Re: [gnso-vi-feb10] Group on documenting "harms"

[Volker Greimann <vgreimann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Hi all
> In one sense you are right.  No one ever knows what the future holds. So maybe 
> we should just quit where we are ahead and say, gee no idea.
With that kind of reasoning, mankind would never have left the trees. 
There is always "unknown unkowns", but with proper planning, foresight 
and appropriate analysis, it is usually possible to contain the unknown 
dangers of living on the ground/outside caves/in a world with VI and CO.
> But in another sense this is a normal risk analysis process in the face of 
> unknowns.
+1
> And indeed what we are talking about in terms of harms is risk analysis.  And 
> no analysis of the future of a system I know of, avoids risk analysis because 
> there are unknowns.
Exactly. Lets put the harms on the table, discuss them, look at them and 
try to build general principles from them that will be able to deal with 
those harms specifically, but unknown harms as well. Civilization was 
built with the idea that there can be rules regulating human behaviour 
and discouraging abusive behavior.
Let us try to bring the rule of law to the world of new gTLDs instead of 
fearing the dragons that lurk near the edge of the world.
Best,

Volker