The Circle

While awaiting Annie’s return, Mae thinks about Francis. She wants to bring him home that night. She shows her viewers a new campus sculpture by a Chinese dissident artist who has faced frequent trouble with Beijing authorities. Mae notes, “We’ve sent over 180 million frowns from the U.S. alone, and you can bet that has an effect on the regime” (347).

In the distance, Annie finally appears. It seems that Annie might be trying to avoid Mae. Nonetheless, Mae chases her down and introduces her to her watchers. Annie appears to be uncomfortable but talks a bit about her new project, PastPerfect. She explains that she was in Germany to work on this program. The goal is to “take the power of The Circle community and to map not just the present but the past, too” (351). Annie discusses how they’re “digitizing every photo, every newsreel, every amateur video in every archive in this country and Europe” (352). Ultimately, they intend to make every photo ever taken available online, with facial recognition technology making the people in the pictures identifiable. They hope to tell the full genealogical history of every person. Annie says that they don’t yet have a “guinea pig” for this project, but they’re looking for someone whose history goes far back in the United States.