“He said: the question today is how one can convince humanity to consent to their own survival.”

He wonders whether a schizophrenic would be taken seriously nowadays. “Doctor, I hear voices!” “Who doesn’t, Peter? Who doesn’t?”

Peter had once heard that the AIs of modern rockets were modeled on the psyche of human suicide bombers. These intelligent weapons wanted to die a martyr’s death. Had someone convinced them that, in heaven, there would be seventy-two maintenance technicians for every one of them?

“It’s astonishing how simple humans are,” says Pink to Romeo. “He becomes witness to a presidential assassination, his country is in uproar, his body is broken, but, hey, here’s the woman he fancies, and just like that he’s in a good mood.”