21/28 December 2019 | New Scientist | 39Sure enough, the chief says,
today, he wants to talk about
the “intolerable” conduct of
some of the staff. I don’t look
at Hadron, but I know he’s in
trouble. The chief, however,
says someone else’s name.
“Liu Wei, according to
reliable sources, you joined
the IT Republic?”
Liu Wei nodded, as self-
assured as Louis XVI walking
to the guillotine. “This has
nothing to do with work. I don’t
want work interfering with my
personal freedoms.”
The chief sternly shook his
head. He thrust a finger at Liu Wei.
“Very few things have nothing
to do with work. Don’t bring
your cherished university ideals
into the workplace. If a country
can condemn its president
on main street, that’s called
democracy. However, if everyone
disobeys their boss, then this
country will collapse.”
“The virtual nation is about
to be recognised.”
“Recognised by whom? The
United Nations? Or a world power?
Stop dreaming.”
The chief didn’t put much faith
in his last sentence. The territory
human society owns is divided
into two parts. One part is everycontinent and island on Earth. The
other part is cyberspace.
The latter recapitulated human
history at a hundred times the
speed. In cyberspace, after tens of
years of a disorganised Stone Age,
nations emerged as a matter of
course. Virtual nations chiefly
stem from two sources. The first is
every sort of bulletin board system
aggregated together. The second
is massively multi-player online
games. Virtual nations have heads
of state and legislatures similar
to those of physical nations. They
even have online armed forces.
Their borders and citizenships
are not like physical nations.
Virtual nations chiefly take belief,
virtue and occupation as their
organising principles. Citizens
of every virtual nation are spread
all over the world. Virtual nations,
with a combined population of
over 2 billion, established a virtual
United Nations comparable to
the physical one. It’s a huge
political entity that overlaps
the traditional nations.
The IT Republic is a superpower
in the virtual world. Its population
is 80 million and still rapidly
growing. The country is composed
mostly of IT professionals, and
makes aggressive political
demands. It also has formidable
power against the physical world.
I don’t know what Liu Wei’s
citizenship is. They say that the
head of the IT Republic is an
ordinary employee of some IT
company. Conversely, more than
one head of a physical nation has
been exposed as an ordinary
citizen of a virtual nation.
The chief gives everyone on
our team a stern warning. No
one can have a second nationality.
He allows Liu Wei to go to the
president’s office, then he ends
the meeting. We haven’t even
risen from our seats when Zheng
Lili, who had stayed at her deskBook
To Hold Up the Sky
Cixin Liu
Head of Zeus
Liu’s collection of 11 new
stories will appear in English
translation in 2020>