At the Twilight of Mankind

Part 4 - Chapter 1: (4/4) Introducing the Main Characters

MR PRESIDENT

** Togo (Africa), 2078 **

"Who would have believed it? The wretched of the Earth save the rich countries with their old cuckoo clocks?" An old man asks in Mina language.

Slouched on a leather lounge chair, the man's head tilts against the back of the chair in a very uncomfortable position, which gives his voice the same intonation as a moan. The old man looks at the ceiling as if he has asked it his question. He takes a deep breath before straightening up to tug on his jacket. He is elegantly dressed: sky blue shirt, black suit, well-polished brown shoes. He stares intensely at the young woman sitting on an armchair by his side. She is looking at him silently. The gaze of the septuagenarian is intense and seems at the same time lost in the depths of his memory as a young man.

"Mr. President," the young woman says calmly in Mina language before smiling compassionately at the old man. "You tell me the same story exactly to the wording at each session. I would like to help you, but you also have to give me the means to do so."

The man gives a tender smile to the young woman as if she was a child. He is looking for his words; words that a child of her age could understand. How can he possibly tell her that everything she has ever been told about human beings is just a tale, a web of lies, a mirage? He doesn't want to scare her, just warn her of the danger that still lays ahead for all of them. He knows far too well that men still haven't learnt anything and therefore, the lesson will have to be taken up once again sooner or later; soon. His gaze blurs. She is too young, just like him at that time. The president rubs his neck and pushes away the tears that come to his eyes by shaking his head. A few minutes pass. Silence fills the large room as the old man slowly starts to rub his hands together looking at them as if they didn't belong to him.

"I was 25," the president says softly, looking up at the young woman who is still smiling at him. She knows this story by heart from having heard it hundreds of times from the mouth of the president of her country and in history e-books as well...

Artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and robotics had transformed the rich modern world into a small paradise. Everything was sophisticated, predictable, fast, beautiful and easy mainly for the lucky residents of paradise. Successive Pandemics and natural disasters had terrorised the world population a few years earlier. They were ready to accept anything to live on the remaining surface of the world. Survive no matter what at any cost. It took them less than ten years to tip everything on one side thanks to technology. Finally, the man of the modern world was truly the sole master of the human world. They had control of everything over everyone. It lasted a few years, then...

The toys of the masters of the human world took over, but not quite as men would have imagined: a war between machines and men. No, those machines would do much better than their creator: sophisticated, predictable, fast, beautiful and easy as they had been designed to do everything. Overnight, entire countries and continents found themselves under the total control of an intelligent, half-biological, half-robot system; a perfect system. The only ones spared: the poor countries left at the gates of paradise years before that. For them, there had never been profusion of artificial intelligence, biotechnology and robotics at home, in the office, in schools, hospitals and other public places. For them, everything had always been: primitive, uncertain, slow, ugly, and difficult.

The latter waited a long time thinking that the residents of paradise would eventually come out of their smart cage to share their spoils. Then, months and years having passed, they finally understood that they had to become the master of their own fate, relying on their sole intelligence. So, by virtue of what, they came together in all humility. They talked to each other a lot like they hadn't talked for almost three centuries. They developed the tools and infrastructures necessary for their autonomy based on principles, aspirations, and values ​​that were theirs. They would no longer wait, hands raised, for crumbs to fall off paradise. They knew that this time, the crumbs wouldn't fall from up there: paradise. The system, which had once nourished their pride as men while taking away their human dignity, had finally decided to let them down without compassion or remorse.