"Imagine the ideal protocol. It would have the most trustworthy third party imaginable — a deity who is on everybody's side. All the parties would send their input to this god. God would reliably determine the results and return the output. In addition, God, being the ultimate in confessional discretion, would ensure that no party would learn anything more about the other party's input than they could learn from their own input and the output."  - Nick Szabo

Another great piece by Szabo about the implications of a multi-party virtual computer and the incredible possibilities that such a protocol could open up. With amazing foresight, Szabo wrote this piece in 1997, detailing many of the trade-offs and complications in creating a shared system just like Satoshi's.  Is Bitcoin The God Protocol he hoped to see?