Just as an aside.

The programmer had never given any thought to Nazis. Except in video games. There he mows them down. But otherwise—they meant nothing to him. Maybe he understood their urge for a cleansed world …

It’s all quite sensational.

Only

MA WEI

No data

Finds the whole LED thing rather lame.

He isn’t so quick to get excited, because he

Is so old that he lived through the Three Years of Difficulty. It was later whispered that about 40 million people starved to death back then, which was probably propaganda. Ma Wei was ten at the time, and he had heard the stories about other difficult times. They scared children with those. People said to kids: “If you aren’t disciplined, you’ll starve.” Nothing worried people more than another period of difficulty. And when it arrived, young people thought it was just a temporary situation. Virtually nobody had supplies on hand, there was a drought, and the emerging nation found itself being restructured. Which meant that the farmers who had previously owned land were suddenly part of a large family with no land. Ma Wei remembered the hunger. Whenever he thought of the hunger, it pierced him deep inside his body in a way familiar to people who have suffered trauma. An amputation without anesthesia. Or rectal penetration during which their intestines are ripped out of them from the inside. The rest of the memory ended at the point when he ate excrement. When the dead were consumed. It ended in shame. Eternal shame and the feeling of being able to accomplish anything because he had survived. The only member of his family. Ma Wei didn’t find most people from Western countries unpleasant. But rather, just—laughable.

But

THE PROGRAMMER

Knows what he’s doing.

“What I’m doing,”

The programmer often tells himself, “is important for humanity.”

EX 2279

>++++++++++

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>——>—>—>+>—->++++>+>->++++>——>—>>++++>+>>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.>.

And

Welcome to Holyroodhouse.

“Just look how nice it is here.” Says

DON