The core value that defines a person is privacy unknown to others. As usual, Mako wakes up to a series of data:
“Your body temperature is 36 degrees Celsius, blood pressure 112/73 millimeters of mercury, in a good health state. Last night you slept for 7 hours and 19 minutes, of which deep sleep lasted for……”
This voice ‘grew’ out of her brain. With the maturity of brain-computer interface technology, the electronic secretary created a voice that only one person could ‘hear’ by stimulating the cortical area of the temporal lobe to simulate auditory impulses.
“What time is it?”
“It’s 9:55 am.”
“Oh no! There’s a lecture by Masakazu Yoshida today! …What time does it start?”
“It starts at 10:20 am.”
“Then I must hurry!” Mako swiftly threw off the covers, the cold air flooding into her brain.
“You won’t make it, you can’t enter after the lecture starts. Even if you hurry now, grooming and travel time will take 35 minutes, you’ll arrive at 10:30 am.”
“You don’t understand! It’s such a stroke of luck to get a ticket to his lecture! If I hurry now… If I move a bit faster on the road, maybe I could still catch it…”
“That’s impossible. Based on previous data and your current indicators, it’s calculated that you need 15 minutes to get ready and leave, and the planned route from home to school takes 20 minutes. Therefore, the earliest you can be at the school auditorium is 10:30 am, and this is accurate.”
“What does a machine know? I cannot afford to be late this time!” Mako muttered while brushing her teeth.
At this moment, a smiling face appeared on the mirror of the sink, and the voice of the electronic secretary sounded again: “Firstly, the fastest you can arrive at the school auditorium is at 10:30 am, this is the result considering all parameters, there is no possibility of arriving earlier. Secondly, I would like to remind you that I am not just a computer, I am the full data service system developed by the Umbrella Corporation. Although I communicate with you by releasing sound signals through the brain-computer interface, in reality, I can network with every item in your life that contains an Umbrella chip, collect all the data you generate within a day, connect personal data with society databases, thus providing the most comprehensive life services. Our vision at Umbrella is to optimize life and serve the society. Our values are…”
Mako stopped paying attention to the electronic secretary. In the series of coherent actions that followed, she didn’t waste any time - the door automatically unlocked after recognizing her fingerprint; she ran to the elevator just as the doors opened; she took the elevator to the first floor, exited the apartment and a car stopped just in front of her, at the moment she seated herself sideways, the vehicle started.
Between leaving home and getting in the car, not even a second of spare time was left in each step of Mako’s journey because the electronic secretary pulled information from the cloud database, and after considering residential elevator usage and city traffic, it sent precise operational commands to the Umbrella chips embedded in the elevator and the car. The entire commute planning system was like precisely meshed gears, filled with an aesthetic of uniformity.
Mako’s car had no driver, and she was silently accelerated to 240 kilometers an hour. Looking out the window, the ring road was full of cars, speeding vehicles maintaining a mere 20 centimeters apart. Such a high speed and proximity between the cars turned this stream of vehicles into a real liquid.
This liquid could breathe. If a car needed to change lanes or turn, from afar to nearby, dozens of surrounding vehicles would gradually make space for it, clearing the way, like a well-drained Roman triplex formation, without the need for a commander’s coordination, as each soldier in the formation knew what to do next.
Passing by a vast advertising slogan: “Smart City - A city with a heartbeat.”
It wasn’t long before the school auditorium came into view. Mako hurried out of the car and stepped onto the first step in front of the auditorium, looking up at the huge electronic clock overhead, it was 10:29 am.
Two seconds later, the numbers flickered gently.
10:30 am, right on time.
Due to being late, Mako could not enter the auditorium, so she had to ask a fellow student from the school office to find her a seat backstage. Even so, she could feel the lively atmosphere of the venue.
“In conclusion, I would like to say to the youth present, you are lucky to be living in this well-ordered era! Humanity is experiencing stability and convenience like never before. This is the fruit of your parents’ struggles and contributions, and it’s also the mission that you all continue to carry on!”
As the speaker’s voice faded, thunderous applause filled the auditorium. Without a doubt, the lecture was a success, and the school office staff finally breathed a sigh of relief - not even halfway through the year, and three students had already jumped off the dormitory roof to their deaths. Over the past decade, suicide rates, shootings, alcohol abuse, and drug cases in universities worldwide have been slowly rising. There were various speculations, but no consensus. Masakazu Yoshida is elegant and understated, rarely participating in public lectures. This time the school office went to great lengths to invite him to give a motivational talk in an attempt to reverse the growing sense of despondency among college students.
The host took over the microphone: “Thank you, Mr. Yoshida, for your inspiring lecture. Now, let’s move on to the Q&A session, the direction of questions is not limited. The student there… wearing a blue jacket and glasses, I see you were the first to raise your hand.”
“Hello, Mr. Yoshida. You just said that we live in an orderly era… I believe you are referring to the era of full data. As a creator of the new era, could you share with us your most direct feelings about the changes in times? What has been the biggest change?”
After listening, Masakazu Yoshida pondered for a moment: “If I had to describe the past era with one word, I would choose ‘chaos.’ The world has changed rapidly in these years, and you can’t imagine the world of my childhood because you didn’t experience it.
“In the past, it took over two and a half hours just to travel from the south to the north of the city due to poor traffic and congestion; and when someone fell seriously ill, they had to queue at the hospital for a famous doctor. If one doctor did not succeed, they would have to queue for another at a different hospital. Many people delay their treatment like this. There were also fraudsters everywhere - financial scams, telecommunications fraud, internet scams… Every day countless frauds took away people’s life savings, and then the scammers vanished without a trace, and the police were powerless against them.
“In the world before the era of full data, this was the chaos people faced. As the name suggests, the era of full data means that the data generated by everyone every day is collected and uploaded to a central database. Using these data and results derived from data processing, we can provide people with better lives. But it wasn’t accomplished overnight; countless engineers and scientists have contributed their wisdom to the advent of the age of full data.
“At the beginning of the 21st century, IBM (International Business Machines Corporation) was the first to apply big data technology to medicine. They developed IBM Watson, a cognitive computing system that can read through thousands of medical journals within minutes, compare massive cases in the database, and find the best treatment plan. As a result, big data medicine became popular, and humanity gradually moved away from depending solely on doctors for diagnosis and treatment. ‘Famous doctors’ were no longer scarce resources; cloud-based diagnosis and treatment, dependent on computer systems, opened to everyone, and were more accurate and transparent. This approach provided patients not just with time but also hope for life.
“Then, there was the autonomous driving field. Originally, the technology barrier for autonomous driving was very high due to the many random events on the roads. Before, we hoped cars could respond to emergencies in an instant by equipping each one with a sensitive LiDAR and a central system that could react quickly. However, this also meant high costs and the possibility of errors. Looking at the autonomous cars mass-produced and used today, they don’t have radars at all, and their control systems use chips at the personal computer level. This is because Google changed the research approach - though developing an autonomous car is difficult, if the entire city’s cars are self-driven, and the traffic is treated as a whole, then it’s another matter. Connected through networks, collecting and analyzing the position and speed information of each car, the networked car technology has made each vehicle a cell in a massive organism, with higher-level commands given by the central system, so no collisions will occur. This not only solves safety issues but also the cloud database contains the position and routes of all vehicles in the city, as well as reading the vehicles’ historical records, each person’s travel habits, and driving patterns. With macro-management algorithms, the overall city’s traffic is planned, optimizing vehicle routes to maximize road utilization rate, therefore, the city is no longer plagued by congestion.
“Of course, Chinese entrepreneurs and engineers did not want to lag in exploring the application of big data. With the rise of e-commerce at the beginning of the 21st century, China, a large country with billions of people, had major logistical challenges. For example, when everyone rushed to shop at the Singles Day discount, how to deliver each order to buyers as quickly as possible during an explosion of orders? The solution was simple: read all past customer data, predict the purchase situation for each merchant’s goods for the year, and then create warehouse distribution plans before the big sales. Before Singles Day arrived, sellers had already placed goods in different warehouses in South China, North China, and East China based on forecast data; logistics companies’ delivery workers and vehicles were also positioned according to the predicted data. The average delivery time was reduced from a week to three days, significantly speeding up the national logistics network.
“In this way, big data applications slowly permeated every corner of society: elevator systems collected residents’ work schedules to optimize the operation and reduce waiting time; analyzing individual search terms and video viewing types to project user interests and preferences then deliver precise ads; smart toilets daily monitored excrement, recording personal health conditions, serving as part-time personal doctors, and could also provide the government with epidemic warnings…
“To summarize - accurate data records of individuals can improve personal lives; massive data records of groups can optimize resource allocation. We have ‘calculated’ the life we want using big data technology, and in this way, we have finally bid farewell to chaos. This is the change I’ve witnessed over the years.”
“Thank you, Mr. Yoshida, for taking us through the detailed review of the full data era’s inception,” the host continued, addressing the audience, “So, the next question… Okay, the student in the red sweater there, please pass the microphone to him.”
“Hello, Mr. Yoshida. As a university graduate about to step out of school, I am curious why you decided to enter the credit industry at that time. I have read many articles about you; back then you decisively gave up graduate admission from an Ivy League school and a high-paying offer from a top investment firm to start a new company in a niche industry. How were you considering at that time? Did you have full confidence in success?”
“How could there be one hundred percent confidence before starting?” Masakazu Yoshida said with a smile, pushing his glasses, and Mako saw the intelligent crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes from the screen, “But I did see the trend at that time. We all know if businesses or individuals need loans, financial institutions will carry out a credit rating on them to determine the loan amount, interest rates, and period. In the past, credit ratings were usually done by credit bureaus, analyzing past large loan records, income levels, and asset size, then rigidly adopting formulas to rate; this not only required manual statistics but also could not avoid systemic errors. In contrast, my company, Umbrella, broke down the credit process on the Internet and integrated it into the everyday work and life of borrowers. Every individual’s every purchase, every monthly credit card record, salary transfer record, and every company’s transfer records became the basis for credit assessment.
“However, if just that, it would still not be outstanding. Umbrella innovatively incorporated concepts such as genetic testing, personality tests, academic performance, romantic history, criminal records, and performance assessments all unrelated to finance into the credit system. Many academic studies have confirmed that a person’s trustworthiness in borrowing is related to their genes, personality, intellect, and even the level of loyalty in a romantic relationship. We gather all financial and non-financial information of an individual and algorithmically generate credit ratings. Compared to traditional credit, this is a more realistic and universal rating, which not only better reflects financial risks but is also applicable to other non-financial settings; it can be said to be versatile.”
“For instance…can it be used for dating?” asked the student in the red sweater.
“Haha…as expected of young people, always concerned about love. Yes, before a girl accepts your proposal, she can check your dating credit record. If you have a history of infidelity or if all your ex-partners think you’re inconsiderate, then of course she will friend-zone you. Besides that, school admissions, company hiring, and business cooperation can all make use of this comprehensive credit system. Umbrella achieved a unified credit system in human society for the first time. From then on, every individual and every company has to be responsible for every decision they make, this is epoch-making for the advancement of societal civilization.
“However, the premise of the full data credit is the enormous task of data collection a single enterprise cannot complete it alone. Therefore, I proposed the political sphere, and with the government’s encouragement, the International Data Cooperation Act was passed at the United Nations headquarters. The act consists of a preamble and 26 articles, establishing 4 basic principles:
Fairness: All data generated by everyone’s daily actions will be collected, regardless of profession and background;
Sharing: After an individual’s data is collected, it will be shared to a cloud database, available for use by all enterprises and institutions worldwide;
Privacy: Personal data must be encrypted before it can be analyzed, and no enterprise or individual has the right to access targeted personal data. All terminal devices, including electronic secretaries, autonomous vehicles, and intelligent electronic devices, only receive the results of issued commands.
Freedom: Individuals may purchase their data for a specific period to prevent it from being collected and stored, as long as it does not contravene laws or the interests of others.”
The host then said: “The milestone significance of the International Data Cooperation Act is self-evident! After its inception, the world has become transparent, we precisely describe and serve every individual with data, use it to improve living standards, and even predict future black swan events to prevent them. The stable and harmonious era of full data has finally arrived.”
Masakazu Yoshida nodded slightly in agreement: “I think, my achievement is not so much in creating a large enterprise, but in promoting society into the full data era. Umbrella’s chips, developed by our company, are embedded in necessary items like refrigerators, shoe soles, rice cookers, lights, etc., to collect the data generated at every moment. They are also interconnected through the internet, continuously providing us with the most targeted services. This is probably why I was invited today to return to my alma mater to give this lecture… I hope everyone is satisfied with this answer. So, what’s the next question?”
While the Q&A session on stage was still underway, Mako’s attention was drawn to a shadow in the backstage area.
She was standing in the corridor next to the backstage makeup room when a figure in a black hoodie tiptoed into Huang Zhaojing’s makeup room. Mako glanced inside through the door gap; there was no one else in the room, and the shadow was rummaging in front of a man’s jacket.
She had stumbled upon a thief. She hurried into the makeup room and demanded: “What are you doing?”
The shadow paused, then replied: “Don’t make a sound.” Shortly thereafter, they pulled a flat accessory the size of an eraser from Masakazu Yoshida’s jacket pocket. The brim of the thief’s hat was pressed so low that their entire face was shrouded in shadow. A hand swiftly reached out from the shadows, grabbed Mako’s wrist, and despite her resistance, dragged her outside and into a car.
Throughout this process, she heard the noise accompanied by the school office staff’s shouting from backstage:
“What’s going on?!”
“Didn’t we have a record check for students before they entered?!”
“Quick, get control of him first!”
She turned to the shadow: “What did you just take?”
While starting the car, the shadow replied succinctly: “Masakazu Yoshida’s mobile database, which is also evidence of his unauthorized intrusion into the public database.”
The car left the school gate, and the figure finally pulled down their hood, revealing themselves as Mako’s classmate from the mathematics department, Lin Youjie. Seeing a familiar face from campus, Mako relaxed a bit. Although they hadn’t interacted before, she had heard of him. Lin Youjie’s reputation was tied to key phrases like “rich second generation,” “math genius,” and “eccentric behavior.” While she contemplated ways to escape, she realized her Umbrella chip was voice-controlled. How could she discreetly send a location signal to the cloud without Lin Youjie noticing?
“Are you Lin Youjie? From the math department, right? …What exactly do you want?!” she demanded.
“Quite a few questions… Yes, I’m Lin Youjie, from the math department. I’ll answer your third question later. Tell me your name first.”
“My name is Mako…”
Lin Youjie connected the mobile accessory he had stolen from Masakazu Yoshida to his mobile computer, and the pre-set program started running automatically. The silence in the car was awkward. Mako noticed that she had no signal on her mobile phone, and whispering to her electronic secretary elicited no response. She looked up in a panic, only to receive an expected response.
“Don’t bother trying. I’ve blocked your phone and electronic secretary. Also, I’ve purchased the data trajectory for the next 100 hours for both of us. During this time, none of the information you generate will be uploaded to the cloud.”
He purchased the data trajectory for 100 hours. Mako was shocked. Although the International Data Cooperation Act clearly stated that paying a certain fee could preserve one’s data from being recorded in the cloud, the cost for this privilege has remained prohibitively expensive over the years. Complete data isolation for one-hour costs about the weekly salary of an average office worker. When “connection to everything” had become the trend of the age, “disconnection and isolation” had turned into a costly luxury. Growing up in an ordinary salaried family, Mako had only experienced privacy isolation for two and a half hours last year when attending a wealthy friend’s birthday party, thanks to her friend’s father. She never understood the rich’s obsession with their privacy - why fear others knowing if you’re not doing anything wrong?
Now, being granted a hundred hours of privacy isolation out of the blue, she was utterly baffled.
The rain started to fall outside, pouring onto the windshield as the wipers swung back and forth, trying to clear a view through the veil of rain. Lin Youjie focused on this window, hands on the steering wheel.
Only then did Mako realize that the car they were in was equipped with a manual driving system!
“This car… is manually driven?!” she exclaimed.
“Yes, it’s an old model. Want to listen to some music? There’s a CD in the compartment on your left, just slide it into the player,” he said.
She shook her head: “No, I don’t even know how to use that player. Where are you taking me?”
Lin Youjie kept his eyes on the road and didn’t answer her. He single-handedly opened the compartment and put the CD into the player.
Mako was perplexed by how Lin Youjie managed to drive a car at 240 kilometers per hour, weaving through the rhythmic, uniform traffic of autonomous vehicles, finding every gap, dodging in and out, all while being able to put music on. He was like the most jarring noise in a piano piece, with the gray downpour assaulting them upfront, water splashing high into the air from the tires.
“You’re driving dangerously,” she said, her palms sweating from nervousness.
“No, the cars around us controlled by algorithms each have a predetermined trajectory. Understanding the pattern makes it safe. Besides… I didn’t mean to kidnap you, there was no other way, I need to ask for your help.”
“That’s what all kidnappers say to their victims. What exactly did you do in the auditorium? I’m not stupid; if you had done nothing wrong, you wouldn’t have been keen on driving off with me.”
Lin Youjie did not drive far. After circling the school a few times, he stopped at the coffee shop near the school gate. He motioned for Mako to get out, and they sat down at a table. After ordering drinks, Lin Youjie paid for them with some cash and picked up a book from the shelf, flipping through it while he said to Mako:
“I like this coffee shop because they still have these paper books.”
“Not many people read paper books nowadays. All my books are in electronic format.”
“So… What kind of books do you like?” Lin Youjie shifted his gaze from the pages to Mako’s face.
“The recently popular ‘Time Travel in the Deep Palace: The Eighth Princes Love Me’ is fantastic! There’s also ‘The Heiress’s Three Lifetimes 2’ and ‘Revenge of the Secret Agent Crown Princess.’ They have very romantic love stories, and the male leads are both handsome and charming. These few books have practically monopolized the market, their advertisements are everywhere… And their intellectual property has been purchased, soon to be adapted on the big screen.”
“If I tell you that I’ve never heard of these books, would you believe me?”
“Impossible, they’re trendy among young people!” Mako hesitantly replied, “Many of my classmates are reading them.”
“Vulgar literary works always attract attention, but once you’ve read a few similar e-books, Umbrella will classify you as an audience for mindless films. Your computer, phone, and any smart billboards you see will push similar content to you according to your ’taste,’ and then without realizing it, you become engrossed in cultural junk. Millions of young people are just like you. This feedback is sent back to publishing houses and film production companies, resulting in more and more vulgar books and TV shows being produced. Soon, the cultural market will be inundated with trash. So - extensive real-time data feedback can create this information black box, leading to monotony and ignorance. I’ve never allowed them to extract my data, so of course, I wouldn’t be poisoned by such books.”
Mako sneered dismissively: “What’s so great about that?… It’s just a book to relax with, no need to make a big deal out of it.”
“If I tell you that in addition to books and movies, news, knowledge, information, and even your career and life choices have been stuffed into a predictable black box and that Masakazu Yoshida and his Umbrella company are going to be the culprits behind the decay of human society, would you believe that?”
Mako looked at Lin Youjie in confusion, taking a moment to respond: “…So you’re an anti-full-data individual! I noticed earlier; that you’re manually driving, you’re paying with cash, you’re reading physical books - all to avoid leaving a digital trail. I heard in the news that your conservative faction is on the rise. But forgive my frankness, every technological revolution comes with opposition. You’re like the Luddites of the 19th century who went around destroying looms. Could they stop the Industrial Revolution? A few looms to an entire era are like grains of sand. Your voice in the full data era is less than even a grain of sand.”
Lin Youjie shook his head helplessly as a waiter brought over a cup of coffee, which Lin Youjie gently slid towards Mako: “Here, an espresso, I ordered it for you.”
Mako brightened slightly at the sight of the coffee: “Hmm, thank you. I was wanting this…”
“Your phone alarm has your routine, indicating you’re an early riser and nap-taker; your smart toilet detected your blood sugar levels; your fitness tracker has recorded your heartbeat and temperature; your digital wallet indicated that you had a filling breakfast this morning and you habitually drink espresso to stay alert. Therefore, by analyzing your physical indicators, it can be concluded: that you’re feeling sleepy right now and could use a cup of coffee to wake up… Does this cup of coffee meet your expectations?”
“Yes… But how were you able to access targeted personal information? According to the International Data Cooperation Act, personal data must be encrypted before being used for algorithmic analysis; no enterprise or individual has the right to access targeted personal data. Are you saying… you hacked into the cloud database?!”
Before Mako’s questioning, Lin Youjie remained noncommittal: “Every day, there are about 130 people with a reliance on caffeine, just like you, who come to this place for an espresso. With this data, the cafe can adjust inventory and staffing, preparing enough raw materials in advance; IBS (location-based services) have their macro analyses - most students who come here for coffee sit all day. So many students congregating here indicates business opportunities. Hence, bubble tea shops, copy centers, and reading rooms have opened up around, each with significant customer traffic and profit. Students found a study spot, staff earned wages, shops made profits, the school collected rent, the neighborhood became more commercially valuable, and you, Miss Mako, were no longer sleepy this afternoon thanks to a cup of coffee. In this case, full data ensures the most optimal resource allocation and benefits everyone.”
Mako nodded, looking at Lin Youjie with confusion. “So, why are you opposing the full data era then? Why do you oppose Masakazu Yoshida?”
“Because we’ll never know if Masakazu Yoshida wants to drink coffee. There’s an issue with the ‘Principle of Freedom’ in the International Data Cooperation Act. Those at the top of the Forbes list can, of course, afford to prevent access to all their personal and family data at any time. But what about the average person? The salaryman? The family of five living in a 40-square-meter space? Privacy? They probably wouldn’t buy such an intangible thing, would they?”
“So what? I am that average person. So what if all my data is uploaded? I haven’t felt any inconvenience…”
Lin Youjie cut her off: “Mako, have you ever considered what determines why some people reach the top of the pyramid while others live paycheck to paycheck every day?”
Mako was taken aback, not expecting such a clichéd question, and said hesitantly, “…Successful people are 99% hard work and 1% genius?”
“Do you believe that? We got into top universities, aren’t we all Masakazu Yoshida’s juniors? Aren’t we diligent? Aren’t we talented? Yet after we graduate, 99% of us lead mediocre lives.
You know, the proportion wasn’t nearly this high during Masakazu Yoshida’s time.”
“Do you think all this is caused by the Umbrella company?”
“It’s caused by the full data era,” Lin Youjie corrected, “Today, computers can replace most of the work carried out by humans, whether it’s intellectual work or crafts, none is spared. Once algorithms are cracked, even the most talented traders can’t compete with computers; as soon as designs are read, the craftsmanship of seasoned artisans doesn’t match the precision of machines. So, what’s left of human value? - It’s the secrets not known to others, the paths once taken, people met, and experiences had, that constitute a person’s core value. The key for a person to stand out is not diligence or genius, but privacy. In this era, the difference between elites and the average, the rich and the poor, lies in who controls privacy and data.” He paused, “But most people won’t think about this anymore. Once privacy is uploaded, it means the full data era has robbed them of creativity and reflective ability… And, thanks to my father who has some money, besides buying me a car, also bought me the highest level of privacy protection. Otherwise, I would be like you all, chasing novels and TV shows, not feeling that there’s anything wrong with this absurd era.”
“No wonder they didn’t detect your anti-full data tendencies in the auditorium; because all the data… it was never stored in the database at all!”
“That’s not the point, extended privacy protection has given me the ability to think independently. If a person’s preferences are fully transparent, then simply by tweaking a few settings in the city’s central computer and conveying them via the electronic secretaries inserted in people’s brains, they can be guided to appear in any place, do anything… Their work experience and personal abilities are recorded in the database, replaceable by computers or others at any time, producing nothing of unique value. Thus, they can only do the lowest repetitive tasks in the city’s ecosystem, earning just enough to live. Life is like a road with an end in sight; there’s no chance and no challenge, and everyone feels the ceiling over them before even graduating, which is why the suicide rate among young people around the world is rising!”
Faced with Lin Youjie’s crazy theory, Mako’s rationality returned: “These are all speculations; where is the evidence?”
Lin Youjie pondered for a moment: “Evidence… I have it. Did you just ask me if I hacked into the cloud database? You give me too much credit. Such databases are maintained year-round by top cybersecurity experts; even with exceptional skills, it would be difficult to find a vulnerability.”
“Then how did you obtain my data? All service endpoints, whether it’s electronic secretaries or others, should receive only the outcomes of cloud data computation; the intermediate process should be a black box!”
“The mobile hard drive that I just mentioned contains all the updated data from Masakazu Yoshida every day. I used it to forge his identity, and after the cloud database recognized it, I was able to retrieve your information.”
“The thing you stole backstage just now?”
Lin Youjie nodded: “Masakazu Yoshida bought off his data, blocking all of his data from the cloud database, but he also wanted to understand the status of his health, assets, and company operations. How to securely collect the data continuously generated by oneself for personal use? The solution is simple - all data generated by Masakazu Yoshida is collected at the terminal into that small box, existing independently from the outside world in the most primitive form of isolation for data security. But it is also the most unsafe. I only need to steal its physical form… there will be no alarms, and no possibility to remotely format it after it’s discovered to be stolen… As long as I have it, I firmly hold Masakazu Yoshida’s secrets.”
“How ironic… In an era where information security is highly emphasized, the theft of top secrets is actually through such a crude method.”
Lin Youjie nodded: “If this gets out, Masakazu Yoshida will spend the rest of his life in prison. Not only that but with this evidence, a comprehensive investigation into Umbrella can be initiated by the government. Once the government’s experts analyze a sufficient number of samples, they can also prove that the entire data collection and analysis system is detrimental to human society. It’s just… I’m afraid I need your help with this.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s no time. The moment my face appeared backstage, they would have pinpointed my identity.”
“What should I do now?”
“Finish your espresso. Then, go to my car - a manually driven car is detached from the database. Don’t worry, they won’t find you that quickly - use the notebook in the car with this small black box to access the cloud database. Download the useful information and distribute it to five different media outlets, with the list all on the computer.”
“And then?”
“…You might also want to look at your data in the cloud database, it could be quite interesting!”
He stood up and walked out of the coffee shop’s door, and his elongated silhouette in the sunshine looked like a straight exclamation mark.
By the time Mako snapped back to reality and raced to the door of the coffee shop, Lin Youjie had vanished, leaving only the manually driven car behind. “If ‘being connected to everything’ has become inevitable, then ‘disconnecting from the system’ has become the most fragile luxury…” she murmured to herself.
Mako entered Lin Youjie’s car and took the computer before anyone could discover her. However, as she walked home with the computer in her arms, a terrifying silence descended upon her. Only an hour had gone by since she had disconnected, and she still had a long time to go before the 100-hour privacy break ended.
The mobile phone signal was back, but it lacked functionalities like advertisement push and travel planning, now just a bare communication tool, much quieter. There was no telling voice guiding her when to turn left at an intersection, nor did the red traffic lights turn green for her. She had never been caught in the rain before, because her electronic secretary would have planned her itinerary based on weather predictions to avoid her exposure to rain, but today she became a drenched chicken, a lost one at that on the streets.
Yet she felt a thrill, with no electronic secretary’s nagging reminders, she learned to be alone for the first time and to listen to her thoughts. For the first time, her life was completely her own; her secrets belonged to her, not to be meddled with by others. But what when the rain stops? When the 100 hours are over?
Did she have to return to the predetermined track? When she got home, she opened the portable computer, impersonating Masakazu Yoshida, and logged into the page where all her data was recorded.
“Where’s the fascination in this? Just a bunch of boring numbers,” she said to herself, recalling Lin Youjie’s words. Then an idea flashed through her mind; she checked the computer’s hidden folders and found a complex algorithm Lin Youjie had left behind. Subconsciously, she uploaded all her data to the algorithm.
An image appeared on the screen - it was Mako herself but aged by ten years. She immediately realized this was a simulation of her future based on past data.
The scene was set in a villa. She was dressed elegantly, enjoying afternoon tea with a few equally well-dressed ladies, holding bone china cups. Her obedient son and daughter sat by her side, the daughter’s eyes like hers, the son’s nose like hers. The afternoon sunlight streamed through the windows, casting a soft, surreal glow on the house and its occupants.
“This is your future, Miss Mako,” a line of text appeared on the computer screen.
“…Not bad. But it’s not interesting to know the future so early!” She opened her email to attach the data package containing Masakazu Yoshida’s evidence. Just as she was about to click ‘send email,’ the villa door on the screen was gently pushed open, and a man stood outside. Only the hand that pushed the door, with a wedding ring, was visible.
“Don’t you want to see who your future husband is?” the computer prompted.
“Never mind, I guess I’m not destined to meet him anyway.” Mako clicked the ‘send’ button, and the data recording her actions updated swiftly with a few lines. The beautiful future scene on the screen vanished instantly, replaced by a long silence and a black screen.
“Goodbye, full data era,” Mako mumbled to herself.
“Notice of the Dismissal of Masakazu Yoshida as Chairman”:
“During Masakazu Yoshida’s tenure as CEO of Umbrella (August 2028 - November 2039), he illegally penetrated the international cloud database and accessed others’s information, severely violating the International Data Cooperation Act and adversely affecting the company’s image. Now Masakazu Yoshida has been subjected to a court subpoena, and Umbrella will fully cooperate with the related investigations. At the same time, to minimize the impact of this incident on public life, the board of directors has decided, effective immediately, to relieve Masakazu Yoshida of his duties as CEO of Umbrella, with the former Chief Technology Officer taking over the company’s operational affairs.”
Mako did not anticipate Umbrella’s swift response; they reacted just hours after the news release. Mako continued to scroll down with her mouse but noticed that besides the punishment of Masakazu Yoshida individually, there was no mention of a government investigation into Umbrella’s data processing methods.
The accompanying image in the notice on the website was a photo with a caption noting “former CEO of Umbrella cooperates with the investigation.” Although the man was wearing the same style suit, and the same glasses, a closer inspection by Mako revealed that he was not Masakazu Yoshida at all!
“How is this possible…” she murmured, “This person is not Masakazu Yoshida, I’ve seen his face.”
She immediately went online to search for images of Masakazu Yoshida, and all the official photos of him were different from what she remembered. If Mako had never seen Lin Youjie, perhaps she would have doubted her memory.
“Damn it…” She quickly sent a video call to Lin Youjie; after the news had come out, he should have been out of danger.
Her phone screen lit up, and greeting her was a man in a black hoodie, the same warmth, the same handsome look. Except - it was a completely unfamiliar face.
She broke out in a cold sweat and quickly hung up the call.
At this point, Mako gradually understood the real meaning behind Lin Youjie’s words - that the core value of a person is those unknown privacies. Once all data is extracted, a persona can be painted, machines can mimic all their behaviors, access all their accounts, and simulate a possible future.
At this time, does it matter who is who, whether their physical bodies exist?
Masakazu Yoshida may have never existed, just an image tool presented by Umbrella for PR purposes, or maybe he did exist once, but could easily be made a scapegoat and vanish into a wisp of history. And so could she. If a mathematics student who drives a manual car, doesn’t read e-books and only pays with cash can be defined as Lin Youjie, then a girl who reads romantic novels and is late for seminars can be defined as Mako.
As for how she will be replaced by whom and in what way in the tide of the full data era, it remains unknown. An electronic secretary could control her whereabouts in any manner and guide her to live or die because she is transparent, yet she knows nothing on the other end of the scale. She used to think that data was a tool for convenience, after meeting Lin Youjie she thought data was a shortcut for some people, but now she finally understood that data itself is power.
And she no longer had the chance to tell anyone these realizations.
Because the 100 hours of privacy coverage had passed, the voice of the electronic secretary rose in her mind: “Hello, Miss Mako, we meet again.”
For the first time, Mako felt truly alone.