The world enters the age of myth

Compared with ancient civilizations, technological civilizations are much more capable of self-destruction. Self-destruction of nuclear bombs and chemical weapons only takes a matter of minutes.

But compared with these obvious weapons of war, the fertility trap is also a very hidden crisis. Scientific and technological civilizations with a fertility rate of more than 2% are extremely rare, almost non-existent!

The Unkai and the Hope have experienced several technological worlds and obtained historical data from these worlds.

Like the White Mist Continent, the Cursed Continent, and the Abyss Continent, as long as it is a technological civilization, in the long process of development, the more it develops, the lower its fertility rate will be.

In some civilizations, the fertility rate is only 1%!

That is to say, the population of each generation is only half of the previous generation. Over time, even if there is no need for a major disaster, humans will become extinct themselves.

Decline will occur, if not extinction. Without human society, no matter how advanced technology is, it will be meaningless.

There are many social reasons that can explain the fertility rate issue, and there are also many answers. Corresponding explanations can be obtained from the economic and human perspectives.

But in a certain meeting, a security expert asked: "Could it be that an extremely powerful demon god... has tampered with human thinking?"

This statement is simply terrifying and terrifying to think about!

What if human nature itself is not like this?

Maybe human nature is better than imagined? Is it because humans are like this after their thinking has been forcibly tampered with?

This question cannot be verified...

But the most worrying thing is this. As a technological civilization, Unkai must face the troubles caused by these problems in the future.

In other words, you are already troubled by these problems!

"Of course, technological civilization also has ways to increase fertility, that is, artificial womb technology and socialized robot raising." Lu Yiming said: "The Akala civilization next door to us did this to significantly increase the fertility rate and surpass the self-extinction trend. A threshold.”

"We can learn from their approach."

"It's just artificial womb technology. We won't be able to develop it for a while." Jin Lili shook her head. This is a restricted area of ​​human science. Due to ethical influences, it is impossible to study it seriously.

Even though humans are deeply aware of the great convenience of this technology.

But inventing new technology requires experiments and a lot of data.

Just imagine, using human embryos for experiments, how much of an ethical challenge does this pose?

Currently, laboratories strictly follow the 14-day rule. Scientists must not observe human embryos in the laboratory for more than two weeks, otherwise there will be ethical risks. Scientists who violate this rule will be severely criticized by public opinion.

Ethics are the cornerstone of social morality and must not be violated.

Therefore, without enough experiments, there is no possibility of inventing artificial womb technology in the current Yunhai society.

"Artificial wombs are impossible, and socialized parenting is even more impossible at present... A more complete child care system can be tried."

At this point, even Lu Yiming himself felt that the road ahead was long and long.

Technological self-destruction is not just a fertility trap, but also the end of history under the capitalist system.

In other words, the historical process has reached a dead end. Some scholars once proposed in the last century: "History will end with liberal democracy." It sounds like a joke, but it is not impossible.

The self-destruction of technology also includes the natural laziness caused by extreme affluence. After most human beings have lost their spiritual pursuits, they have lost their motivation to move forward. It is human nature to pursue comfort, but too much comfort will hinder development.

The Akala civilization in the world next door has fallen due to its extreme wealth, so much so that the entire population has hid in the virtual world.

Until the entire world was occupied by evil gods, no one was willing to come out, and a large amount of technology donated by Xia Wenming was wasted.

The Unkai is still struggling so far because threats from the outside still exist, and it has not acquired a full set of advanced technologies of the interstellar era.

Heishasha can complete a lot of work, but it cannot complete everything. Many things must be completed manually.

If productivity explodes in the future and people become extremely wealthy, how many people will still be willing to struggle?

This question is difficult to answer.

Lu Yiming didn't know the answer to the relevant question, so he finally sighed: "They will also fall... The quality of the people is not yet high enough."

"So, let's explore... We must explore the idealistic world next door as soon as we can, explore the remaining relics of civilization, and figure out the path to the future."

"Otherwise... there will be big pits everywhere in the future."

…

On the pedestrian streets of the City of Clouds, citizens were coming and going.

Men and women discussed new things and enjoyed the life that gradually became richer.

"The electric car factory has started construction, and the first batch of electric cars will be sold soon! There are about 500 cars!"

"The price must be high."

"The price of lithium battery cars is around 200,000 to 300,000, and the configurations vary. However, the previous Jingneng batteries are no longer available in large quantities."

"It's a pity that the crystal energy battery is gone."

A great weekend.

What the people talk about is nothing more than food, clothing, housing and transportation. Houses were allocated, and cars became everyone's main goal.

Traveling around the island in a car is also quite fun!

The number of products is slowly increasing, and a new wave of entrepreneurship was born in this era of great development. The electric vehicle industry chain alone is enough to support tens of thousands of people.

The production capacity of Universal Factory does not directly involve the private sector, but there are still many scattered things flowing into the private sector. For example, some scrapped experimental equipment can still be used after simple disposal; there are also many retired military products, many of which can still be used.

This leakage of spare parts alone is enough to help 300,000 people live a better life.

According to statistical predictions by economic experts, in the past year, the original GDP growth was about 24%, but now it has soared to 31%, an increase of 8 percentage points!

Most of the reasons are due to the inadvertent leakage of the huge production capacity of the universal factory.

This is also a helpless thing, I don’t know whether it is good or bad.

Most people are satisfied with their current living conditions. Pedestrians on the streets and alleys are all smiling. Even strangers who meet each other are quite friendly and give each other a smile. They are not full of emotions. Angry garbage man.

The recent crime rate has reached an incredible low. There is only one reason for this change...

Great hopes for the future!

As long as the future is getting better and better, there will be no decline in public satisfaction.

"Let's go! We're going to your grandpa's house. Don't think about drinking milk tea. Drinking too much of this stuff is not good." Lu Yiming hugged little Lu Lingling and gave her to his old father-in-law.

After chatting with my relatives for a while, I turned around and left.

In the very center of the City of Clouds, there stands an 800-meter-high super building, which is the current administrative command center.

With the construction of Heishasha and a large number of workers, this central building was completed in one year.

It towers into the sky, and at the top of the tower, there are special devices like lightning rods. This is an important part of the defense plan: city-level psychic shield!

These special psychic devices can spread out like umbrellas at critical moments.

The total number of permanent soldiers in this tower is 2,000. The super psychic shield it generates can temporarily protect the center of the city from long-range strikes, and can even weaken nuclear strikes by more than 95%. !

Don't underestimate a few dozen seconds or a minute.

Perhaps, just such a short period of time is enough for the army to launch a counterattack.

It is also enough to allow civilians to hide in underground shelters in chaotic environments, saving tens of thousands of lives.

"Hey, I don't know how long this vigorous vitality can be maintained..." Lu Yiming said suddenly.

"Maybe one or two years, maybe three or four years? I don't think it will be too long, it can't be more than five years."

Lu Yiming and Jin Lili entered the Central Building through iris scanning and fingerprint scanning.

People without thought, he must worry about.

These difficulties may sound distant and illusory, but if they are real, they must be considered as early as possible.

Jin Lili said: "You don't have to worry too much. We haven't developed to that stage yet, just like the earth's civilization in the past. Although it has many shortcomings, it is still making progress, isn't it?"

"Progress? Humph, if it weren't for the challenger, history would almost have ended." Lu Yiming snorted coldly, obviously not too satisfied.

This high tower is not only an administrative and military center, but also an excellent reconnaissance site. From an altitude of 800 meters, you can observe the surrounding situation 100 kilometers away.

The two came to the large conference room and sat down. There was nothing particularly important today, just a routine annual development summary report.

Since this is the first year since the establishment of the City of Clouds, many reporters are already waiting eagerly for it.

There were discussions from time to time. This year's stable development has brought great achievements, and everyone is in a very good mood.

At nine o'clock in the morning, the government spokesman formally took the stage to speak.

"Comrades, good evening, everyone. In the past year, it was the first year that we built the City of Clouds, and it was also the eighth year that this government has performed its duties in accordance with the law. Since then, we have owned a large area of ​​land and absorbed the power of the planetary fortress. After the underground heritage, the economy has reached a new breakthrough point.”

"The economic operation remains within a reasonable range, and the GDP created by mankind has increased by 31.2%, with a total volume of 60.9 billion yuan. The economic growth rate matches physical indicators such as electricity consumption and freight transportation. Consumer prices increased by 1.9%. The government's revenue and expenditure are basically balanced. The surveyed unemployment rate has stabilized at a low level of around 2.5%, achieving basic employment for citizens."

"The artificial intelligence system represented by Xia Wenming Industrial Factory and Heishasha has created a GDP growth rate of 1180.7%, with a total volume of 6010.3 billion... In the past year, automated production capacity has increased nearly 12 times. There is expected to be huge room for growth in the future.”