[ClearCase_guy]

Science Fiction writer Neal Stephenson wrote a wonderful book called “The Diamond Age”. It envisions a future of nanotechnology and a society coming to grips with global social disruption in the post-20th century world. There is no global government. There are also no nation states. Instead, there are “distributed republics” made up of people who can live anywhere but have “citizenship” within a defined social grouping. (Like a church which is “people” and not “a building on Elm Street.”)

The most powerful group are the New Victorians. Very rich, very high tech they have achieved enormous success in this future world. In large part, because they are more disciplined, more controlled, more moral than other groups. They deliberately copy Victorian values and this gives them advantages over other groups which have not fully abandoned the failed values of the 20th century.

Quite a good read, and written in a style rather similar to Dickens novel.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Okay, I got a gift card for Books a Million for Christmas, and that seems interesting enough to buy.

[MrEdd]

Looks interesting, although I am falling behind on my reading list as it is.

[Mr Radical]

IMHO Neal Stephenson's vision is not far from reality. However he got one thing wrong: the most powerful group are the Media Class. And, they've achieved such enormous success because of a total lack of moral values.