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VMG·

I think you are falling victim to the availability heuristic here[1]

Just because it is easy for you to imagine such a scenario doesn't mean that it is likely.

1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Availability_heuristic

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Where did I say that anything in particular is likely?

If the "horrifying...total surveillance" remark put you off, that was not at all meant to imply "ubiquitous networking must be bad because of this story, so let's prohibit it!".

In fact, in the story the smart dust, via the backdoor, provides the ability for the hero to break the (very, very nasty) oppressive regime.

One could argue that applies to sci-fi as a whole, but some how Vingie's vision of omnipresent dust motes seems more likely (certainly given several hundreds years of cyclical progress, as in the story) than teleporters or even flying cars. Certainly the conditions in the novel were extremely conducive to that type of a network but such a ubiquitous, space filling network could be useful in plenty of other situations (rescue operations or something as simple as adding a puff of motes to a high traffic area to bolster a network for example). Is it likely? Probably not. Certainly not without wireless power, but it's probably more likely than flying cars as our primary mode of transportation.

For a more near future example Vinge presents the network in Rainbows End, especially given the work that's been done with Wifi meshes. Granted, I haven't heard any news about the idea lately, but as I recall, Google has one in Mountain View delivering free wifi to everyone in the area.

In the book, wireless power was provided externally via microwave bursts (thus, requiring the government's being convinced to deliberately deploy it).

I believe this part (or something very much like it) is actually already feasible today).

But still, it's a fantastic book :)

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