Anders Sandberg wrote:
> Hmm, what about those congresspeople and other officials who can be
> proven not to have come into contact with the infections? (for
> example, a congressman inspecting one of the installations in the
> outer parts of the system or on holiday in a remore habitat). Would it
> be possible to set up some skeleton government using them, or would
> that be unconstitutional?
Do we really know they are safe? For all we know the infiltrators started out with some such isolated region, then moved on to more densely populated areas later. That approach would certainly have advantages - having an area where everyone is under control would give them a place to do illegal things wihtout having to hide them, which would be handy for lots of reasons.
I've run up against this issue in RPGs before, and I've never been able to find a good solution. Mental privacy and public trust seem to be mutually exclusive once sophisticated mind control becomes a possibility, but you need both to make a free society work.
Billy Brown, MCSE+I
ewbrownv@mindspring.com