The State of Nettleton is a gargantuan, safe nation, ruled by High Commissioner with an iron fist, and renowned for its barren, inhospitable landscape, avowedly heterosexual populace, and hatred of cheese. The cynical, humorless population of 45.367 billion Nettletonians are ruled without fear or favor by a psychotic dictator, who outlaws just about everything and refers to the populace as "my little playthings."

The government — a sprawling, bureaucracy-choked, moralistic, socially-minded, well-organized morass — juggles the competing demands of Defense, Industry, and Education. It meets to discuss matters of state in the capital city of Dominion Heights. The average income tax rate is 76.4%, and even higher for the wealthy.

The strong Nettletonian economy, worth a remarkable 2,440 trillion betales a year, is driven entirely by a combination of government and state-owned industry, with private enterprise illegal. However, for those in the know, there is a large, well-organized, highly specialized black market in Uranium Mining, Retail, and Arms Manufacturing. The private sector mostly consists of enterprising ten-year-olds selling lemonade on the sidewalk, but the government is looking at stamping this out. Average income is 53,801 betales, and distributed extremely evenly, with practically no difference between the richest and poorest citizens.

The nation's favourite colour is gold (Nettleton has found 2 easter eggs), political activists are routinely executed, homosexuality is a crime punishable by death, and a large concrete wall is being built around the country's borders. Crime is totally unknown, thanks to a well-funded police force and progressive social policies in education and welfare. Nettleton's national animal is the deer, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation.

Nettleton is ranked 261,931^st in the world and 1^st in Nettleton for Most Scientifically Advanced, scoring 14.14 on the Kurzweil Singularity Index.