So, the real problem is that people smart enogh to make meaningful contributions to the modern economy are also by definition going to be too smart to be appeas

So, the real problem is that people smart enogh to make meaningful contributions to the modern economy are also by definition going to be too smart to be appeased by silly gestures like this. I doubt even the reinstatement of Binney would be enough to convince the people who need to be convinced. Spooks will eventually have to settle for allowing a secure domestic infrastructure and relying on traditional HUMINT. Legitimate foreign threats such as Iran will be able to construct their own secure infrastructures, and no one smart enough to actually produce economic value in an advanced industrial economy is going to do much undedr what essentially amounts to tyranny. An economy of disempowered 'app' progammers may be easy to subjugate but it is also about as strategically useful as an army of slaves with down's syndrome.