And yet, there are still so much value one can create with software... A lot of it is even outside of the reach of the spy and divisiveness as a service companies, it's the kind of thing that if they touch it, they destroy it.

The late years of Rome is actually a great metaphor. We are suffering from human capital loss, and have signs of institutional collapse. A shock can destroy our institutions and throw us into something like the early Medieval period: much less wealthy at the beginning, and messy too, but fast growing and with a much higher ceiling than the previous age.