Artificial Selection: A Near Future Thought Experiment

Chapter VII

The inside of the giant auditorium was nothing but dramatically cinematic.

On the stage, there was a giant ten-inch thick bulletproof glass. When Michael got closer, he realized it wasn't just glass. He read about this material somewhere. It was a special nanometer sized polymer made of a mixture of glass, acrylic, and carbon molecules. The compressed carbon molecules gave the material extreme hardness while the nanometer-sized acrylic and glass provided a resilient formation that mitigated the material's brittle nature. Michael was pretty sure that one square centimeter of this military-grade material costed more than the price of ten days of his meals added together.

Next to the walls of the auditorium stood security guards. Human security guards stood together with droids. The guards were standing so still that they looked like statues. From what Michael had read, this was how the soldiers stood when nations still have their own militaries. Their uniforms and paint formed a black fence of tall and short around the whole auditorium.

Sitting on the most left side of the auditorium were a group of unionists. They were all wearing the unionist armband. Michael couldn't help but sneer a little bit. These unionists were always making their political stances so clear: going as far as using seatings to present their political spectrum. Michael supposedly should be on the left wing as well because of his extreme poverty, but he personally didn't care about politics at all. He wouldn't care about who was in charge or what policies were put in pace — as long as he could stay on his job and get the bread for the day. Oh well, maybe some exceptions could be made if any political party would appreciate his talent, but that never happened.

The unionists were all dressed very cheaply with second handed suits and unaesthetic accessories, but their clothes were all ironed neatly and washed cleanly. The gentlemen and ladies were all behaving with formal etiquette, which gave a mien that highly contrasted the huge blue banners they were holding that were filled with aggressive messages about universal welfare and equality of opportunities. Michael appreciated how they didn't create too much commotion like those extreme unionists out there.

Then on the right side of the auditorium, it was a completely different sight. The right-wing technologists were sitting firmly, eager to hear the release of a new product that could further elevate their political strength. A lot of them were ArtTech employees, and they were proudly flashing their neatly polished employee badges pinned on their collars and cuffs. Many of them were wearing fancy technological gadgets like enhanced Bracelets or eyepieces. They were not only a demonstration of the technologists' deeply rooted political belief that technology would bring benefit to human beings, but these gadgets also powerfully signaled their prestigious positions in the social hierarchy and their huge aggregates of wealth.

However, the split of seating wasn't just simply based on political spectrum. Hypersphere broke all their past traditions and made a loud presence this time; meanwhile, ArtTech surprisingly allowed them in. Seated at the back rows were the Hypersphere top employees, including their CEO. Some of them wore the unionist armband while some wore those gadgets of the technologists, but they were all huddled together in a group as if their survival and power depended on their unity.

If one had to question Hypersphere's political stance, Michael would say that it was an outlier. Hypersphere was trying to use the technologists' methods to achieve the unionists' goals. Through developing their own artificial intelligence products, they could be a force to counter ArtTech's hegemony and eventually bring about more equality among all the people.

Since private security droids were not allowed in the conference center, Hypersphere brought a few security guards, but judging by the equipments and posture, the Hypersphere guards seemed to be no match against the ArtTech personnels.