Just make sure you encrypt the backup... oh wait...

The single use part is inconvenient, but the killer is the key exchange. You need to have a new 'pad' for each person you need to communicate with, and you need to get it to them in the first place, without it being compromised. And you need very high quality randomness, which is surprisingly difficult to generate.

I think you then get into an interesting conversation about how easy you want to make it for a clever criminal to avoid getting caught.

Actually, I'm just not sure the Culture could actually ever work - if you look at it, the culture is more like a benevolent dictatorship, run by the Minds. Humans are pretty much all irrelevant. At best pets in a zoo, given the illusion of freedom by permitting them to take on tasks drones would take care of anyway.

Citizens wage as a social policy is gaining some traction. It seems counter intuitive, but just handing out money to everyone actually just works. There are very few people who are 'true scroungers' content to do nothing at all. Most of these are gaming the benefit system or taking to a life of crime as their 'profession' anyway. But if you give everyone the basic amount they need to live, you don't change much anyway. After all, that's sort of the point of tax brackets anyway.
Some people go and earn more, others do socially useful things like care for ailing relatives, or voluntary work.
And it still doesn't cost that much when you compare it to the overhead of a complex social security system.

Politicians aren't 'in charge' anyway. They're representatives of their constituency. Or should be.

What makes you think those are fakes?

Watch out for people wearing google glass or carrying a smartphone too. Actually, that's probably by far the bigger threat here.

When you've got data from smartphones, the satellite imagery is largely irrelevant. You've already got a solid identification, location fix, and for bonus points - local audio and video. A photo of your hat won't make much difference.

Especially now a UAV capable of carrying some quite high quality camera hardware is actually pretty cheap. I've been admiring the 8 rotor which can take a decent SLR on a gimbal. It's not exactly cheap by 'home user' standards, but it's a comparable price to the camera it's carrying. Compare to the price of a satellite and launch though... there's really no contest.

Most biometrics do stop working when you die. Retinal prints change if there's no blood flow - the 'eyeball-on-a-pencil' just doesn't work. Other methods ... well, generally you can detect a pulse, and the change in pattern from the blood pressure is more secure anyway. (Even before you decide you don't want to let zombies^Wresidual human resources in.)

We're used to using SSL from client to server. But it works both ways around. You can use client side SSL certificates to authenticate. Client side SSL certificates that you can lock down with a decent passphrase, SSLVerifyClient

Not as hard to implement as some of the pipe dreams out there. Of course, it does require a degree of tech savvy on the part of users - and more importantly, enforcing it's use, to avoid laziness bypassing.

Then your challenge becomes certificate transport - you'll need a way to carry around your cert, or somehow get hold of it when you need it, which is easier said than done. The real advantage of passwords is their portability. Biometrics have a similar advantage, but as already noted - are a bit harder to revoke/change.

Secure sites will get upset if you drive a car through them. Cats they're much less likely to make a fuss about...

I have wondered, give that drones are getting quite cheap - how much would a true 'peer to peer' network node cost? One that forms a mesh across a city, and finds 'downlinks' in the form of open access Wi-Fi to create a ... well, routed, self healing network. True routing protocol discovery and all.

I've never had this response. Most employers like the concept of an employee who can do the work of several.