Ramez Naam - Nexus

Neither of them said anything for a time. They sat, hand in hand, and watched the sun rise higher into the sky.

"Let's hope he was right," Sam replied.

It was time to go.

Sam helped Kade down from the wall, put his left arm over her shoulder, helped him hop over to the vehicles, to where Feng was waiting.

Ananda had kept them safe thus far. They'd given their statements to Thai National Intelligence. Ananda had pulled strings to keep them out of jail, out of the hands of the army or the police. That wouldn't last. Even his friendship with the King had limits. It was time to move on.

Sam helped Kade take a seat on the lowered gate of the old pickup. Feng was there. He hugged Sam, and to Kade's surprise, Sam hugged back.

After a long moment, Feng pulled back, kept his hands on her upper arms, looked her in the eye.

"You'll be OK?" he asked.

Sam nodded. "Becker's dead. The UN's in an uproar. There are hearings being scheduled in Washington. They won't come after me for a while. I'm safe for a bit."

Feng nodded. He hugged her again. They held each other for a moment, and then separated.

"Take care of that one," Sam said, gesturing at Kade.

Feng grinned. "You got it."

Kade accepted Feng's help into the bed of the truck. The Chinese ex-soldier tapped on the glass at the rear of the cab, shouted something in Thai, and off they went, on a long and bumpy ride towards the border with Cambodia, and from there to destinations as yet unknown.

Sam watched them go until they rounded a final bend in the mountain road and were lost from sight.

She turned and faced south. There, near a tiny village on the border with Malaysia, there were more children like Mai. That was where her road led now.

She turned back to the east, stared into the dawn. After all these days of rain, the sun felt good on her face. Sam closed her eyes, took a deep breath of the clean morning air, and went to meet her own transport south.

BRIEFING

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT : A Final Thought : Ilyana Alexander

Recorded Sunday February 19th, 2040, 1.18am,

Simonyi Field, California

If you're watching this video, then I haven't been able to reach the net for at least seven days. I'm dead, imprisoned, or disappeared, most likely at the hands of the US government.

My parents brought me to the United States of America when I was ten. They were fleeing the fascism that had taken hold in my native Russia. They chose the US over all other nations because they viewed this country as the world's leading pillar of freedom, of individual liberty.

That was then. This is now.

The "crime" for which I've been disappeared is that of attempting to give people tools with which to empower themselves. In the America of 2040, that's no longer a welcome activity. Our so-called leaders and their bureaucrats have drawn lines around what it means to be "human". Anyone who steps beyond those lines is by definition no longer a person, no longer endowed with inalienable rights, no longer protected from the whims of those in power.

This is the same logic of inhumanity that's been applied in the past to slaves, to women, to Jews, to members of any group which those in power wish to persecute. Every attempt through history to limit the definition of humanity has been a prelude to the subjugation, degradation, and slaughter of innocents. Every one.

By drawing a box around humanity, those in power are telling each of us what we can and can't do with our minds, with our bodies, and in the interests of our children. They're saying that they're smarter than we are, that we need their protection from ourselves.

Needless to say, I disagree.

Power is best when it's distributed most broadly. That's what democracy means. That's what freedom means. The right to determine your individual destiny belongs in your hands, and no one else's.

The laws that limit human capabilities are exercises in control. They stem from fear – fear of the future, fear of change, fear of people who might be different than we are, who might make themselves into something new. The result of this fear is the corrosion of our liberties, the corrosion of our right to determine our own futures, to chart our own destinies, to do the best we can for our children.

That corrosion has consequences. If you're watching this, it's had consequences for me.

Parts of our government are empowered by the Chandler Act and other laws to target, spy on, arrest, jail, and even murder Americans and foreigners accused of taking their destinies in their own hands, in complete secrecy, without a jury, without any due process except one of a handful of National Security Court judges, all of whose names are also secret.

By law, with nothing but the writ of one of a handful of politicians or appointed officials, you can be assassinated, detained, or disappeared.

If you're watching this, then the ERD has used those laws to come for me, to stop me and people I work with from giving others more control over their own minds and bodies.

Tomorrow they may come for someone you know.

The next day they may come for you.

This is no longer America. We've allowed our fear of change to override our adherence to our own most precious values. We've caved on our principles in order to bolster our security. That is not the America I know and love. This is not the America my parents fled Russia to find.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "Those who would sacrifice essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Our fears have led us to make this fool's bargain. I believe we've sacrificed essential liberties. I hope you'll prove me wrong.

If you're watching this, then it's probably too late for me. But

it's not too late for everyone. We don't have to sacrifice freedom for safety. We don't have to give up progress to stop terror. We don't have to hand control over our lives to faceless bureaucrats and secret police.

This video will go out by as many channels as I can find. I'm posting it to servers across the world, just in case. Even so, I don't know if it will reach any of you. If it does, please forward it on. Mask it, mutate it, disguise it. Route around their filters.

We are only as strong as our signal, only as strong as our voices. Don't rely on this message alone. Record your own thoughts. Write your own essays. Express yourself. Fight for what's right. Fight for your right to decide who and what sort of person you're going to be tomorrow, no matter what anyone else thinks.

This is Ilyana Alexander, signing off for the last time. Keep up the fight.

About the Author

Ramez Naam is a professional technologist, and was involved in the development of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Outlook.

He was the CEO of Apex Nanotechnologies, a company involved in developing nanotechnology research software before returning to Microsoft.

He holds a seat on the advisory board of the Institute for Accelerating Change, is a member of the World Future Society, a Senior Associate of the Foresight Institute, and a fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

Ramez is the author of More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement, and is also the recipient of the 2005 HG Wells Award for Contributions to Transhumanism, awarded by the World Transhumanist Association.

Nexus is his first novel.

rameznaam.com

twitter.com/ramez

Extras

The Science of Nexus

This book is a work of fiction. But to the best of my abilities, the science described in the science fiction is fully accurate. While the idea of a technology like Nexus that allows people to communicate mind-to-mind may seem far-fetched, precursors of that technology are here today.