I am currently reading the last book of Olivier BOMSEL: “Gratuit, du déploiement de l’économie numérique”. This book is extremely interesting, as the previous essays of Olivier. Olivier BOMSEL is a French economist who focuses on the economy of the digital industry. His opinions are often provocative. I will probably come back to this book several times.

This book illustrates the network effect on digital economy. He presents an interesting biblical example: the tower of Babel. By introducing new languages, God broke the network effect that made the building of the tower possible.

This raised a question: Is Babel tower better for security or bad? The answer is difficult. There are arguments for both positions.

•   On one hand, the more a secure system is deployed, the more it may be studied by the community. Thus, we may expect to have a more secure system.
• On the other hand, the more a secure system is deployed, the more it may be attacked. Furthermore, the attackers may have access to better documentation and have a deeper knowledge. Thus be more efficient
•   Another negative argument is that if there would one unique secure system, then a class attack would affect a complete ecosystem. This may be extremely dangerous.

Thus, once more, no Manichean answers.

By the way, according to Olivier BOMSEL’s book, the incident of the tower of Babel may be a good thing for humanity. It obliged mankind to spread all over the world. :Wink: