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I was recently reflecting on just how much Neal Stephenson got right with "Snow Crash" .. I mean, a whole class of society known as "The Feds", who have unlimit

I was recently reflecting on just how much Neal Stephenson got right with "Snow Crash" .. I mean, a whole class of society known as "The Feds", who have unlimited secrecy powers and have effectively formed their own state-within-a-state, accountable to nobody but their own internal power structures .. this is America today. I look forward to the day when we've got The Feed to keep us occupied, anyway.

XorNot 13y ago
I think you missed what was going on in that book.
- fit2rule 13y ago
  Really? How so? I just checked, and there is a class of society called "The Feds", they were the "remnants of the US gov't federal system" and they did maintain they were a separate legal entity. Hows' my reading of the book different from yours?
  - CWuestefeld 13y ago
    The cool thing in the book was that you could opt out of US government protection, choosing instead to live in an enclave with services provided by some private party. IIRC, Stephenson presented it as a bit dystopic, but it sounded quite exciting to me.
    - XorNot 13y ago
      It wasn't opt out. The US Federal government didn't exist. Hence the regions of the book where a guy working for the Mafia is noticing the pings of bullets bouncing off his car as he drives through a rough neighborhood, and idly wonders whether the stains on the road are people who've been smeared into nothingness. It sounds exciting because you're not living it right now. And in the modern world, it is surprisingly easy to recreate that experience - just the cost of an airfare.
      - CWuestefeld 13y ago
        The US Federal government didn't exist. No, that's not correct. You'll recall that the girl's mom worked for the FBI; in once scene we see the mom going in for a security check. The existence of an FBI clearly implies the existence of a federal government. It's just that their scope was significantly curtailed.

XorNot 13y ago

I think you missed what was going on in that book.

fit2rule 13y ago
Really? How so? I just checked, and there is a class of society called "The Feds", they were the "remnants of the US gov't federal system" and they did maintain they were a separate legal entity. Hows' my reading of the book different from yours?
- CWuestefeld 13y ago
  The cool thing in the book was that you could opt out of US government protection, choosing instead to live in an enclave with services provided by some private party. IIRC, Stephenson presented it as a bit dystopic, but it sounded quite exciting to me.
  - XorNot 13y ago
    It wasn't opt out. The US Federal government didn't exist. Hence the regions of the book where a guy working for the Mafia is noticing the pings of bullets bouncing off his car as he drives through a rough neighborhood, and idly wonders whether the stains on the road are people who've been smeared into nothingness. It sounds exciting because you're not living it right now. And in the modern world, it is surprisingly easy to recreate that experience - just the cost of an airfare.
    - CWuestefeld 13y ago
      The US Federal government didn't exist. No, that's not correct. You'll recall that the girl's mom worked for the FBI; in once scene we see the mom going in for a security check. The existence of an FBI clearly implies the existence of a federal government. It's just that their scope was significantly curtailed.