Лю Цысинь - Supernova Era

Then another line of glowing red text appeared in the sky: ATTENDANCE HAS REACHED 194,783,453. THE ASSEMBLY IS ABOUT TO BEGIN.

The rightmost digits of the 190 million number continued to turn over.

Then a voice sounded in the air, the familiar voice of Big Quantum. “I’ve conveyed your request to the national leadership.”

Pan Yu said to the three leaders, “Notice how Big Quantum refers to a single request?”

“When will they be here?” said a child’s voice. Boy or girl it was hard to tell, but it was loud and carried a long echo. At the same time, a line of red text appeared in the air: VIRTUAL CITIZEN 1: 98.276%.

“Who’s that speaking?” Huahua asked Pan Yu.

“That’s Virtual Citizen 1.”

“Who’s that?”

“It’s not a ‘who.’ It’s a person made up of nearly two hundred million children.”

“I noticed just now that everyone around us was moving their lips as if they were speaking, but I couldn’t hear anything.”

“That’s right. They were all speaking, but only Big Quantum heard the nearly two hundred million messages. It summarized them into the one statement you just heard.”

“That’s what you mean by the assembly format?”

“Right. This format allows an individual to carry on a simultaneous conversation with more than a hundred million conversation partners. Right now, two hundred million children have turned into just one, so Big Quantum referred to ‘your request’ and not ‘your requests.’ It’s a highly complicated process that requires advanced intelligence and fast processing speed. The short, simple statement you just heard would, if printed out, fill enough paper to circle the globe. Only a quantum computer can handle it.”

Then Big Quantum answered Virtual Citizen 1: “They said they need to think it over before making a decision.”

Specs cut in, “Just one problem. What if the two hundred million children have a difference of opinion that can’t be summarized into one statement?”

Pan Yu put a finger to his lips. “Shhh. You’ll see what happens very soon.”

Another voice sounded, pitched differently from the previous one so it sounded like someone else was speaking. “They’ll definitely come.” And the text in midair read, VIRTUAL CITIZEN 2: 68.115%.

Pan Yu whispered an explanation: “The percentage indicates the proportion of people who hold that opinion.”

A voice at a different pitch said, “That’s not certain. They may not come.” The text in midair read, VIRTUAL CITIZEN 3: 24.437%.

“Can they not? They’ve got to come! They’re the leaders of the country, and they’ve got to talk to the country’s children.” ( VIRTUAL CITIZEN 4: 11.536%)

“What do we do if they don’t?” ( VIRTUAL CITIZEN 3: 23.771%)

“We do it on our own.” ( VIRTUAL CITIZEN 5: 83.579%)

“I told you, they’re definitely going to come.” ( VIRTUAL CITIZEN 2: 70.014%)

Pan Yu said, “You see, if there’s disagreement, the virtual citizen will split into two or more parts. How many is determined by the chosen level of precision. At the most precise, all messages will be listed out. That’s impossible, of course. What’s important is that each virtual citizen is usually more or less a defined group with its own particular character traits. They’ll continue to appear, just like an individual. VC 2 and VC 3, for example, returned just now.”

After watching for a while, Huahua said to Pan Yu, “Let’s leave.”

“Press the exit button on your clothes.” The button was on the cartoon’s torso, and pressing it returned them instantly to the Windows space.

“That was amazing!” Huahua exclaimed after removing his helmet.

Xiaomeng said, “They don’t need any leaders at all in that network country. They accomplish everything through discussions among two hundred million kids.”

Specs said thoughtfully, “This will have a profound effect on the real world, too. We paid attention too late.”

Xiaomeng asked, “Then should we speak with them?”

Specs said, “We’ve really got to be careful. This is like nothing else in history. No one knows what might happen. We should think about it longer and more carefully before acting.”

“There’s no time. It’s like I said: If we don’t go, then something’s definitely going to happen,” Huahua said.

With Specs and Xiaomeng in agreement, they spent the night in a conference studying the issue, and discovered that quite a few members of the leadership team had been to the New World Assembly and were familiar with the situation. They mostly felt that it was a positive thing. One kid said, “We’re all doing things that are beyond our own abilities. If the country really can be run like this, it’ll free us up.”

Everyone agreed that the central government, as represented by the three top leaders, would attend the New World Assembly and talk to the 200 million children.

They entered the New World Assembly area a second time, this time using their real-world appearances for avatars. Big Quantum erected a tall podium for them in the center of the space. They came early to prepare, and to get used to the environment, and as the country’s 200 million children logged in and entered, the dense crowd of cartoon characters began to blot out the sky like a layer of clouds. They watched as the avatars fell from the sky like a storm. When the endless sea of people finally calmed, 200 million pairs of eyes were fixed on the platform.

“I feel like I’m going to melt,” Xiaomeng whispered.

Huahua, on the other hand, drank it in. “It’s different for me. For the first time I’ve found what leading a country feels like! How about you, professor?”

Specs said without emotion, “Don’t bug me. I’m thinking.”

When the assembly began, Virtual Citizen 1 led off. According to the figures showing in the sky, he represented a 97.458 percent share.

“We’re extremely disappointed in this new world. The adults left, leaving us kids behind, so it should be a fun world. But it’s not fun at all. It’s not even as fun as the world was when the adults were around.”

Xiaomeng said, “The adults used to give us food and clothing, so of course we had time to play and take it easy. But not now. We’ve got to work, or else we’ll starve to death. We can’t forget the MSG and salt.”

Virtual Citizen 2 (63.442%): “Xiaomeng, don’t let that trainload of MSG and ten trainloads of salt scare you. That was for one-point-three billion people in the adults’ time. We don’t eat that much.”

Virtual Citizen 3 (43.117%): “Why does Xiaomeng sound so much like an adult? Boring!”

Virtual Citizen 1 (92.571%): “Regardless, we don’t like this world now.”

Huahua asked, “So what kind of world do you want?”

Later historians studying the virtual citizens’ answers to this question looked through the raw records of individual member responses kept by the quantum computer; although only a small proportion were retained, it still amounted to forty gigabytes, or around twenty billion Chinese characters. If printed out as a trade-paperback-size volume, it would be eight hundred meters thick. Below are some representative responses:

I want the sort of country where kids can go to school if they want, but don’t have to if they don’t want to. They can play if they want, and if they don’t, they don’t have to play at all. If they want to eat, they can, and if they don’t, they don’t have to. They can go wherever they want, and if they don’t want to go anywhere, they don’t have to….