This section is actually about globalism, about the fact that computing technology not only crosses borders but it tends to make the irrelevant or at least weaken.  Even in their weakened state, they exert a surprising power that we don’t always see.

So this is a chapter about culture, the way that we organize our lives, about boundaries and about pirates.

Pirates of all kinds, including those who sailed the Caribbean and those to steal software.

You can hear an audio summary of the chapter at

Or you can hear the essay “Drinking with the Dinosaurs”, which as no direct reference to dinosaurs but have an interesting connection to both Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot, and the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 as well as the great loves of engineers: