Linking a personal history with a single person, while important to fairness and performance is just a small, albeit important, piece of the role identity plays in our society. I suggest that we have not known, and are just beginning to discover the value such a link - if robustly implemented - could play in the destiny of our species.
But what do I mean by robustly implemented? Consider the recent developments of societal connectivity. They are now mimicking the connectivity that gave rise to cognition and then consciousness in biological evolution.
Consider the role of personal identity in symbiosis, synergy, democracy etc. In each case, the performance of such activities is closely correlated with the integrity of identity.
For many decades identity was associated almost exclusively with security. As our artifacts became responsive to identity they became more useful for at least two reasons - 1) a one-to-one relationship with potentially powerful agency 2) the artifacts mitigated the effects of self-serving egos that could otherwise threaten effective agency.
It is beyond the scope of this piece to discuss identities of groups. Suffice it to say, if the primal elements of said groups are of high integrity the group's integrity potential increases … dramatically.
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