Chapter 120: Chapter 121: Over 180 Years of Beef Jerky
This reality simply detonated the entire world.
Think about it, every major nation was in the midst of a population crisis, rely laughing at each other’s misfortunes. Now one country suddenly broke free from this predicant, how could other governnts resist the temptation?
Thus, governnts everywhere were itching to act, and the various rumors that were once rampant had all but halted. Even the official dia had started to promote the safety of robots raising children, preparing to first gauge the public’s reaction before proceeding.
When Zhang Yuan learned of this news, for so reason, he felt slightly heavy-hearted and a bit uneasy.
As the anticipated facts truly unfolded, he once again felt vaguely worried.
The Artificial Intelligence remained as he knew it, simply more advanced, and there was no possibility of it developing self-awareness or rebelling. He didn’t know what he was worried about.
But their spaceship was already 1.2 light-years away, what could they do?
Their spaceship was incapable of interfering with any part of Earth Civilization’s functioning.
Only the Deep Space Foundation was still diligently fulfilling its duties, sending one report after another.
Zhang Yuan stood in his office for a long ti, letting out a long sigh…
…
That day, after he finished his work, he returned to the living area.
Zhang Yuan suddenly found a girl squatting in a corner, crying softly, as if she had encountered so sad story.
This situation was all too common; one could stumble upon it every few days…and he was no longer surprised by it.
Even he himself had gone through the sa experience initially and could understand.
“…Hello,” Zhang Yuan opened his mouth, realizing he wasn’t very good at comforting people, and quickly shut it again.
Usually, he would just hand over a tissue and then silently accompany the person from a short distance away.
It wasn’t that he was idle or trying to flirt, but this sort of accompanint had beco an unspoken rule.
There were so few people on the spaceship, they had to look after each other to get through this hardship.
It is said that companionship can share pain…although he hadn’t felt this to be true initially.
Anyway, just standing there was a waste of a little ti.
Zhang Yuan had one major flaw; seeing others cry didn’t tug much at his heartstrings…not that he lacked sympathy, but often he would drift off in thought, pondering over other issues, and appear a little absent-minded.
Relatively speaking, his willpower was quite strong; he could endure many things on his own strength. So he didn’t know what to say or do in such situations.
He just stood there silently, watching the girl cry, while contemplating the origin of this “rule of companionship.”
After thinking for a while, he suddenly felt that this “rule of companionship” was likely a pre-established rule rather than sothing that had ford spontaneously.
Spontaneous?
Don’t imagine humans to be too virtuous!
In such oppressive environnts, it was more likely for domineering, criminal groups to form spontaneously. Much like in tis of conflict, when countless stories of humanity’s innate evil erge.
It was unlikely for such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere to form by itself.
So, the managent had already done a lot of work in advance.
“Indeed, being a Captain isn’t so easy,” Zhang Yuan mused to himself. Those group activities were also held to maintain such an environnt.
Essentially, this involved so concepts from ga theory, such as the well-known Nash equilibrium.
Social norms and the Nash equilibrium are deeply linked, with one idea being that a sense of trust fostered by strict moral rules can lead to economic benefits.
Dominant groups are a spontaneous form of social norms, with survival as the basic instinct and extrely low efficiency.
The overall benefit derived from such inferior norms is incomparable to the current relaxed and friendly, artificially created norms.
Therefore, in these difficult tis, everyone instinctively restrains their darker nature, carefully maintaining this social norm.
No one wants to easily reveal evil thoughts because once exposed, they would be shunned by everyone.
“The higher-yield choice in the prisoner’s dilemma… a wise choice.”
Zhang Yuan reflected thoughtfully, having grasped this point, he then considered so issues related to the New Civilization History.
Predicting the future developnt, both ga theory and the overall psychology of humans are quite important…
“Regarding the conversion of human psychological choices into probability issues…”
“What are you doing? What was that look just now, do you think I’m an idiot?!” The girl squatting on the ground suddenly stopped crying, lifted her head, and looked at Zhang Yuan with indignation.
Zhang Yuan’s gaze faltered for a mont, and he quickly said, “Ah, sorry! I didn’t an that, really, I was just lost in thought.”
The girl was quite pretty and seed familiar. After a mont’s thought, a na popped into his head.
It was Reporter Lin, Lin Xuanyuan, who used to interview him frequently!
“Reporter Lin, did you just wake up from hibernation? Don’t be sad, would you like to have dinner together…” As soon as he said it, Zhang Yuan felt stupid. It was as if he was trying to take advantage of her.
Lin Xuanyuan was a bit stunned, then laughed at his silly words, “Thank you for the offer. I’m not in the mood to eat right now, I don’t have an appetite.”
Since they had t a few tis before, and she knew Zhang Yuan had a rather unique way of speaking, she wasn’t really angry.
eting an acquaintance was much better than dealing with strangers.
“How can you not eat?”
She was silent for a while, then said, “Sigh, I woke up to find… that my parents had both passed away, and there’s no one left of my relatives and friends on Earth. It’s really quite hard to accept all of a sudden.”
As she spoke, Lin Xuanyuan’s eyes reddened again, and she covered her eyes once more.
Zhang Yuan pondered for a few seconds, then said, “Everyone has felt this way. You must have prepared yourself ntally before going into hibernation…”
Lin Xuanyuan wiped her tears and peeked at him through her fingers, “Being ntally prepared and it actually happening are two different things. I can never see them again, never.”
Zhang Yuan said, “Everyone has a past, but farewells among adults are always silent. The jostling, rry-making collective emotions, the carefree and unsuspecting deep comradery of youth, exist only in one’s teenage years…”
Lin Xuanyuan was taken aback.
Zhang Yuan wasn’t quite satisfied with his own attempts at consolation, which had ended up being sterner than he intended. After trying to comfort her to no avail, he had no choice but to withstand the pain and pull out his trump card.
“Wait a mont!”
He went back to his bedroom and took out his treasured beef jerky, aged for over one hundred and eighty years!
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