The stories in Creative Destruction explore what we could face in the next half century or so: artificial intelligence, malicious software to make us nostalgic for mere! viruses, ever-more-perfect virtual reality, direct neural interfaces to computers, ubiquitous networks, and more.
The Internet? That was nothing.
Something must justify the blood and treasure that have been spent. If the fallen civilization of the Ringworld can no longer be despoiled of its secrets, the Puppeteers will be forced to surrender theirs. Everyone knows that the Puppeteers are cowards.
But the crises converging upon the trillion Puppeteers of the Fleet of Worlds go far beyond even the onrushing armadas as the many players head toward a final, decisive collision. One way or another, the fabled race of Puppeteers may have come to the end of their days.