i suspect that killsats and interdiction fighters are the thing that stops them from physicaly droping cornucopia machines. Probably 'homeland security' or it's analogue stops them from making a cornucopia machine by hunting down the existing ones agressively. and the fact that you need to have access to a nuclear reactor or a huge sunfarm stops them from useing the CM's that they do have. I wish the Dev's hadn't used the term Cornucopia Machine. It makes it sound like snap-your-fingers magic wich it couldn't be. The name overemphasizes the actual effect the machine would have on the game world. (IMHO) I think they should have stolen Joe Haldeman's "Nano Forge" from the novel [u]Forever Peace[/u]. That term better represents the technical and physical dificulties of actually getting something like that to work. The large amounts of waste heat for example. I think some basic assumptions can be made about the "war on free goods" (alternate arguments and points of view fully welcome :) ) 1. there's no such thing as free. The real ecconomic values of what a machine can make is in the book if you want something 'expencive' it's gona cost 20,000 credits or a couple years of service or favors (apparently risking 'realdeath' is worth about 20 grand.) 2. Active cornucopia machines on, or under a planet's surface would be pretty easy to track down. Especially on the surface of the planet that is thickly seeded with envoronmental sensors because of tereforming projects. 3. Because it's hard to use a cornucopia machine without getting caught, it doesn't have that much effect on increasing the quality of life for the oppressed masses. It has more value to a rebel group as a throw-away WMD maker. 4. Hopefully, everyone does a better job of monitoring and restricting the mineing and refineing of fisile material than we do today. This would be the first defence on illegal use of cornucopia machines. The same can be said of illegal blueprints. Also: I kind of suspect that the book is wildly optimistic about the way CM's are actually used. For one thing it's obvious that a CM has to be tied to a realatively large source of energy. For another I supect that a fabrication time of 1 hour per price point is a little fantastic. I think that (1 hour * price point * kilogram of materials used) would be more realistic. "Buying Time" on a machine would be a good part of the cost of the finished product. I have noted the fact that the GEV (pp. 348) includes two(?!) desktop CM's so maybe what I've learned so far about the power required and the heat expended while assembling an object atom by atom is wrong. More likely, what I know about the GEV is incomplete.

I wouldn't say that the 'war on drugs' has been useless at all. Quite the oposite. A. it's made alot of people a Shit-tonn of money B. it gives some governemnts a 'reason' to put the screws to other governments or deny them support/aid C. It allows a government to show it's own populace 'an enemy' and provides a reason to make demonstration of force. D. it gives a 'benevelent' burocracy a good reason to spend a larger portion of constituents' money on more and better police and millitary that may be used to control the constituents if needed. E. the same as above but substitute surveilance for police and millitary. F. Drugs are the tools of social darwinism, especially the hard drugs. I hardly ever have to compete with a pot-head in any way. I never have to compete with a heroin addict.

LOL What ever makes you feel better dude. [edit] never mind. I really don't care that much.[/edit]

It's mentioned in the core that most people who've studied the matter are of the opinion that Singularity Sky is going to happen in the next few decades. The Old Economies can only be maintained by forcible restriction of cornucopia machines; with one exception, it's more or less certain that once the people get a taste of plenty, the autocrats are going to crash and burn. That one exception, of course, is the Jovian Republic, where they have a strong military and a solidly conservative memetic base in stark opposition to everyone else's memes. Not only that, but whatever their grievances with the current leadership, the vast majority of the Republic's citizens are behind the bioconservative meme (or else they've already expatriated elsewhere). They're like Iran in that respect; progressive autonomists trying to push their ideas through will get nowhere without a thorough knowledge of the Jovian memetic structure, and the Jovians can stop unrestricted cornucopia machines by relabeling them as WMDs (and setting off a few low-end panic bombs on their population). That particular combination of factors is why the Jovian Republic is still there. It -may- have to go Transitional in the next few decades, but it may end up keeping a lid on things too for the reasons above. That, more than a bunch of armed jackboots, is how the War on Nanofabrication is fought.