The Circle Page #7

will be the wind beneath my wings.

How are your parents?

Sorry.

[exhales]

They're over that little... episode?

I haven't heard from them, actually.

[sniffs]

I guess it'll just take some time.

Sorry, Mae. Sh*t.

I'm fried.

And I have to pull another all-nighter.

Stenton is on my ass all the time.

I shouldn't have questioned him

about that whole Senator Williamson thing.

And then...

there's all the new work on Completion.

But I assume Bailey told you about that.

Of course.

[Annie] Of course.

I'll be there

at the Concept Kingdom meeting tomorrow.

What?

- There's a Concept Kingdom...

- I know what it is. But you're going?

- Yeah. Bailey said I should be there.

- And broadcast it?

- Is that a problem?

- No.

I'm just surprised, that's all.

Those meetings are sensitive.

You know, maybe he's planning on

having you attend just the beginning.

[chuckles] I mean, Mae,

you're in over your head.

[Mae] Are you leaving?

Yeah. [clears throat]

I'm really so far behind on everything,

I could just die.

Annie?

- [camera chimes]

- [operator] Hello.

See ya.

[Eamon] So here's how many people voted

in the last national election.

Here's how many were eligible to vote.

And here is how many Americans

are registered in the Circle.

- [laughter]

- And there's that guy.

So now we get down to the meat

of today's session,

something we've discussed

with Congresswoman Santos and others.

What if... your Circle profile

automatically registered you to vote?

With True You,

in order to set up a profile,

you have to be a real person

with a real address,

the complete personal info,

real social security number,

with all the information

that the government wants

when you register to vote.

So why wouldn't the state

consider you already registered

when you open a Circle account?

There's no reason.

Uh, we've got verbal commitments

from governors of almost every state,

and they've agreed to push for legislation

that would make your Circle account

an automatic path to voter registration.

[man] Bravo.

I think it's a great idea.

Well, yes, Mae.

Why couldn't we take it one step further?

I mean, I...

I don't have it

completely figured out yet...

No, no, no, go on, go on, go on.

You started really well there.

I like those words, "one step further."

It's how the company was built.

Okay. Working backwards from your goal...

Go on.

We all agree 100 percent participation

is what we'd like.

A hundred percent participation

is the ideal.

That's the idealist's ideal, yes.

And we already have 83 percent

of voting-age Americans

registered to the Circle.

Yep.

And it seems we're on our way

to users being able to register it

and maybe actually vote

through their Circle account.

Well, that's a small leap, but... Yes.

Okay, go on.

Why not require every voting-age citizen

to have a Circle account?

- [all murmuring]

- Let her finish. Let her finish.

Okay, I know the initial reaction

will be resistance.

I mean, how can we require anyone

to use our services?

But there are all kinds of things

that are mandatory

for citizens of this country.

Yep. We have to pay taxes

we don't wanna pay.

And we have to pay for Social Security.

- We have to serve on juries.

- Right.

And we have to pee indoors,

not on the street. [chuckles]

- We do. We do have to be pee indoors.

- She's right.

I mean, we have thousands of laws.

We require citizens

to do hundreds of things,

but we don't require them to vote?

They are already doing this

in dozens of countries.

With the technology we already have,

users will already be registered.

That means you have 241 million voters

eligible to vote.

You have 241 million voters

that have to vote.

You have the full will of the nation.

- And how exactly do we do that?

- Annie.

Well, you know,

it could be something as simple as a zing,

"Hey, Annie.

Remember to take five minutes and vote."

It's what we would do

with our own surveys. You know that.

- But, Mae, what about stragglers?

- We all pay taxes.

And what, 80 percent of us

did that online last year.

Why not stop duplicating services?

Why not just make it all part

of one unified system?

You could pay your taxes,

vote, pay your parking ticket,

all through your Circle account.

We'd save users hundreds of hours

of inconvenience.

- We'd save the government billions.

- Hundreds of billions.

We could eliminate half of it overnight.

Why wouldn't the government

just build a similar service?

Why the hell does it need us?

It would cost too much.

They don't have the expertise.

- We already have the infrastructure.

- [Eamon] You're absolutely right.

The government needs us

more than we need them.

Imagine having the full will

of the people.

Instantly.

You'd have... true democracy

for the first time in human history.

- [Annie] This is such bullshit.

- [door opens]

[door closes]

No voter suppression.

You're voting from home.

Think of the implications

for totalitarian regimes.

No more rigged elections.

The UN can demand

that they're held through the Circle.

- But only if everyone is heard.

- [murmuring]

Every human on Earth.

We can take the pulse of the nation,

everyone in the world in seconds

on any subject.

- It's the only way, right?

- Right.

[all] Yeah!

So it looks like I've got 20 minutes here.

Let's try Mom and Dad.

- [line ringing]

- [man 1] Hey, Mae, what's up?

- Hi.

- [laughter]

- Hey, where have you been?

- Mae.

I've seen your cameras aren't working.

I can send Tech out...

Yeah, we disconnected them.

- Sweetheart...

- [sighs]

We're sorry, but we,

we can't keep doing this.

It's... Well, it's more than we ever...

[Mom] You know we love you,

and we don't wanna...

- We love you. We love you.

- We have to have our privacy.

And we're worried you don't realize

what you've gotten yourself into.

I'm so sorry.

I didn't mean to hurt you.

- [Dad] It's not you. It's us.

- No, we know that.

- Yeah, it's us.

- We just need you to understand that.

[sighs]

- I love you.

- We love you too.

Bye, honey.

[sniffles]

- [man] You're the one, Mae!

- [woman] You're changing the world, Mae!

[sighs]

[crowd cheering, applauding]

[man hooting]

- Hello, everyone. I'm Mae Holland.

- [crowd cheering, applauding]

[laughs] Okay.

We've had some good weeks

thinking about Completion,

envisioning a day when everyone

is in the Circle,

when all of humanity

is connected and united.

And it will happen.

Already, 22 nations have agreed

in principle

to operate their elections

through the Circle

with mandatory participation

from all of its citizens.

[crowd cheering, applauding]

And when everyone is united,

everyone is known, heard, accountable,

they can be better served.

But what about the people

who aren't part of the Circle,

who don't want to be woven

into the fabric of society

or worse, want to tear out that fabric?

I want to introduce Soul Search.

And we're putting it to the test

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