Persistent Identity (or not)
Nils Peterson,
Jul 21, 2005
Nils Peterson looks at the question of persistent identity - picking up from my commentary on Catherine Howell's reply to Andrew Middleton. He asks, "how do I know that 'fratboy' on aol and 'cougar21' at Washington State University are the same individual?" Well, fair enough - and one would think that if 'fratboy' said "I am Nils Peterson" and 'cougar21' said "I am Nils Peterson" that this should be good enough. Or more to the point - as good as you're going to get. Importantly, "for each of a person's communities of discourse a different (but stable) identity might be workable, and also a way that multiple identities, with varying levels of persistence, can be woven together to provide a picture of a single individual across communities."
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