probably a lot of readers of my blog have also read neal stephenson’s “snow crash”

of course, working in virtual worlds, this is basically mandatory for us. but what’s interesting to me is that the concept i see from it more and more is not so much the metaverse, but the ability to buy citizenship in different countries.

consider this – as a citizen, you are automatically a customer of your country’s government. you pay for government services via your taxes. and more and more, with countries having more liberal, or even aggressive immigration policies, you can feel like a consumer. for instance, i saw ads saying “hey singaporean, immigrate to new zealand”. that’s openly soliciting business. mind you, i don’t feel that bad about that. i certainly don’t always feel that i get the value-for-money that i’m looking for. anyway, just an interesting thought for me…