In the silence of the late night, only the computer in front of me was still creaking.
Suddenly I felt something flashing from my side. I turned around and found the Devil beside me.
The Devil, with a big belly and full beard, had two horns on his head sides and a long forked tail behind his butt, holding a fork in his hands, and he looked much like Ai Weiwei.
The fluorescent lamp over my head creaked, and the Devil had a pair of cunning little eyes looking at me.
The Devil said with a shrill creak, “Congratulations! In order to commend you for your long time tirelessly working on Internet as an advocate for devils, The Hell Ltd. has decided to award you the Wish Prize this year!”
I was shocked. After recovered, I curiously asked, “Then, have I won the jackpot?”
“The Hell Ltd. can meet any of your wish. But remember, whatever you will get, your enemy will get the double of it!”
“It means, if I want one million US dollars …”
“Then your enemy will be able to get two million US dollars!”
“If I’d like to get Nobel Prize …”
“Then your enemy will be able to get two of the Nobel Prizes!”
“Well, on the one hand, as long as I have got what I want, what does it matter to me whatever others will get? But on the other hand, who is my enemy? Is that XXX who scolds me online all days? Or is that Master who leads the annoying cult? ”
The Devil gave a burst of sneering laughter. “Have you even forgotten you own enemy? Your enemy is the great dictator himself, but nobody else. Whatever you will get, he will get the double.”
“Oh, yes, of course it’s him. If he’d get two million US dollars or two kinds of Nobel Prizes, I would definitely be angered to death. But …” I got a brainwave, “Some wishes are certainly unable to be carried out in such a way. For example, my wish is the one that no condition will be attached to… ”
“My company’s rule is to prohibit recursive algorithm. Therefore, you must not make such a wish.” The Devil’s face darkened.
“Well, there are other wishes,” I said leisurely. “For example, I want to be the richest in the world, or to become the president of this country, or just demand to eliminate dictatorship … For these wishes, he certainly cannot get the double.
The Devil looked to be so angry as to explode. He gnashed his teeth before finally forcing out some words, “No problem, my company can meet such a wish of yours, but you have to pay your own soul for the price!”
I could have sternly refused, but I realized that it was a rare good chance in thousand years. As for my soul, how can it be more important than the lives, freedoms and happiness of millions people?
Therefore, I said, “My wish is to end the rule of dictatorship!”
Then I suddenly fell into a bright white light. Except for the light, everything disappeared before my eyes. “Stop!” said a voice.
Everything began to gather again before my eyes. After the clouds had dissipated, I found myself sitting in a messy bedroom, and facing a big fatty only in pants and a vest. He seriously looked at me. “Do you know what consequences your decision will have?”
“How come?” I thought. “What has happened? Have I been dead? But here, it looks like neither Heaven nor Hell. The man in front of me does not look like God, either (I have seen the Devil).”
“Who are you?” I asked. “Are you God?”
“No, not God … Well, not such a kind of God as you have imagined. You see, in fact, you are a leading character of a novel, of which I am the author. So as for you, I might be the God.”
This remark sounded shocking. But he showed me a file in the computer beside us, which started so: “In the silence of the late night, only the computer in front of me was still creaking.”
“At the beginning of this story there was a mouse hiding. I wonder whether or not you have noticed, it has been creaking,” he said, chuckling. “Of course, when you’re in the story, you can’t feel it.”
“If I’m just a character in your work, doesn’t it mean that I have no free will?” I am rather frustrated.
He waved his hand. “No such a problem … When constructing the work, the author will simultaneously consider a variety of possible outcomes. When the work has not been accomplished, a variety of possibilities are overlapping together, like the superposition states in quantum mechanics or parallel universes, you can use your free will to decide the outcome of the story … Well, do you know what consequences the decision you have just made will lead to?”
“I just want to end the dictatorship,” I shrugged.
“Then you go and have a look in person!”
Then a beam of green light flashed…
What did I see? I saw hordes of tanks, gunfire and bombardment; I saw the bloods, refugees and crying children; I saw on the photos of a Master of cult leadership hanging along the streets and on the buildings, and his statues everywhere; I saw the trails of the famous liberals who had always opposed to the Master…
“No!” I cried. “Stop! This is not what I want!”
…
After the smoke had cleared, I returned to face the Devil again, just hearing the Devil gnashing his teeth to finish this sentence, “… but you have to pay your own soul for the price!”
Did it mean that I got a chance to revise my wish again? This time I’d think it over before speaking out, and could not repeat the earlier mistake…
After thinking for a while, I said, “My desire is to make this country immediately but to peacefully end the dictatorship and become a free and democratic country.”
Then white lights again … I found myself beside the writer of counterfeiting God, and he said, “Are you sure this is your choice?”
Have I done something wrong again? “Is there any problem?” asked I.
“You will go and have a look!”
The green light hit again…
I found myself arriving on a street in the neighbourhood. Although it was still early, there were people going to the work and school in hurry.
I bought a copy of Morning Post at a newsstand by the street. There were the stories of stars, entertainments and gossips, showing no difference from those in previous time. I bought several copies of other newspapers, and found the same.
“Excuse me,” I stopped an aunt carrying a bag of groceries. “May I ask you one thing … that dictator has really finished yet?”
The aunty looked at first confused, and then laughed for no reason. “The dictator … Oh, there was a dictator… what was he called … You see I cannot tell it… Has he been finished? It seems that there was such a thing … When was it? Last month? Six months ago? Maybe it has been a year …”
“The dictator was called Kim … whatever?” joined a grandpa wearing shorts and a vest, likely just back from his morning exercise.
“No! He’s called Hitler!” interrupted a middle school student over a bicycle, with a schoolbag on his back.
“So is there an election now?” asked I.
“Election? Ah, it seems so. The guy elected recently, whom we call the president… I cannot remember his name, definitely a guy I never heard of before…” the aunty rushed.
“What’s the matter with us? I’ve never voted in my life, and now is not going to vote,” said the grandpa. All people around us rushed to agree.
But I’ve got enough, “Stop! This is not what I want!”
This time I returned to the writer. “I do not understand. What have I done wrong? I certainly hope that the changes affect people’s lives as little as possible, but…”
“The problem is that you have made a choice for people! They have not been able to determine their own destinies, and so they are of course indifference to the changes.”
“Then how should I do it? We should not only let the people capable to make choices and decide their own destinies freely, but also to realize my wish…”
“Well, actually people cannot completely determine their own destinies. In one’s destiny, there are many uncertainties, which are where your wish is to play a role. The maximal uncertainty comes from the invention and innovation, but their consequences are difficult to predict… Besides, I think you need also to consider your own soul. Of course, these are just suggestions, and the final decision is still up to you to make by yourself. ”
I closed my eyes to think about it for a while and more, and then opened them to say, “I know how to do it.”
“All right, but you have to know, this is your last chance – the devil in a story usually just offers three wishes…” said the writer.
…
Once more returning to face the Devil, I said, “You may get my soul, but only after my death.” The Devil the grumbled but agreed. Then I said, “My wish is to make true the technology of uploading the consciousness into the computers!”
A burst of thunder and lightning! I fell motionless on my bed, and then lost consciousness.
While waking up I see the day light already. “Last night I had a so strange dream!” I muttered while turning on my computer to get online. Today’s headline is “University of Lausanne, Switzerland, has successfully uploaded consciousness, and the products are expected to enter the market within five years.” I looked at the computer screen, recalled the last night’s dream, and stunned for a quite a while.
…
My wish has come to fruition: the commercial service of uploading consciousness has appeared within three years. The first few major bugs (e.g., the uploaded consciousness having no backup, and suffering from virus attacks and other problems, which even caused some deaths in the beginning) are fixed. Now everyone has installed the firewalls, and also made many copies of his/her consciousness to store in different places, and to update automatically and regularly. Then, this technology is becoming more and more mature, and its price cheaper and cheaper.
Now more and more people have been giving up their flesh bodies, to live in Cyber space – of course they can always be able to download themselves into an artificial body for fun. You can even use your own consciousness to fly a plane, enjoying the flying.
The dictatorship has finished, because it cannot collect taxes nor eliminate the opposition physically. However, we have not built a democratic state – As the governments around the world (whether they were democratic or dictatorial) have collapsed one after another. “State” and “Government” have now become the outdated concepts. Now we live in a world of which the anarchists dreamed.
As for my own soul, I can now say it immortal, so that the Devil who wants to take away my soul may have to wait until the day of Heat Death. Moreover, I have added my soul with seven firewalls and hidden it in seventy-seven different places, which the Devil cannot even dream to find.
(Translated by Yu Zhang)
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Liu Di, screenname as Stainless Steel Mouse, is a Beijing-based writer and a Board Member of ICPC. She was born in October 1980, and graduated from Department of Psychology, Beijing Normal University. She began to publish online articles on politics in 2001, and on 7 November 2002 was arrested by the Beijing Public Security Bureau Detention to detain a year and twenty day.