly simple statement illustrates the context of a full-blown social ecosystem. Given that the current incarnation of the Web does not inherently facilitate all of the characteristics of this social ecosystem, it becomes an interesting conjecture to consider how we might evolve our current social order into such a cyberspace enabled system.

The foundation of the prevailing social ecosystem of the United States of America is formed by the Constitution and the law derived according to the policy constructs mandated there. Can we then find a basis for extending this social ecosystem into cyberspace? Certainly! We note that one of the basic elements of a social ecosystem, as suggested by the imperative with which we started this section, can be established through a straightforward trust and policy infrastructure presented in the form of an identification system. As we suggested when we discussed the facets of identity, the constitutional mandate to conduct a census forms a seminal justification for the identification of all the individuals found within the trust infrastructure. The facilities of such a system effectively establish an extremely useful, albeit rather simple trust and policy environment in a stand-alone fashion. From this simple foundation, the legal doctrine of a living Constitution readily supports the extension into cyberspace of concepts established through social orders based on physical interactions. Indeed, with an identification system to build upon, more wide-ranging infrastructures can then be constructed through the progressive addition of other trust and policy mechanisms. The point being that an identification system is perhaps the most basic social ecosystem. It is then of further interest to consider how one blends an identification system based on formal electronic and physiological means with the more recondite systems on which our current social orders are founded. So, let’s pursue that thread a bit further.

The primary boundary of a social ecosystem is formed by its trust infrastructure. For an identification system, we are particularly concerned with the establishment and conveyance of trust in at least two ways. If a person presents herself to a sentinel with the assertion that “I am Jane Doe!” then first, it should be possible to affirm that this biophysical person is uniquely represented within the trust infrastructure of the identification system. Second, it must be possible to determine in a trustworthy manner that the biophysical person currently in contact with the sentinel is in fact the person uniquely represented within the identification system. In other words, it is necessary to trust the fact that the person is enrolled in the identification system once and only once, and that the authentication process is able to discern that a specific person is indeed the person enrolled in the system. The requirement for unique enrollment demands ongoing affirmation that the markers being used within the identification system are actually able to differentiate between people to a sufficiently high level of selectivity. The requirement for a trusted authentication process derives from the need to repetitively discern the differential identity of the same person in multiple interactions. Thus, we suggest that enrollment and authentication of differential identity comprise the most basic services required of an identification system.

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