ATDTDA (2): 'World-System' (33.24)

[David Morris]

This is related to the Wired review of Cory Doctorrow's new SciFi book
"After the Seige" that Mr. Monroe posted earlier:

Recently I read a novella that posed a really deep question: What
would happen if physical property could be duplicated like an MP3
file? What if a poor society could prosper simply by making pirated
copies of cars, clothes, or drugs that cure fatal illnesses?

The answer Cory Doctorow offers in his novella After the Siege is that
you'd get a brutal war. The wealthy countries that invented the
original objects would freak out, demand royalties from the developing
ones, and, when they didn't get them, invade. Told from the
perspective of a young girl trying to survive in a poor country being
bombed by well-off adversaries, After the Siege is an absolute
delight, by turns horrifying, witty, and touching.

On Jan 29, 2008 5:45 AM, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> Otto quotes:
>
> >  "If such a thing is ever produced (.) it will mean the end of the world, not just 'as we know it' but as anyone knows it...
>
> I have a blurred memory of a 1950s science fiction story about a new hand weapon of MagicTech power -- enabling one person, say, to destroy an advancing armored force or air flotilla -- which is used to overthrow a tyrannical government.
>
> For 95% of its length the story seems a sunny libertarian fantasy extrapolated from the US Western notion of the six-gun as "the great equalizer." Then, just at the end, it begins to occur to a few of the characters that such power may be incompatible with *any* government at all -- possibly any society at all...