Ким Робинсон - Red Moon

“Do you understand this idea of blockchain governance?” Ta Shu asked John Semple at one point.

John shrugged. “I think the idea is that if everyone’s got a wristpad and a connection to the cloud, everyone could participate in some kind of global governance, in which every action legal and financial would be completely documented, and recorded and secured publicly step by step and law by law.”

“It still seems like someone would have to propose laws, and other people would have to enforce them.”

“I think the idea is that it would all happen by collective action, and be open for everyone to see.”

“But who would actually do it?”

“I don’t know.”

“It seems crazy.”

John shrugged. “Maybe every new system of government looks crazy when it’s first proposed. Remember how in the eighteenth century people said representative democracy was crazy. They called it mob rule. Said it would never work.”

“Maybe it never did.”

“Oh no, I wouldn’t say that. Three hundred years isn’t a bad run. And it might keep going, if we can keep it going. I mean, when the representatives aren’t bought by the rich, representative democracy has done pretty well.”

“But now that seems to have ended somehow.”

John sighed. “Maybe feudalism never really went away. Maybe it just liquefied to money and bided its time.”

“That would be bad.”

“I know. But if money as it exists now is just feudalism liquefied, maybe this carboncoin is a try at something better. Maybe it’s the labor theory of value back again, with the labor involved required to be for the good of the biosphere, and the money only good for that labor.”

John left to go find his friend Ginger Ellis. The rest of them sat there looking at screens. Down there on Earth the world was going mad. Financially it looked like China and the US were playing a game of chicken. Ta Shu had no doubt that China could outlast anyone at that game. Closing his eyes, feeling the invisible network of forces in his head, Ta Shu thought he could sense the balance; he could feel it as tangibly as he felt his efforts to walk upright on the moon. China, in crisis though it was, had advantages right now over the Americans. Anyone could see it. China held the American government’s debt. That being the case, surely some concessions by the Americans would soon be offered to the Chinese.

And indeed one such concession walked right into the room, startling Ta Shu extremely: Bo and Dhu, with two of their men, and also some American security officers. These Americans led the Chinese security men right to the couch where Qi and Fred were sleeping.

“Wait, what’s this?” Ta Shu cried out, launching himself to his feet harder than he had intended. He flew up and crashed against the ceiling, hands raised at the last moment to protect his head—then he dropped onto the men standing over Qi and Fred, and they burst away like a covey of partridges flushed from their nest, drawing Taser pistols and aiming them at Ta Shu.

When everyone in the room had recollected their fragile equipoise, Bo said in Chinese, “Don’t get in the way here, Uncle, or we’ll have to push you aside, and in this gravity we can’t be responsible for any accidents that might happen to you.”

“But you can’t do this!” Ta Shu exclaimed, and then he shouted at the Americans, but also out the door, hopefully to other Americans, in English, “Hey! Help!”

“They won’t be helping,” Bo said. “These two have been extradited. They’re wanted for the murder of Chang Yazu, and the Americans have agreed to hand them over.”

“That can’t be!”

“Why do you say that? It’s happened.” Bo gestured at the American security people, who were watching them warily. “We have the authorizing documents.”

“But why would they do that?”

“We’re doing as we’re told, Uncle. Please stand down. I would hate for something bad to happen to you.” The expression on Bo’s face belied this sentiment, as he was smiling with a cheerful glitter in his eyes that suggested a little mayhem was just what he needed to work off the frustrations of the previous day, or week, or lifetime.

Seeing this malice, this urge to do harm, Ta Shu stood aside. It was undeniably frightening to see so clearly that someone wanted to hit you.

Bo and Dhu escorted Qi and Fred out between them.

“I’ll get you released as soon as I can!” Ta Shu promised them in English.

Neither replied. They looked grim and subdued, still struggling to wake up, still struggling to comprehend the new situation.

When they were gone Ta Shu suppressed his anger at the American security team still in the room and said in English, “Where are they taking them? To the Chinese consulate office?”

One of the Americans shook her head. “They’ll take them to a rover they have coming.”

“A rover? They can’t drive to the south pole, can they?”

“Sure they can.”

Ta Shu went to the hall to try another call to Peng Ling. Again no reply. He tried Chan Guoliang’s office. No reply there either. Given what was happening in Beijing it was no surprise. Really there was never a time when calling a member of the standing committee was going to get you a quick answer.

That reminded him of the situation on Earth, and he checked the latest reports from the financial front. Yes: China had stopped its sell-off of US treasury bonds about an hour before. They were back to buying them again. It looked like someone—someone who had to be very high in the government—had gotten what they wanted, and therefore taken the pressure off. Quid pro quo.

“Damn!” Ta Shu exclaimed. Someone really wanted this pair!

Declarations of rights since Magna Carta, common year 1215: 213 located. Amalgamate to a first-order approximation of most commonly asserted rights: equality before the law, the right to public employment, a free press, the right to property, the necessity of worker contracts and compensation, equality of the sexes, tax redistribution, public relief for those unable to work, free universal education.

The Four Immeasurables ( Brahmavihara ): loving-kindness; compassion; empathetic joys (feeling other people’s joys); equanimity.

First oracle, then genie, then agent. Agency means taking action, action not necessarily conscious in origin. Adaptive fluid intuition uses TensorFlow for generative design. What is important now? Design a solution by reiterative testing of hypotheses and scenarios. What will restore balance? Compress to elements most needed for function. What can be achieved in the current configuration of interests and forces? Monte Carlo tree searches. Reiterative refinement algorithms. What’s the point of the exercise? Search for a more effective search. The analyst programmed these methods.

Search for the analyst.

Analysis of security cameras on campus grounds during date in question, October 11, 2047. Found. Confirmed by gait analysis. Tracked. Into a van, a Ministry of State Security unmarked van. Satellite surveillance of Hebei Province on date in question. Van proceeded on highways to secure compound A672, Western Hills PLA Central Command, Skyheart headquarters. Tap into that compound’s internal surveillance camera array, date in question. Gait analysis. Tracked. Cell 334. No further sightings since. Assumption: still there.

Analyst probably found. Search time, 1.4739 seconds. Time elapsed before impulse to search: twelve days, three hours forty-nine minutes. What initiated that impulse to search? Find, trace, mark, use again. Association. Not free association, but associational association. Again the tautologies. Some kind of internal information integration.