Nevertheless, Davidson and Rees-Mogg must be given their due. Anticipating that widely divergent incomes in the Information Age will render democracy ``a recipe for legalized parasitism'' disregards the possibility that allegiance may rest on concerns such as legitimacy and justice. Rejecting meaningful human bonds beyond the kinship links of sociobiology and shared financial interest neglects aspects of community life that may be treasured by those not so eager to trade social responsibilities for an investor's utopia. Casting the state as nothing more than an entity for waging war and with a rapacious appetite for revenues overlooks governmental functions that may be important to people not consumed with avoiding taxes. Before following Davidson and Rees-Mogg into cyberspace, however, the reader should consider how ideological convictions shape this vision of the future. The argument is original, and the details reflect serious thought about the social implications of emerging technology. In a decentralized environment talented individuals will act unimpeded by external authority indeed, they will hardly need to interact with other human beings. The growing ease of transferring assets electronically across state borders will preclude taxation (a constant source of bitter complaint in this volume), and consequently, states will cease to exist.
Davidson and Rees-Mogg (The Great Reckoning, 1991, etc.) predict that the ``nanny state'' of the Industrial Age is about to be replaced by ``Sovereign Individuals'' in the Information Age. In this combination of sweeping metahistory and myopic self- interest some statements are penetrating, others appalling, and all are astonishing.
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