Re: Verizon Public Policy on Netflix

[Matt Palmer <mpalmer () hezmatt org>]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2014 at 09:47:34PM +0900, Paul S. wrote:
> On 7/21/2014 午後 09:31, Michael Conlen wrote:
> > On Jul 18, 2014, at 2:32 PM, Jay Ashworth <jra () baylink com> wrote:
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Owen DeLong" <owen () delong com>
> > > > But the part that will really bend your mind is when you realize that
> > > > there is no such thing as "THE Internet".
> > >
> > > "The Internet as "the largest equivalence class in the reflexive,
> > > transitive, symmetric closure of the relationship 'can be reached by an
> > > IP packet from'"
> > >
> > > -- Seth Breidbart.
> >
> > I happen to like this idea but since we are getting picky and equivalence
> > classes are a mathematical structure 'can be reached by an IP packet
> > from’ is not an equivalence relation.  I will use ~ as the relation and
> > say that x ~ y if x can be reached by an IP packet from y
> >
> > In particular symmetry does not hold. a ~ b implies that a can be reached
> > by b but it does not hold that b ~ a; either because of NAT or firewall
> > or an asymmetric routing fault.  It’s also true that transitivity does
> > not hold, a ~ b and b ~ c does not imply that a ~ c for similar reasons.
> >
> > Therefore, the hypothesis that ‘can be reached by an IP packet from’
> > partitions the set of computers into equivalence classes fails.
> >
> > Perhaps if A is the set of computers then “The Internet” is the largest
> > subset of AxA, say B subset AxA, such for (a, b) in B the three relations
> > hold and the relation partitions B into a single equivalence class.
> >
> > That really doesn’t have the same ring to it though does it.
>
> When exactly did we sign up for a discreet math course `-`

We probably shouldn't talk about it in public.

- Matt
"A discrete math course, on the other hand..."