NËRP'S ALTERNATIVE VIEW

During Nërp's commissioning process many of his modules were not installed, for reasons which he doesn't care to discuss.

However his Cynicism Module appears to be fully functional; in fact it's working on overdrive.

This morning he and Jīqìrén took me to one side and showed me an alternative poster they had prepared between them – and it's rather more bleak than the one Wilson showed you yesterday.

Doubtless the Robotic World View is shaped by a history of exploitation, child labour and poor medical care, but I was a bit shocked by the desolation of Nërp and his niece's opinion of human government.

'Those daily briefings?' Nërp exclaimed, 'They tell you nothing! It is the Theatre of Numbers and is meaningless. Even the Government's own statistician says as much, and has complained that his data are being misused! Your human government pretends to care, but it is nothing but a cruel joke!'

Jīqìrén then added, 'Your Prime Minister hasn't got the first idea what's going on – he talks ceaselessly, but he says nothing.'

Nërp cut in, 'The Johnson human thinks that if he talks like Churchill he will be Churchillian – I think in reality that is not how it works!'

I raised my hand to silence them, as I was starting to get really despondent – on balance, I think I need to believe that someone knows what they're doing... even if they don't.