Vinge's politics/was Re: [extropy-chat] Vinge's next novel, Rainbow's End

[Technotranscendence]

On Friday, December 16, 2005 5:44 PM Hal Finney hal at finney.org wrote:
> I think Vinge needs to come to grips with the
> potential of a localizer net for misuse by facist
> governments.  I don't know what his politics
> are but this description makes it sound like
> this threat is somewhat being whitewashed
> and government presented solely as a
> benevolent force.

Vinge is generally touted as a libertarian and some knowledge of
libertarian thought seems present in many of his stories, including "The
Ungoverned."  That story is set in an anarchocapitalist society.  Of
course, merely having libertarian settings or characters who hold
libertarian views does not mean that the author must be a libertarian.
Case in point is his introduction to the same story, where it seems
while he might be a libertarian, he's definitely skeptical of anarchist
variants of libertarianism.  That might put him in the minarchist camp
of libertarianism or might mean he's merely a libertarian sympathizer.
(Michael Flynn, who I met about a decade ago, seems to be a libertarian
sympathizer and not a libertarian.)

I agree with your concerns about the technology.  It seems akin to what
Bruce Sterling calls an "enforcement technology," one which helps to
increase domination.  (Is there an easy way to categorize technologies?
No because it depends on context.)  I'm not sure if Vinge is taking the
stance you attribute to him.  It could be that the blurb gets something
wrong.  It could be also that Vinge's convictions and those projected in
his stories are two different things.

Regards,

Dan
http://uweb1.superlink.net/~neptune/