57: Visiting the era of human-machine co-governance

As Elon followed Captain Li Zhenhua through the massive airtight hatch of the voyager, he felt as if he were stepping through a portal connecting two different eras.

Outside the door lay the eternal silence and desolation of the moon.

Inside, however, was a brand-new world, filled with the breath of life and a sense of futuristic technology.

"Welcome to the voyager." Li Zhenhua's voice resonated through the internal communication system, carrying a hint of unconcealable pride. "For many years to come, this will be our home in deep space."

Elon took off his helmet and greedily breathed in the air inside the ship, which carried a faint, fresh scent of plants.

He looked around, his eyes filled with childlike curiosity and wonder.

They were currently in a massive circular corridor.

The corridor was wide enough for two cars to drive side-by-side. The walls and ceiling were a soft, milky white, embedded with lighting strips that simulated daylight.

What surprised him most was the solid sensation of gravity beneath his feet.

"Artificial gravity?" he asked subconsciously. "Is it generated by the centrifugal force of the rotating internal chambers?"

"Yes, Mr. President." Li Zhenhua smiled and explained, "We are currently in the living quarters in the middle of the ship. This is a massive ring structure that rotates slowly at 1.2 revolutions per minute. The centrifugal force it generates perfectly simulates 0.9 times Earth's gravity, which is crucial for the long-term health of the crew."

"Did you know?" He added a bit of space trivia. "In a long-term weightless environment, the human body loses over 1% of its bone calcium every month, and muscles atrophy rapidly. Even with various countermeasures, gravity remains the best antidote for us carbon-based organisms born at the bottom of a gravity well."

Elon nodded; he certainly knew this.

But he hadn't expected the voyager to realize this concept, which usually only existed in science fiction movies, so perfectly.

Led by Captain Li Zhenhua, Elon began his first experience aboard the voyager.

They first arrived at the ecological center located at the core of the rotating living quarters.

This was essentially a tropical rainforest brought into space.

Beneath a massive dome made of transparent reinforced material lay a vibrant, green world.

Various genetically modified crops were growing vigorously on hydroponic racks. Under the light of plant growth lamps designed by white flower, they would provide a continuous supply of fresh fruits and vegetables to the seven thousand crew members on board at an astonishing speed.

A clear, artificial stream meandered through the center, with a water recycling rate as high as 90%.

There were even a few small, AI-controlled robots fluttering among the flowers, pollinating the plants.

"This is the heart and lungs of the entire ship," Li Zhenhua introduced. "It not only provides us with food and oxygen, but more importantly, it offers us a place to relax and experience nature, which is crucial during the long and monotonous interstellar voyage."

Next, they took an internal maglev elevator to the zero-gravity work area located in the axial region of the ship.

The vibe here was completely different.

Inside the massive spherical space, countless scientists and engineers in lightweight uniforms moved between various experimental platforms like fish floating in water.

There were high-energy physics laboratories, materials science laboratories, astrobiology laboratories...

Almost all fields of human basic science were covered here.

Without the constraints of gravity, many experiments that could not be conducted on Earth could be easily carried out here.

Elon even saw several engineers testing a type of individual exoskeleton armor provided by Paradox Technology, specifically designed for space operations. The design, full of power and a sense of technology, made even this loyal fan of "Iron Man" gaze with eyes shining.

Finally, they arrived at the brain and heart of the entire ship—the bridge command center located at the very front of the ship.

The view here was suddenly wide open.

A massive, floor-to-ceiling holographic viewport occupied almost the entire wall. Outside the window lay the deep, vast universe, dotted with countless stars.

In front of the viewport was a multi-layered command platform distributed in a tiered fashion, like an opera house.

Hundreds of United Space Force officers in dark blue uniforms were sitting at their respective tactical stations, methodically conducting final pre-departure checks.

In front of them were various futuristic 3D holographic operating interfaces.

The entire bridge was quiet and efficient, filled with a sense of professionalism and orderly beauty.

"This is the heart of the voyager," Li Zhenhua said, bringing Elon to the captain's seat on the highest level.

"From here, we can command and control every system on this ship, from navigation and energy to weapons and communications."

Elon stood beside the captain's seat, overlooking the busy and orderly scene below, and then looked up at the magnificent sea of stars outside the window. An unprecedented sense of heroism and excitement surged in his heart.

He felt as if he were standing on a great ship called history, about to embark on a magnificent voyage belonging to all of humanity.

"Captain Li," he turned his head and said in a tone that was almost a request, "Could I experience it too? Just for one minute."

Li Zhenhua looked at his eager, childlike expression and nodded with a smile.

"Of course, Mr. President."

"After all, in a sense, you are also one of the creators of this ship."

Elon carefully sat on the captain's chair, which represented the highest authority.

When his hand touched the cold metal armrest, he felt as if his hand had grasped the future (?).

Outside the window, a beautiful azure planet, like a sapphire, was floating silently in the dark universe.

That was Earth.

That was the home of humanity.

...

Just as Elon was immersed in the immense excitement of boarding the starship, preparing to begin his months-long Mars vacation...

With Elon's departure, the subroutine meticulously constructed by white flower—the knowledge manager—officially took over the highest executive power of the American Union.

This AI did not have a concrete image, nor did it need any public appearance.

It penetrated every capillary of the nation's government system through the network.

It took over the servers of The White House, the bill approval system of Congress, the database of the Department of the Treasury, and the financial servers of the Federal Reserve...

It became the true "brain" of this country.

And the daily government affairs that were once handled by human officials were all processed by it with an efficiency and rationality that exceeded the limits of human imagination.

The amount of information it needed to process every day was equivalent to the total collection of the entire Library of Congress.

In less than a day, it audited the federal government's fiscal budgets for the past ten years and identified trillions in wasted and embezzled funding loopholes.

Within three days, it formulated a development plan for the entire nation's industrial upgrade and energy transition that could be called perfect, precise down to every community and every factory.

It could even analyze national medical data to accurately predict which state the flu would break out in first the following quarter and allocate corresponding vaccines and medical resources in advance.

Under the regency of the knowledge manager, the entire US government initially experienced a period of chaos, but as inefficient government employees were fired one by one, capable people remained, and vacancies that could not be filled were taken over by the AI, the country soon began to operate at maximum efficiency.

Bills that once required months of endless bickering in Congress could now be solved in seconds by running a pros-and-cons deduction through the knowledge manager's computational model.

The huge sums of money that were once used for political lobbying and interest transfers were now precisely invested in the areas that needed them most, such as education, scientific research, and infrastructure construction.

Of course, Lei Wen was not naive enough to think that a single AI could manage a complex nation with hundreds of millions of people.

He still maintained the entire framework of the human government.

Legislators still needed to hold meetings, and officials still needed to go to work.

It was just that their work content had changed.

They were no longer the decision-makers.

Instead, they had become executors and supervisors.

The knowledge manager would, like an omniscient leader, issue the clearest, most reasonable, and most optimized work tasks to every department and every official.

Then, it would conduct the strictest evaluation of the execution process and results of these tasks through an omnipresent monitoring system.

Any attempt at corruption, dereliction of duty, or feigned compliance would be discovered immediately, and the relevant evidence would be automatically sent to the servers of the judicial department.

Under this absolute transparency and efficiency, the political ecology of the entire country underwent an earth-shattering purification.

Those politicians who only knew how to talk big and gain political capital were quickly marginalized.

And those talents who truly possessed professional knowledge and were willing to do practical work for the country were given unprecedented importance.

Initially, this iron-fisted governance led by AI also triggered some social panic and dissatisfaction.

Many people worried that this was a new type of digital dictatorship.

But when they found that their taxes were actually being used effectively, when they saw dilapidated urban infrastructure being repaired at an astonishing speed, when they felt that their children could receive fairer and higher-quality education, and when the air they breathed became fresher due to the comprehensive popularization of new energy...

Most of the doubts and voices of opposition gradually disappeared.

People began to realize that perhaps an AI that had no selfishness, was absolutely rational, and had the maximum well-being of all citizens as its only goal, was truly much more reliable than those human politicians filled with prejudice and selfish desires.

Of course, this revolution was not smooth sailing.

Although the oligarch families who had been powerful in the old era handed over their physical industries, the massive financial capital in their hands was still stirring in the shadows, attempting to sabotage this reform through various financial means.

However, they soon discovered with despair that in the financial battlefield, which was purely composed of numbers and information, being an enemy of the knowledge manager—a "god" with light-quantum supercomputing-level processing power and predictive capabilities—was tantamount to a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Every malicious short-selling attempt was accurately predicted and then met with a head-on blow from government funds.

Every attempt to manipulate public opinion was easily resolved by the knowledge manager using more advanced information warfare tactics.

After experiencing several painful failures and losing a vast amount of wealth, these former financial tycoons finally recognized the reality.

They either chose to cooperate, investing their capital into the projects planned by the knowledge manager that benefited the country and the people, gaining returns that were not too high but stable and reasonable.

Or they could only watch helplessly as their wealth was slowly eroded in a gamble against an AI.

A brand-new era had quietly arrived on this dramatic land of America, in a way no one had expected.

An era of "human-machine co-governance," where an AI conducted macro-control behind the scenes while humans were responsible for execution and creation.

The results of Lei Wen's experiment might influence the future of the entire Human Civilization.