Concept of Adulthood
The legal status of "adult" is earned by passing oral and scenario
simulation tests administered at the local, state, and federal levels,
in that order, and on an appeals basis. These tests can examine only
those areas of conduct that impinge upon the rights of others and must
distinguish only on the basis of performance in these areas. Status
as an adult is suspended while a convicted individual is imprisoned
for a crime, and only then. In particular, the right to vote and to
hold public office are restored upon release. The property of an
imprisoned individual remains his property.
To be an adult, an individual must be sexually mature or at least 18
years of age.
A non-adult who is sexually mature or at least 18 years of age cannot
be impeded, other than by the requirement of satisfactory test
performance, in any attempt to achieve the status of adult.
Upon successful passage of an adulthood test, the individual is issued
a certificate which is encrypted in a mutable passphrase of his
choice, which can be presented as sufficient proof of adult status for
any anonymous but adult-only activity. It is a minor crime to reveal
the passphrase, or decrypted certificate, to a non-adult.
The adulthood certificate contains a 46 bit number chosen by taking a
true random 46 bit number and incrementing it until a number results
which is not in the database. To this 46 bit number is appended a 20
bit checksum of the number formed from the 20 least significant bits
of the product of the lower 26, and the upper 20 bits shifted 26 bits
toward the least significant bit. From the number and the checksum a
64 bit certificate identifier is formed. The certificate identifier
is decrypted (signature mode) using an asymmetric keypair whose
decryption key is held in confidence by the state, and whose
encryption (verification) key is widely published. A 32 bit sequence
identifier is appended, and used to identify which keypair was used in
the decryption operation. Sequence identifiers must be allocated
using the same random-unique technique as for certificate numbers
themselves. The state is forbidden to store any information which
would facilitate identification of the individual to whom the
certificate has been issued. The state must make available a fee-free
mechanism whereby the current validity of the certificate identifier
can be verified. This mechanism cannot maintain any record of
verification queries.
Certificate and sequence identifiers are never reused.
A compromise of a certificate causes the entry for that certificate to
be flagged invalid in the database. A compromise of a certification
keypair causes the entries for all certificates signed with that
keypair to be flagged invalid. Certificates cannot otherwise be
invalidated.
Compromise of a certificate means that the passphrase for the
certificate, or the decrypted certificate, has been made accessible
to non-adults.
Compromise of a certification keypair means that the private portion
of the keypair has been made accessible to anyone who is not a state
employee who is formally a trustee of the keypair. There must be only
one such trustee per testing facility.
No law can forbid, restrict, or provide penalties for, the exchange
and distribution of adulthood certificates among adults.
previous section "On Cohabitation"
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This is a preliminary draft. Pending changes are in The To-Do List