Lamport the Reluctant Warrior

The ancient Byzantine Army from the ancient Byzantine Empire had a problem. Namely, churn.

Employees of the Byzantine Army, even Generals, would frequently switch sides and work for the other army. They might switch sides publicly, or they might be sneaky and act as a spy. Some spies even had the audacity to leak secret war plans to the press.

Eventually the Byzantine Army realized the problem they were facing was Trust — or, more specifically, the lack thereof.

In response to this realization, the Byzantine Army set out to investigate:

  1. Why was there this Trust problem, and
  2. What to do about it?

Why was there this Trust problem?

After much debate, the Byzantine Army, spies and all, realized that the Trust problem was caused by a new domain of warfare: the sea.

The Byzantine Empire had been built in the era of pure land warfare. At the time, no one really knew how to predictably survive vast amounts of open sea. They used a navigation strategy called “dead reckoning,” whereby they just kind of guessed where they were in the sea. It didn’t work very well.

But then, suddenly, Predictable Seafaring emerged and there was a new domain in which to conduct Commerce and Warfare.

Power Players in the Land Domain were not the same as the Power Players in the Sea Domain, so there was a sudden, and unexpected Power Vacuum and fight for Supremacy.

What to do about it?

Eventually, everyone realized that the first Power Players of the Sea Domain were Sailors. So, the Loyal Generals of the Byzantine Army began distrusting Army and Civilian Sailors alike. This distrust ultimately had a fair amount to do with the outcome of the whole thing.

To make matters worse, the first victors in the War for the Conquest of The Sea were Pirates.

The Byzantine Army didn’t know what to do, so, they asked a Logician named Lamport if he had any bright ideas.

At first, Lamport was very reluctant to get involved. He didn’t like warfare at all, he didn’t want anyone to die, and he just wanted everything to be peaceful, once again.

But, Lamport was a master Logician, which made him a Power Player. Ultimately, his sense of duty outweighed his repulsion to warfare. So, he set out to find a way to make Warfare more Peaceful.

It turns out, he succeeded.

Lamport discovered that the Byzantine Army could tolerate a maximum of one third of its employees becoming Traitors. If there were any more than that, then the Army would experience a successful coup d’état.

Lamport realized the predictability of coups could be used to promote peace. Whenever the Traitors reached critical mass, they could peacefully announce their critical mass to the Loyal Generals and then everyone could collaborate towards achieving a peaceful transition of power.

In order to explain this information to everyone, Lamport wrote his magnum opus, Lamport’s Warfare Manual.

Lamport engineered his Warfare Manual such that it only contained strategies that (1) work and (2) benefit everyone.

Lamport’s Warfare Manual

There are four sections.

1. Axioms That We Can All Agree Upon

  1. Unfortunately, warfare is unavoidable because the Sea must be Conquered.
  2. Although we must Fight, we can still be Gentlemen.
  3. There are Loyal Generals and there are Traitorous Generals.
  4. Every General knows whether he is Loyal or Traitorous.
  5. The Traitors all know who each other are.
  6. But the Loyal Generals do not know who the Traitors are.

2. Code of Conduct for Loyal Generals

  1. All Loyal Generals must be honest.
  2. All Loyal Generals must be in unanimous agreement; that is, all loyal Generals must decide upon the same Plan of Action.
  3. Once agreed upon, every Loyal General must execute the Plan of Action.
  4. The Generals determine the Plan of Action by debating and then voting on a final Plan of Action.

3. Things Everyone Must Accept

  1. Regardless if anyone uses this Warfare Manual or not, if one third of the Army becomes Traitorous, then the Traitors win.
  2. Nevertheless, we can be Gentlemen and avoid unnecessary bloodshed by keeping in mind that if the Traitors accumulate sufficient critical mass, they win.
  3. The Loyal Generals make a request to the Traitors: if you achieve critical mass, please let us know peacefully, so we can collaborate in organizing a peaceful transition of power.

4. Analysis

Lamport’s logical analysis of his Warfare Manual consisted solely of sketchy, inconsistent proofs made up almost entirely of generalized, abstract, proof-of-work steganography. Interestingly enough, mathematically inclined tacticians, to this day, still enjoy this sort of thing.

We’re not sure why he did all that, because it’s all actually very simple.

  1. It prescribes Democracy
  2. It gives a sensible definition for what it means to be “Loyal” in a Democracy
  3. It instructs Loyal Generals how to achieve unanimity, despite the presence of Traitors
  4. It offers a simple, realistic, plausible plan for peace based on the facts of the matter

And, to top it off, it all just seemed to work. Of course, the Army didn’t label the Warfare Manual as official until it was put to a proper vote.

At the time, Lamport’s Warfare Manual was a radical innovation. Consider that neither The Bhagavad Gita nor Sun Tzu’s the Art of War had been written yet.

Outcome

In the beginning, The Byzantine Army had very strained relations with Sailors due to their extreme, mutual distrust. However, the Warfare Manual began the process of easing tensions between mutually distrusting parties.

Ultimately, the Byzantine Army realized they needed Loyal Sailors and Sailors realized they needed to team up with Land forces. The Byzantine Army found Loyal Sailors who they could trust, and invited the best Loyal Sailors to become Generals.

With Loyal Sailor Generals, the Byzantine Army gained the force it needed to conquer the Sea. The Traitors never gained critical mass, so they eventually peacefully surrendered.

The Byzantine Empire Prevailed. The whole War for The Conquest of The Sea ended relatively peacefully, with minimal bloodshed.

Relevance to Today

Whether there’s a power vacuum in a new domain of warfare, or a power vacuum because of an untapped market, you can expect high churn. Lamport’s Warfare Manual has some good wisdom for how to respond.

Cyberspace is a new domain of warfare and the United States Military has a Trust problem. Mudge recently talked about some of these issues in a speech at DEFCON 21, called “Unexpected Stories From a Hacker Inside the Government.”

Also, and most importantly, as far as Enlightened Capitalism is concerned, it’s totally OK for Unenlightened Businesses to masquerade as Enlightened Businesses. As long as at least one third of the market can use their basic intelligence to identify Unenlightened Businesses, it will all work out just fine.

Afterword

In the grand tradition of Lamport, this work deliberately interweaves Science and Mythology without making any distinction between the two.