 We are getting started right now. So this is basically a virtual fire. And it's a pleasure and an honor to already see Andreas Eschbach. I'm an audiobook junkie and he is one of the ones who started. He gave me my first shot basically. Last of his kind. I was so burnt out about the oil topic. So yes, I'm really happy. I hope you can tell. And I'm really excited. I can't translate how excited it is. How much excitement there is. So yeah, let me hand over to the moderation jinx platform. And I am really looking forward to the Q&A. Yes, also looking forward to the Q&A. And we have Andreas Eschbach today. And there will be a short reading. More or less half an hour. And then we have a lot of time for your questions. The link to the fire side room here. We have a little more space. A few people can join in. It should be in the fire plan in the schedule. And hopefully people will correct me. Okay, it is in the fire plan. Great. And you can join right in. You are here with us live. And everyone who cannot come in, there is the stream. And yeah, warm welcome Andreas. Hello. Hi, I'm here. Such warm words without me having done anything. Well, you did something already. Yeah, well, I've been sitting here for some time. How long have you been writing? I've been doing that since I've been 12. Half a century ago. Recently. Who you compare it to. But he's a fictitious space hero. The reading will be from NSA national security agency. But the German terms for that. So it translates quite nicely. And I also have it digitally on my phone because I show the text. My oldest kindle. Guess I am someone who doesn't like buying new stuff. And the old stuff still works. So it's about national safety or security agency. Again, the German words. So it is Lord Charles Babbage. Someone managed to build his steam machine in 1851. The machine work with information progress quite quickly. And that, in turn, increased the speed of other technological developments. Still, the Kaiser introduced a new information network. It also played a large role in the First World War. But it couldn't keep the bad things from happening to Germany. It also played a huge role in the Weimar Republic and also helped the Nazis in growing. So when the Nazis took power, they also took over the agency that had surveillance of the network. And that network could also keep track over all kinds of communications between the people. So money movements or messaging and the like. The government of Hitler also used the NSA that many people didn't even know existed from the Weimar Republic. And they just took it over and it didn't change too much. The leader of the agency thought that was because there was magic of the letters. So everyone who knew about the words NSA So the Nazis just assumed that it would be an S agency for national socialistic. And didn't think it had to be changed. So this agency survived the war quite well. But today should be the change it changed. It was 5th October 1942. The sky was as dark as if someone had put a grey cloak over it. And the windows of the agency looked like sharpshooter points. There was almost no one on the streets except for a few cyclists ducking in their heads. And the windows were barricaded just to be sure. The black Mercedes Benz stopped in front of the portail with the wet Nazi flag hanging down sadly. A man came from the car. Everyone knew him. His friend glasses. Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler. The second powerful man in the world. The portal opened. And the vice president of the house greeted the guests with Heil Hitler and raising his right arm. I welcome you on behalf of our office. Himmler just nodded shortly. I don't have much time. Don't waste it. He said. The room was dark. A projector showed a sharp image. The ventilator was ventilating. And it was smelling of hot air. A few people were smoking. Our task, Adamek explained, is on two levels. The first level is obvious. We have access to all kinds of information. And we can use that information in many ways. We can read any text anyone writes. And every email sent within the Reich. We can see all the account balances. We can see what news shows. People watch and listen to. And of course, we can read all forum discussions even on closed forums. And that helps us identify people that make comments about the Fuhrar, about the national socialism that we don't like. Himmler nodded. The problem is the sheer amount and mass of data. We can read any document, but we can't read them all. We couldn't do that even if we had a thousand fold of the employees. We have, of course, more employees wouldn't be possible because of the losses at war. So we have computers that search for suspicious terms. And we have artificial intelligence to look for relevant results. Yes, that seems to be the second level. Adamek shook his head. No, he said. That's what I'm going to talk about now. He pushed his wheelchair to get close to the protector. Everything I've talked about until now is just scratching the surface. The power of the computer to interlink data in a way that provides information. That is the second level of our work. And no one could do it like we do. And we would like to present some of that information now. Himmler leaned back and folded his hand. Hands. Sure, he said, go on. Adamek wasn't impressed by the skeptic of the Reichsführer. Being irritated wasn't his attire. Well, our churad had a very wise decision, made a very wise decision, by abolishing cash money. Effective post-July 1930. You can only pay by card or by Polk's telephone for convenience. That measure should free us from the Jewish dictation of money and the black market and violent crime and all that. Adamek nodded politely. Those were the furas' motive spot. That wasn't what motivated us. Because we don't know what everyone is doing. We know what everyone's been doing the past nine years, what they bought. Helena Bodenkramp showed a prepared table on the projector. Columns and lines containing numbers and in Reichsmark. It was fairly simple. Here we see a very basic information, all purchases I've made in the last year. It includes my personal ID number and the accounts the money went to. And they searched Columns has the article that was bought or a contract number if it was a contract payment. You can see an example of that in a second line. That is my rent. And the last line contains the quantity. Our program knitter did good work. Now we have an additional filter. That only shows the money or the... Whenever I bought food, Himmler was skeptical. How do you know? How do you know what is food? The numbers all look completely different. Yeah, you can't see that at the numbers. The numbers are just increasing. But whenever a number or an article is added, all the information is on a different table. Ms. Bodenkamp, please show the information to the first row of this table. And the new table, you could see everything. It was a Gloria potato. It's food. It's not rational. ID number 100174. Here we need a category. Food. So if we want to have further information, we have to check the table for food. The secretary typed in some commands. And another table came up. Description, potato in general. Unit 100 grams, vitamins and so on, all the information. So we can see the potatoes I bought two weeks ago. They have 700 calories per 100 grams. I bought two kilograms. Might I ask how you know that? Himmler asked, but of course I'm not buying myself. I have a young helper who does that for me. I give him a list and my money card and he does everything else. And I was not able to understand the procedure. Adamek was turning around and looked at the picture until he found his point again. As I said, I bought two kilograms of potatoes. So 1,540 calories. Those calculations we can get done by a program. So it changed upon the note. The table was shown again this time with just the information of who bought what and when and the calories. Now a new list came up with the name August Abnek where he lives and when he was born. Underneath there was a list of dates and a number of calories. So August 1942, 2,149 calories. And further dates and further numbers of calories. This is what I bought and after that, eight in the last time. The calorie number is a bad right. Now another step to make it more useful. So we are connected this table to the table of our civilian registry. So we get the number of nutrition values per household. And then we can divide that by the number of people in the household. And then we have a list of all households and how much each person household is using per month. The eyes of the rice-führer grew incredibly behind his glasses. Slowly, but they grew. He seemed to understand what this was getting to. So for me, this is staying the same because I live alone. For other people, the number will be lower. For example when there is a baby or a child who of course it's less than an adult. Or if a household, an average household is too high for a certain household, then it could be that there is more people living there than should be. For example people who are hidden from the law. Himmler had his hands folded and rubbed slowly. That sounds well, but I would like to see a demonstration. Adamic was smiling. His colleagues also were smiling. They were prepared. Nothing better than that. Just tell me a city and we will create a list of suspects. Right here, right now, right in front of your eyes. Any city? Any city? Himmler was thinking shortly, Amsterdam. The smile disappeared immediately. Amsterdam. Is that a problem? So for increased tension, I have to take a sip. Helena was sitting in front of the keyboard. She hadn't known any of that. She wrote the programs as instructed. Just like always. Just like always she never asked what for. The program knitters were not supposed to ask. Of course she had her thoughts. But food, calories. What should she have thought then? And it's about the food situation of the public. To find out how people, how food is distributed, where there is enough food. But this, her hands felt like lead. Her stomach was shattering. The discussion amongst the men, she wasn't following. But they're still using the coins. Yeah, well, no. Pretty much since we've been there, not anymore. She was... Suddenly listening again. Do we have all the information? Yeah. So started, started the analysis. Yeah, of course. Just like any good woman, she was following orders. And she was washing her hands, putting in the commands. And pushing the empty key. And the tables were growing on the screen. She felt like she could hear the data streaming. And all the fans turning on. As this was happening, Himmler was explaining why. Amsterdam. When our army took the Netherlands and could take a look at the data, we could tell that the city was having tables about the religion of the people already. They were doing it for Texas, but of course, it was great for us. Unlike the homeland where we had to put a lot of work into it, there we already had a list of all Jews, which made our work a lot easier, of course. Yeah. Yeah, that was a really nice piece of luck. Yeah, we started with the deportations, of course. But because we have that list, we know that we didn't get everyone. For some it was that they went into the other countries. But we know that that can't be true. So if they didn't swim across the sea, they have to be somewhere in the city. Somewhere in the city, hidden in the hope that we will go away. He was putting a fist into the air in anger. But we came to stay for a thousand years. Breathless silence was there in the face of this anger. Nobody dared to say anything. Everyone was just staring at the number on the screen that was slowly climbing to 100%. Then it disappeared, and a list came up. The first few numbers came up, and numbers and calories came up. 5,870 calories per day per person. We had one. What does that mean? These people almost buy three times the amount of that, what they can eat themselves. Ms. Bodenkram, please, the numbers from the civic tables. Helena felt like there was incredibly heavy and invisible weight on her. So heavy she could barely breathe. But her hands, those traitors, kept working, typing with commands. Incredibly fast. And the tables on the screen were filling with further information about the families. The first one was about a childless pair of... Yeah, a childless pair. Where they came from, they came from Austria, where they live, where they work. The second one was also a couple. Also with our children. Four people, four persons, who ate together about 25,000 calories. That's pretty much what ten people or more need. The two women work in the same company. What kind of company is that? Asking his assistant. Again, her fingers danced. The company was called Pektor. He is the address. He is what they work with. They work pretty much straight with these two traitors. Just in December, right after we came there, it changed the owners. That could be just a cover-up. Helena opened the entries. Is that a Dutch name? Her fingers danced over the keyboard. Frank wasn't a Dutch man, but a German Jew. Emigrated to the Netherlands in 1934. He had lived in Meravedde-Plein with his family and was last seen in 1942 in June. The record said that according to rumors, the family had fled to Switzerland or they haven't. Himmler said and worked out his phone. Get a search command to Prinzenkracht 62 and have it searched. 2, 6, 3. Note the following addresses. And he dictated the addresses of the weak couple and of the other couple. Report immediately. He took away his phone and said, now we wait. So they waited, staring into the silence, letting time pass. Adamek was chewing on his thumb. Litke was twirling his mustache. Finally, after 100 years, at least that was what it seems like to Helena, the phone rang. Himmler was listening and he said, nothing. They found nothing. Helena saw how the men were staring in disbelief. Hopefully nobody would notice how she was relieved. One moment said Adamek. He talked to the knitter. I assume we also have the building data. Of course, show me the building on the map. Sammler was looking for a cigarette. He was seeing the look in Himmler's face, called his eyes. Nothing could save her now. The land register entry was shown. Amsterdam has very narrow but very long houses for historical reasons. Please describe what you found in Prinzenkracht 263. The men described exactly what they had seen. It was exactly as on the map. Litke was sweating. We went to the first floor. On the right side, there was a door towards a storage room. At the end of the corridor, a small door towards a library. I went to the second floor, back to the small room. What do you see? Just some shelves. Not a door? No. They saw it all. Behind the room, there were supposed to be more rooms. It was working. Incredible. The tension was incredible. Sturmbandführer described exactly where the shelves are. Opposite the door. See if there's a doorknob. We already checked. It's fixed to the wall. Assume that it's a root. Try again. The SS men said, OK. They heard commands and it was silent. Only noises. The phone was picked up again. You were right. The SS men said, there's a hidden door. Very well hidden. Screams in the background. There are several persons behind the door. The SS men said, arrest them all. Him less gnawed. He could hear commands barked. Screaming women and children. The Sturmbandführer was heard again. We found eight persons, all Jewish. It's supposed to be Otto Frank, his wife, and his two children, Margot and Annie. The Van Pels family with their son Peter sent them to Auschwitz immediately. Himmler barked. Himmler interrupted the connection. That's enough. The rest well sought itself out. He paced up and down the room. Obviously still in disbelief. Nobody said a word. We're in a dangerous situation in the east. Our fate is on an edge. But the war also has an inside front. That is just as important as our tanks on the outside front. And that is about liberating the country from the Jews. He put his phone in his pocket, looked at the employees and said, I wouldn't have expected what your work was able to do. I thought you were just some small, meaningless agency. But gentlemen, you have convinced me. I see that you are fighting at a very important front that is as important as our external war towards the outside. What I saw with you today convinced me that no one will ever be safe from us nowhere. We will soon have a Reich where minorities no longer exist. Our power will be infinite. Right afterwards they brought the Reichsführer and his entourage to the cause and saw and watched the black cause go away. Right afterwards their tension flew into laughter and happiness. They were successful. The NSA would stay what it was. Also Helene was congratulated. How well she worked without any mistake. She was nodding. So like her face was producing the smile that everyone was expecting, accepted. The nice words because they were all part of it. She did it automatically because what she all she could talk about was that she just helped to hand over the man she loved more than anything in the world to certain death. And right here I am telling you thank you very much for your attention. I assume that the very happy applause and the extreme applause we will have to just imagine right now. Technology is not far enough yet. But please don't let us reach 1984 with the screens. But yeah that's a different topic now. So yeah checking the chat we see a lot of applause. Great. So you just read that spot that when I read it way back really put a stone in my stomach the most because I thought wow that's that's insane that really shows how difficult this we have nothing to hide is. Yeah it's really harmless data that's collected. Just 77 calories per 100 grams of potatoes can become dangerous. And you really prepared that quite well how all these data work together and how the combination of data can lead to a very ugly end in the scene now. Do you maybe want to explain or tell a bit about your background knowledge? Where do you have that from? Yeah so I had a deep background. I had lessons at some point. I started with Debase back then and was working and Microsoft Access and was working with databases. I was programming SQL and stuff like that. That was in the mid of the 90s. And back then I had the idea to make to take part in a course or to provide a course to the topic of data protection. So I was giving courses for databases how to join and analyze data and just the idea of making a course of giving a course and usually with database courses people are typing in data and those are usually addresses and then you get out everyone from Stuttgart and everyone called Müller and he never had a large amount of data. Usually and then I thought he should bring a big database and then give him a task to really look for specific information and you could use data like you get in a company. For example data of when people arrive or leave. Because back then that was mostly electronic already but they eat in their breaks because the companies I was working with most of that was already with electronic payment and doing that you could have checked who is always arriving at the same time and what does that probably mean? Are they maybe having an affair or are they living in the same area? And unfortunately the screen is frozen right now. So that was what I imagined doing with the focus on data protection and we were offering that but nobody cared. It never happened. But the basic ideas are now in that book so the comparison and analysis of these lists so that you can abuse data or use data for more than it was meant for. So you want to know how many calories are in potatoes or the nutritional values of your food and you want to know how well this food is for you but if you combine that with bad intentions then you can get different results. And yeah, combined with changing politics it can happen quickly as we could sadly see in different places of the world. So you basically wrote a crossover between Snowden and Nazis. Well, Snowden was the trigger point for that actually because when he came out to make his revelations then I met people who I knew or people I was chatting with and they said, yeah well, I also thought you go to some page and check hiking boots and the next time I visit Amazon they offer to bring hiking boots so they know what I'm doing which they probably do. Yeah, that's possible. But those are not bad intentions yet. So Amazon just wants to optimize the advertisement which might be a little bit of purpose. So they try to give you advertisements that are interesting for you. So they are not trying to give, also print it out to people who have no use for that. And also when I was working in the companies it started that Germany was classified it was classified by income. So there are rather richer people and there are the poor people you don't have to have ads there and that's probably still the same. I mean we have data protection but that's only by the state. Companies can still pretty much do what they want and such things and these maps are still available. And I was saying that's not the worst that can happen. Just imagine the Nazis would have had might have had our computers from today. And then I was stopping myself and thought yeah, that might be a good book and then I thought some more. And yeah, I kept thinking that how long did you take planning this book? That was rather quick for my speed because usually such an idea is 6 years old or older than that was rather 3 years. So yeah, it was rather quick. I already had a lot of material of course because by Nazis you usually have some books in your bookshelf and I got some more. But it shouldn't really be a book about Nazis. There are others and better books about that but it's a book about our times. It made a bit more dystopic. You know the computers are the focus point and what you can do with them. So yeah, it was surprisingly fast. Once it was clear what the plan was the characters were also quite nice to write because sometimes when you're writing a character that is creating itself basically and the two main characters, Litke and Helene they were basically creating themselves. They are plastic, they have their own wants and goals and problems. They are creating the book as well. They take over the show. So you just have to think what are their problems and just follow them and everything is happening quickly. Okay, I'm very curious how you develop big characters I have an interesting question from the chat maybe to that topic. Would it be okay to have the official part of this reading in computer science course? It would fit rather well. Yeah, of course. I show the book as well. So it can serve as an advertisement and yeah, that works for me. Yeah, definitely. You should read it. It's at the same time quite subtle and quite obvious. So you combine that, well, yeah. I did want to make it obvious. So it's not a bad word in my context because the topic is one where you can get out the big camera and you shouldn't be too subtle. Yeah, sometimes you really wish for the big camera. One question was what would that look like today because now we have mobility data, media data, contact data. Do you have an idea? How would you do that today? In a context that's not in 1942 but today. I haven't really thought about that. How to do that today because the political situation is important about that because right now we are in a democracy. We are allowed to do pretty much what we want and think what we want. But that can change. It could become extreme left. It could become extreme right. Our extremely religious government. And the problem is that that works backwards because all the data is still available. So if the right-wing people get power, they can check Twitter. Who set anything against us in the past? And the left and the religious people of course are the same. All those who exactly know what God wants or destiny or whatever everyone who really knows things for effect they have no mercy because they are certain and they can fight anyone who does not fit their worldview. And that's a problem with data. So I'm happy about all websites that disappear again but the big data blocks there are numbers about all the data and average American producers per day and that's crazy. It's an insane amount. And Google and Facebook they are collecting all of that and the NSA also for sure. And then the data is just there and is waiting to be abused just like religious people might check the church taxes from Amsterdam. And yeah, that was a simple list back then. Yeah, another thing. Put it in and get extra. Yeah, the program knitters, some people like that term. So as an extra topic you had certain role models in that book that women wear the mechanics and the engineers and men are the users and those who draw the conclusions that provide the direction and all that. Yeah, that has two backgrounds. One is well thematically cost to make it more plausible because I want to have it realistic. So yeah, it's a mechanical engineered computer using punch cards, steam operators and all that. Well, the inventor of that constructed that machine had a friend at a Lovelace who wrote the programs and she thought even further than the inventor because she was already thinking tables and geographical data and insurance and all that. So she already knew that what she can do with the numbers. So she already predicted digitalization. So with that labor division men do the hardware and women do the software and the combination with Ada Lovelace that was my inspiration. But also during my studies at the Fraunhofer Institute where I worked as a research assistant we had women who programmed and that was something remarkable back then. Yeah, that was working against the stereotypes. I thought what they were doing was pretty neat. One of them built some sea routines that I even copied. I used them for a long time and what was special about that when men program they always want to show off and show how special they are. And women are way better at programming without the added ego or at least that's my opinion and I would have loved to hire women for my enterprise if I had had the possibility but that wasn't possible. There weren't any candidates. Yeah, they just didn't find computers fascinating enough I guess. Yeah, that is also kind of an homage to those women who... Yeah, that sounds great. Yeah, in this dictionary code it's poetry. I personally landed in Bogona but it's more than a work of art. Yeah, I was thinking in Bogona but many people can't estimate that. Well, we have an interesting question coming in. How do you do your research, especially about the future other than what you know from your studies? Do you ask people who know about the subject and how do you make the story plausible? Yeah, the research... It's kind of like... Yeah, it's like the work you have to do. You list the questions, list the topics that you don't know about and then you try to fill in the gaps. If you don't have books on it, which I often have because, yeah, I write about topics that I like anyway so I have my literature about that. But if I don't, I do my research on books, maybe I buy one or two books or I borrow them. When I didn't have that much money I always borrowed my books now, I'm able to buy them. Also the library is far away. And I don't want to rely on Mr. Bezos. The audio is very bad, sorry. I don't have to know what the weather it was like in 1973 in New York. You won't find that information in a book, but on the internet maybe. Also conspiracy theories, that the internet is the place for that. But, well, the quality of conspiracy theories is declining by the day. So, first I do my homework and then if I still have questions, I look for experts, which I often postpone because, well, I'm not the most social type. And B, I'm convinced that you need to do your homework before you pester experts and highly-doted scientists. So, I don't want to be calling, I don't know, a Nobel Prize laureate and have no idea what I'm even talking about. So, I really take my research seriously. Because, yeah, you just have to. It's the same with travelling. Google Street View is a deal for writers because you can get an impression of places, what it looks like, and then you can connect that to your own impressions from your own travels. Yeah, booking a trip to Australia and then finding out, well, the scenery isn't that good. I won't use that. We don't want to have that. Because sometimes describing the scenery is completely useless for the plot. So, yeah, you need to be economic even in research. Yeah, but that is true. The ratio between planning research... Where are you positioned at? Yeah, I tend to do less research than I should and just write. Because I'm always counting on my inspiration and my muses to give me the right input. Yeah, but that also leads to mistakes. So, for example, when I used the wrong part of a motor to the wrong kind of fuel, people are really against that. And yeah, like this person, this other author was having a coffee mobile with diesel, so this author had no idea either. So, your style, are you changing... Are you inventing yourself a new? Or why is your style changing? So, do you want to answer directly or the implied questions? I just saw it at the edge of my mind. So, reinventing yourself. That sounds great if you hear that about someone. Bob Dylan and reinventing themselves. I mean, he is basically a colleague of mine. If you can get a literature Nobel Prize, then you are a colleague, right? But it's nothing he can learn. He doesn't sit down and say, I have to reinvent myself. It's just that I always try to do the story justice. That means I have very different ideas and I invent quite different stories because I just can't bring myself to write the same story several times because that would get boring. And they just are different. That's just in my DNA. If one book says A, the other has to say B. So, I always find a new direction that's diametral to the previous one. And the next one will... Yeah, I have a 20-dimensional storytelling space. But it doesn't really feel like I'm trying to do something different. I just have ideas and I try to do them justice. Because the storytelling is important as well. Sometimes it's someone who says I and thinks a lot. Sometimes the character is a bit more formal. Sometimes the character is wild. So, there is the story from the perspective of a 3,000-year-old Englishman. Yeah. So, he is referencing Harry Roden now. This is a very long-running German science fiction story that happens in small monthly episodes. And of course, that is a very different kind of story if you have a 3,000-year-old Englishman or if you have a modern-day German. And yeah, there was also the other story about humans who have wings and live in giant trees. And that's basically the opposite of technology. And you have to tell that story differently. Right. Do you want to spoil that story a little for us? Much... Well, my editor is saying whenever he gets a new... Well, that's something completely different now. So, the wings of a person plays in a future far away, in a galaxy far away on a forgotten planet. And there are people living there and humans who have wings and they know why because their ancestors who came to their planet gave them the wings genetically because the ground is dangerous and almost everywhere if you touch the ground, it can happen that you die. You don't know why the ancestors also couldn't figure out why. But at some point they said, well, let's just give our children wings. And from that point on they have wings and were living in the skies and said we don't care about the ground anymore. But not only the ground is inaccessible, but also the sky. The sky is the closest cloud cover. They don't have a word for the sun. It's the big skylight. And the moon is the big light of the night. So there's the light of the day and the light of the night. But then someone wants to know what the stars look like. And you know the ancestors came from the stars and there must be lights up there. And he wants to see that with his own eyes. And the book of the story then follows that and it has dramatic thousands of scripted pages. Yeah, implications. Yeah, it's many thousand pages. And well, it feels like many thousand pages, but I always get the reaction. Yeah, it's way too short. So apparently it reads quite quickly. So we have a lot more questions. Yeah, good. I've been an opener. Perfect. How do you handle writing your books? Are you first creating ideas? Are you first creating the characters? Are you writing a short version? Or are you just going into it? No, I'm not jumping into it. I don't know who does that. I'm first collecting ideas. Usually it takes quite a long time. And then I remember there was this one. I thought something about that. This idea just had to fit quite well. I find those ideas. I write them together. And then that starts to collect more. And then at some point there are so many ideas in one spot that I have no choice but to make a book out of it. And then it's a backup form. I think about what could happen and then what character would belong there or the other around. I start with the characters and then, yeah, what's happening at the beginning, what's happening in the end. What are the twists that have to happen? So I have a scheme or a landscape in my head how the story should happen. Should, I have to say. Because it almost never works the way you imagine it. But I still need a plan. And yeah. I have a feeling how it should be. And it works differently, but it's still okay. Sometimes you have to stop and plan things anew because it doesn't work the way you wanted to. And it couldn't work. And you always have to reconsider. Did I maybe take a wrong turn somewhere? Am I in a dead end? And then you have to change something and go back. Maybe throw something away. But yeah, basically it works. So I can follow these ideas. It's not painting by numbers. That wouldn't be fun. And this book you have, is that one where you just collect stories for all the books? Or is it one little notebook for each? So is it something you always have with you when you're on the road? No, I always have something to write with me. There is an official notebook for ideas. And there are more ideas than I have years to live left. If there was a natural law that an author could only die if they had run out of ideas, I would have got to 300. That's something, yeah, maybe then the Greek thinkers would be still alive. Maybe. Or the French ones or the old Germans. I just had to check when the book with the humans with the wings came out. That was October, right? Yes. Do you want to tell us what you are working on right now? A young adult book that comes out soon? Next year, I think? But I don't have to say anything about it because I don't really like that. First, you should read what's available and everything else can come later. So if someone comes here without knowing your works, they are busy for a while. Yep, that's how it should be. So I have to check again. Right. So the question I forgot was repeated. Sorry. Hello, Andreas. Some of your books do not end well for the protagonists. How do you feel about that? The one or the other ending was having me quite excited. Well, not excited. Disturbed? Well, that doesn't have to be a negative thing. It depends on the story. I've got to say, we need to also dice in book four. Can I say that now? That's a spoiler. In the moment when you read it, you are shocked. Of course. But some decades later, you say, well, that's just how it is. That's the logic of the story. And what you can critique is in the billion dollar, where the hero also suffers in the end, but that's a symbol that they inherit one billion dollar, which back then was actually in the 11th of September 2001. Back then it was a lot of money. And he's inheriting not only the money, but also the prophecy that he will save humanity's fate with that money. And he's breaking down during the book. And that's a symbol for... Well, it's not only nice if you inherit a billion. Yeah, it can become difficult. A Perry Roden fan is asking, when is a guest book coming? Because Perry Roden is always written by different authors as well. Yeah, those Perry Roden fans, they are not happy. I just brought out a thousand page book. That is ten little ones. And I promise that I will write the last one, the last book of the next cycle. That is book one thousand something. I didn't get the number, sorry. Yeah, we'll just leave it at that. Yeah, I'm also curious what... I talk myself into that. Yeah, I'm just scrolling up the middle if I missed something else. And indeed there is something. They are asking... If you read The Three Sons from Ryu, and did you like it? No, I have not read it. The English title is The Three Body Problem. It is a rather big book. And I read a lot of books that you should have read, not yet. And I'm someone who is often a few years behind in reading something that other people forgot by then. So I'm not reading current titles, usually. Sometimes there is something new that I really have to read, but that's an exception. Oh, that's nice to hear, because my to read list is growing and growing. Do you have maybe questions for the listeners or watchers? I'm in the answer mode. I don't have questions. There's a comment from the translator. I also have an ever-growing to read book. So another thing. Great. Thank you. My kids also love your books and are always asking for a new one. I really like it when kids are reading. And I like it when men are reading as well. Because that is a truism that 80% of books are read by women. A study said for me it's 50%, so 50% men. I like that. That's balanced. And I think that's great. Not just for me, but also for the men. Men are not reading enough, especially not enough novels. Whenever someone says, I'm not reading anything that's thought up, or that's just wasting time, I'm shattering and that's just not true. Because these novels, they are not just thought up. Of course some are, but the good ones. The good ones, they can tell you things that non-fiction books cannot tell you. You only live in half if you're not reading. That's a nice way of putting it. I have one question I really, really, really need to ask. I'm not just a listener and sometimes buyer, but also the books, especially NSA. There is a message, right? With these fictitious stories with so much in there, you can give that to people to also provide a topic to them. Because if you are just on the factual layer, it doesn't work. But the gift-giving of books and also maybe not the copyright working. It's not the copyright proper way of gifting books. Isn't that also nice for you as an author if I give away books to someone? When I think you need this book, I give it to you. What do you think? Is it more important to gain a new reader or to keep the copyright? Well, I'm a bit split about that. Because on the one hand, I'm living. That's my livelihood as an author. You gain your income by the money that people pay. He calls it the purse or money purse price. And that's more important than any other price. And that's the price that you win or the award that you win by your readers. By every single one who is getting the book. And whenever you get a book in your hands and you pick up a book and you say, ah, I know that author, I'll buy that. That's the money purse price or award. And that's paying for the bookshops and the publishers. And of course the author as well. So if you don't get that. So even if they read a book of mine and they don't recognize me, that's bad for me. So that's that aspect. The author has to live from something and he lives by having fans who are waiting for the next book and are collecting money for him to be able to write the book. And of course, yeah, there were libraries since forever basically. And everyone who is an author used the libraries in his youth. And I was reading everything I could get my hands on. And I could not have paid for all that. And my parents also didn't really buy books. That was not a thing. A few were there that came from somewhere. But buying a book, that was something I invented. That entering a bookstore. Back then when you could get a small book for two Mark 80, a paperback book. That would be around two Euro maybe? A 150? Yeah, what many people don't know that an author also gets money if a book gets checked out in a library. So if the library card is cheap, that's also something you can also support your favorite authors. And yeah, of course, I'm not against libraries. The Darknet is not paying me anything for downloads. Whatever they are getting, they keep. But libraries. And also books for blind people. I'm not getting anything, but that's a different story. So fair use rules are a different story. That's maybe also not an important topic anymore now that audiobooks are a thing. But I remember books for blind people. It's very thick, right? Another fascinating question. Were you always close to CCC because of your computer science background? Or was that a new thing because of research? I don't really know when I first heard of CCC, but it's been a long time. It was something where you already were interested in computers. And back then you had to know that the CCC existed, which is also due to the cleverly chosen name. I mean, KS Computer Club, everyone can imagine something. Everyone who is into computer science. Every now and then I was checking the website, but I wasn't too connected. And I was checking it out in research when it was about voting machines. And why you shouldn't use them. I mean, Americans are seeing right now why you shouldn't, but they don't get it. And the KS Computer Club provides a lot of material for that. And all the demonstrations how to convert a voting machine into a chess computer in 60 seconds, stuff like that. I learned a lot from that. Yeah, that's nice to hear. I also, well, I have to think, but I think there's some Datenschleuder Archive. Datenschleuder is our CCC magazine. This is some very good reading material for rainy days. Yeah. An NSA reference. So the spirit is out of the bottle. The genie is out of the bottle with raster persecution. Do you think the effects could have been stopped in your story? Yeah, I didn't think about that. I mean, writing the stories because it would have had to be established first. I think dictatorships as after they've been established successfully, they can only be taken down from the inside. Hitler would have died and maybe his follower wouldn't have been that good. You can see that in other right-wing parties. Those aren't the chess tools in the shed and difficult to keep in line. So yeah, because of corruption, power corrupts, it's always been like that. And then maybe 50 years later, a situation with a reason where the team spirit would have been down. And yeah, because dictatorship also isn't the very best form of government. Yeah, and then the situation would have a reason where... Well, that would be another novel. How the dictatorship would have collapsed, the computer dictatorship and how it could have been stopped. And of course, insiders would have had a key role that used the power against the leaders of the party. Yeah, that would be a whole other novel, but I don't think that I'm going to write that. This would take us back to the Snowden reference, right? Yeah. Well, my novel doesn't provide an alternative universe. There are novels that do, but mine isn't one of them. This isn't a parallel universe, but it's just a call for attention, a call for awareness. So it isn't a parallel universe I would be interested in following up with. It's writing about the Nazi era. That's just not my thing, all of the details. The research, all the details about how they treat a people, that is... That's not something I would be very pleased to go into. Maybe someone could steal the idea, I don't know. All right. Just a follow-up question. What do you think of the future of data protection? Will citizens become more and more transparent? And what is your position? Well, transparent citizens, yeah, I do believe that this is the case. Because apparently, which is collecting and collecting data and not finding anything. I think quite the contrary. That we're getting a generation that is growing, that feels protected by being watched. Because they know that if I lose my phone, I'd be lost. And no one will look after me. So that is the mindset that is being created by those technologies. So I think that we'll go in that direction. And for myself, I protect myself best as I can. People who only send encrypted emails are becoming suspicious on their own. That creates an interest. Why would they do that? Let's look into that, thinking from the state side. Talking corporations, it also has the aspect that we don't know what percentage is company and what percentage goes to other agencies like our famous NSA. And I think you can safely assume that the data goes to the NSA. So how can you protect yourself? Sorry, bad audio. Well, I don't have Facebook. People tell me download the app. And I say I don't have such a thing. If I go out, I'm offline. If I go to the city, no one knows where I am. I'm still alive. What do you need it? You need to register. If you need to register, I don't use it. You can only register for some doctors with an app. Otherwise you don't get an appointment. That would be my personal nightmare. I used to have a cell phone way back when that was like in the 90s when there was still a brick. I think it was a Sony Ericsson, only 200 gram. The children were looking at you funny when you used it on the tram. But I gave it away in 96 and I was glad to do so. I was glad to be rid of it. Stupid thing. I hate being on the phone. So why should I have a phone on my personal all the time? That's great. And I completely understand you. I so get you. So a lot of info about the data slider has appeared. So you can download them and look at them. And also you have that in the Swabian embassies library in Stuttgart. Interesting. And they're also working on an archive. So do you watch TV? Any shows? No, I don't have a TV. I do watch some shows on DVD like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad. Well, I do follow it with an interest like reports about TV shows. Because they finally are achieving somewhat like making a movie out of a novel. You can't really make a movie out of a novel for dramaturgic reasons. Because of all the complex plot strings in a novel. That's how to put in a movie. And TV shows can follow along with that. While movies based on books are basically short stories. But I haven't had a TV in like almost 30 years. Well, yeah, you have a good reason for that. Yeah, I can live with that. In such a TV show, if there's something in the room, I can read it. But actually, when I'm at hotel rooms, I do watch some TV. Because my arm almost automatically reaches for the remote. Talking about TV shows, you do have a lot of time to build your characters. And that also makes them so fascinating. It's also a super-gradious format. Okay, I think we'll call it quits. Yeah, just one question I'm seeing right now. What am I more afraid of? Companies or the state surveillance? Of course, the state surveillance. Amazon, Google. They won't send me someone who will kick in my door early in the morning and drag me into a car. And I've never heard of it again. But states, countries, they do that all the time, every night, all over the world. People just disappear and never reappear. So states are the real criminals. The worst criminals, they've killed more than 2 million people in the 20th century alone, put them in gulags and concentration camps. So, sometimes they're tamer, sometimes they're incompetent, but there's always the potential to think a very dangerous part of that is when state actors buy shares of companies to use them for their own purposes. Because we've seen that in recent times. Yeah, nothing can protect you from that. Sorry, bad audio. Because you used to say, well, the governor doesn't understand the internet or he doesn't know how to use the media, but you can't counter that. It's hard to know what's going on. What book of yours would be the best suited for a TV show? So I now have to pay close attention to what I'm saying, but some of them would be suited. Would you have one of your books made into a movie? Yeah, I'm thinking of it all the time, but nothing ever comes of it. I'm not against it, but with the coronavirus it's not getting any easier. They're all hanging in the cells and waiting for better weather. Yeah, let's wait for better weather. Okay, for now the federal system is helping. Yeah, it can have advantages. So further hints to the three-body problem. Yes, yes, I'm reading them. Also read the free excerpt. It's a nice thing. I have to read it, but it takes time. Yeah, well, it's still on my to read tower as well. Yeah, not yet. It's just in my shopping cart at Amazon. Well, at least. So any more questions? People are typing. And yeah, let me say a big, big, big thank you again for the reading of this very difficult scene. This very troubling scene. And this very well illustrating scene that illustrates well what the problem is. Why are you buying books? France and German books is difficult. Yeah, France and books in general. They are terribly expensive here as well. We can't imagine in Germany how expensive books can be. Yeah, I am ordering at Mr. Bezos. All the way around, it's also difficult. Buy French books in Germany. That's awesome. With Amazon accounts. Yeah, the packets with the smile. There are advantages and disadvantages you have to say. And as an author, to avoid Amazon, it's basically... it's difficult to impossible because it is a huge market as well. Yeah, honestly. What would we do if Mr. Bezos would say, tomorrow, yeah, let's close down the shop. Yeah, but actually also now with the beginning of corona, starting 2020, that's more bookshops. They could also get things done. They were starting and maybe it would also help us as well to get things going. So there is still hope. So there's a lot of things in chat. Oh, somebody promises the money purse award. Thanks. Yeah, for me. Still a big thank you. Thank you for taking the time for all the questions as well. Thank you for the questions, everyone in the room. Enjoy the Congress. You sent me access. I just don't know. Between the years, it's difficult to find time. Yeah, it's all okay. Well, hopefully soon in a physical Congress, whenever it's possible again, we meet in person. Yeah, though Christmas is... the holidays are not the perfect timing for me. Because right before New Year's, right before the end, I'm usually right at the end of writing a book that I have to hand in in January. And I'm always late, of course. But your editor is waiting for it and in the end it's too short again, right? Yeah, probably. Yeah, probably. Great. So thank you very, very much. The other angels or heralds, they want to say something as well. No one wants. All this internet is junky. The world net. Winking. No, winking is different. Waving. Thank you for the talk. It was about half an hour longer now. And they were given permission for an hour longer. So there's always space in the internet. Yeah, thank you again. And enjoy your evening. See you soon. So.