Ramez Naam - Apex

He turned back to Ananda. Teacher , he sent. What’s brought you here?

Ananda smiled. My government sent a delegation here. He paused. There’s a summit aimed at creating a replacement to Copenhagen – a new agreement that embraces our potential. Ethically. Humanely. With protection of human dignity and equality in mind.

Kade stared at Ananda. You’re leading this delegation?

Ananda laughed again. No. Unlike you, my young friend, I’m no politician. I hope never to be! I came to advise. And to bring a message to the Indian Prime Minister.He looked at Kade and smiled. I brought the personal regard that you’re held in by the King of Thailand, and the high respect that he has for you and your work.

Kade was puzzled. He doesn’t know me.

Ananda shrugged. He knows your work.

Kade squinted. You mean he’s… running Nexus?

Ananda grinned. I said only that he knows your work, young man. Don’t put words into my mind.He winked.

Kade shook his head in disbelief.

It was all good news, though. Very good news.

So Thailand would join this new protocol , he sent Ananda. Who else?

Ananda looked out the window on his own side. There are delegations here from a number of middle income countries – countries that feel economically stifled by Copenhagen. Some of them are in South Asia. Some of them you’ve been in recently. But the big surprise is Japan.

Japan?Kade was surprised.

They’re aging rapidly,Ananda said. Their population is down where it was sixty years ago, despite all their efforts and incentives. They want fewer restrictions on AI. They want more progress against neurodegeneration, progress Nexus could help bring.

But for them to leave Copenhagen … Kade sent. He was delighted. It was beyond anything he’d hoped for. But not what he’d expected.

They’re angry at the Americans,Ananda said. I don’t endorse anger. It’s a foolish emotion that harms the self far more than it changes anything else. But given the scope of the deceptions revealed…

Wait,Kade sent. What’s this?

Ananda’s face turned the slightest bit more somber. Kade,he sent, his thoughts tinged with sorrow. There are some videos you need to see.

26

Toy Soldiers

Wednesday 2040.11.07

Kilometers to the west and south of the exclusive skyscrapers of the Pudong, in an apartment tower on the outskirts of Shanghai, a first year university student named Wu Yuguo hoisted his backpack and headed for the door.

He intended to walk by the living room on his way out of the flat he shared with his mother.

“Bo Jintao does seem like an excellent choice for Premier,” he heard his mother say.

“I think he’s rather distinguished looking,” a girlish voice answered. A voice everyone in China knew.

Yuguo clenched his fists in frustration, then turned, and walked into the living room instead.

“Mother?”

His mother was seated on the couch, like yesterday evening, like the evening before that, like every evening after work.

She turned and smiled at him. “Oh, hello, Yuguo. I was just chatting with Zhi Li about our new Premier.”

On the wall screen was the larger-than-life-size face of the porcelain-skinned actress. The most famous woman in China.

As if he didn’t see her enough on billboards and building sides already.

Zhi Li gave him a smile, just a tiny bit flirtatious, just a tiny bit shy. “Hello, Yuguo,” she said. Then she giggled that billion-Yuan giggle.

Yuguo did his best to smile, then slowly crossed the room, deliberately placed his left hand over the camera of the wallscreen, blocking its view, and turned to face his mother.

“Mother,” he said, as respectfully as he could. “Do you understand what’s happened? It’s a…” The fingers of his right hand made brush strokes for the word you couldn’t say – coup .

“Oh don’t be silly, Yuguo,” his mother replied. “It’s not a coup.”

Yuguo sighed, and dropped his hand from the camera. Why bother with this pretense?

“Mother, they’ve deposed three Politburo Standing Committee members. All the progressives. Years early. There were tanks on Jiao Tong campus just days ago. They’re arresting poets, journalists, professors. They’re banning research. Every one of the new names is a reactionary.”

His mother shook her head. “Don’t believe all the rumors your friends pass on, Yuguo. People get tired. They decide to retire. Most of these retirements have been in the works for a while. The end of the year is a good time to announce them. And the new men being added are good men. Moral men. They’ll strengthen China.”

“And you know this because?”

His mother looked exasperated. “Zhi Li told me,” she said. “And yes, I know you don’t trust her. But I trust her a lot more than your little friends.”

From behind him the wall screen spoke in Zhi Li’s voice. “You should listen to your mother, Yuguo.”

Yuguo half turned, trapped, knowing exactly how the conversation would go if he continued, this animatronic puppet of the state on one side, his mother, a smart, reasonable person on most topics, on the other.

“Mother,” he tried again anyway, pointing with one hand at the eight foot tall face of the actress. “She’s not even real. This is not Zhi Li. This is just a bot, telling you whatever someone at the Party Information Ministry has approved. I take classes on how to write software like her.”

“Oh…” Zhi Li said, her voice turning downwards. “That hurts my feelings, Yuguo. How would you like it if I said you were just meat ?”

His mother’s tone turned frosty. “Don’t talk about my Friend that way, Yuguo. I know she’s software. But she’s modeled on the real Zhi Li, and blessed by her. The real Zhi Li has said repeatedly that her Friends are extensions of her, and that she stands by anything her Friends say.”

His mother stood there staring at him, hands on her hips, now, as if daring him to say something ill about the flesh-and-blood actress, the one who volunteered her time at orphanages, the one who’d acted in his mother’s favorite films.

China’s sweetheart.

Bah.

Zhi Li was just a phony, an empty shell who’d sold her soul for fame.

He bit his tongue.

Yuguo stood there, trying to find some way to bridge the gaping chasm between his mother’s beliefs and the reality of the modern world.

“Now why don’t you just run along and see your little friends,” his mother finished. “Or better yet, why don’t you work on your studies, so you actually can code something even a thousandth as nice as Zhi Li here? Hmm?”

He shook his head, nothing to say, and put one foot in front of the other.

It was as he was leaving the room that Zhi Li spoke to him again.

“Yuguo,” the actress said. Her voice was sweet and light again.

He turned and looked at her, despite his better judgment.

“Have fun with Lee and Wei and the boys.”

The simulacrum smiled at him with its perfect, ruby red lips.

Then the evil bitch winked.

Yuguo felt cold despair take up residence where his heart had been.

Yuguo took the subway to Jiao Tong University and crossed the campus on foot. In the Advanced Computing Building he stopped at his locker and unloaded his phone, his slate, and his watch there. Then he walked to the old chemistry building, took the emergency stairs down three flights and then into a down maze of antiquated hallways until he reached the maintenance door. He knocked the special knock. Knock-pause-knock-knock-knock-pause-knock.