On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:41:40 -0400 Matt Larson <mlarson@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Fri, 12 Oct 2007, Eastlake III Donald-LDE008 wrote: > > "But the UN is a government--" > > "No it isn't," Martin insisted, "It's a talking shop. > > Started out as a treaty organization, turned into a bureaucracy, > > then an escrow agent for various transnational trade and standards > > agreements. After the Singularity, it was taken over by the > > Internet engineering task force. It's not the government of Earth; > > it's just the only remaining relic of Earth's governments that your > > people can recognize. ..." > > > > Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, ISBN: 0-441-01179-9, Ace Books. > > From page 281 of the July 2004 paperback edition. > > We're already on the edge of on-topic and this comment has the risk of > sending us spiraling off, but everyone really must immediately stop > whatever you're doing to go out and buy and read everything by Charles > Stross. You won't regret it. > Indeed. A few years ago, I dropped him a note and mentioned that that line was quite popular in the IETF. He replied As it happens I'd be quite surprised if the IETF or something like it *doesn't* end up running the planet one of these days. (Running the planet being a thankless infrastructure maintenance task, after all.) --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www1.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf