People discover that many of their cherished heroes and iconic figures had feet of clay or never truly existed. The WormCam revolution isn't the only shock hitting the human psyche, either. An enormous comet is on a collision course with the Earth, creating a mood of resigned nihilism as people face a seemingly non-existent future and a suddenly unreliable past. God is in the details Clarke and Baxter leave no sacred cow unslaughtered when chronicling the WormCam's influence. The government spies on enemies of the state.
Private citizens monitor the police.
Psychologists battle their patients' self-denial by confronting them with details of their pasts, and astronomers visit other worlds from the privacy of their labs. The response to the WormCam's panoptic gaze takes several forms. Some retreat into darkness and silence to hide from the public eye. This is nothing new. Premise . . .