Andrei had no problem dealing with this line of argument. It had none of the emotional punch that he had found so unexpected, and disorientating, in O’Brien’s attack. Always more comfortable in the realm of theory, he was again calm, methodical, unperturbed.
‘Senator, I’m an advocate of Deep Connectedness, which I explained before. I’ve spent the last seven and a half years of my life building Deep Connectedness. If you want to call that an ideology, call it an ideology. I don’t class it as an ideology any more than being an advocate of free speech is an ideology. Deep Connectedness is about allowing other people to express their ideologies, just as free speech is. So unless you’re saying that free speech is a danger, then I don’t understand what the danger is that you think you’re pointing at.’
‘Let me help you, Mr Koss. Your Farming program, or IAP, or whatever you want to call it there in your office in Silicon Valley, is an immensely powerful program. Would you agree?’
‘I think it is a major advance, yes. I said that before.’
‘Immensely powerful in selling products. Almost unimaginably powerful.’
Andrei didn’t reply.
‘Why don’t you tell us how it works? In detail.’
Andrei’s lawyer leaned over and whispered in his ear.
‘Certain details, Senator,’ said Andrei, ‘are commercially sensitive.’
‘I don’t think we need that level of detail, Mr Koss. Tell us, in principle, how it works.’
‘I believe I already told the first senator.’
‘Then tell us,’ said McKenrick, through gritted teeth, ‘again.’
Andrei gave a summary. McKenrick listened with a show of disgust on her face. Then she asked a series of questions to elucidate some of the things the program could do.
‘So if such a thing is so powerful in selling products,’ she said eventually, ‘wouldn’t it be just as powerful in selling an ideology? No, selling’s not the right word … spreading an ideology. Infiltrating our society, subverting it. Perhaps an ideology directed against the United States. An ideology that might directly or indirectly take the lives of American citizens.’
‘Why would I do that?’ said Andrei.
‘It could take on the face of an Islamic preacher, couldn’t it? It could radicalize our young people.’
Andrei was genuinely bemused at the suggestion. ‘Why would I want to do that? Is there anything in anything I’ve ever done that suggests that I would?’
‘So it all comes down to trusting you, does it, Mr Koss? You hold our destiny in our hands? On your whim we live or die?’
‘Senator, that’s very flattering but—’
‘What if someone else had this technology, Mr Koss? Couldn’t they do what I’ve described?’
‘But someone else doesn’t have this technology, Senator.’
‘You said yourself that they will. You said yourself that you’re one of the giants they’ll stand on.’
‘I didn’t mean I was one of them. I just meant that every advance, every development, builds on previous ones.’
‘And someone will build on yours.’
‘I don’t see what that has to do with me.’
‘Without you, they wouldn’t build.’
‘I would argue, Senator, that without me, someone else would do what we at Fishbowl have done. If it can be done, it will be done.’
‘So you do agree there is a danger?’
‘I suppose, in the wrong hands—’
‘Exactly, in the wrong hands.’
‘But you can say the same about a gun, Senator. In the wrong hands, the gun is an instrument of terror. Are you saying you’d like to take it out of everyone’s hands?’
Another murmur of laughter fluttered through the audience. Andrei hadn’t intended the remark as a jibe, but McKenrick was a well-known gun advocate and supporter of the NRA. She had voted against every gun-control measure that had come up during her long senate tenure.
She was flustered for a moment. ‘Do you really not see the difference, Mr Koss?’
‘No, ma’am, I really don’t.’
‘Do you really not see the danger you bring to the community through this deceitful, underhanded program?’
Andrei was silent for a moment. He did see the danger, but not while the program was in his hands. ‘No, ma’am.’
‘What if a foreign government got hold of it?’
‘I really don’t see how that’s going to happen.’
‘You said yourself, others will build the same thing. Others will stand on your shoulders.’
‘How can I stop them?’
‘I don’t think you’re taking this very seriously, Mr Koss.’
‘I’m taking it extremely seriously, Senator. I think it’s people who think they can hold back technology who aren’t being serious. Our IAP program is a major advance and I don’t think there is anything else in the world that I’m