Chapter 660: Chapter 657 Population Issues
The original Mother Ship, due to its need to accommodate a large population, possessed various non-military functions, which made it sowhat cumberso in battle.
When the conflict with the Apollo Civilization erupted, people realized this flaw. Where civil and military uses were combined, if a battle led to the destruction of a Mother Ship, too many common people died!
However, in that situation, there was no ti for improvents.
But after future modifications, these kinds of flaws would basically cease to exist.
After acquiring a War Star, society even developed new consur desires, specifically for… larger and better houses, especially those averaging more than 50 square ters per person.
If people were to live on a planet in the future, they wouldn’t be satisfied with the small living spaces they originally had. Initially, housing prices were calculated based on area; the larger the house, the higher the price per square ter. An average living space of 16 square ters per person was actually not much.
Spaceships didn’t have that much living space.
But now, people naturally wanted larger houses, better environnts, and even the ability to keep so small animals.
Although the civilization of the new humans wasn’t driven by individual consur desires to fuel economic growth, having consur desires was still better than having none at all.
Aside from so basic social welfare, these material resources were not going to be distributed for free; getting them required hard work, and things that needed to be purchased still required money. Otherwise, one could only envy others.
…
Much can be said about these assorted societal phenona, but for those in managent, the biggest issue was that the current population size seed insufficient.
150 million might sound like a lot, capable of many things, especially after humans, from their ti in the Dyson Sphere, spent three thousand AmiBa Points to purchase the “Micro-Nano Alpha 3 Maintenance Robot,” steadily increasing decryption progress and enhancing the capabilities of artificial intelligence…
But in reality? It was still not enough. If not for various complex reasons, the managent would love to increase the population by tenfold.
The population issue has always been a major problem!
The original technology tree required a certain number of people for research and maintenance. There was already a shortage of people in various research institutions. As a Fourth-level Civilization, the technology tree had long beco lush and ford an enormous technological system.
Even with the aid of supplentary brain technology and Extra Perception, humans had beco much smarter than during the Earth era, with improved learning efficiency, but the population was still sowhat insufficient.
Moreover, as a Fourth-level Civilization, going decades without significant achievents was possible. Even if the progression rate of each technological line was slow, one must persist, otherwise, how could one possibly advance?
Thus, the manpower for this area could not be reallocated; inevitably, it was a case of losing the waterlon while picking up sesa seeds.
Additionally, various administrative personnel, entertainnt, service industry workers, and others were essential for a civilization. Nowadays, people pursued all-around developnt, rather than stubbornly focusing on just one direction as in the past.
In theory, six Mother Ships could accommodate a population of two hundred million, but currently, they only housed 150 million and were not yet fully filled. With an additional planet now available, and once residential areas were developed, it could house at least ten billion people, completely embodying a scenario of abundant land with sparse population.
As a result, once so workers moved to terrestrial locations, the spaceship seed very empty, with business and entertainnt facilities growing much quieter, a change so who preferred livelier atmospheres found hard to adapt to.
Expanding the population was a very important and extrely urgent matter, but no matter how pressing the societal need for a larger population, substantial detailed planning was required.
Population is both a treasure and a burden. With a larger population, the number of top geniuses also increases, and the associated educational and public services should be prepared in advance. Managing a large population and adjusting the economic system pose significant challenges for the managent of New Human Civilization.
“Ladies and gentlen, managing a population of 150 million and a population of one billion are two different thods. In the event of a special occurrence, mobilizing a billion versus mobilizing 150 million is a matter of different magnitudes.”
“Our society demands extrely high-quality populations… Slightly lower quality populations can, in turn, hinder social developnt. This is clear to everyone.”
During this routine eting, Captain highlighted these issues.
Fortunately, human scientists had been researching this area for a long ti and had proposed various solutions.
Moreover, within the current population of 150 million, young people aged a hundred or middle-aged people aged two to three hundred years had unprecedented high overall quality. They had lived through the dark age before the collision of the neutron stars, witnessed the decline of the “Breathtaking Galaxy Branch,” and experienced the baptism of Dyson Sphere events; they understood the difficulty of civilization developnt and were primarily guided by blue ideology.
This portion of the population ford a strong social inertia which would drive the healthy growth of the subsequent generation.
An educational scholar raised this issue, “…but we cannot entirely rely on social inertia. When our generation dies, the newly born population might not be the sa, though education can inform them about these matters, education and personal experience are fundantally different…”
“The power of education is quite limited.”
“So, we should maintain a cautiously optimistic attitude. At present, the large society ford by a population of 150 million has established a certain degree of positive inertia. We must strive to expand to 500 million within 80 years, without changing this atmosphere.”
“In 150 years, expand to 800 million and ultimately maintain at one billion, or even more, 1.2 billion, 1.5 billion, which are all feasible.”
“In short, 1 to 1.2 billion is a relatively ideal number…”
Captain Feng, a typical representative of Deep Blue thinking, responded sowhat dissatisfied after hearing this, “Professor Ye, your point has so validity. But first, I must ask, can we actually create so many jobs? Especially high-end jobs, you understand what I an, right? High-end jobs, not those that simply sell labor!”
“If there aren’t enough jobs, it’s going to be disastrous. A large number of people loafing about all day, roaming society, and our entire civilization would collapse instantly! We certainly can’t develop labor-intensive industries like the Earth did in the past!”
Labor-intensive industries aren’t bad; at the start of industrialization phase, they suit the large-scale transformation of agricultural populations into industrial workers.
In labor-intensive industries, labor costs make up a significant portion of the production costs, whereas material capital costs constitute a smaller portion.
But it has limitations of its ti, characterized predominantly by low added value. A plane in exchange for a few shirts represents so-called labor-intensive industries.
Captain Feng continued, “…just like the Earth Civilization, where a clothing store had to employ a cashier, even though a robot could completely replace the cashier, but for employnt sake, it must be so.”
“After the population increases, there will inevitably be nurous individuals who cannot adapt to the contemporary era. Should our civilization really follow Earth Civilization’s policy?”
Technology is not omnipotent; science cannot solve many social issues—for instance, the problem of job creation.
The advancent of technology can give rise to various new jobs but also eliminates many old ones.
The more advanced technology is, the higher the quality requirents for people beco. However, human personal quality always follows a normal distribution; even with intelligence-boosting technology, the disparity cannot be completely eradicated. Most people are diocre and incapable of engaging in cutting-edge jobs, hence a series of social issues erge.
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