Chapter 112: The Age of Hope

This difficulty didn’t mean Qin Yu had no ideas.

His ‘adjustable intelligence growth’ stayed active since re-entering the Negentropy Research Institute this life and starting artificial intelligence research.

That meant his intelligence level kept rising constantly.

Though nowadays, the growth every so often wasn’t as obvious compared to the total amount.

After intelligence reached a certain point, it truly didn’t seem to make as big a difference.

But for the research project ‘improving human intelligence,’

Qin Yu still hadn’t hit any insurmountable wall. Instead, this study felt like a bottomless pit.

Qin Yu kept pushing forward, yet it seemed endless—new questions just kept coming.

…

To improve humanity’s intelligence level,

he first needed to figure out… what intelligence actually was.

What decided human civilization’s intelligence level?

Broadly speaking, it should be memory, logical thinking, creative thinking, abstract thinking, associative imagination…

More details would reveal many factors.

But these were vague concepts. To boost these abilities that decided civilization’s intelligence,

they had to link them to brain structure or even the basic genetic level.

Among things tied to intelligence—like imagination or logical thinking—

memory felt most direct and specific.

Trying to improve other thinking skills from humanity’s genetic roots

proved super tricky even for Qin Yu, who knew a lot about human biology.

Because intelligence-related things were just too fuzzy.

Digging deeper,

he found human awareness tangled up with intelligence’s abstract abilities like creativity or imagination.

Did self-awareness connect to intelligence?

If so, did self-awareness affect smarts, or did smarts shape self-awareness?

Were differences in self-awareness born or made?

If born, which genes or deeper mechanics caused these differences?

If changing and boosting intelligence through body mechanics, brain structure, and genes,

would human self-awareness change too?

If self was like software, the brain like hardware, and intelligence like how well the software ran,

then changing ‘hardware’… what happened to ‘software’?

What exactly was human self-awareness?

It almost turned into a philosophy problem tracing this back.

Counting it out,

to solve this fully in theory,

to build a ‘theory about human intelligence mechanisms,’

would be like starting from human biology now

and creating a smarter ‘life and awareness.’

But since human civilization ran on Strong Artificial Intelligence from Brain Intelligence Project,

not intelligent lifeforms, it showed Qin Yu couldn’t do this yet either.

Too much missing info and knowledge—even with his cheat-like Super Brain, filling all gaps would take ages.

Actually,

in researching ‘boosting civilization’s intelligence,’

like his earlier ‘raise average lifespan’ project,

Qin Yu had a real-life sample:

himself.

Thanks to ‘adjustable intelligence growth,’

his smarts skyrocketed steadily.

But making himself a lab sample

revealed he was a total bug in research terms.

His brain structure probably stayed the same, but his Super Brain boost was real.

His case simply blew past current human knowledge and tech limits.

It was easier to ignore his freak exception entirely.

…

Beyond Qin Yu’s Human Civilization Average Intelligence Enhancement Research project (inspired by Diephagia Virus),

human average intelligence had changed during these 200–300 years.

It came from careful big-scale selection evolution.

After Human Reproduction Devices and Collective Social Rearing fully spread,

new babies from Human Reproduction Devices

naturally filtered out weaker genes.

When mass-producing new people, the Social Upbringing Bureau

used only top healthy genes.

Of course, the Bureau and Negentropy Research Institute’s Doomsday Gene Bank saved some weaker genes too

to preserve diversity—so random new diseases didn’t wipe humanity out.

By now, after several generations of filtering—already in the HCC (Human Coalition)

300 years after Human Reproduction Devices caught on—

no one noticed the change themselves.

But it showed big on a macro level.

Stats by the Strong Artificial Intelligence running society

said under same standards, current HCC average IQ sat near 132.

Not everyone a genius, but most could finish college without big trouble.

True, this IQ level wasn’t just from macro evolution either.

Influenced by the educational resources and increasingly abundant nurturing resources from the Social Upbringing Bureau,

In the past, it was impossible for every child to receive one-on-one teaching and cultivation from a teacher,

But in this era, it became achievable through the use of abundant AI Teaching Robots.

It could be said that during the growth phase, the intellectual development of many people was well maintained.

However,

There was one issue with this macro-level evolution.

Data compiled by Strong Artificial Intelligence also indicated that,

Although the number of high-I.Q. geniuses was increasing for various reasons, evident in the rising number of Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute,

Besides the exception of Qin Yu,

Others within the era’s top tier of geniuses showed no significant intellectual leap compared to the top-tier geniuses of the previous two centuries.

This suggested that this macro-evolution seemed incapable of breaking through an upper limit.

Of course, it was also possible that the duration of this artificial selection process under the macro-evolution hadn’t been long enough yet.

Perhaps if it continued for several thousand more years, changes might become visible.

But for Qin Yu,

Who could predict what calamities Human Civilization might encounter during those thousands of years?

He certainly wasn’t willing to wait that long.

…

Currently,

Setting aside the vast majority of issues in enhancing human intelligence that were fundamentally unsolvable in the short term at this stage,

Qin Yu, in his research on this project, focused more on one of the factors most directly and concretely linked to intelligence:

Memory.

Starting from the body’s underlying mechanisms and improving human memory capability,

For Qin Yu, this represented the clearest research direction. If successful, the feedback into raising the average intelligence of Human Civilization should be quite significant.

Regarding the difficulties inherent in this research, Qin Yu was not overly discouraged.

After all, if the intelligence level of Human Civilization could be significantly enhanced,

It would be equivalent to the entire Civilization abruptly ascending to a higher level.

He wondered,

If there existed any uniquely privileged civilizations in this universe, born with terrifyingly high innate intellectual potential.

This year,

While staying informed about the progress of other projects within the Negentropy Research Institute,

Qin Yu continued to advance his own research project aimed at increasing the average human intelligence.

…

From Human United Era (HUE) Year 7 to Human United Era (HUE) Year 15.

For Human Civilization as a whole, everything during these years progressed smoothly.

It was a period of peace and rapid development.

Technologies that had achieved breakthroughs around the time of the Doomsday Crisis,

Were quickly realized as integral parts of the Civilization’s overall strength and productive forces.

With no significant threats internally or externally, and an exceptionally prosperous and harmonious society, everything felt incredibly wonderful.

People living through this era witnessed and felt the rapid changes in all aspects of life at regular intervals.

During these years,

The size of the Smart Industrial Zones within the original 225 Mega-Cities had essentially expanded more than twofold.

On suitable lands of Earth’s remaining continents, entirely new Mega-Cities were constructed beyond those original 225,

Pushing the total number of cities well over three hundred.

Across the land, Surface Cities were fully interconnected via Superconducting Maglev Train tracks and Electric Propulsion Spaceships.

The Superconducting Maglev Train, which had previously traveled at 800 kilometers per hour,

Thanks to the latest research advancements from the Negentropy Research Institute team during this period,

Had its speed increased to roughly 1,200 kilometers per hour.

Under ideal conditions, one could cross the entire Nine Provinces region in just three hours by maglev train.

In a single day, people could travel from one continent on Earth to the most distant continent.

With their exaggerated productive capacity, people utilized vast amounts of Intelligent Machinery to forcefully turn formidable geographical barriers, products of geological activity, into thoroughfares.

The network of Superconducting Maglev tracks sprawled across Earth like the web of a giant spider, linking the continents together.

Complemented by the widespread use of Electric Propulsion Spaceships,

In this era, traditional atmospheric aircraft were mostly relegated to the three-dimensional traffic systems within cities, seldom used for intercity travel.

For those who had lived through the Doomsday Crisis,

The world they perceived had undergone a stunning transformation in just a little over a decade.

Many had never felt the world could be so wonderful before.

As for children born after the Doomsday Crisis, particularly those born after the start of the Human United Era,

They could also keenly feel the rapid progress of Human Civilization,

Though for them, this immense strength felt like the natural state of things.

If asked to describe these years at the dawn of the Human United Era, following the Doomsday Crisis,

People would likely call it the ‘Good Age’, the ‘Age of Hope’, the ‘Era of Happiness’.

During this very process,

Human Civilization also advanced its development of extraterrestrial territories, particularly the Lunar Surface.

…

By Human United Era Year 15,

The presence of Human Civilization’s Intelligent Machinery had spread almost everywhere across the Lunar Surface.

Resource extraction zones were planned at nearly every viable location suitable for mining on the moon.

Human Civilization undertook the construction of Lunar Surface Cities, mirroring the scale targets used for Surface Cities on Earth.

The number of Lunar Surface Cities had long surpassed the initial thirty.

Even the size of the very first Lunar Surface City had far outgrown its original capacity of only 200,000 people.

By now,

The Lunar Surface could be said to truly exist as an integral part of Human Civilization’s territory,

No longer a domain outside its borders, requiring significant effort merely to reach.

The permanent resident population across the various Lunar Surface Cities now exceeded ten million people.

Travel between Earth and the Moon became increasingly frequent.

For people living on either the Surface or the Lunar Surface,

Going to the Moon or returning to Earth became no different than traveling from one Surface City to another.

Online,

The permanent residents of Lunar Surface Cities and those in Surface Cities communicated within the same network.

Data relay stations constantly and diligently handled signals flowing between Earth and the Moon,

Though the inherent information transmission delay remained an unresolved issue.

While personnel frequently traveled the Earth-Moon route,

Resource exchange was even more intense.

Basic materials mined on the Lunar Surface were continuously transported back to Earth,

Serving the operational needs of over three hundred Surface Cities.

In turn, Earth dispatched materials that were scarce or unavailable on the moon, crucial for the Smart Industrial Clusters on the Lunar Surface,

Functionally similar to the complementarity of resources among Surface Cities’ own Smart Industrial production.

Now,

Within the Lunar Surface Cities, networks of Smart Industrial clusters – built from Lunar Surface Intelligent Machinery and Smart Industrial equipment –

Had achieved initial self-sufficiency on the moon.

The industrial scale obviously still fell short of Earth’s impressive levels,

But the colonies now possessed most of the production capacity needed for their own industrial expansion on the moon.

They could now independently produce the equipment, devices, structures, and machinery required for Lunar Surface City expansion.

Similarly, the daily necessities needed by permanent residents were predominantly manufactured within these Smart Industrial Clusters in the Lunar Surface Cities.

At this time, Lunar Surface Cities were not typically linked by ground-based transit systems like their Surface counterparts.

Taking advantage of the moon’s natural environment, travel between Lunar Surface Cities relied largely on Electric Propulsion Spaceships.

A significant portion of the components needed to construct these Electric Propulsion Spaceships within the Lunar Surface Smart Industrial Sector could now be manufactured and assembled directly on the moon.

It was under these circumstances that the expansion of Lunar Surface Cities entered an accelerated phase in these years.

This expansion,

Also significantly aided several other plans and projects concurrently underway on the moon.

On the Lunar Surface,

An initiative called Project Outlook involved building large-scale spatial observation equipment at several strategic locations, leveraging the lunar geography.

These installations were collectively known as the Outlook Observation Array.

Operated by Intelligent Programs, they were responsible for continuous, unified sky surveys.

Besides supporting Human Civilization’s Astronomy and Astrophysics research,

They remained vigilant for any potential threats originating from space.

According to the plan,

Should a crisis similar to the prior Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis occur again,

Human Civilization, through the Outlook Observation Array, could detect the approaching asteroid at least twice as early.

Given sufficient time, and boosted by the Civilization’s continuously surging productive capacity,

Humanity would become genuinely capable of averting that scale of catastrophe.

Disasters that once dealt heavy blows to Human Civilization now posed little threat.