Reading (For Dummies)

Drivers Licenses, Circular Dependencies

Tomorrow I'm heading down to the New York DMV to get my license and register to vote up here. It is rather interesting the sorts of identification that the state requires in the name of fighting terrorism. They have gotten more strict -- sort of.

It is interesting to me that I could get my New York license/permit with using:
- A supermarket card (like perhaps one of these?)
- A union card
- A utility bill
- A high school ID card
- A pay stub

Combined, this is adequate proof of identity, minus a birth certificate. Of course, to get a birth certificate you don't need much...a person's name, date of birth, their parents' names, and city of birth in most states. Oh and about $5. I think with an illegally-obtained birth certificate, it would be fairly easy to get the or fake the rest of the identification stuff. Maybe that's just me.

What's more interesting is that if you eliminate that stuff, you start running into circular dependencies. In order to get a driver's license the first time without the "weird" proofs of identity, you'll need a passport. Getting a passport is a hell of a lot easier with a driver's license. I wonder if, some day, we'll run into a circular dependency with identity; the inability to obtain document A without document B, while document B requires document A.

Perhaps the the department of homeland security needs to upgrade to Debian.