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This might have been in A Deepness Upon The Sky, but VV runs out the "Smart Dust" endgame pretty thoroughly, with the conclusion that as miniature sensors reach

• TMWNN 5y ago
  >This might have been in A Deepness Upon The Sky, but VV runs out the "Smart Dust" endgame pretty thoroughly, with the conclusion that as miniature sensors reach their peak form of total surveillance (floating invisibly, pervasive, low-power microwave-burst-powered, mesh networked, video/audio/etc), they inevitably destroy civilization. This is indeed in A Deepness in the Sky. You're the first person in this discussion who's brought this up. This, to me, is the most important insight of Vinge in the Fire/Deepness series. >Always tantalized by that idea, but always wondered why that would necessarily be the case ... It's pretty obvious; those with the power to deploy such surveillance are always tempted to use and abuse such power. (EDIT: Let me reword this. Those with the power to deploy such surveillance methods inevitably deploy them. Smart dust is far, far, far more all-encompassing and inescapable than having security cameras on every street corner. The combination of these two things inevitably destroys civilization.) Because the traders in A Deepness in the Sky use coldsleep and visit planets every few decades or centuries, they notice big changes that occurred incrementally.