DEMOTOPIA

A forthcoming title by Sung-ming Chow.

At the University of Brilliant Bastards in V-Port, students arrive from everywhere—and belong nowhere.

    Some cannot return home. None can quite find a place where their academic tickets have landed them. Around them stretch the immigrant neighbourhoods, a sprawling time capsule of architecture and society through the 20th century. Yet Subin, Engel, Dehao, Kongyu, and Balala do not recognize themselves in the communities shaped by their motherlands, nor in the promises of the new one.

     They throw themselves into political theory: lectures, readings, late-night debates, and even VR dialogues with sages from ancient worlds. 

     They are pursuing a system of democracy that works for everyone: a Demotopia. If they can devise a system to work here – it could work anywhere. 

Can artificial intelligence help? 

In the dying light of a cold March day, the grey-blue sea could still be faintly seen beyond a row of blooming pink and white cherry blossoms.

   “Are the cherry blossoms in Country J blooming now too? Ah, you’re from Western region, the cherry blossoms there must bloom earlier than in Eastern region, right?”

   Engel was not a talkative person, but she felt that if they did not talk, the cold air between them would solidify, and the falling cherry petals turn to snowflakes. She could never make Subin talk much; her friend from country J just quietly gazed at the spring scenery before her, her thoughts drifting back across the ocean that separated her from family, memory.

    They had a long way to walk, after class. A grove of red cedars darkened the dim twilight beyond the wide, ornamental tree-lined boulevard at the center of the campus.

    “Every year when the cherry blossoms open, it means exam season is coming,” Subin suddenly said.

    “That’s true. I remember when I studied at the Hilltop University, red azaleas would bloom here and there. Some classmates would joke: Don’t let the exams be all red!” Engel laughed.

Subin tried on her glasses and ring. The transparent lenses showed the external view unchanged. She squeezed the ring, and there appeared a row of fluorescent-coloured menus on each side. She tried rotating the ring, moving the cursor over different options. On the left were various daily necessities, such as transportation, shopping, entertainment, fitness, education, and medical services; on the right were various public issues in Utopi-AI, including the sustainability index, the current happiness index of residents, and ongoing public deliberations on various policies and issues to be put to a vote. Any political, economic, or social issue could be noted anytime, anywhere.

      Suddenly, an icon in the top corner of her vision began to throb. She navigated the cursor across her smart glasses by turning her connected ring. A familiar face popped up on the screen! So familiar that it made her heart race. It was the newly appointed Prime Minister, her former high school senior, and the person who had invited her family to move here. 

     Subin had never actually met him in person, except to pass him in the school halls, and she had joined some online book clubs that he organized the year before. The topics were interesting, and she actively participated in discussions and expressing her opinions. Later, when she saw on the news that Utopi-AI had elected the 17-year-old senior as the Prime Minister, she couldn’t believe her eyes. She was so excited that she cried.

     “Citizens of Utopi-AI!” came his voice, through the tiny speakers embedded in the frames of the glasses. “I am honoured to be elected as your first Prime Minister. I have a lot to learn and improve on, so please guide me!” The glasses projected a hologram of her senior, presenting him in augmented reality as if he was standing right in front of her, speaking to her. The Prime Minister then bowed deeply to the watching citizens.

     “I believe everyone understands that our country has the most severe aging population problem in the world, and it is even worse in remote towns. Young people are forced to move to the cities in search of better work and education opportunities, leaving fewer people resident in their hometowns. Entire communities are becoming ghost towns, only coming back to life during holidays or occasional vacations. But we all know that this kind of community model is unsustainable, leading to a vicious cycle of decline. The fundamental solution is to attract more young people to return and start businesses or find jobs through new policy incentives.

  "As I mentioned at the beginning, the early 20th century when Schmitt lived and our early 21st century share many astonishing similarities—democratic systems and authoritarian regimes are equally irreconcilable, liberalism and socialism are equally contentious, what some consider universal values ultimately clash with local ideologies, and imperialism and nationalism are equally entangled.  

    But whether it’s a government under a liberal democratic system or a regime opposing it, neither can offer a clear vision for the future or bring positive hope to the people. They can only temporarily stifle public discontent and rebellion with short-term material benefits.

    “The chaotic world is hard to grasp, the old world is struggling to progress, and the future is shrouded in fog. We still long to build a palace of dreams, but all we see are desolate ruins—where should we start to re-establish a pillar?”

    Student: “Dehao, you’re starting with the bad metaphors again!”