1. Lyre & Eager office romance
These two are plunging into the wonderful mental disorder called love. It impairs their ability to think rationally, recognize their own self-interest, and demonstrate group loyalty demanded by their various social circles. Once hooked, they're so enthralled with each other they just don't care about anything else. It's like getting nitrogen narcosis (a.k.a. "rapture of the deep") while scuba diving and losing interest in resurfacing.
Love is particularly dangerous in modern times because the process can be accelerated by shurpas. Shurpas can tap into personal narratives and find trigger points that provoke profound reactions, like obsessive infatuations. Shurpas have finally delivered on the old promise of love potions, though they haven't come up with a good antidote yet.
Maybe there is actually something positive in the Corporate anti-fraternization policy if it can prevent the self-destructive behavior of people in love. Maybe love is too dangerous a substance for unqualified individuals to handle.
Fortunately for Lyre and Eager, good luck, help from friends (Lyre's mother) and their own honest perseverance help them work out an agreeable arrangement. (By 2050 there are many more options than cis-hetero marriage). This is the happy ending.
2. Sarba & Walf office romance
These two are also in love, but unfortunately for them, they're the bad example. They get caught by the Corporate watchdogs, which is another way of saying they haven't been able to negotiate a way of relying on each other.
3. Lyre's Mother Pool, coping with modern technology
Is having difficulty adapting to the new technology (a stand-in for the new culture). The funny thing is her generation is the one which was young in 2020, and dissing their parents for not understanding computers and social media. In 2050, faced with life dependent upon shurpas, she’s not coping well.
She can’t win this, and she accepts it, but she thinks there must still be some value left in the old ways, even if it’s only when shurpas go wrong. She is the one who finally saves the day for our heros with out-moded early 21st century wisdom.
4. Forge & Lincoln, ambition, ethics and fear in the modern office
Forge is very bright, capable and ambitious, the epitome of a successful modern entrepreneur, driven by fame & wealth (a.k.a fear & greed). The trouble is his egotism blinds him to other factors contributing to his success. So he doesn't pay attention when they change direction. Instead of adjusting course he accelerates straight ahead, right off the cliff.
Lincoln is Forge's corporate handler. He doesn't have Forge's natural talent, but makes up for it with insider knowledge and experience with corporate treachery.
The thing that triggers Forge's downfall is missed by everyone around him except for Lyre's mother. She is able to perceive the flaw because she hasn't bought into the modern understanding of "how things are". She acts in what she sees as her daughter's interests (against all advice to the contrary) saving Lyre and Eager from Forge's disaster and disgrace.
5. Zero's hack goes viral
Is Eager's high school buddy who hasn't progressed much past adolescent nihilism and lives in the shantytown on Universal Basic Income. Eager rejects his lifestyle, but still admires his cool, especially his skill at basketball.
Zero is a performance artist who works with his troupe of trained shurpas to illustrate how “Humans are Losing Humanity”. He is part of the movement criticizing the use of shurpas to make decisions thought to be central to the definition of humanity. When called out for using shurpas to make this point, Zolph defends himself by saying his shurpas are merely tools of expression, like brushes to a painter, and the message is conceived by humans.
Zero gives us some perspective on the lives of people on the fringes (who, ironically, constitute 92% of the population). We also get some insight into Corporate life when Eager tries to explain his daily life to Zero.
Zero is Forge's nemesis, even though neither of them is aware of the other. Zero's latest shurpa hack is what causes Forge's fatal miscalculation.