Before: Elections
Legislative, executive and judicial power are the three pillars and the defining foundation of a state system. This has been the case for thousands of years.
Society is inherently a human structure, and as such it is always gravitating towards the leader. A leader who knows what and how to do, who is ready to take responsibility for complex, difficult decisions, and can fulfil his obligations. People are ready to trust a leader who is able not only to lead in times of crisis and instability, appealing to the duty of the future generations. A leader who is ready to start a sequence of changes to determine fundamental revision and upgrade of the vertical power structure. A structure designed for a new stage of society’s development, even if such changes will bring into question the need of fulfilling his own public duties. Impartial, experienced and wise, ready to serve—a leader capable of leading his country to the threshold of a new world.
By the end of the 21st century, humanity came to understanding the need for global reforms of the state system: otherwise, without introducing changes it would have been impossible to further develop society. At the beginning of the last century, the first signs of degradation of the world order model that had dominated the planet for more than a century became obvious. These signals were not noticed by the majority of political elites, and those who understood the potential of arising changes, deliberately ignored them and, moreover, made active efforts to conceal the first symptoms of the serious illness coming. In fact, the clan or block model, which implied states united into groups guarding only each other’s interests, ceased to be effective. The European Union, the United States of America, the Union of South American States, the Eurasian Union, the key members of which were Russia, China and India, and many other, created poles of power—political, military and economic. The world was multipolar, on the one hand, providing a competitive space that positively determined vectors of development in any sphere of human activity, but, on the other, endless struggle was taking up too many resources.
Scientific potential, like any other creative asset, is strong and grows stronger when an environment is created for the community of scientists, implying no restrictions and barriers for exchange of ideas, with the possibility of a specialist’s participation in a particular project dependent only on the knowledge and intelligence, but not on speculative considerations of the current key of communication between politicians at the state-to-state level.
When politicians, and government on the whole, are misled and lose themselves in the realities of the world, going to extremes in their cognitive distortion, when civil servants begin to perceive the illusions they have created themselves about their purpose as defining development vector of the society, forgetting about their real function of service, there appears an irresistible potential for change. Body ulcers have boundary outcome scenarios—they will burst from the inside due to the excessive pressure created by the environment, they can be removed in a timely manner by qualified personnel or, spreading more and more actively, the destructive process will go irreversibly.
Each decade rapidly flying away, there was less and less doubt left about the need for changes. Understanding the very right plan for big changes was made even more complicated by the ecological and demographic crises. Every one of them increasingly accelerated the centrifugal force of each other, ready to spin away off its own axis and smash everything around, putting the final point in the long-running dispute of a human, always supposed to be in the centre of everything, against the audience unwittingly gathered on the main and the only scene. The population of the planet was getting younger and grew older, peaked up, creating new extremes, and was falling into the demographic abyss in such a fragmented way—from the insane bursts in Africa and the young Antarctica, which had been increasingly gaining strength, to the finally surrendered Europe and North America. The abyss was so fragmented that the agenda of any political elites’ discussion was reduced primarily to working out effective proposals aiming at finding a fundamental resolution of this situation of deep crisis.
The demographic gap and the environmental imbalance, which had become catastrophic, were not the only triggers of a major changes plan.
In 2075, there lived over 13 billion people on the Earth, and their vital activity required more and more resources every day. These challenges had ceased to be hypothetical—somewhere, once upon a time, our future generations… No, it was literally happening there and at the time. Overpopulation, air pollution, a sharp decline in animal species, rising temperatures, rising ocean levels, a shortage of clean fresh water, food supply disruptions in some regions of the world…—they were existential challenges.
Large financial and technological resources were still concentrated in the Old and New Worlds, as Europe and North America were once called. But the scientific potential was already making its way along the new path of development, like a vine reaching for the light, despite obstacles and obstructions. China, India and Russia—the union of the three states led the development of breakthrough technologies, aiming at radical redefining of the world order. Quantum computing systems, ultra-high-speed communication lines and research in the field of medicine were in the focus of the best scientific forces of the leading countries of the Eurasian Union. Within 25 years, the budget for development in priority areas had reached 1 trillion yuan. Colossal resources were allocated for good reason, and by a predetermined time, in 2099, teams of scientists presented a working prototype of artificial intelligence based on a quantum computer, which surpassed humans in its computing potential in a number of applications. The point of no return, successfully passed by humanity, defined the entire further course of its history.
This AI was given the name PAX, emphasizing the global and all-encompassing significance of the new technology—the technology of solving problems and overcoming the challenges that the contemporary world faced and struggled with at the time. Thermonuclear installations of the ITER type; ultra high-speed communication system; achievements in the field of medicine, longevity in the first place; development of superconducting magnets of a new generation which formed the basis for launching a high-speed mainline transport system on the planet; air transportation at hypersonic speeds; international lunar base; the first settlers on Mars…—the list of innovations that had changed the world beyond recognition could have been continued if not indefinitely, then at least for a lengthy time.
An AI—an intelligence, though still artificial. The computer was controlled, programmed, as before, by the human. The human set a task on which a computer mind of almost limitless possibilities had to work. The active cooperation of people and machines was not limited to scientific and innovative areas only. It was obvious to society that in order to maintain a new standard of living, and to take the next step over, a new foundation was also required—a political and organizational structure, an updated principle of state system. The new high-tech infrastructure did not correlate in any way with the *operating system of life and the structure of society, which everyone continued to follow. That old *operating system, was screaming with the need for an unambiguous upgrade. The PAX had developed relevant offers.
The United Federation of Nations (UFN) was a large common house built on the foundations and basic principles of the United Nations. Globally significant decisions for the whole planet had to be made at the level of the UFN. The executive power state machine in each country was reduced to a minimum, and somewhere, in countries with a population of up to 1 million—there were more than 100 of them—it was completely abolished. Legislative activity was redirected to PAX. The function of finalizing and approving the legislative framework was the UFN prerogative. AI was involved in the development of overall standards, as well as laws meeting the interests of particular peoples and their unique needs, which reflected ways of life and certain territorial life conditions dating centuries back. It was only due to PAX that various models of a new legislation future impact on a particular region were developed, by way of analysing a huge array of data and requirements, predicting their effect and bringing draft laws to perfection.
This was another unique advantage of the cluster quantum computing system—the impartial study and analysis of huge databases, terms and requirements for the formation of an ultimately verified legislative framework in the interests of citizens of the Federation.
The judicial system had also been fundamentally updated. Collaborative, joint cooperation of an individual and PAX within relevant functionality allowed to significantly reduce the administrative staff of the judiciary, reduced the probability of judicial errors to minimum. Of crucial importance was successful contribution of the new system to fulfilling the mission of the penitentiary system—the number of crimes committed, both economic and criminal, was significantly reduced. To avoid punishment had become difficult, if at all possible.
Citizens of the United Federation of Nations supported the new political structure—the approval rating of the government activities reached beyond 80%.
Peace had set on the planet! After tens of thousands of years of wars and fight for survival, civilization, having overcome the crisis of regeneration, was finally ready for new worthy achievements, relying on the intelligence of PAX which was always ready to protect from mistakes.
The system of delegates election to various levels of government representative bodies had been also deeply revised. Region—city—district—republic (in cases where the size of the territory implied appropriate need)—country—United Federation of Nations. At each of the five levels, those citizens of the Federation who were directly related to it, to the particular level, became the electors. Thus, citizens living in a certain area, for example, in a large megapolis, chose their representative to the district administration, which was accountable to the electors of such a district. Further, representatives of the district administration chose the head of the city administration, which was in its turn subordinate to them. And so on, up to the Secretary General of the UFN, whose elections were held every two years during the General Assembly. No one else used the word *power anymore to describe the functions and work of the administration responsible for the implementation of programs to improve the welfare and well-being of the citizens of the Federation. Everyone did their job responsibly.
If a situation developed in a way that a citizen or a group of citizens considered an administrator as improperly performing his work, and the assessment of his activities to be unsatisfactory, in such a case anyone could initiate appropriate proceedings with PAX. The system, in turn, conducted a study of all the facts related to the circumstances stated by the citizen and made a decision on the expediency of passing a vote of no confidence to the employee. The final decision on the issue of dismissal of the employee was made by citizens, unless, of course, the administrator violated any legislative norms. If an offence was noted, such an administrator was automatically removed from his position and could never apply for any elective office or work for state authorities.
Such *conflict situations were extremely rare, since PAX was pre-evaluating in detail all possible candidates for compliance with the entire set of requirements for work in civil service. And to mislead PAX was, to say the least, not an easy task at all.
The election procedure itself was no more complicated than ordering a sandwich in the Food app on the communicator. The digital passport or otherwise Tracker was responsible for the unique authorization and identification of a citizen. Some people tried to fraud its operation, but, it should be noted, such efforts were not crowned with anything good for them.
The whole administrative system was working in a simple and straightforward way, as two times two makes four.
Before: Interview
‘You know,’ Thomas objected irritated, sipping coffee from a small golden cup, slightly setting aside his chubby little finger, ‘they are not miracles and magic that our department does write about.’
‘Do you really think so, my dear Thomas?’ The thick lenses of Jasha’s round-rimmed glasses were adding an even more expressive look to her large eyes.
‘That’s right, Jasha! For more than 100 years, we have been telling our readers about innovations that are changing the world, and not about charlatans who are trying to cash in on it. An encyclopedia of techno-scammers is already bursting with an endless series of this kind of fraud.’
‘Dear Thomas, Bild has been writing for 200 years about what is of interest for our readers, what excites them, what will interest them tomorrow or what should concern them now and today. We write about life! We write about everything! This is the first.’
Jasha got up from her chair at the head of a long table, where various representatives of the publishing house were sitting: special correspondents, editors, copywriters, assistants and a Bild lawyer watching with interest the next drama deploying at the morning briefing.
‘Secondly, Thomas, it’s not for me to tell you that breakthrough technologies, real innovations, engineering art are akin to magic. All that we do not understand, what we cannot explain, causes us to be wary of suspicion. But that’s exactly what our job is, Thomas, my dear friend and colleague, to understand such stories. To understand them well enough, so that we are ready to convey the essence of new ideas to our main beneficiary—the reader. The reader and only the reader is the chief judge, appraiser and investor into our future. If we choose losing strategies, our investors will bet on Verge, TechWorld, Facebook and similar platforms. You and I would have to talk and write about sausages and beer. I would have thought this is not your goal and not the goal for your department in charge of the technological information unit either.’
Jasha went up to the window in the conference room. The twenty-million city spread out before her like an endless canvas. Glass buildings and office spires were pushing through fluffy clouds, here and there comfortably covering the business centre of Munich, not at all against reaching the Olympus light of European life.
‘Dee, 50% window shading.’ Jasha instructed the digital assistant, squinting her eyes in the sun peeking out from behind a nearby skyscraper.
‘Could we, as a society, hopefully civilized to a certain extent, have achieved such a level of technological development?’ Jasha continued, ‘the level that lifted the human to the sky, and literally speaking, too.’ Waving her hand over the opening perspective of the city, she turned to her colleagues. ‘Whether we, as civilization, could have been able to extend human life up to 200 years, create an artificial PAX intelligence, that in some ways surpasses ours, create a fantastic transport infrastructure that connects the continents together? Could we,’ Jasha held up her index finger, ‘have achieved all this if we didn’t dreamt!’
‘Thomas, get ready with your team, get on a shuttle to Moscow and meet this new Russian miracle!’ Pausing for a while, Jasha summed up.
‘Jasha, your arguments are convincing as always!’ Thomas replied, glancing at his young assistant across the table. ‘We need to prepare, think through all the details, agree the time with Alexandra Tokareva. There is a lot of preparatory work ahead. Do you yet need Peter and me here at the meeting, Jasha?’
‘We have covered all the points with you, my dear. Go and work.’
‘You see, Peter, how useful it is to help your bosses to navigate around,’ Thomas turned to the assistant with a smile of self-satisfaction, while heading between the rows of desks of the editorial staff in the direction of his department, located at the opposite end on the same floor. ‘The plan worked smoothly like on wheels! It was only necessary to push her a little in the right direction and, voilà, everything is ready! And they are saying that women control and manipulate men due to their insight! Ha-ha!’
‘Thith trick won’t work with you now, Thomath.’ Peter objected lisping, ‘you know thith thecret well.’
‘But not in your case, my dear.’ Thomas looked warmly at Peter, ‘OK, you, first of all, contact Alexandra, agree with her the interview time from 12:00 to 14:00. Next, book tickets for the whole team for the morning shuttle to Moscow. We’ll leave Munich at 7:00. At 10:30 we’ll be there, in her laboratory. It will take an hour and a half to prepare for the interview. More than enough. We’ll start at 12. D’you understand everything, Peter? Will you repeat.’
‘Interview with Alexandra from 12 to 14, tickets to Mothcow, collect equipment and the team. Should I look for material about her in our archive, Thomath?’
‘My main task tomorrow is to expose this so-called genius. Although Jasha swallowed the bait about charlatans from science, I am almost sure that this Tokareva is a vivid example of a crook, of which we have already seen a lot. The only difference may be that her artifice is not so easy to be brought to light, given the specifics of its capabilities. So, Peter, my dear, of course, look for and collect all the possible information on this lady in our archives and any other sources. Anything worth my attention, please forward today no later than dinner time. Go, go, go! We’ve got work to do!’
Thomas entered his small office that looked more like an aquarium. 2 by 3 metres, all made of glass, located in a corner of the floor. He was proud of his office and would constantly boast it to all his colleagues and friends.
Corner offices were reserved only for the most important and valuable publishing house employees who had been working with Bild for decades. Of course, there were exceptions to this: petty romantic and love affairs, a couple of bosses’ relatives, proteges of significant sponsors and other eternal signs of social injustice. But that was not Thomas’s case. He had achieved everything by his own merit, graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University in Russia—one of the most prestigious educational institutions in Europe. And he did graduate with a distinctive result. During his presentation of the graduation paper, the commission noted especially the exceptional approach of the German student to studies—a bright and creative, simple and thoughtful, socially significant subject of research... Thomas was offered to start a career in the largest news agency in Russia, but he decided to return home to Germany, where he originally planned to build a career of a techno-journalist, given his interest and passion for everything new, scientific and innovative. He could not but miss a single engineering, technological novelty, gadgets and all kinds of devices, especially when it came to the digital and virtual world—a classic technomaniac. When the operation of the quantum artificial intelligence PAX was launched in the middle of the twenty first century, Thomas had just finished his studies and was starting his first steps in the profession. PAX revolutionized not only the entire planet, it turned Thomas’ mind upside down. His wildest dreams about what a person could achieve, relying on the capabilities of AI, started to come true. Literally every day news about a breakthrough in a particular field of science would come from different parts of the world. And it was all due to the partnership of the human and the AI. From titanic shifts in the field of medicine, allowing an individual to confidently step over the centennial milestone of full and active life in society, up to introducing incremental changes in the design of an aircraft wing, which provided for an additional 20% reduction in its weight, thus increasing the efficiency of flights. All these new developments were replacing one another literally like a kaleidoscope. There seemed to be no end to amazing innovations. A new partnership between the human and PAX brought in a new era of prosperity and development. And the pinnacle of achievements of the partnership after two decades had been the almost complete eradication of poverty, hunger and the elimination of the eternal need to fight for energy resources on the planet. It seemed, there was nothing else to dream about. Finally, 75 years after graduation from the university in Russia, Thomas, having gained some life and professional experience, started to understand what was happening a little deeper, and looking from a different angle too. Partying with friends he used to repeat—Everything has its price. The price for new achievements is a new degree of no freedom. In the modern infrastructure of civilization, it was impossible to take a step without a digital passport or a Tracker, as it was also called. The passport was the key to everything. Literally—the key to everything. There wasn’t a single area of human activity where people could have been interacting with each other without this invisible pass to all the benefits of the services industry.
Going to a cafe, booking a taxi or taking a ride on free public transport, buying a gift for a friend in a store, going on vacation, or coming back home—one could perform all these actions and an infinite number of others just being oneself, imperceptibly interacting with the surrounding digital infrastructure. The digital passport certified individual’s identity, no matter wherever and what the person was doing, meaning that one’s whole life was carefully classified and recorded by PAX. The system knew someone better than an individual knew himself. But Thomas didn’t mind at all. He was an advocate of the new order, because he understood that no ideal system existed. The modern world order had provided people with an opportunity to move on to the next step in the development of civilization. Thomas considered the price proportionate and fair—everyone became the winner. People received a new level of comfort; the state, predictability, stability and control.
‘So, Dee, let’s see what we have on this Tokareva, too.’
Dee, as a digital assistant to the editorial office, had access to various Bild archives and databases, available in the corporation divisions on all the six continents. Considering the status of Bild as a socially significant organization acting in the interests of society and two hundred and fifty million subscribers, the editorial office was connected, albeit with some restrictions, to the PAX global information base. But the data available was more than enough to learn a lot about a person. Of course, taking into account a certain level of access to personal and confidential information.
‘Here you are, Thomas. We have the following information on Alexandra Tokareva. I’ve prepared a selection of the main points for you that might seem significant for the upcoming interview in Moscow.’
Thomas started looking through the information displayed on the computer screen in his office.
Alexandra Tokareva.
Gender: Female.
Age: 53 years old.
Place of residence: Moscow, Novosibirsk, Russia; Tel Aviv, Israel.
Education: Faculty of Physics and Technology, Novosibirsk State University, Russia;
Faculty of Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.
Scientific achievements and patents: 34 registered patents in total. The most significant is the methodology developed for automatic structuring and analysis of big data of an individual’s life activity with the help of the PAX cluster system computing power.
A recognized expert in the field of big data analysis. Alexandra Tokareva is engaged by public and private bodies to develop programs for key infrastructure projects.
Alexandra Tokareva has a number of state commendations for her great contribution into the development of the transport infrastructure of Russia, for her active participation in educational programs for the primary school development in Israel.
Main place of residence: Moscow. Lives with her partner, Rivsha Alka.
No children. Has two dogs of the Jack Russell Terrier breed. Dog names: Bonnie and Russell.
Political views: does not belong to any party or public organization.
Hobbies: powerlifting, mountaineering.
Throughout her career, she has given only three interviews for popular science online publishers. The most notable statements by Alexandra Tokareva are presented below.
The role of training programs focused at the formation and development of creativity of the individual. An interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2093 in connection with the launch of a new preschool education program in Israel, in the development of which Alexandra had been actively involved for two years.
‘I cannot imagine a situation when our contemporaries, parents of the small individual, could have allowed for not enlisting a child for a preschool training program. Surely, this possibility is defined by the Constitution. Educational programs are available on demand to everyone today. But how is it possible that in our civilization a responsible guardian can intentionally deprive a child of the opportunity to fully prepare for the upcoming life in a society, where PAX with its artificial intelligence exists. Our main advantage as a species over quantum networks is unpredictability. But in order to set productive boundaries to this unrestrained power of humankind, we must begin to form an appropriate knowledge foundation as early as possible, which will serve to build a structured and multilevel intellectual and unique information base for each individual, taking into account the peculiarities of one’s neurostructure. I am ready to say once again: the sooner a child joins a specialized training and development program, the better. And when I say earlier, I literally mean on the second or third month of the baby’s life. At this age, the speed of building neural connections in the child’s brain is amazing. Our task is to make this process as productive as possible in terms of future potential. So that the child’s mind is not clogged with information trash, and intellectual efforts would aim at forming a basic experience with the focus on the upcoming activity. Correlate—if you’d like—with the mission of the person.’
The power potential of quantum computer networks. Interview for the Russian news agency VGTRK 2105 in the framework of the scientific symposium Quanttech-2105 in Omsk, Russia.
‘A little more than half a century ago, the supernova of computing technology exploded. The launch of a distributed system of quantum computers connected by an ultra high-speed network of the eighth generation is the moment of birth of the digital God of science. Does God have limitations? What do you think?’
The impact of the further development of a new system of underground trunk energy high-speed tunnels on the Russian economy. Interview for the Vedomosti newspaper on the basis of the annual International Economic Forum in Saint Petersburg in 2107.
‘The Northern Sea Route, which infrastructure Russia actively started developing in the first half of the twenty-first century, had a significant and positive impact on the economic growth of our country and the Asian region. During the first 10 years of development and operation of the new logistics world artery, Russia’s GDP increased by 4%, just due to its potential only. And, note, we are talking about sea transportation with obvious inherent speed limits. What do you reckon is the potential of the transport infrastructure, which is two hundred times, I emphasize once again—two hundred times!—exceeding one of the key elements of the economy equation of any state— how long will it take to move cargo from point A to point B? The task for our team was to prepare a mathematical model based on which investors would be able to make reasonable assumptions about the payback period of the main tunnels connecting certain points on the map, i.e. industrial sectors and urban agglomerations. I am very glad that our contribution to this significant project helped to make, I hope, the right decisions; helped to avoid the deployment of unprofitable branches of the high-speed transport system.’
Having finished reading Dee’s notes, Thomas started preparing a list of questions and a script for the upcoming interview. The more he learned about the ambitious young scientist, the more appealing she seemed to him. ‘A pretty girl, a bit rough features, short haircut, stocky and dressed like a tomboy. She reminds more of a comic hero about crypto farmers who are fighting an invasion of energy poachers somewhere in Iowa,’ Thomas reflected. ‘Who knows, maybe I underestimate her capabilities. But her new development looks too much like magic and sorcery, but not a scientific approach,’ he glanced out the window. ‘What’s the time? It’s already quite dark.’
‘See you, Dee!’
‘Thomas, all the necessary information about the trip to Moscow is on your communicator. Have a good trip, Thomas.’
‘Thanks, Dee,’ Thomas replied, leaving the office.
Work in the Bild newsroom was in full swing at any time of the day, as one would expect in a world’s leading entertainment and news agency. Thomas loved this spirit and the energy of non-stop production. Endless political disagreements and compromises, which somehow parties happened to come to, new budding developments for business and economic forecasts, show business stars passions and celebrities news and, of course, science and technology—information from all over the world streamed to the editorial office in the incessant data flow. Thomas Bach has been in charge of the Science and Technology Department for seven years.