The Before Short Story Series. Part 1 - Иван Перепелятник

And it was all due to the partnership of the human and the AI. From titanic shifts in the field of medicine, allowing an individual to confidently step over the centennial milestone of full and active life in society, up to introducing incremental changes in the design of an aircraft wing, which provided for an additional 20% reduction in its weight, thus increasing the efficiency of flights. All these new developments were replacing one another literally like a kaleidoscope. There seemed to be no end to amazing innovations. A new partnership between the human and PAX brought in a new era of prosperity and development. And the pinnacle of achievements of the partnership after two decades had been the almost complete eradication of poverty, hunger and the elimination of the eternal need to fight for energy resources on the planet. It seemed, there was nothing else to dream about. Finally, 75 years after graduation from the university in Russia, Thomas, having gained some life and professional experience, started to understand what was happening a little deeper, and looking from a different angle too. Partying with friends he used to repeat—Everything has its price. The price for new achievements is a new degree of no freedom. In the modern infrastructure of civilization, it was impossible to take a step without a digital passport or a Tracker, as it was also called. The passport was the key to everything. Literally—the key to everything. There wasn’t a single area of human activity where people could have been interacting with each other without this invisible pass to all the benefits of the services industry.

Going to a cafe, booking a taxi or taking a ride on free public transport, buying a gift for a friend in a store, going on vacation, or coming back home—one could perform all these actions and an infinite number of others just being oneself, imperceptibly interacting with the surrounding digital infrastructure. The digital passport certified individual’s identity, no matter wherever and what the person was doing, meaning that one’s whole life was carefully classified and recorded by PAX. The system knew someone better than an individual knew himself. But Thomas didn’t mind at all. He was an advocate of the new order, because he understood that no ideal system existed. The modern world order had provided people with an opportunity to move on to the next step in the development of civilization. Thomas considered the price proportionate and fair—everyone became the winner. People received a new level of comfort; the state, predictability, stability and control.

‘So, Dee, let’s see what we have on this Tokareva, too.’

Dee, as a digital assistant to the editorial office, had access to various Bild archives and databases, available in the corporation divisions on all the six continents. Considering the status of Bild as a socially significant organization acting in the interests of society and two hundred and fifty million subscribers, the editorial office was connected, albeit with some restrictions, to the PAX global information base. But the data available was more than enough to learn a lot about a person. Of course, taking into account a certain level of access to personal and confidential information.

‘Here you are, Thomas. We have the following information on Alexandra Tokareva. I’ve prepared a selection of the main points for you that might seem significant for the upcoming interview in Moscow.’

Thomas started looking through the information displayed on the computer screen in his office.

Alexandra Tokareva.

Gender: Female.

Age: 53 years old.

Place of residence: Moscow, Novosibirsk, Russia; Tel Aviv, Israel.

Education: Faculty of Physics and Technology, Novosibirsk State University, Russia;

Faculty of Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Scientific achievements and patents: 34 registered patents in total. The most significant is the methodology developed for automatic structuring and analysis of big data of an individual’s life activity with the help of the PAX cluster system computing power.

A recognized expert in the field of big data analysis. Alexandra Tokareva is engaged by public and private bodies to develop programs for key infrastructure projects.

Alexandra Tokareva has a number of state commendations for her great contribution into the development of the transport infrastructure of Russia, for her active participation in educational programs for the primary school development in Israel.

Main place of residence: Moscow. Lives with her partner, Rivsha Alka.

No children. Has two dogs of the Jack Russell Terrier breed. Dog names: Bonnie and Russell.

Political views: does not belong to any party or public organization.

Hobbies: powerlifting, mountaineering.

Throughout her career, she has given only three interviews for popular science online publishers. The most notable statements by Alexandra Tokareva are presented below.

The role of training programs focused at the formation and development of creativity of the individual. An interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in 2093 in connection with the launch of a new preschool education program in Israel, in the development of which Alexandra had been actively involved for two years.

‘I cannot imagine a situation when our contemporaries, parents of the small individual, could have allowed for not enlisting a child for a preschool training program. Surely, this possibility is defined by the Constitution. Educational programs are available on demand to everyone today. But how is it possible that in our civilization a responsible guardian can intentionally deprive a child of the opportunity to fully prepare for the upcoming life in a society, where PAX with its artificial intelligence exists. Our main advantage as a species over quantum networks is unpredictability. But in order to set productive boundaries to this unrestrained power of humankind, we must begin to form an appropriate knowledge foundation as early as possible, which will serve to build a structured and multilevel intellectual and unique information base for each individual, taking into account the peculiarities of one’s neurostructure. I am ready to say once again: the sooner a child joins a specialized training and development program, the better. And when I say earlier,