[The cover image is from the 1989 horror movie „The Haunted House and the Bodyless Beauty“ (Xiongzhai meiren tou 凶宅美人头) by Hu Qingshi and Liu Yichuan.]
Chapter 8: The Great Hall of the People
After the news broke that six people had been revived inside a computer, the entire world got so excited that nobody rested for two nights straight.
Once everybody had calmed down, the realization sunk in that science had given humanity a new form of existence. But this also raised a series of frightening social issues, which pertained to every aspect of human society. Their sudden emergence and great number were unprecedented in history. In response to this serious challenge an unscheduled 175th People’s Congress was convened.
When the holder of the highest office entered the main building of the Great Hall of the People, most of the government members had already arrived and were neatly seated on the podium. She walked to her seat in the front row, sat down and looked around the building, which was nearly as old as the Republic itself. It had not changed in 200 years, with the only exception that the leaders of the Republic on the podium weren’t facing the unilluminated mass of the people’s representatives anymore. All they could see nowadays were rows and rows of old-fashioned eats. Except for the people on the podium, the entire conference hall was empty. The lights surrounding the five red stars on the ceiling illuminated a silent room. In contrast to the busy city outside, the time inside seemed to flow calmly. Within the walls of this huge space the constantly revolving world seemed to silently contemplate something. The solemn walls and the worn-down arm rests of the seats seemed to recount all the hardships of the last 200 years, giving the room the atmosphere of a bygone era.
A soft bell rang at exactly 8 o’clock. Evening had arrived and the People’s Congress commenced.
The high ceiling lights of the main conference hall went out and the lights on the podium were dimmed down. However, the seat rows remained clearly visible. But suddenly something that looked like mist ascended gradually from between the seats, slightly obscuring their outlines. Everything else inside the conference hall then underwent the same transformation.
Finally, beginning with the bottom row, everything vanished into an endless blue and black space, as if the massive conference hall had sunken deep into the ocean. As the room turned even darker, stars appeared in the vast darkness. Then our planet emerged in the room. Earth was beautiful, like a crystal ball lit by a blue light and suspended in the endless sea of the universe. Swirling bands of snow-white clouds on its surface made its beauty even more alluring. The planet looked so fragile, as if one touch could shatter it and let its azure blue color leak into the emptiness of outer space. This was a holographic image taken from the Yuhai Base on the moon. Zooming in on the blue crystal, its image gradually became bigger until it filled up the entire space. Soon the people on the podium could make out the coastlines. The continent of Asia appeared in the distance. A meandering red line lit up on the gray landmass, outlining the borders and coastlines of this ancient country of the East. At this point, it was possible to make out the wrinkly mountain ranges and vain-like rivers. Finally, the country’s territory filled the entire room, but its high mountains and large rivers had been replaced by a uniform blue surface, which was divided by dark blue lines into administrative areas. The holographic image of the national territory was so big that the people on the podium looked like tiny ants in comparison.
The image of this large country was composed of nearly two billion pixels, which each represented a citizen of the Republic. Despite being in constant flux, most of the projection’s changes were invisible to the naked eye: In some places a pixel vanished, indicating that a citizen had died, while in other parts a new pixel was squeezed in, marking the location where a child had just reached the age of citizenship.
The two billion pixels of the image were controlled by the country’s 800 million computer terminals and microcomputers. These 800 million terminals were found in every corner of the country. Some of them were in the study, in the living room, on moving cars, beside the housewives’ electric stove or in remote village inns. To avoid the people’s working hours as much as possible, the People’s Congress was held in the evening. At that time of the day, almost all of the two billion people were using one of the 800 million terminals, as they were mostly located inside homes. The information of the 800 million terminals was then sent to Beijing through the national computer network, which covered a territory of 9.6 million square kilometers. From there everything went into a giant supercomputer that was located inside the National Information Center 150 meters underneath the Great Hall of the People. This giant computer transformed the incoming information into a holographic image which was projected to the Republic’s leaders. Flowing towards the capital through more than ten million network hubs and fifty-eight communication satellites, the information of these 800 million terminals arrived via various methods of communication such as microwave transmission and fiber-optic cables.
Eighty-six buffer stations that were located throughout the city of Beijing took all this information in. More than one hundred large computers processed the information at high speed and compressed it into separate strings for transmission. This reduced the number of channels by one order of magnitude. This compacted information was then scanned again by five secondary buffer stations within Beijing to reduce the number of channels even further.
After being compressed, these 800 million parallel information streams finally reached the central computer underneath the Great Hall of the People. The central computer was made up of five massive “Milky Way” computers. These five computers built the center of the modern large-scale Information Center 150 meters underneath the Great Hall of the People. Using the information of two billion people, this center generated the holographic image of the country’s territory in the main conference hall.
The computer system of the People’s Congress was the largest and most complex in this world, a technological and political wonder of this century. There were two types of People’s Congresses: scheduled and unscheduled. If the state required it, an unscheduled Congress could be convened at any time. In the fifties of this century an emergency People’s Congress was convened after a market crash. As soon as the decision was taken to hold a People’s Congress, it only took thirty minutes until the meeting started! In this short time, the entire country was transformed into a Congress that enabled two billion people to directly communicate with the country’s top leaders. This way, each important policy decision of the country could be negotiated with the entire populace over a very short time period. A scheduled People’s Congress lasted for five days, while the un-scheduled Congresses were usually short, sometimes only consisting of a referendum, with a meeting time of only about ten minutes. In certain cases, up to three or four irregular People’s Congresses could be held in one day.
The holder of the highest office walked up onto the platform in front of the podium. She stood there bathed in red stage light from above. In comparison to the huge map of the country she was just a tiny red speck. Two billion people watched her through the computer screens. She also looked at the two billion people through the image of the country that towered in front of her as tall as the Himalayan mountain range.
She announced the beginning of the meeting.
Chinese and Esperanto text appeared in red on the image of the country.
The management software of the People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China has booted up.
The national computer network is working properly.
The computer system of the People’s Congress has completed self-diagnostics. The first level of the buffer network is working properly. The second level of the buffer network is working properly. The network of the central computer is working properly. The holographic image generation system is working properly. The backup disc network is working properly.
Presently there are 802674239 terminals (of which 269731120 are various microcomputers) connected to the central computer. Now every terminal will undergo four communication tests (parity check, multi-code check, constant ratio check, hamming code check), please wait…
Central computer and terminal communication tests are completed. Of the 802674239 terminals 802674063 have passed the test. 176 terminals have an erroneous bitrate greater than the RD001 standard, their participation in the meeting has been denied. The citizens using these terminals have been notified to switch to another terminal in proximity.
All citizens of the People’s Republic of China participating in the meeting are asked to insert their identity disk into the terminal, thank you.
Please wait, until your legal status is verified.
2009268321 identity disks have been examined, of which 2009207413 have been verified as legal identity disks of citizens of the People’s Republic of China. 60908 are not legal identity disks of citizens of the People’s Republic of China. The operators of the terminals with the numbers * are asked to withdraw from the meeting.
The number of legal citizens attending the meeting is over 99% of the total population of the People’s Republic of China. In accordance with the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, the 175th Extraordinary People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China is officially formed.
The extraordinary meetings of the People’s Congress were usually a dialogue and this time was no exception. Now the dialogue between the highest Representative of the Republic and the entire population began and this in no way only had symbolic meaning: It was a genuine dialogue.
The highest representative first announced the following:
First order of business: The committee meeting in power decided that all grade AAA classified information concerning the six revived individuals is hereby declassified, but also that all information concerning molecular-level 3-D holographic scanning technology and technology that produces emulation software is hereby classified as grade AAA information.
Second order of business: Concerning the problem that occurred after this year’s official announcement number 237: most of the relatives of the deceased refuse to cremate the bodies, they refuse to accept the death certificate and request legal protection of the body. The government committee issues following resolution: It is permitted to apply conservation methods to the brains of registered dead citizens, but the other parts of the body must be cremated as required by law. Until the law is revised by the next regular People’s Congress, the existing law’s definition of death is still valid, and the only legal protection it can provide to the brain of the deceased is as a property of the relatives.
The reactions of the two billion participants were swiftly gathered from all over the wide territory and collected by the central computer. This time one and a half billion people provided their opinion and one and a half billion speech patterns rushed into the memory device of the central computer. The “Milky Way” supercomputer had to process an unimaginable amount of information in just a few seconds. 150 meters below the surface in the quiet and brightly lit machine room the control light of the “Milky Way” flashed intensely. In a room separate from the main machine room, the cooling units operated at their highest capacity and pumped large amounts of liquid helium into the computer’s control center. This enabled the superconducting integrated circuits to continue operating at ultra-low temperatures. Inside the computer a typhoon of high-frequency electric signals circulated through the superconducting integrated circuits in a constant ebb and flow of zeros and ones. The flood of information coming in from the outside through millions of data interfaces quickly hit a barrier of hundreds of millions of lines of program code, from where it bounced back only to collide with another dam. If we could shrink ourselves down to a millionth of our current size to enter this world, the first thing one would see would be an astonishingly chaotic scene: On the surface of the silicon membrane one hundred million data torrents were flying at the speed of light through metal channels with a width of only a few Angstroms . At countless points they converged, diverged, and intertwined to create new torrents that formed an endlessly complex web on top of the silicon surface. There were data fragments everywhere and address codes that shot in all directions like arrows. Above all of this floated a control program with countless transparent tentacles, which threw segments of alteration code into the roaring ocean of data. When an odd number interrupted the deadly silence of the electric desert of the storage unit, a huge mushroom cloud of electric signals formed. Like a jolt of lightning programming code pierced through the data thunderstorm, in search of heavier charged raindrops. But it was also an amazingly orderly world. As soon as the data floods passed through the indexing grid, the scenery suddenly became a clear and calm lake. Sorting units roamed like ghosts through the data snow storm, arranging the snowflakes within a split second into infinite strings, which then floated along a flashing laser beam onto a compact disc. If one water molecule inside of this giant data storm were out of place or a zero mistaken for a one or a one for a zero, this entire world collapse! It was an empire of electric signals that in the blink of an eye lived through hundreds of dynasties! But from the outside this empire consisted only of five semicircular cylinders, separated by tall monitoring screens made of glass. Their cold light gave the walls a blueish shimmer. It all appeared so peaceful. Nobody would have guessed that, within these five cylinders, there was such an incredibly turbulent world. Inside the computer room there were only two young women, who were dressed in snow-white lab coats. They were standing in front of a row of surveillance monitors, talking quietly and giggling from time to time.
The first task of the central computer was to create a backup of the information that was coming in from everywhere in the country. If this information had been recorded the traditional way with paper, the Great Hall of the People would have quickly been stuffed with paper up to the ceiling. But nowadays this huge amount of information could be stored on two book-sized, a couple of decagrams heavy storage discs. After each meeting five copies of the disc were made, one for each national archive. By entering their identification code, each citizen could access these archives to look up their statements from previous years.
The second task was much more difficult. The supercomputer had to summarize and evaluate the collected information, before it could convert the voices and opinions of two billion people into a dozen statements, which were then presented to the highest representative. The software used for this process was extremely important and both the state and the people treated it with the same reverence as the constitution. How detailed the evaluation had to be depended on the situation and there were one hundred precision levels. Most of the time, the first precision level was used, but when a certain level of difference in opinion occurred a higher precision level was employed. Around level ten the exported information already consisted of a couple of hundred thousand characters. Level one hundred was completely unrealistic, because this precision level preserved the original wording of each citizen’s statement. Even if each statement were only displayed for one second, it would still take more than sixty years to work through them all. In fact, anything more than level fifty and the state would be unable to function.
The third task was to visually represent the people’s attitudes on the holographic image of the national territory. Every pixel could be a different color, depending on attitude or feeling: if the pixel was green, the citizen held a positive or affirmative attitude, if it was red it meant negative attitude or opposition, yellow meant happy, black meant sad, gray meant skeptical, purple meant angry, white meant disappointed, blue meant undecided…. Among the pixels with the same color, it was possible to distinguish different degrees of conviction or emotion by the force and the intensity of the glow. The light emission of each pixel could be directly controlled via keyboard. The engineers and sociologist that constructed this enormous system, were surprised to find that everybody, no matter what age or class, quickly learned this color system. This simple method to transmit the views and feelings of the entire population to the highest representative was very accurate and distinct, but at the same time also baffling! The fact that two billion people on a territory of more than 9’600’000 km2 simultaneously controlled a huge holographic projection, made the concept of a people as intuitive and clear as never before. To stand in front of this ocean of two billion lights, was a humbling experience for anyone, who was in the position of the country’s leader. It was also a difficult place to be. For the holder of the highest office and the other politicians, a projection emitting a soft green light was like heaven, whereas a deep red sea of fire was their hell.
At this moment, the holder of the highest office saw her personal “heaven” appear as a prairie of emerald green s with occasional speckles of red stretched out in front of her. The supercomputer projected the aggregated opinion of the two billion people onto this prairie with big red letters:
„The hasty introduction of major achievements in natural science and technology into unprepared societies may disrupt the sensitive balance of modern society and cause unpredictable consequences. This is especially significant with technologies and science concerning man himself. The social turmoil caused by the developments in single cell reproduction in the nineties of the last century have taught us that painful lesson. That’s why we believe that at this stage the state must firmly regulate the use of this technology, in other words, we believe the governments assessment to classify this information as grade AAA to be correct and wise. In our aging society all the laws and regulation concerning the limits of life and death must be treated with extreme caution, as long as we don’t know the effects of changes to these kinds of articles, it is only right of the government to maintain the status quo.”
“But we also believe that the current situation cannot remain unchanged for too long, otherwise latent social problems will grower larger and this could even lead to a social crisis. Therefore, the government should find a way to introduce this new technology into society in a feasible way. This is a task of unprecedented difficulty and the people are fully aware of this. That’s why we say, ‘feasible way’ and not ‘best way’. In the face of this immense challenge and opportunity, the country and people will undoubtedly go through trial periods and will also have to take some risks.”
(Other opinions do not have the percentages required by the current precision level and are not displayed)
“Thank you, I had really hoped that today’s meeting would go so splendidly.” Still standing inside the red beam of light, a smile appeared on the face of the president. The projection of the country then quickly changed into a bright yellow and a new statement was displayed: “Now you should give us two billion birthday cakes and bottles of wine, so we can celebrate humanity’s second birth.”
(This information consisted of 100 analyzed speech patterns, the remaining 1,3 billion speech patterns were widely distributed and could not be summarized.)
„I can’t do that, but you can’t blame me. The alcohol restriction law was passed here six months ago.“ The yellow light of the projection flickered.
“Let’s continue. Yesterday the Supreme People’s Court finalized the identification of the six resurrected. It legally confirmed the results and gave all six the citizenship of the People’s Republic of China. We would like to discuss how the government should handle matters concerning the resurrected from here on out.”
A cacophony of colors appeared on the projection.
„Since the Republic recognizes by law their citizenship, it should give them all the rights accorded to citizens. We don’t think they have these rights now, or even the minimum citizen rights! Citizens have the right to move freely in their own living environment. Our living environment is the territory of this country, on which we are free to move. Wherever we want to go, we can go.
The living environment of those six resurrected people is the computer world. For them, the territory of their country is the entire computer network of this country. But can these six legitimate citizens of the Republic now walk freely on their own land? They can’t! They are not allowed to enter the main network at all. Their activities are currently limited to one computer isolated from the national computer network in a top-secret facility. What is this? This is illegal house arrest, a violation of their personal rights as citizens! Because of the particularity of this incident, it was understandable for the government to do so in the past, but now, it is time to immediately let the six resurrected people enter the national computer network. “
(25% of citizens held the above view.)
„A simple analogy between the national computer network and the national territory is not permissible. China’s industry, agriculture, national defence, transportation, scientific research and many other fields all run on this computer network. This network is an extremely large, complex and precise system. This sophisticated system is the country’s nervous system and plays an important role both in the survival of the country and its day to day business. The existence of the six resurrected people is based on an extremely complex code that human beings have never seen before. At present, the research on this kind of software has just begun, and human technology is unable to control it. It is extremely imprudent to input such complex self-generating software into the computer network, on which our society relies for survival! When it comes to human rights, there is no absolute freedom. Even in the territory of the Republic, you can’t just go wherever you want to. Ordinary citizens have no right to access facilities such as the national nuclear base. Infectious patients and mental patients are sometimes isolated against their will. When it comes to this new form of human existence, we should therefore be cautious and prudent. Careless and rash behaviour is dangerous! “
(73% of citizens held the above view.)
„Watch what you say! You are working off the assumption that these legitimate citizens of the Republic will commit a crime, which is also a violation of their human rights. As for the nuclear base, you should know that the nuclear base is a closed system with a small scope, while the environment, in which ordinary citizens live, is an open system with a large scope. What the government is doing to the resurrected is the opposite. They confine six citizens to a narrow and closed system, preventing them from entering the open environment that constitutes the main body of society — the computer network. “
(21% of citizens held the above view.)
„When expressing your views, you like to cite the letter of the law, so let me ask you this: Is there a precedent regarding ‘closed systems‘ and ‚open environments‘ in the laws of the Republic? However, the law clearly states that the government has the right to control important national facilities. In the physical world of real people, the State can restrict citizens’ access to secret facilities such as nuclear bases to ensure national security. This means that the state also has the right to enlarge the restricted access zones within the computer network, where the resurrected live. When weighing civil liberties against social security, the law does not set any clear parameters. The only criterion for the scope of secret facilities is the safety of society and the interests of the People.
(74% of citizens held the above view.)
Usually, it was rush hour at this time of day, but tonight, the streets of the capital were empty, and only unmanned patrol police cars quietly passing by. In every household of the cities high-rise residencies the people gathered around a computer terminal; at the supermarkets, there would maybe be one or two customers, who abandoned their shopping carts to access a computer terminal by the exit; in the small bars, groups of young people crowded in front of computers with their already emptied beer glasses. If there was a terminal with a high-resolution voice recognition device, the bar would be full of noise with all the young people expressing their opinions at the same time. The computer would then separate individual opinions before sending the information on to the central computer. But if there was only one keyboard, people would keep tearing it out of each other’s hands. In places like these the proceedings of the Convention were audibly reflected both in loud cheers and swearing. The parks were completely silent, but even the lovers hiding in the woods were leaning over mini wireless terminals.
On the screen of the central control room of the information centre underneath the great hall green waves of information were flowing towards Beijing – a lonely island in the national information ocean that would soon be swallowed by these massive waves.
Because of an information overload, the two „Milky Way“ computers put into operation in the centre slowed down and finally issued an alarm to the central control room. Engineers quickly gathered around the console and put the remaining three “Milky Way” supercomputers into operation. The atmosphere in the control room of the primary and secondary buffer stations was tense, and the buffer network were in urgent need of more resources. Eleven mega-computers from the central meteorological station, Tsinghua University, the Ministry of Space and the staff manager were added to the buffer network alongside an even greater number of medium-sized computers.
The situation at the people’s Congress was moving in the direction the leaders of the Republic had hoped for. Facing the massive holographic image of the country, the holder of the highest office felt a deep sense of pride. It is in moments like these that even the wisest leader may subconsciously think that he (she) is steering the course of history, if the people fail to raise important issues.
That very moment the people indeed brought up an issue.
„Excuse me, are the six resurrected people currently in attendance?“
(This question had already been brought up at the beginning of the meeting, but now the total number of people asking exceeded 80%.)
The question made her very uncomfortable, but now it was being raised by 1.5 billion people.
„There are a lot of citizens, such as workers in important positions of industry and national defence, who are not able to participate in this meeting. After the meeting, the ruling committee will provide them with compensation opportunities according to the Constitution. At this moment the total number of participants is greater than the statutory minimum. Shall I continue to the next topic?“
„No! You are not as good at avoiding questions as your predecessor. Please answer our question! “
(60% of citizens interrupted you and 90% insisted on a direct answer.)
„They are not in attendance.“
„Why?“ “
(90% of citizens asked this question.)
„If they participate in the People’s Congress, the six resurrected people must have access to the national network.“
„What?! Does this mean that the government not only forbids these six citizens to enter the main network, but also forbids any line of communication? In other words, they do not only not have access to the main network, but are also prohibited from sending messages? “
(70% of citizens asked this question.)
„This is the decision of the Governing Council. To send a message, they would require access to the main network, and we would have to rely on their promise not to enter it. Of course, they have made such a promise in the past, but I still agree with the decision of the Governing Council. I admit that there is no legal basis for this, but the existing law is not equipped to deal with a complex situation that human beings have never seen before. Please remember that the main network is the network of our country. We should be careful, friends! “
Purple lights of anger flashed across the holographic image.
You can talk like that to your friends, but we are the citizens of this country. We understand that you do not want to give the resurrected permanent access to the national network, but since the six have agreed to obey the orders of the country’s institutions, they should be granted temporary access and even temporary entry to the main network. You and the members of the council have unlawfully denied six citizens of the Republics the right to participate in the People’s Council. This is a gross violation of the Constitution of the Republic!
(50% of citizens held the above views.)
„Dear leader and comrade, your actions display not only distrust towards six citizens, but also a distrust towards the entire Republic! Is our country with its 230 years old history so fragile that it can break like a thin piece of ice? “
(70% of citizens held the above view.)
„I admit that when I took over the highest office of the Republic five years ago, it was like taking over a thin piece of ice. History has proven the strength of our country, but in this rapidly changing world, history also teaches us that a country sometimes needs a leader who treats it like a thin piece of ice – a piece of ice that she will protect even with her life. “
„Is that why you are acting unconstitutional? Please let them immediately access the main network! “
(50% of citizens held the above views.)
„This is a resolution of the Governing Council meeting, and I cannot just do as you say.“
„We ask again!“
(50% of citizens held the above view.)
„I say no again! Well, when can we have a meeting without a fight?“
„You are becoming more and more arbitrary, too irrelevant, where has the democratic style of the last governor gone?“
(62% of citizens held the above view.)
„Don’t forget, you also complained about that great leader! Ah, I am sorry, stop flashing so horribly purple! It is enough for me to know your opinion! How strong do you think my nerves are? I’m begging you. Please stop flashing your purple lights, okay? Oh my god, why don’t you elect a robot the next time?”
„We demand a vote! Hey, you knocked down your script.“
(92% of citizens held the above view.)
„Thank you.“ She bent over and picked up the manuscript.
A vote could take place at any time. Certain votes did not directly affect government policy as they functioned mainly as a tool to gather people’s opinions, but the Constitution also guaranteed that in certain matters government decisions could be overruled.
Two billion people typed at this moment “Y“ (agree), „N“ (disagree) or „O“ (abstention). The country’s image turned a pale blue while the computers were calculating the results.
Heavily breathing and with sweat running down her forehead the holder of the highest office opened her collar with her right hand. Her sixth sense told her, that this summer evening something dangerous had silently approached the Republic. It turned out to be the most frightening moment of her time in office as well as of her lifetime. To her it felt as if a sword of Damocles, suspended from a fine thread of silk, was hanging over her head. All former holders of the highest office had faced scary situations like this, but they managed to bury their feeling of fear deep inside. This in turn gave the people the impression that they were somehow superhuman. She, however, was not like that. Even though she had the strength, to conceal her fear, she didn’t hide it, because the people nowadays didn’t require her to do so anymore. The people that depended on leaders with superhuman strength were long gone and now they understood that the important thing in a pyramid of command was the base not the top. What they needed was a strong leader, not a deity. Now that she looked like a frightened child staring at an imaginary monster, the people felt sympathetic towards her, but still did not doubt her ability to handle the task. On the contrary, they thought that her honesty was a sign of strength. They liked how she genuinely lay bare her innermost feelings. They wanted to reassure the holder of the highest office:
“Dear holder of the highest office: wipe off the sweat on your forehead. We see that you are in a tight spot, but there is no need to be so nervous. For as long as we are here, the sky will not fall on our heads, so there is nothing to fear!
(98% of the people consoled her)
She gently wiped a strand of hair sticking to her forehead out of her sweaty face and gave them an appreciative smile. “Thank you! Because you all are here, China will not fall. At the same time, I am aware that only a few people have experienced this kind of crisis before. If I look ridiculous today, feel free to laugh. This would be the best outcome. But if there is indeed a disaster, please forgive me. I have done everything in my power and now I can only tell you this from the depths of my heart: My people, I love you! Be careful!”
She almost lost her composure shouting something that Chekhov had formulated more than three hundred years ago. At that moment she was reminded of his profound warning:
“Child, any situation requires authority, otherwise the people will suffer.”
The voting results started to appear on the image of the country’s map, where red, blue and green dots mixed. From the dots alone it was not possible to discern which faction had won, but the numbers settled the matter:
Number of votes: 2009268321 people.
Number of positive votes: 1032536869 people, which are 51.3887% of the votes.
Number of negative votes: 976726831 people, which are 48.6090% of the votes.
Number of abstaining votes: 4621 people, which are 0.0023% of the votes.
According the results, the six citizens are permitted to take part in the People’s Congress.
Somewhere, in the control room of an earthquake safe base a lieutenant on duty carried out the command that the holder of the highest office had just issued and flipped the switch that connected the hardware of the core computer with the nation’s computer network. After that the lieutenant typed in a command on the keyboard to start an interface sequence that established a connection to the nation’s network.
“We are sorry, but you are only allowed to send information to the central computer, please do not cross the interface to enter the network outside,” said the lieutenant to the six people by typing the words.
“Don’t worry, child. We won’t go anywhere. We’ve already seen everything while we were alive.” Answered one of the six, an old man.
“Aren’t you alive now?” The lieutenant asked with a polite smile.
On the projection of the territory in the great hall six deep blue spot appeared around Beijing, indicating the location of the resurrected.
It was 20:05 on June 25, 2185, and the lid of pandora’s box had been opened.
The People’s Congress continued, and the highest representative conveyed to the people the resolutions of yesterday’s Party Congress. The Party Congress had taken place at the same time the night before, and it had also used the national computer network, but it was smaller than the People’s Congress. The holographic image that was projected in the main hall wasn’t China’s territory, but rather a red party flag consisting of 70 million pixels. The Party Congress decided that at the next ordinary meeting of the People’s Congress the six resurrected would not be recommended as officials or highest representative. 2.1 billion people unanimously responded to this resolution.
“We think this decision is correct. Firstly, on a theoretical level, if such an existence were to be the highest representative, it could easily expand its power and it would be difficult to effectively control its actions. And on an emotional level, we want a leader who is made of flesh and bone like the highest representative standing in front of us today and not some superhuman being made out of electrical impulses.”
(93% of citizens hold the above view)
„However, the resurrected are truly extraordinary. They have endless energy, extensive knowledge, and capabilities that many real people do not have. If at today’s congress for example, the highest representative had been a pulsar, there would have been no need for a software that evaluates and summarizes speech patterns, because a pulsar can listen to each citizen without missing a word. But we’re speaking hypothetically here. The highest representative should not mistake our comments as a request for her to become a pulsar! We like her far better than them! Likely, the future society of the pulsars inside the integrated circuits and the real people will coexist, which makes the appointment of a pulsar leader inevitable. Of course, it is also possible that the Constitution of the Republic will one day stipulate that the highest representative must be a pulsar. But that is a matter that future generations must worry about. For now, we would like to say to the highest representative in front of us, we like you!
(54% of citizens hold the above view)
As soon as the projection of the voices of two billion people had concluded, the greatest disaster of this century occurred.