40 | New Scientist | 21/28 December 2019Liu Wei says, glancing at the
network switch at a corner of
the office.
The office network isn’t
connected to the outside world.
Zheng Lili’s laptop is sitting on
the switch, acting as a server.
That bitch! She must have gone
to a lot of trouble to pull off this
April Fool’s joke, most of it to
produce that news footage.
An in-house designer, though,
could have used 3D software to
produce that footage. It wouldn’t
have been that hard.
Others obviously don’t think
Zheng Lili’s joke went too far.
“Oh, come on,” Hadron says to
me. “Practical jokes are supposed
to raise the hair on your neck if
they’re being done right. What’s
there to be afraid of?” He points
at the executives upstairs.
I break into a cold sweat,
wondering whether he suspects
anything because of my reaction
to Zheng Lili’s prank. Can he seeViews Culture
during the meeting, lets out a
head-splitting scream. Something
horrible has happened. We rush to
turn on the news.
Back at my desk I pull up a news
site. A broadcast is streaming on
the homepage, the newsreader is
in a daze. He announces that the
United Nations has voted down
Resolution 3617. That was the IT
Republic’s request for diplomatic
recognition. It had passed the
Security Council. In response,
the IT Republic has declared
war against the physical world.
It began attacking the world’s
financial systems half an hour ago.
I look at Liu Wei. This seems to
have surprised him, too.The picture changes to that of
a large city, a bird’s eye view of a
street of tall buildings, and a
traffic jam. People stream out
of cars and buildings. It’s like the
aftermath of an earthquake. The
shot cuts to a large supermarket.
A crowd pushes in like the tide.
Madly, they scramble for cans
and packages of food. Row after
row of shelves shake and crash
into each other, like sandbars
broken up by a tidal wave...
“What’s happening?” I ask,
terrified.
“You still don’t understand?”
Zheng Lili asks. “There’s no rich
or poor any more. Everyone is
penniless. Steal or you won’t eat!”
Of course, I understand,
but I don’t dare to believe this
nightmare is real. Coins and paper
money stopped circulating three
years ago. Even buying a pack of
cigarettes from a kiosk on the
side of the street requires a card
reader. In this total information
age, what is wealth? Ultimately, it’s
no more than strands of pulses
and magnetic marks inside
computer storage. As far as this
grand office building is concerned,
if the electronic records in relevantdepartments are deleted, even
though a company holds title
deeds, no one will recognise its
property rights. What is money?
Money isn’t worth shit. Money is
just a strand of electromagnetic
marks even smaller than bacteria
and pulses that disappear in a
flash. As far as the IT Republic is
concerned, close to half the IT
workers in the physical world are
its citizens. Erasing those marks
is extremely easy.
Programmers, network
engineers and database managers
form the main body of the IT
Republic. They are a 21st-century
revival of the 19th-century
industrial army, except physical
labour is now mental labour, and
gets more and more difficult.
They work with code as indistinct
as thick fog and labyrinthine
network hardware and software.
Like dock workers from 200 years
ago, they bear a heavy load on
their backs.
Information technology
advances in great strides. Except
for those lucky enough to climb
into management, everyone’s
knowledge and skills grow
obsolete quickly. New IT graduates
pour in like hungry termites. The
old workers (not actually old, most
are just over 30) are forced to the
side, replaced and abandoned.
The newcomers, though, don’t
last long either. The vast majority
of them don’t have long-term
prospects... This class is known
as the technology proletariat.
Do not say that we own not a
thing. We’re about to reformat the
world! This is a corrupt version of
The Internationale.
A thought strikes me like
lightning. Oh, no. My money,
which doesn’t belong to me but
will buy me over 200 years of life,
will it be deleted? But if everything
will be reformatted, won’t the
result be the same? My money,
my Gene Extension, my dreams...
It grows dark before my eyes. My
chest grows tight and I stumble
away from my desk.
Zheng Lili laughs then, and I
stop. She stands near me.
“Happy April Fool’s Day,” a soberthrough me? But even that’s not
my biggest worry.
Reformatting the world, is that
really just the mad ravings of IT
Republic extremists? Is this really
just an April Fool’s joke? How long
can the hair that suspends the
sword last?
In an instant, like a bright light
driving away the dark, my doubt
is gone. I have decided.
I ask Jian Jian to meet me this
evening. When I see her against
the backdrop of a sea of the city’s
street lamps, my hard heart
softens again. She seems so
delicate, like a candle flame that
can be snuffed out by the slightest
breeze. How can I hurt her? As she
comes closer and I can see her
eyes, the scales in my heart have
already tilted completely to the
other side. Without her, what
do I even want those 200-plus
years for? Will time truly heal
all wounds? It could simply
be two centuries of non-stop“ Practical jokes are
supposed to raise the
hair on your neck.
What’s there to be
afraid of?”GETT
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