Chapter 82: The Resilience of Human Civilization in the Intelligent Era
Chapter 82: The Resilience of Human Civilization in the Intelligent Era
“Welcome to the Round-the-Clock Live Stream on Underground Refuge City Construction in Lingchuan City, Currently Underway.”
“The Live Stream on Underground Shelter City Construction in Wu’an City is Ongoing…”
“Production Scale Booming! Our Intelligent Industrial Cluster Still Growing to Boost Underground Shelter City Construction.”
“Unlimited Mining! Come See! Crowds of Intelligent Machinery and Mining Robots Working Hard to Extract Mineral Resources!”
“New Equipment for Giant Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactor Set-Up Complete! Once Underground Shelter City Space is Expanded, First Assembly Will Begin!”
Changes came fast.
With the arrival of the Doomsday Crisis, the entire Huaxia Nation instantly shifted its course, helped by its Strong Artificial Intelligence.
Many people felt a bit dazed seeing all the news reports about the Doomsday Crisis and the response flooding the entire network.
To fight the crisis, across Huaxia Nation and beyond,
Human Civilization seemed to have just removed its limits.
Just how much could its industrial strength truly expand, without any restrictions, before the disaster hit?
This was Human Civilization, having essentially reached Type I Civilization status, powered by Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors, managed by Strong Artificial Intelligence – truly within the Intelligent Era.
Judging by the current situation, it seemed pretty wild.
Starting with raw material gathering:
Before, people had been conservative. After all, before officially entering the space age,
life still needed to continue. They planned to gradually increase production and slowly expand mining of Earth’s resources, not just strip everything at once.
But things were obviously different now.
Forget other reasons – after Asteroid 2801 hit, many existing resources might vanish.
Plus, Human Civilization desperately needed resources inside the Underground Shelter Cities.
Why leave resources buried only to wonder after the disaster if any could still be mined?
Better to extract as much as possible right now, and bring it all into the Underground Shelter Cities.
If they ended up with surplus? They could just bring out the extra from underground in the future.
Besides, expanding industrial scale itself needed massive amounts of raw material.
So,
once the state of Emergency Response was declared,
the Strong Artificial Intelligence, following the plans and orders, immediately deployed huge numbers of Intelligent Machinery and Intelligent Mining Robots.
It ramped up mining operations at all existing raw material and mineral sites worldwide,
and also, directly, one after another, launched mining at nearly every single proven mineral deposit and resource location across the entire planet.
Next came the Intelligent Industrial production itself.
Before mass production even officially began for the various gadgets, tools, machinery, and products needed to build the shelters,
before actual excavation work on the shelters started,
while Negentropy Research Institute Researchers and Senior Leaders were still designing the cities,
all the Intelligent Industrial Clusters across Huaxia Nation first carried out serious expansion.
The existing Intelligent Industrial Clusters prioritized production of more Intelligent Machinery and Intelligent Robots for expanding industrial capacity.
After these new clusters were built by those very machines and robots,
they went straight into producing and building the new Computing Power Towers needed for the increased calculations, the new Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors needed for power, and yet more Intelligent Machinery to keep scaling up.
So, in this repeating cycle,
all the Intelligent Industrial Clusters under Huaxia Nation’s intelligent industrial system snowballed like crazy.
Within a very short time, their overall scale exploded massively.
After that,
work on the Underground Shelter Cities themselves finally kicked off, relying on the coordination of Intelligent Machinery by the Strong AI from the Brain Intelligence Project.
Simultaneously, industrial scaling continued relentlessly.
This industrial expansion wouldn’t stop until it reached the ‘optimal point’
calculated by Negentropy Research Institute Researchers using the available computing power.
This point meant that spending the remaining nineteen months continuing to expand industry would no longer be better than applying all available production directly to building and supplying the Underground Shelter Cities.
Therefore, precisely because Human Civilization’s overall production strength was still soaring during this period,
construction of the Underground Shelter Cities across different areas did not all start at the same time.
The first batch simultaneously began building twenty Underground Shelter Cities
According to the plan, each of these cities, in extreme scenarios, had to be capable of accommodating at least ten million people for short-term subsistence living.
This kind of accommodation, of course, couldn’t be like a spacious ordinary city;
everyone’s personal space would inevitably be extremely cramped.
At this point, quality of life wasn’t really a consideration anyway.
When designing the plans, Negentropy Research Institute Researchers basically wanted to just dig a hole per person and stuff them inside.
All the designs focused entirely on squeezing in as many people as humanly possible.
Only basic survival was guaranteed.
The thinking was: once Humanity made it through that period of the Doomsday Crisis,
Human Civilization would recover incredibly fast.
For this short, critical time, people would just have to tough it out.
Then,
in the following month, after industrial capacity had grown a bit more,
a second batch of twenty Underground Shelter Cities started construction simultaneously,
also aiming for a ten-million-person capacity each.
However, it was clear that
building even one city wouldn’t be quick.
Even though industrial capacity kept growing throughout the process,
the entire industrial chain, from raw material extraction to final production, would face mounting pressure later on.
Matching the pace of adding twenty new cities every month like this first phase would be very tough.
By current calculations,
it seemed impossible before the disaster struck to squeeze all 2.5 billion people in Huaxia Nation into the Underground Shelter Cities.
The goal now was simply to get as many people as possible inside them when the time came.
…
That same month,
the Huaxia Nation government also announced a new emergency measure for the Doomsday Crisis.
Restricted all citizens’ non-essential travel.
Previously, in the Intelligent Era,
most people actually relied on public transportation to get around.
After all, smart cars, using the coordination power of Strong Artificial Intelligence from the local Computing Power Towers,
could appear in front of anyone incredibly fast and free at any time.
But right now, this service was mainly focused on tackling the Doomsday Crisis.
The entire city, every road, the sky, and the sea surface; the whole intelligent transport system
essentially became one gigantic production ‘conveyor belt’ inside a supersized factory, shipping supplies, moving Intelligent Machinery,
and connecting the whole chain between smart factories.
Most people agreed with this setup.
Also,
even though almost all entertainment was canceled because of the Doomsday Crisis,
household service robots in many homes were kept running,
since these used local computing power and programs, there wasn’t much reason to shut them down.
Plus, the entire internet was still up.
This stopped individuals from becoming totally cut-off information islands.
It also gave people a way to vent their feelings by talking to each other online.
So,
during this period,
the internet got really exciting.
With endless related news popping up, people’s discussions about it just never stopped.
…
“Let’s all try to stay in one area, don’t wander around unnecessarily. Leave the transport capacity for industrial production.”
“Don’t worry. I haven’t even used my daily public transport option lately. It’s basically just cafeteria, classroom, dorm… Though I’m over ninety now, call me middle-aged? Learning new stuff is pretty painful at this age.”
“Last night, I watched the live stream of Lingchuan City’s underground construction all night. I’m so sleepy now. With Intelligent Machinery helping, the speed they’re expanding those underground shelters is way faster than I imagined.”
“It’s not just the robotic workforce. Rumor is, the Materials Research Institute at the Negentropy Research Institute rolled out some new materials too, speeding up the building process.”
“Negentropy Research Institute is awesome!”
“Guys, how are they going to decide who gets into the Underground Refuge City?”
“Probably a lottery…”
“Stop, that just stresses me out. My luck has always been bad.”
“Chill. If they can squeeze even one more person in, the higher-ups and the Negentropy Research Institute will find a way to do it.”
“Sigh… With the Intelligent Era upon us, not messing up the machines’ coordination is the best we can manage. Feels impossible to actually help build the Underground Refuge City.”
“Then let’s at least not cause trouble. Personally, I just watch the progress of the underground city, eat at the cafeteria, then go back to lying down.”
Online, across all social platforms,
people were chatting and discussing things excitedly.
The trending lists on every social media platform had been dominated
by news about the Doomsday Crisis since emergency measures kicked in;
you’d barely see any other kind of news.
The top spot was almost always “Asteroid 2801”.
Right below were things like ‘Asteroid 2801 Impact Countdown’ and ‘Underground Shelter Construction Progress’.
Clicking on any trending topic showed new replies and comments appearing constantly.
For most people,
in this age, facing this Doomsday Crisis confronting all of Human Civilization,
there wasn’t much else they could do besides talk amongst themselves.
“Even seeing news about Asteroid 2801 now feels unreal. Remembering back before hearing about this Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis, I was planning a sea trip.”
“Who isn’t? Watching the city transform outside my window, changing day by day thanks to this crazy industrial expansion, that’s what makes it real. This Doomsday Crisis really is coming.”
“Ah, I’m over one hundred and sixty. I’ve lived my full life. When the time comes, I’ll give up my spot in the Underground Refuge City for you younger folks.”
“I actually have faith we’ll get through this crisis. Like that Senior Leader said… we might be badly hurt, but Human Civilization won’t end. We’re half a foot into being a Type I Civilization already.”
“Yeah, hang in there, friends… Screw this damn Doomsday, screw this damn Asteroid 2801. When it hits Earth, let’s melt the damn thing down and make golden toilets out of it! One each!”
“Is there enough metal for that?”
“If not, we’ll make as many as we can!”
…
Military Calendar Year 280, 18 months left till Asteroid 2801 impacted Earth.
After Human Civilization entered the Doomsday Crisis emergency phase,
everyone stayed busy, working frantically on crisis preparations.
At the Negentropy Research Institute,
Researchers in relevant fields also pushed hard with their studies,
trying desperately to help as many people survive the Doomsday Crisis as possible.
Qin Yu also continued advancing his research on Helium-3 Fusion.
Then,
on one day, under this shadow of the Asteroid 2801 collision threat,
the short-term Human Civilization extinction probability, which had stabilized at twenty percent in the Information Denoising Institute’s Doomsday early warning system,
suddenly changed again.
It jumped from twenty percent up to twenty-two.
Something clearly had happened.
Qin Yu paid some attention to it.
“…A highly toxic virus emerged in the North American State, causing a widespread plague there.”
“Researchers in the North American State tentatively named this virus the Diephagia Virus. It seems to have a long incubation period in humans, potentially exceeding fifteen days.”
“Once the Diephagia Virus infects a person, it attacks the brain’s nerves. After symptoms appear, patients quickly lose rationality and basic awareness, moving around randomly like wild animals.”
“Then, within a short period, death occurs.”
“The Diephagia Virus is extremely contagious. Its long incubation period, combined with the affected patients’ mindless wandering, meant that by the time the plague was discovered in the North American State, huge numbers were already infected.”
“Moreover, the social breakdown caused by the Doomsday Crisis exacerbated the virus’s impact.”
“Analysis of the virus’s emergence and other factors… suggests possible human involvement.”
This was one reason why the extinction probability alert jumped again,
or rather, one representative event among several in that period.
Currently,
under the Doomsday Crisis, within the Huaxia Nation,
control was maintained, thanks to Strong AI and massive productivity.
But globally, some had inevitably begun their own ‘Doomsday celebration’.
Conspiracy theories flourished as the crisis loomed closer.
Others cracked under the immense pressure, descending into madness.
Among the information consolidated into the crisis monitoring and warning program,
signs emerged of people declaring themselves ‘gods’.
Some humans, it seemed, wanted one final fling before the true end.
This Diephagia Virus outbreak was just one snapshot of this chaos.
Qin Yu reviewed the incident’s files.
Based on the current descriptions and records of the Diephagia Virus,
something felt familiar.
His exceptional memory easily recalled
a similar virus many years prior, noticed in a remote village on the South American Continent.
Apart from this Diephagia Virus’s unusually long incubation, the symptoms seemed remarkably alike?
While this Diephagia Virus might inflict significant, localized damage on Human Civilization,
it likely wouldn’t threaten its overall survival.
On its own, the virus was nasty.
But in this era, the biggest problem was treating existing patients reliably.
A global pandemic was highly unlikely.
In the Huaxia Nation, for instance,
most healthcare was handled by Intelligent Machinery and Intelligent Robots,
who were immune to biological viruses.
There wasn’t an urgent need to dive into understanding every nuance of Diephagia yet.
Letting Strong AI handle containment should prevent things from escalating.