Authenticity

We ponder whether an affectation is actually useful.

Our astronomer recently sent a letter to an old friend who lives in another country.  There are people who would consider this an affectation, something actually unnecessary done for show.  We disagree; a handwritten letter is a different form of writing compared to an email, and much different from any of the social media.  The fact that he wrote it with a (fairly expensive) fountain pen also risks the accusation of affectation, but he contends that it is easier and more comfortable to use such an instrument, compared to a ball-point, and in the right hands (not his) is more expressive.  The sealing-wax on the envelope he admits to be an affectation.

We remember that even when letter-writing was common, sealing-wax was hardly ubiquitous.  It was troublesome and unnecessary.  It served a purpose in an earlier era, if you wanted to be sure that the letter hadn’t been opened by someone unauthorized; and even earlier, before reliable envelope-gum, it held the letter closed.

Also, if you had your own recognizable seal, it was an indicator of authenticity.  It was proof that you indeed had sent it.  Impressed seals have been used for this purpose for thousands of years: there are seal-cylinders found among the earliest civilizations.  From Medieval times, wax seals on documents were a guarantee that the King (say) had issued these letters patent.  The Lord Privy Seal was an important official, keeping custody of the actual article and making sure it was only used properly.

Well, most people don’t write letters any more, much less seal them with wax.  The requirement to prove authenticity, however, has never been stronger.  It is of enormous importance that a digital document have a guarantee of authenticity, and much effort is spent along those lines.  Unfortunately, digital guarantees are among the arcana of this electronically-connected world.  Most people must take a great deal on trust.  When faced with a possible phishing attempt they have to rely on things like phrasing and misspelling, the equivalent of noticing that this handwriting doesn’t match Uncle Jim’s.

And it’s only going to get harder.  Large Language Models, the most recent development of “artificial intelligence” (AI), have become very good at imitating the style of anything they’ve been trained on.  Writing in a distinctive way will no longer be much help in proving authenticity.

There is a great need for digital sealing-wax.  We don’t know what form it might take.  For now, we avoid any criticism when our astronomer uses the real thing.