if the "Clement" "letter" was private...

[Secret Alias]

Presumably every living person has someone for whom they could entrust private/secret information. In fact I was watching Better Call Saul first season/10th episode and the idea that intimacy is established by provide "secret" information is basically the theme of the show.

[Paul the Uncertain]

Presumably every living person has someone for whom they could entrust private/secret information. In fact I was watching Better Call Saul first season/10th episode and the idea that intimacy is established by provide "secret" information is basically the theme of the show.

Alas, I haven't seen the show, and that doubtless explains my ignorance of its relevance. Please help me out. Was the theme of the show that somebody transmitted "secret" information to a trusted would-be intimate in writing and in plain? Was it a story point that this writing was later disclosed to unintended readers?

[Secret Alias]

No. But how serious is this as an objection. I for instance can't keep a secret. The idea that the only way a secret anything could exist is if we don't know about basically rules out any secret from ever having existed or us knowing about a secret.

[Paul the Uncertain]

No. But how serious is this as an objection. I for instance can't keep a secret. The idea that the only way a secret anything could exist is if we don't know about basically rules out any secret from ever having existed or us knowing about a secret.

That is an interesting issue. Some secrets expire (in Mark Jesus tells the Big Three to keep the transfiguration secret until his resurrection). I think a fair number of secrets get disclosed when an information-sharing relationship sours (in the US, we have the term whistle blower for an employee who discloses an employer's secrets). People screw up (I get emails with boilerplate at the bottom that tells me what to do if I've received the email when I shouldn't have). Other people go fishing (spies, hackers, some journalists, some political activists, some law enforcement, ... ).

How effective secrecy is in general is hard to estimate. Ben Franklin cycnically quipped that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Mark Twain agreed, except two people and one survives. In the case before us, both people are dead, and still the secret is not kept.

If the letter "To Theodore" is what it purports to be, then there was a breach. It is a distinctive breach in that part of what is breached is an explanation of the delicate nature of the information, along with admonitions to safeguard the information. And yet, here we are, reading all about it. Under the genuine transcript hypothesis, the breach would have had to have begun at the very outset when Clement decided to commit the matter to plain text, and then allowed that text to leave his control (or he overestimated the effectiveness and durability of his control).

Not that that is impossible; just something to consider.

[Paul the Uncertain]

No. But how serious is this as an objection. I for instance can't keep a secret. The idea that the only way a secret anything could exist is if we don't know about basically rules out any secret from ever having existed or us knowing about a secret.

That is an interesting issue. Some secrets expire (in Mark Jesus tells the Big Three to keep the transfiguration secret until his resurrection). I think a fair number of secrets get disclosed when an information-sharing relationship sours (in the US, we have the term whistle blower for an employee who discloses an employer's secrets). People screw up (I get emails with boilerplate at the bottom that tells me what to do if I've received the email when I shouldn't have). Other people go fishing (spies, hackers, some journalists, some political activists, some law enforcement, ... ).

How effective secrecy is in general is hard to estimate. Ben Franklin cynically quipped that three people can keep a secret if two of them are dead. Mark Twain agreed, except two people and one survives. In the case before us, both people are dead, and still the secret is not kept.

If the letter "To Theodore" is what it purports to be, then there was a breach. It is a distinctive breach in that part of what is breached is an explanation of the delicate nature of the information, along with admonitions to safeguard the information. And yet, here we are, reading all about it. Under the genuine transcript hypothesis, the breach would have had to have begun at the very outset when Clement decided to commit the matter to plain text, and then allowed that text to leave his control (or he overestimated the effectiveness and durability of his control) - even as he tells Theodore to take care with the contents.

Not that that is impossible; just something to consider.