Pseudonyms

Pseudonyms are a necessity on the wire. Why though?

You might have noticed that the name I go buy sounds a little made up! "Lirr Govel" is an amalgamation of Lirr + Go + Vel[ocity]. Lirr is taken from a character from the TV series Futurama, Govel stands for "Move!" To me it's a constant reminder to keep moving, to avoid stagnation.

I've always been wary of handing out any personal details on the wire because ultimately they might fall into the wrong hands or end up being used against me. The thing is we've no control over what others choose to do with the data we graciously send over to their machines. The internet isn't some magical thing up there in the sky, it's the machine in your neighbor's basement, the machine on your lap. We can't pry into every machine to make sure that our data isn't being abused. The websites you trust with your data aren't fullproof, I've come across many that were laughable in terms of security.

I once came upon a phrase in the constitution of a certain country that read "Anonymity is forbidden." It made me a little angry. I realized that the whole thing was a load of BS given the numerous ways available to us that we can use to protect our identities. The internet should be a free medium of expression, unfortunately this is not largely the case today as authoritarian overreach has turned the wire into a shithole.

"It's never so bad that it can't get worse." - Anonymous