Responding to msg by rishab: The system of social punishment can easily be adapted to educated, liberal inhabitants of cyberspace, much more easilty than can present law enforcement systems. My next post will examine the similarities between tribal and cyberspatial society. ........................................................ I don't know yet what you are going to say about the similarities between tribal & cyberspatial societies, but one thought which immediately struck me in your sentence is that you are putting two very different ideas of society into the same category. The associations which occur in cyberspace are not like the ones which occur in the physical plane. The expectations are different - you don't expect to live with these other people in close proximity, you don't expect to identify with them as a group in the same way, you are not going to get the same benefits on a daily basis or even an extended time period, as you might from those with whom you interact on more than one level or kind of contact. I personally don't see interactions in cyberspace as constituting a 'society', even if they are 'social'. Maybe a drive-by society. Maybe drive-by law enforcement. :>) Blanc