When Children Rule the World
The story told in this novel is a fairly unremarkable one
Those are not my words, but the words of the author himself, Cixin Liu.
I have to admit that it was difficult for me to go through this book without becoming emotional. The first part of the book breaks my heart and made me sad, while the second part, on the other hand, made be furious.
Cixin Liu always puts humanity in difficult situations, and in this novel it is no different.
(Spoiler Warning) The following write-up contains spoilers. You have been warned.
Eight light-years away, a star dies, creating a supernova explosion that generates deadly levels of radiation. Slowly, the radiation makes its way to Earth and bathes every inch of it in deadly rays. The radiation begins to kill all adult humans—everyone above the age of 13. The young ones, however, their cells can regenerate fast enough to survive.
I won’t focus on the cosmic radiation scenario too much; it’s just the setup for the real story ahead.
When the world discovered the radiation sickness, chaos erupted, but eventually, everyone came to their senses. The adults had only one year to prepare the children to take over and run the world by themselves.
The immediate strategy was for each child to take over their parent’s job. A power plant engineer teaches his kid everything about running the plant, reminding him, “the lights must stay on.” A surgeon instructs her squeamish daughter on how to operate on patients. A mailman shows his son his route because letters must be delivered, even when adults are no longer around. This was the “Great Learning Era,” a chapter that tugs at my emotional strings.
Meanwhile, countries worldwide began selecting their child leaders. The novel focuses on China, showing how it selected three children for the highest positions in the country.
The selection process was interesting, and I wished this chapter were longer. It’s depicted as a sort of Hunger Games-style contest among the nation’s smartest school classes. Each class is given a piece of land with some resources and told to make a “country.” The resources aren’t distributed equally among classes, and they have to trade, negotiate, or take resources from others by force.
One class impressed the adult leaders. They were not aggressively conquering other class’ lands like the other class countries. The adult leaders were impressed with their diplomacy and forward-thinking. The 3 leaders from this class become the children leaders of China. Huahua, Spces, and Xiaomeng together they formed the central leadership.
I loved the dynamic among these three leaders: Huahua, the bold and charismatic one; Specs, the smart one; and Xiaomeng, the empathetic one.
The Epoch Clock and Big Quantum
This is the clock that counts down to the end of the adult era. Once all the adults are gone, the children will take over the world. This was yet another emotional chapter for me.
A mother leaves mundane instructions on the wall—“don’t forget to eat,” “turn off the stove”—and the list goes on. There isn’t a wall big enough for a mother to pass down everything she knows to her child. As a parent myself, the portrayal of parental worries in this book resonated deeply with me.
Once the epoch clocks turned black, signifying the end of the adults, chaos began. Child leaders received calls from children across the country, all of them unsure about what to do. The questions ranged from “Do I have to do my homework?” and “How do I cook instant noodles?” to larger concerns about floods and burning buildings. Things quickly spiralled out of control.
Fortunately, the children of China had “Big Quantum”—the adults’ final gift to them. In true Cixin Liu style of big sci-fi ideas, Big Quantum is a one of it. It is a super quantum computer, or AI, infused with adult knowledge. Children asked Big Quantum everything, from cooking tips to instructions on prescribing medicine. It embodies the “ghost” of adult wisdom and rationality in a world otherwise devoid of any adult presence.
Big Quantum, with its vast computing power, also created a digital world where children could play and interact, escaping the demanding adult roles they were forced into. In this digital space, they built their dream country—essentially a Metaverse.
Another compelling concept was the “General Assembly” held in this Metaverse. The three child leaders were invited to dialogue with billions of Chinese children in real-time. I found the execution in the book a brilliant use of AI and large language models.
Each child in the Assembly asked questions simultaneously, which Big Quantum would gather, tabulate, analyse, and then summarise. It presented questions to the leaders like, “82 percent are asking about X,” or “18 percent want to know about Y.” It’s a vision of AI technology that doesn’t seem far-fetched in today’s world of large language models.
What amazed me even more was when I found out that the first version of Supernova Era was written in 1991 and officially released in 2003, long before the recent surge of AI and Metaverse developments. It was only translated into English in 2019.
The Antarctic War Games
This second part of the novel just made me angry. I remember feeling furious with these kids that they decided to “play” war games in the Antarctic. Each nation brings their military equipment, like children bringing their toys to the playground. They set up the rules of the game, just like kids do when they play, the only different is that they are not playing with toys, they are playing with actual military weapons and vehicles.
With no regard for safety and the lives of others, they proceed with the war games using actual live ammunitions as if it is just playing to them, just fun and games.
I remember being so furious while reading this second part of the book. It had me thinking, would kids really act this way if there were no adults around? With no regard to their safety and the safety of others when they play?
When there is no adult to say you can’t play with that knife or that scissors. When there is no adult to say, don’t climb that tree so high up, you’ll fall and break your leg. When there is no adult to say, don’t play on the road, it’s dangerous.
Is it true that if there are no adults around, nobody is stoping them from playing with tanks, guns, and ICBM missiles?
The Exchange
I’ve observed this with my kid when she was younger. We bought her a toy, and she cherishes it and plays with it all the time. When she sees the other kid with a different toy, they just mutually exchange it. They don’t care if one toy is more expensive than the other, both of them think they are getting a good deal. Perhaps their concept of value is different from the adults. They value the experience of playing with something different more than the price of the toy.
The kids in Supernova Era, they each inherit their countries. When they decided to exchange lands, the US kids took the whole of China, and the Chinese kids took the whole of the United States of America. To them, these are just toys, and they each want to play with what the other kid has.
Final Thoughts
I found the story’s progression in the second part disturbing. I would hope that the world of children devoid of adults, if my child were to be in it, that it would not be like what was depicted in the Supernova Era.
I won’t reveal everything, but I did find the ending unexpectedly sweet and upliftings.
