Charlie Stross on The Panopticon Singularity: How the convergence of computing and communications technologies will enable the ultimate police state. Links to some responses are in his blog.
Also from Stross, an explanation why US President Bush’s Mars expedition initiative makes much more sense as an extension of his administration’s defense policy:
- We believe
the Martians posess weapons of mass destruction (heat rays,
tripod death machines, red weed).- …
- It is
possible that Osama bin Laden is on Mars. (Image enhancement
of the background to bin Laden’s videotapes rebroadcast via Al
Jazeera are suggestive of a boulder-strewn desolate wasteland.
We know that Osama bin Laden cannot be found in Afghanistan,
and Mars is also a boulder-strewn wasteland, so Osama bin
Laden may indeed be on Mars.)- …
- Tony Blair has asked us to allow time for
diplomacy to work, but the Martians have stubbornly refused to
talk to the British Beagle 2 lander.