184: Raven's Contemplation

Standing in the highest Observation Corridor of Babel Space Station, Lei Wen looked down at the blue mother planet below through the giant floor-to-ceiling window that filtered out the sun's harsh glare.

This was a golden age, a period of material explosion unprecedented in Human Civilization. The brilliance of antimatter thrusters illuminated deep space, the trajectories of warp drives connected alien worlds, and humanity's footprints had crossed light-years, sowing the seeds of civilization on distant shores.

However, as the mastermind behind all of this, as the Director of the Interstellar Affairs General Bureau, Lei Wen had always asked himself:

Is the current Human Federation truly a unified entity?

The answer was no; it was more like a "Frankenstein" barely held together by strong glue.

While the Earth Council served as the nominal highest government on Earth, over a hundred sovereign nations still existed. Although nominally under the Federation's command, they retained their own armies, laws, and borders. The Earth Council was more like an enhanced United Nations, still facing endless bickering, compromises, and geopolitical games when dealing with internal Earth affairs.

It governed over 15 billion people in its "one-acre, three-fen plot" of Earth, but its reach beyond Earth was limited.

The Moon, Mars, gas collection cities in Jupiter's orbit, mining outposts in the Kuiper Belt, and the distant New Sun System. Nominally, these were sacred territories of the Human Federation, but in terms of legal principle and practical operation, they had long become private fiefdoms of major mega-corporations.

Land ownership was bought, infrastructure was built with corporate investment, administrative personnel were appointed by the board of directors, and even the police maintaining order were employees of corporate security departments.

While the Interstellar Affairs General Bureau held the highest oversight and arbitration powers, this authority often only manifested in macro-strategies, unable to touch the micro-corners shrouded by the iron curtain of capital.

This unique political and economic structure led to an extremely absurd phenomenon: the same Human Civilization, yet living in vastly different social forms and even historical stages on different planets... Let's turn our attention to the red planet—Mars.

That was the private reserve of the Nikola Group, an industrial empire established by Elon and his board members.

In the dim underground cities and dust-storm-shrouded industrial zones of Mars, a totalitarian capitalism with strong cyberpunk characteristics was practiced.

For the tens of millions of workers living there, the Nikola Group was heaven, earth, air, and water.

From birth, they carried debts incurred to purchase their "right to exist." Every breath of air they took, every drop of water they drank, every cubic meter of space they inhabited, was converted into profit on the Nikola Group's financial statements as the meters ticked.

There were no strikes, because striking meant having life support systems cut off. There was no privacy, as surveillance probes

Workers toiled like worker ants, overdrawing their lives for meager wages. Although thanks to advances in productivity, they didn't have to worry about starving and many could enjoy abundant material products, they were no different from slaves in terms of spirit and political rights.

The Nikola Group used "efficiency" and "development" as excuses, beautifying this exploitation as "necessary sacrifices for humanity's interstellar expansion."

Meanwhile, 380,000 kilometers away on the Moon, the situation swung to the other extreme.

The land ownership here had long been acquired by Paradox Technology.

Compared to the hustle and grime of Mars, Guanghan Palace City and its surrounding satellite cities on the Moon were immaculate paradises.

The permanent population here was less than one million, and almost all of these one million people were official employees of Paradox Technology and its affiliated companies, senior scientific researchers, and their families.

Here, Lei Wen conducted a small-scale social experiment.

Thanks to Paradox Technology's almost cheating-like black technology, highly intelligent fully automated production lines, infinite clean energy, and the meticulous AI management of white flower, lunar society achieved a welfare system close to a communist society.

Residents here didn't need to worry about survival. Housing was spacious and bright bionic ecological apartments, medical care was free and utilized the highest-grade blood orchid preparations, and education was top-tier, taught jointly by the best AI mentors and human experts.

Their work was not repetitive manual labor, but creative scientific research, artistic design, or the maintenance and supervision of AI systems.

They enjoyed extremely high incomes and enviable holidays. Every weekend, they could take shuttles back to Earth, shop in Paris, surf in Hawaii, enjoying the envious and resentful gazes of ordinary Earthlings.

The per capita happiness index, life expectancy, and education level of lunar residents far exceeded those of the most developed countries on Earth, even surpassing Luxembourg of yesteryear by a significant margin.

This was a utopia covered by a glass dome, exquisite, perfect, yet also closed... "Father, the latest social survey data shows that Earth's populace's yearning for the lunar model has reached its peak, and calls to promote Paradox Technology's welfare system on Earth are growing louder."

white flower's voice calmly reported in Lei Wen's ear.

"At the same time, potential dissatisfaction is accumulating in the Mars region. Although there haven't been large-scale riots, the suicide rate and incidence of psychological illnesses have increased by 15% year-on-year."

Lei Wen leaned against the window sill of the space station corridor.

"The lunar model..." Lei Wen murmured, his fingers gently tapping the glass.

It was a tempting idea: to use the advanced technology and vast resources controlled by Paradox Technology to directly replicate this high-welfare, highly automated model in the Federation's extraterrestrial territories, or even forcibly promote it on Earth itself.

To allow all humanity to live beautiful lives free from worries about food and clothing, needing only to engage in creative labor.

This sounded like the ultimate goal of a savior.

But Lei Wen thought for a long time and finally shook his head.

"No."

"The lunar model is not replicable; at least at this stage, it is a beautiful false proposition."

Why?

First, the paradox of scale and resources.

The Moon became a utopia because its population base was extremely small and entirely composed of screened, high-caliber elites. Paradox Technology could support these one million people with the entire company's profits and advanced technology from the Faleim Civilization.

But Earth has 15 billion people, and more will come in the future.

Even with antimatter energy and nanomanufacturing technology, the resource throughput and industrial capacity required to raise the living standards of 15 billion people to lunar standards in a short time would be astronomical. People would cheer when welfare was distributed, but if welfare couldn't be sustained, resentment would multiply.

"If we use all our resources now for welfare, to support idlers, then who will build fleets? Who will reclaim barren planets? Who will face alien civilizations that might be hostile to us?"

Lei Wen was very clear that even the Faleim society, which had achieved a state where everyone no longer worried about resources and wealth, always maintained a sense of hunger and crisis, rather than indulging in pleasure. Current Human Civilization absolutely could not achieve this; it was determined by genetic flaws.

Secondly, the disconnect in production relations.

The lunar model was built on the absolute monopoly of Paradox Technology and the absolute autocracy of AI. Although the residents there were affluent, they were essentially "retainers" dependent on the behemoth that was Paradox Technology.

If this model were to be promoted on Earth, it would mean eliminating all private ownership, eliminating all middle classes, and turning all humanity into employees of Paradox Technology.

This would not only provoke desperate resistance from vested interests like the Nikola Group, leading to a brutal civil war, but more terrifyingly, before AI achieved highly creative capabilities, the creativity and diversity of Human Civilization would be erased.

"If the whole world became a super company, then humanity would lose the chance to make mistakes," Lei Wen mused. "Humans would become a group of domesticated pets, losing their wildness and their ability to evolve in adversity."

Finally, and most importantly, human greed and inertia.

On the Moon, because the residents were of extremely high caliber and had clear work goals, high welfare did not breed idlers.

But on Earth, in regions with uneven education levels and complex cultural backgrounds, suddenly implementing this "distribution according to need" would likely not result in common prosperity, but rather societal stagnation.

When striving no longer changes destiny, when one can live well by doing nothing, who would still risk their lives to explore the stars? Who would still work day and night to overcome scientific challenges?

"A bushel of rice for grace, a fight for a peck," Lei Wen sighed. "Current Earth humans have not yet evolved to the moral level capable of sustaining such a utopia."

The lunar model was essentially a showcase item Lei Wen had created with a "cheat code," a "future possibility" for humanity to see, not a solution that could be universally applied now.

"So, we still have to take it one step at a time."

"First, solve the problem of the closed-loop monopolies of those giant corporations, then solve the political problem of the true integration of the Human Federation, and finally, solve the productivity problem."