by O-90
One of the first orders of business agreed to by the civilian government that was set in place after 2045, was to raze the dictator’s palace in New York City before the elections scheduled for 2048.
There hadn’t been an election in the United States since 2024. The midterms and general elections which were scheduled to follow in their regular two-year and four-year cycles had all been cancelled, by diktat. The United States became a one-party state, with senators and representatives appointed by the central committee, under the supervision of the dictator and his inner circle.
After the dictator died, in 2028, at the age of 82, there was a month of uncertainty as various members of his family claimed the right to succeed him. The battle for succession was eventually won by Master K (as he came to be known), the husband of the dictator’s eldest daughter. It was said that his wife was able to sideline her brothers and sister by giving them positions as emissaries to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Türkiye, and China, with the dictator’s namesake son designated as a roving ambassador, which allowed him to continue his quest to not only bag the Big 5 of Africa, but to also find rare and endangered species that he could add to his hunter’s collection before the animals went extinct.
Unfortunately for him, in 2030, near what was once known as Lake Victoria (Swahili: Ukerewe; Dholuo: Nam Lolwe; Luganda: ‘Nnalubaale; Kinyarwanda: Nyanza), the scion of the dictator was killed while tracking a water buffalo, after wounding the animal. He did not heed the warning that all big game hunters of the 19th and 20th centuries knew well about the water buffalo: “When wounded, they become aggressive and angry. They would seek revenge on the hunter and even remember the encounter the following day. If wounded they would circle around their enemy and counter-attack, instead of fleeing.”
Junior, as he was known to his hunting party associates, was found gored and trampled, his face and body disfigured almost beyond recognition after having been dragged through thorn bushes by the water buffalo, shortly before his back was broken by the conquering beast, who disappeared into the bush directly after extracting his revenge.
Master K and his wife—who became known as Lady MacDeath after the purge of the party and central committee in 2035—were toppled in The First Tech Coup in 2037, when the triumvirate, known later as the Big Bros, took over. Under the Big Bros, the family of the dictator immediately lost all of its grips on power and, it is rumored, that they were all, including cousins and any other relations, sent by military transport to the DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), where no news of them has emerged since.
The Second Tech Coup followed less than a year later, headed and managed by the teenage (14) AI quantum computer developer KG (aka Khalil Gibran—not his real name) who’s parents had migrated to the United States from Kerala, India shortly before he was born.
It was under KG’s rule that the party apparatus set in place by the dictator was finally dissolved in 2039. The central committee and the appointed governors and representatives were relieved of their duties and positions of power (some of them were sent to prison for corruption, charged as sexual predators, or convicted of murder) and replaced by an artificial intelligence system that KG had trained to administer the necessary bureaucracy of the state.
The AI was rigorously trained on The Prophet (written by the real Khalil Gibran), Robert’s Rules of Order, and Asimov’s Laws (also known as The Three Laws of Robotics) as adapted by KG to limit the destructive potential of a quantum-driven super-intelligent AI system.
Because the United States under KG was the first world power to attain a super-intelligent quantum AI, the cryptographic systems throughout the world in all other states were rendered useless, and KG was able to impose his vision of a world united under his benevolent AI system of government. Dictatorships and autocratic systems around the world fell almost immediately, war machines were disabled, trade and supply systems were made more efficient, and people throughout the world lost their fear of artificial intelligence, since KG had been able to corral its power to improve life.
One aspect of this new system was the tracking and tracing of all handguns and automatic weapons and their owners in the United States, advising them through various media channels and personalized drone surveillance that if they did not voluntarily turn in their weapons, mini drone swarms would follow them everywhere, invade their homes, and dispossess them of their guns by force if necessary. Within seven months after implementation of the Disarmament Proclamation, over 98.7% of guns and other weapons in the United States were neutralized.
From 2040 to 2045, KG refined his artificial intelligence system in such a way that it became, as he called it in 2043, “the shepherd of democracy.” Thus, slowly, and in stages, democracy was reintroduced to the United States and the other states around the world that had fallen to dictators and authoritarian regimes. At first, democracy reintroduction was limited to local elections in towns, cities and counties, then expanded to elections in larger geographical areas, until finally general elections could be organized and scheduled, like the upcoming 2048 general election in the United States.
The basic principal throughout the AI system set up by KG is that of universal suffrage. All the people born in a particular country are eligible to vote from the age of 15, but are also obliged to vote in most of the elections that take place. This is because most of the voting that takes place is for a question stated in a referendum. Voting in referendums is obligatory, and if 99% participation has for some reason not occurred, the referendum is regarded as being in limbo, until it reaches the 99% vote threshold.
All voting is carried out electronically, through a secure voting app which was developed by the quantum AI. And all public representatives of the people are tasked with ensuring that the bureaucratic machines in their districts work efficiently for the benefit of their constituents. No representative may serve in office for more than 8 years, no matter how popular in her/his district.
Of course the quantum-driven AI (now known as QAI) as developed by KG, enables the registration of every birth, every name, and all the particulars of every person born, growing up and eventually dying on Earth. Except for some specific tribal groups in the primeval forests of Africa and South America, as well as the natural inhabitants of the Arctic who, if they did not want to participate in the system, were granted the privilege of suborning themselves to tribal rules if they so wished.
The interim civilian government, shepherded and guided by the QAI, is now functioning democratically throughout the country. No longer limited to being in one particular location, the civilian representatives first chosen and trained in their tasks by QAI, work mostly from home, wherever that may be.
The medical and child care system run by QAI was able to bring medical care and child care to every household in the country as a right of citizenship. This has increased the job market, by enabling people to be educated in medicine and child care. Of course, AI-aided education has increased university and other higher education attendance and graduation in all fields.
Since a perfect voting record for both obligatory and non-obligatory elections enables citizens to choose bonus options as rewards for their participation in democracy, people are motivated to learn more about the questions asked in the referendums and more about the skills of the people who want to be their representatives.
In 2042, the QAI also set in motion the Capitalism Ltd rule, which requires that all enterprises started by an entrepreneur as for-profit owned businesses transform into cooperatives by the end of their 10th year of operation as a private company. More about that rule can be found here.
What used to be known as social media was rebranded by QAI and is now called “sociable media”, with channels now split into categories of what were once called leisure activities: physical pursuits, like walking, jogging, yoga, swimming, etc.; cultural activities, like museums, theater, concerts, festivals; hobbies and art, like photography, painting, knitting, sculpting, pottery; travel and relaxation, like camping, meditation, spa visits; and of course technology pursuits, like drones, video editing, gaming, etc.
All the sociable media channels are under constant vigilant scrutiny by the QAI to ensure that no behavior contrary to the peaceful and harmonious principles of The Prophet can poison the channels.
A limited number of pictures of KG as a child were found lately by researchers, but none of him as an adult have emerged. It is very possible that he has instructed QAI to keep any pictures or other personal information about him away from the public. In 2043, after his statement about QAI and democracy, he also said that cults of personality and hero-worship (except perhaps in sports for extraordinary feats) are detrimental to society as a whole, which was why he had already by that time made himself more or less invisible to the public.
Since the installation the civilian government and the scheduling of the election in 2048, KG has made no public pronouncements and is no longer accessible by email, as he once had been since his implementation of QAI in 2038. From the day he implemented QAI, he had also set up an email address for anyone who wanted to write to him: KG(at)QAI(dot)world. Whatever the question asked or the comment made, the email was answered almost immediately. People suspected that he had trained an AI agent to incorporate his philosophy and personality in every email answer.
However, since last year, after the civilian government was in place and the election of 2048 was set, all email questions bounce back to the person wanting communication. People receive a looped clip of the edited refrain of a song from the 20th century: “Return to sender, address unknown. No such number, no such zone.”
Click here to see Video reply from KG
