I can imagine a Neal Stephenson book which makes a number of 50 year jumps into the future and explains how this ceremony becomes more and more religious in nat

I can imagine a Neal Stephenson book which makes a number of 50 year jumps into the future and explains how this ceremony becomes more and more religious in nature. Toss in a few dramatic changes based on either fanciful ideas of new ways to compromise the process or in reaction to actual attack attempts (or successes).