The story of the US-China race, amplified by Silicon Valley, has been overstated. And the specific narrative of a race towards decisive strategic advantage is a “dangerous fiction,” as my co-author Seán Ó hÉigeartaigh writes — dangerous not only because it distorts reality, but also because it carries the potential to serve as a self-fulfilling prophecy. “The world should not be lost on the basis of a fiction.”