(Written on Palm on the plane, Sunday)

I just got done reading “Down and out in the Magic Kingdom,” by Cory Doctorow. Highly recommended. Thanks, Chris.

I’m fascinated by the notion of a prestige-based economy, and by the continual re-emergence of the idea through the ages. 19th Century England aristocracy was, to an extent, a prestige-based economy, and it is interesting to read “Pride and Prejudice” and “David Copperfield” at the same time as this.

Of course, in any culture thus far, money has still been a necessity to, as Dickens puts it, “keep body and soul together.” But some of these folks in the 1800s could run up astronomical debts, but still continue to live in (relative) opulence because the were a “better sort of people.”

Anyways, back to “Down and out” …

I gotta say, for all the sci fi stuff in there, the thing that I found the hardest to believe was that, after all that advance, person-to-person private conversation would *STILL* be on a clear unencrypted public channel. Don’t people ever learn?