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Digitization

 * 1) Paul: "Helios...it's taken over Aquinas. Now it's everywhere! In Hong Kong, it already has power the Majestic 12 never dreamed of!"
 * 2) " "It's decided to replace human governments." Traffic flowing, triads (even LumPath) illegal. No protests when gov't bldgs shut down. [Paul remains in HK]
 * 3) "And people are obeying? Why? Just because some AI can change some codes and turn out the lights?"
 * 4) " They just obeyed[...] they trust the AI. "
 * 5) Page dies and Illuminati rule -- 20th century capitalism. " Corporate elite protected by laws and tax codes."
 * 6) "Or I listen to Tong and pull the plug on everything. Or, hand the world over to Helios."
 * 7) "But there must be another way other than economic collapse."
 * 8) "If we can trust the AI to be fair and just, as it appears to be --" "If the brain it assimilated was mine, maybe it could be."
 * 9) Paul in Hong Kong; Helios already runs the world.
 * 10) People want normalcy -- Helios provides
 * 11) JC exemplifies the ultimate hubris; why is he perfect though?

Analysis
Page 52
 * 1) First reports of the situation topside since arrival at Vandenburg.
 * 2) Replacement of machines -- human governments have become obsolete, without regard to morality or ethics; it all has to go. The dislike of the government is strong in China then; nobody, not even the government itself, protests. Confirmation that Paul is definitely in Hong Kong.
 * 3) This and the following quote are interesting sociologically -- if a godlike figure suddenly appeared and took out all of the freedom and negativity in people's lives simultaneously in exchange for their total obedience, would they obey? I think it's largely dependent on the state of the world when this occurs. The late 1990's? I don't think people would be too happy. Now there would be far less protest, and even a willing release of responsibility to some degree has shown up in the 2050's.
 * 4) This 20th century capitalism noted here has stretched well into the first fifth of the twenty-first century and shows no immediate signs of letting go. The corporate and (often overlapping) political elite are in command of the world's financial systems and governments. The income of the average person in the United States alone may well be zero when compared to the buying power of the average millionaire, and even their estates are dwarfed by the volume of capital that is moved throughout the world by both governments and corporations. Billions of dollars in transactions on a daily basis. "Another fifty billion dollars down the drain" is quite a sum to the layman, but to the larger governments of today, it is lunch money for a few days at most.
 * 5) Either/or -- it's all up to the player/JC.
 * 6) Paul is either speaking to just Tong's idea or wishes to dismiss the other two entirely. Paul doesn't advocate for any of these explicitly, but his exasperated tone and word choice make him appear to be going for Tong's idea if there is no better solution. Capitalism and dictatorship are not preferable to economic collapse.
 * 7) Trusting the AI again; the seed has been planted.
 * 8) [Skipped]
 * 9) People are only agitated if their own world doesn't run like clockwork. Helios provides this safely, cheaply, efficiently, and quickly. It's the ultimate answer to the world's problems. But the sacrifice of freedom is the killer here; the moral ambiguity provides quite a conundrum.
 * 10) The other critical question surrounding Helios's endgame solution is why JC is perfect; he exhibits the ultimate hubris here by thinking that "if the brain assimilated was mine, maybe it could be." He is subjective, as all humans are.