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DEMOTOPIA
An exploration of democracy and artificial intelligence
A forthcoming title by Sung Ming Chow.
Excerpts:
Chapter One
Early Spring at the University of Brilliant Bastards
In the dying light of a cold March day, the distant 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.
The AI experiment in direct democracy: Utopi-AI
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.
International Education
"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!”
Fiction
Home to an Empty House, by Kerry Coast
There is a deep churning within identity, where the devices of humanity are polished. One of the grindstones is the place we live and call home.
Eleven stories explore our collective human condition, using the license provided by fable and legend. Characters from imagined pasts, possible futures, and real life each spin their own story until we recognize ourselves in the blurred, familiar patterns.
"Little Blue Riding Hood" is a girl who can only find herself when she's running away, and she never really gets there. In "Ghosts of St. Mary's," the child is only saved from Indian Residential School after she's passed to the spirit world. "The General" is still fighting a war he lost a long time ago. In "Passport," seven people stranded abroad realize that picture identification is only one way to get through borders. "Coyote's Last Strategy" is a battle so long-suffered that his people seem to lose everything - and, yet, nothing at all. "Magred and the Fire Flowers" tells the story of our collective struggle in one small mountain village. "War Chief" switches sides to win. We consider what lets people live together in "Tattoo." A very intimate, overdue conversation takes place in "The Camera." We see what the world wants with women in, "The Mill." "Fish Rock Boy" reminds us what it is to be people of the land.
About the Author
Kerry Coast is a journalist, dramatist, former editor of The St’át’imc Runner and The BC Treaty Negotiating Times newspapers, co-founder and writer for the Úcwalmicw Players theatre company; and author. Her first book, The Colonial Present, was published in 2013 by Clarity Press. Other titles include Speeches from the Crowd.
Coast’s current projects include a tribute to the legendary Secwepemc leader William Ignace, "Wolverine’s Sovereignty"; and "Roadblock" – an encyclopedic documentary of Indigenous roadblocks in British Columbia; and "The Fifth World – A Non-Status Indian Reality," by Tsayskiy, Ron George, of Wet’suwet’en.