nationalism, identity and the future of technology

In Barbarians at Gate 8, page 084 of the August '06 Wired, Bruce Sterling refers to a future world where (due to the war on terror and technology) we live in a "world so ripped up by nets and jets that sovereign nation-states like the UK are colapsing economically, politically, even physically..." He goes on to explain that a result of globalization and the closeness that we feel due to technology, it absolves us from feeling alliegence to nationality and nationhood. He calls it "reverse colonization."

Is nationhood a thing of the past? Have we gone beyond the 18th-20th century ideal of placing our nationality and national heritage as one of the primary identity traits of our existence? In times past, the term "Americans" has been used for anyone who came into America wishing to be apart of this nation. I believe that still holds true. But people maintain their cultural identity so well now that they are able to extend their communication across the globe, I have wondered what it means to nation-states to have the people within them no longer hold a continuious thread of ideals.

I'm curious what other people think.