Chapter 120: The Problem with No Permanent Fix

Civilizations, and the individuals within them, naturally leaned toward laziness.

Human Civilization didn’t know about other civilizations yet,

but its own was exactly like that.

This was a problem Human Civilization would inevitably face one day after stepping into the Intelligent Era.

—When resources and productivity were perfectly sufficient, when direct survival pressure vanished, what drive could keep people fighting laziness to further develop and strengthen civilization?

Long ago, far-sighted individuals within Human Civilization had foreseen this issue.

But history’s tide rushes forward. They couldn’t just give up because it was hard. They couldn’t refuse the Intelligent Era out of fear that people would lose the drive to advance.

And now,

starting around 275 years ago, when controlled nuclear fusion solved the energy crisis and Human Civilization officially entered the Intelligent Era of explosive productivity growth,

to this day, the 42nd year of the Human United Era (HUE),

nearly seventy years into the Intelligent Era, the problem had surfaced just as predicted.

In a way, the earlier Asteroid 2801 Impact Crisis,

the shock of the Doomsday Crisis, had delayed this issue. After overcoming that crisis, Human Civilization was brimming with fighting spirit, not only defeating Doomsday but leaping into extraterrestrial existence.

But now, as Human Civilization expanded farther into the Solar System,

people’s memories of the Doomsday Crisis were fading. Plus, in this era, over half of the population was born after Doomsday.

Born after Doomsday, they grew up in Humanity’s fast-growth phase, surrounded by its staggering productivity.

The state of Human Civilization made it very hard to feel any urgency or crisis pushing civilization forward.

Individuals within Human Civilization lacked survival pressure and motivation to advance.

Human Civilization itself also lacked strong survival pressure and momentum for development.

Inevitably,

Human Civilization began sliding towards a state—call it relaxed, call it decadent.

…

“…If other races in the universe developed similar to us, then this problem we face now might be a tough hurdle for any civilization entering the Intelligent Era.”

These words were spoken inside the Negentropy Research Institute.

For several years, the number of Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute hadn’t kept up with the HCC’s overall population growth; it had actually shrunk.

So, the heads of various departments, the heads of various research teams, and even Qin Yu had gathered once more to discuss this.

“This current state… it just slows our development. Maybe even call it stability? Perhaps our standards for development speed are too high? Maybe other civilizations think this state is normal?”

Another research team lead made this joke. But right then, no one at the meeting could bring themselves to laugh.

After a moment of silence, the head of the Social Philosophy Department pressed his temples and shook his head wearily.

“Tell me about it. Honestly? I face it myself. Research hits a wall, get stuck for a few hours… my first thought is, ‘Give up. Too much hassle.’ If that happens to me, imagine how much worse and complicated it is spread across the entire HCC, the whole civilization.”

His words brought another heavy silence to the gathered heads of research teams and department leaders.

Qin Yu watched the Researchers, listening to their discussions, not rushing to speak.

In practical terms,

this slide was causing a direct impact within Human Civilization:

too many people were settling into the lowest tier of the Intelligent Era’s social structure.

In the Intelligent Era under Human Civilization,

the ideal state was for those at the bottom tier to mainly serve as the base of the population pool.

These people would either remain lifelong students distributed across universities, or, after graduating, do token research or barely-passable “art” work.

Their contribution to Human Civilization’s progress? Virtually zero.

The middle tier consisted of those spread across the various specialized research institutes outside the Negentropy Research Institute. They focused on specific research areas all their lives,

devoting themselves to one or two very narrow questions.

Those genuinely responsible for creating art and advancing ideas—the ones achieving modest, consistent results—also belonged here.

The top tier?

Essentially, the Negentropy Research Institute absorbed the most gifted, capable minds in Human Civilization.

Entrusted with pushing Human Civilization forward—in science, technology, social structure, philosophy—it was the heart of progress.

The current issue was… too many people sunk happily at the bottom tier. They enjoyed the era’s comforts but saw no reason to climb the social ladder.

Even though the paths upward remained wide open, a significant chunk—possibly the majority—just didn’t want to bother.

The proportion stuck at the lowest tier of this Intelligent Era exceeded that of a healthy, thriving civilization.

The ideal social structure should be narrow at the top, narrow at the bottom, wide in the middle.

But the current structure? It looked disturbingly like a “thumbtack.”

The reason was simple:

In this Intelligent Era, even official “lowest tier” status brought zero survival pressure.

No one worried about survival. Food, clothes, shelter—all covered. Everyone could freely pursue their passions.

That was the basic rule.

Abundant productivity and resources meant society could function even if everyone just rested on their laurels.

Universal education ensured everyone could dream big, aim high from childhood.

But sometimes, a dream alone isn’t enough fuel for a lifetime of hard work.

So, in this reality,

thoughts like “This is actually pretty comfortable” started popping up.

The attitude of “Why bother pushing myself? This life is good enough!” spread unchecked.

“Why climb higher? It’s exhausting! The way I live now? Zero effort, and survival is guaranteed.”

Money still existed,

and people within the HCC received different monthly incomes or rewards.

Social status varied; a hierarchy remained.

However,

even if a top-tier Negentropy Researcher bullied someone at the bottom tier,

it was still a crime.

The city’s Strong Artificial Intelligence systems moved fast. They hauled that Researcher straight to jail.

Faced with this, many people felt little urgent need to push themselves upward.

Of course, the roots of this slide were complicated.

Yes, natural laziness played a role – existing peacefully required minimal effort. Why even try?

But the era itself, thanks to Human Civilization’s advancements in tech and theory, threw up its own hurdles.

Within Human Civilization, social standing depended solely on talent and demonstrated ability.

Supervised by Strong Artificial Intelligence, underpinned by universal Collective Social Rearing, this fairness was rigorously maintained.

This ensured that the talented would absolutely receive training, and also ensured that the Negentropy Research Institute absolutely gathered the most talented and capable group of researchers.

But the problem was, not everyone had talent.

In this situation, for everyone, whether they could enter the Negentropy Research Institute and become a genius researcher was practically determined from the moment they were born.

In this case, how could people whose talent was less outstanding persist in striving for their ideals?

Some people, after recognizing their own talent and abilities, chose to focus on a specific, narrow field, researching one or two particular problems for their entire lives,

just to possibly save a single afternoon for the genius researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute.

But obviously, not everyone could persist with their ideals once their level of talent became clear… Slacking off and giving up seemed like a good option too.

Just like many people themselves said,

Instead of consuming the civilization’s resources and ending up studying their whole lives without achieving any results,

it was better not to study at all from the start, enjoy life, live happily and easily, and even save the civilization some research resources.

What’s more, many people might study in their chosen field their whole lives and still never reach the very edge of that field’s frontier.

If,

all the people currently settled at the very bottom layer of human civilization were like this, those whose talent was inherently insufficient,

then the Negentropy Research Institute and Qin Yu would naturally have no objections.

It was never possible for everyone to achieve certain results in every research field.

Human Civilization must have many people who are naturally unable to contribute much.

But the problem was,

right now, far too many people were sinking to the very bottom layer of civilization,

The vast majority of them were likely capable of making some research achievements, some social contributions in their lifetimes.

But influenced by the overall environment now, whether willingly or through apathy, they were simply lying flat, living off basic social welfare.

And this situation, starting from the very bottom and stretching all the way up to the Negentropy Research Institute, affected Human Civilization as a whole, impacted by this social atmosphere.

The growth rate in the number of Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute was wrong,

diminishing the effectiveness of efforts to expand the Human Civilization population base.

…

While Qin Yu pondered this issue, the leaders of other research institutions and teams within the Negentropy Research Institute were also continuing to think.

Qin Yu glanced at the group. The leaders of the various research institutions and teams remained silent as well.

This was almost an unsolvable problem, a vortex formed by the current state of Human Civilization itself.

How could Human Civilization, relying solely on its own strength, break free from this vortex it had created?

The situation was like this for individuals within Human Civilization – lacking the necessary drive, they preferred staying put and abandoning personal development.

Looked at from the perspective of Human Civilization as a whole, the situation was still the same.

Even now, Human Civilization had not encountered any external enemies.

During Qin Yu’s time,

due to Qin Yu’s authority, he could forcibly demand that Human Civilization continue developing within the Solar System and the universe.

But what about after Qin Yu’s current life ends, when he inevitably has to change identities?

Will the Negentropy Research Institute still have the ability to unify the will of the entire Human Civilization population?

Will there be people who doubt the necessity of Human Civilization continuing its development in the universe?

Doubting the need for civilizational development might seem rather foolish,

but viewed within the limited timeframe defined by an individual human lifespan,

under the current circumstances, the necessity for Human Civilization to expand within the Solar System was itself a false proposition.

Why expand within the Solar System?

Because more resources are needed to expand the Human Civilization population base?

But who decided the expansion of the population base…? It was Qin Yu’s decision, based on a much larger timescale.

For the people alive now, is there such a need?

If we don’t continue expanding the population base, the amount of resources Human Civilization can access now

is already enough for everyone to live a very good life.

In this scenario, where is the motivation for Human Civilization to continue expanding and growing stronger?

Over the past few years,

the development and strengthening of Human Civilization hadn’t completely stalled,

because the converse was also true:

The pathways for moving up in society remained open in this era,

The entire social structure still did not block anyone who wanted to achieve something and climb higher.

If some people were willing to lie flat, naturally others were willing to delve into unknown problems.

Theoretically, anyone with enough ability and talent, if willing, could still potentially hold any position within Human Civilization.

Only, the pace of development had undoubtedly slowed significantly compared to the first twenty or thirty years after the Human United Era (HUE) began.

Now,

the Researchers at the Negentropy Research Institute, the insightful people throughout Human Civilization, worried about this:

This slowdown could become increasingly severe,

Until one day… all of Human Civilization sinks into becoming a civilization that simply gives up on development and wallows in pleasure.

But,

how to prevent this from happening?

Can there truly be a civilization where every single person always works hard and never slacks off?

Unless you somehow implant the ‘mind stamps’ from science fiction stories, this problem has no permanent solution.

…

From Qin Yu’s perspective,

the current state of Human Civilization was actually quite difficult to judge as purely good or bad.

Good and bad are relative.

For Human Civilization as a whole, this state of civilizational decay is certainly not good,

But for the majority of the people within Human Civilization, for the individual members of the civilization,

what is wrong with Human Civilization right now?

Is social fairness wrong?

Is it wrong that everyone has been freed from heavy, repetitive labor?

Is it wrong that everyone can freely choose their own life path?

Is it wrong that everyone can enjoy the benefits of ample social productivity?

Nothing was really wrong… But despite nothing being wrong, Human Civilization had still entered this state of decay.

Actually, for Qin Yu,

if you ignored the threats outside Human Civilization,

this state wasn’t actually too bad.

Resources were plentiful, productivity was high, there was no reason for conflict between people,

People didn’t have any strong desire for external expansion either,

Just lying low here, lacking for nothing, they could likely endure this way for a very long time.

It also fit quite well with his wish for Human Civilization to survive longer.

But the premise was,

no external threats… no civilization that could actively detect Human Civilization’s existence.

Otherwise,

A Human Civilization that chooses stagnation and decay, when encountering a stronger civilization, could only end up like meat on a cutting board.

Whether it continued to exist or perished would be entirely decided by another’s will.

This was something Qin Yu could not accept.