Chapter 257: Chapter 257: The Phenonon of Technological Self-Destruction (4000 words, please subscribe!) Chapter 257: Chapter 257: The Phenonon of Technological Self-Destruction (4000 words, please subscribe!) Upon careful analysis, we can identify so rather obvious backlash forces. For instance, a large number of drug manufacturers used to believe they were doing a noble job by making dications that save lives. They were happy with their work, but now it’s beco a dirty, bad thing. Similarly, being a soldier, and protecting one’s country was seen as a noble pursuit, but invading other countries for the sake of certain productive capabilities turns it into sothing dirty.
Even if these workers continue to follow the orders of governnt departnts, over ti, they may start to harbor doubts deep within, eventually leading to various social issues.
They might even start abusing drugs themselves; such outcos are not impossible.
“The current population is too small, society is clear-headed, and operating smoothly. If we were to have such problematic individuals, it would be a counterproductive loss.”
When the discussion reached this point, Professor Yamamoto could only helplessly spread his hands, showing a bitter smile. He had rely brought up a viable conquest strategy. Whether others accepted it or not was a different matter. To tell the truth, he wasn’t keen on accepting this research task!
Zhang Yuan clapped his hands, bringing everyone’s thoughts back to the present, “So, let’s put aside that drug usage plan for now…”
“But everyone must rember, these ssy drugs can be lethal to so civilizations. So cosmic civilizations treat them as a sort of weapon.”
“In a way, they are stronger than nuclear weapons. Once you’re hooked, they penetrate to the marrow, spreading like a virus gone wild. They don’t destroy the body but the… spirit!”
“According to the theories of New Civilization History, so periods of diocrity are due to such technologies. I refer to this phenonon as: Technology Self-Destruction Phenonon.”
As talk turned to technology self-destruction, everyone beca more interested, no longer as somber as before.
There are many potential factors in technological self-destruction. To give a specific example, atomic energy, if used peacefully, could provide endless energy. If used for war, it could easily destroy the entire world.
Fortunately, atomic energy is within human intellect to utilize, so it has not destroyed the world.
“But I believe that in a universe so vast, there must be foolish civilizations that have destroyed themselves with the invention of nuclear bombs…”
According to Murphy’s Law, if sothing can go wrong, no matter how small the probability, it will eventually happen. The vastness of space, with billions upon billions of galaxies, is sufficient to accommodate all sorts of low-probability events.
In other words, in the vast universe, there is a high probability that civilizations exist which, inflad by nuclear bombs, have completely destroyed themselves.
Technology has always been a double-edged sword; it’s not possible to only bring benefits without drawbacks.
Zhang Yuan drew three horizontal lines on the screen and wrote so text under each line, “So, based on current human technology, the world’s technologies can be divided into three types: The first type is white, where technology’s benefits to civilization outweigh its drawbacks.”
Take the internet for instance. Although it gave rise to a large group of internet-addicted youths, who are engrossed in various online gas and information, overall, the internet has greatly expedited communication between people, speeding up work efficiency. To civilization, the benefits outweigh the drawbacks;
Or take cars, which inevitably cause environntal pollution during production, but they facilitate people’s transportation and increase the transport capacity of society.
These are the uncontroversial white technologies.
The second type of technology is red, which can bring certain benefits. However, it is not as friendly as white technology; without constraints, it can lead to uncontrollable, vast disasters!
And of course, there’s the third kind… black technologies!
Black, aning a technology a civilization simply cannot control. Once it erges, there is a great likelihood it will lead to the demise of the civilization, or cause the entire civilization to fall, no longer possessing the potential to progress.
“Due to the limitations of the era, developing technology is like drawing lots; before we draw it out, we never know whether it will be white, red, or black, which makes it hard to avoid this tendency toward self-destruction.”
The vast majority of technologies that have erged so far are white, assisting humans in developing productive forces, allowing humans to have a better life, from the Stone Age to the great interstellar era.
The first encountered red technology was the mass production of various chemical items, including large-scale chemical weapons and addictive drugs, especially the latter.
For a civilization like the Gleize Civilization, if everyone started abusing drugs, the entire civilization would naturally be beyond salvation, self-destructing, no longer possessing any potential for ascension.
The second red technology is atomic energy, which gave humans the power to create nuclear bombs, capable of easily destroying humanity itself.
Yet due to nuclear deterrence between nations, like walking a tightrope, the entire civilization miraculously remained trouble-free and achieved a more enduring peace.
The third red technology is biological science and genetic science.
Genes are off-limits areas of life, and humans understand them even less than they understand the universe. Reckless genetic modifications could easily lead to the collapse of the entire system.
Should unique, super bacteria erge, the extinction of all humanity would not be impossible…
As technology develops, all the white technologies are drawn out, and the likelihood of encountering red technologies grows, along with the chances of civilization self-destructing.
As for black technologies, no one yet knows exactly what they are.
Because once they appear, an entire civilization will rapidly collapse. In certain sci-fi films, these are nano-robots, strong artificial intelligence, or super microbes, with people cautiously restraining the developnt of these technologies. If these truly co into fruition, no one could predict the consequences, perhaps humanity would live better, or else directly self-destruct due to technology.
“From the outco, for the Gleize Civilization, these thirteen Universal Factories were, for them, black technologies that beca uncontrollable.”
“The Stone Age Gleize Civilization itself did not have sufficient ability to manage such a ‘Universal Factory,’ with its massive productive forces. Such leapfrog developnt led to the rapid corruption of the entire civilization… including the subsequent ergence of oligarchs, the Happiness Elent, and so forth, which were all triggered by the Universal Factory, and without a strong frawork to control the situation.”
“Thus, there was no possibility of rising again.”
Listening to Zhang Yuan’s analysis, Li Zhendong, who was standing aside, suddenly interjected, “Actually, I think that red technologies and black technologies can transform into one another…”
“Just like us humans, if we had a Universal Factory gifted by an interstellar civilization, it wouldn’t be possible for us to be led around by it, nor would the entire population beco drug addicts…”
“Because in our history, such a catastrophic event has already occurred, and everyone knows the consequences of it.”
“But the Gleize Civilization doesn’t know; their world completely lacks naturally addictive substances and has never experienced anything similar. Their scientific research capabilities are poor, and they don’t strive for thorough understanding, so they have no resistance to such events…”
“The goodness or badness of technology is related to the civilization’s own Inner Strength. The dangerous boundary between red and black technology may be related to a civilization’s outlook, ideology, and level of advancent. If they had been aware of this fact, they could actually have avoided this tragedy.”
There was silence in the conference room for quite so ti, Li Zhendong was right.
Yet, in the universe, could there exist things that are commonplace and taken for granted by other civilizations but lethal to humans? Like so kind of waves? So sort of magnetic fields?
Li Zhendong continued, “Therefore, if there were an interstellar court, the second interstellar civilization would indeed be guilty. Knowing that the other party couldn’t handle such productive capacity and still giving them these things for free is akin to aiding the Gaiglieze People in committing suicide! I strongly doubt their intentions!”
Zhang Yuan said, “Your logic is a bit of a stretch. I kindly give you a knife to help you develop yourself, and if you accidentally stab yourself to death, can you bla for not warning you in advance? Only your own stupidity is to bla!”
“Maybe in the eyes of that interstellar civilization, the Universal Factory is rely common goods and not Black Technology at all.”
“No, that’s not the case,” Li Zhendong waved his hand dismissively. “What if I were only two or three years old? The likelihood of injuring myself would be high, and then the bla would have to be on the person who gave the knife, right?”
Suddenly, one of the Deputy Captains spoke up in a loud voice, “Actually, both of your logics are incorrect. Aren’t we being a bit too condescending and arrogant with our current perspective? Perhaps the majority of individuals in the Gleize Civilization believe their way of life is quite good?”
“They think that the entire aning of life is to enjoy it; what’s wrong with living in happiness? Perhaps each individual believes this, and pleasure is what they pursue.”
“We view it as bad, as a fall from grace, and as degeneration, but that’s just our point of view. We think a civilization deserves sympathy just for not advancing. So, we pity them, feel compassion for them.”
“But do those Pangolins need it? No, they don’t. The Awakened in Gor City are just a minority of one civilization… Our subconscious sense of superiority, even wanting to correct the others, is actually the most dangerous aspect!”
Yes, everyone was taken aback.
What right do humans have to be arrogant?
Humans are so weak; if a war really broke out at the mont, they might not be able to defeat the Gleize Civilization.
These Pangolins are intelligent beings, possessing their own culture and thoughts, different from the cats and dogs on Earth; not the kind that humans can manipulate at will.
The atmosphere turned sowhat solemn for a while until Li Zhendong broke the tension with forced laughter, “Gentlen, when it cos to diplomacy, we are very humble and hardly make such elentary mistakes. Aren’t we just having an internal discussion? Discussing how their ideology is poor in certain respects shouldn’t matter, right?”
A sudden thought struck him, and he spoke with a sowhat exaggerated tone, “So, what do you think, does the Universe have civilizations that… love to peddle their value systems? The kind that likes to brainwash others, to convert them to their value system?”
Another person quickly responded, “Definitely… A civilization capable of assimilating others’ ideologies would have to be extrely powerful, and potentially grow like a snowball, sprawling like a cult! It’s unlikely that there’s any sort of law enforcent in the universe that prohibits random proselytizing and such.”
“Let’s hope we don’t encounter such a civilization… Sigh.”
Ideological conflict, it’s the most sensitive issue and the sa goes for the cosmos as it does on Earth!
Every person on Earth has their way of life, every nation its own beliefs.
Many dostic disputes between couples are due to incompatible values, and international conflicts go beyond economics to ideologies.
If you try to impose your value system on others, it will undoubtedly lead to abundant contradictions and resistance.
Even within just this tiny corner of Earth, there are nurous conflicts, religious disputes, territorial issues — imagine the vast cosmos.
“Such civilizations that can forcefully propagate their value systems and have strong assimilative abilities will indeed be very powerful. But if they are not far ahead of other civilizations, then they will surely be extinguished in the dim starlit sky.”
After discussing ideological matters, including the religious wars that had occurred on Earth, customs, and rituals, it was clear that humans also had a strong tendency to try to assimilate others.
However, if they actually encountered such an alien civilization, it would just be human bad luck.
To be assimilated or to resist. If even culture is assimilated, can human civilization still be called human? So it’s a fight to the death, a battle without quarter.
“If we don’t encounter it, it’s just needless worrying.”
So everyone just treated it as an interesting topic for discussion. They let their imaginations run wild, hypothesizing various hypocritical, hospitable, crafty, honest, sentintal, or human-like alien ideologies, and then let the matter drop.
But in future exchanges, they would need to be even more careful and alert.
What followed was a more serious matter.
Zhang Yuan and Li Zhendong exchanged glances, content they had talked about in private during their diplomatic visits.
In the end, it was Zhang Yuan who posed the question to everyone.
“Gentlen, let’s continue our earlier topic, which is about the actions of those two interstellar civilizations, whether they were benevolent or malevolent.”
“Every behavior, every action, has its underlying motives, which should apply to humans, and presumably to interstellar civilizations. We can boldly hypothesize that these two interstellar civilizations are rational and can be analyzed using our existing human logic.”
“Judging from historical records of the Gleize Civilization, analyzing the two interstellar civilizations they encountered can help us discern their motives and ideologies… which will be greatly beneficial for our future interstellar diplomacy!”
Reviews
All reviews (0)