1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 3742

However, Shi Diwen could not blame his former companions for having children. Since settling in Sanya more than 30 years ago, due to the shortage of human resources, the Hai Han government has always been encouraging childbirth in order to increase the population growth rate in the area.

Hai Han’s rapid expansion brought about a large number of jobs, so even though the population was growing rapidly, the labor gap still existed, and the unemployment rate was even so low that it had no statistical value at all.

If you are an ordinary family, you don't have to worry about your children not finding a way out in the future no matter how many children you have. As long as they are healthy and willing to obey arrangements, the government will come forward to guarantee a safety net. At worst, they can find a living in overseas colonies.

But after all, the time travelers had different backgrounds, and as one of the founding fathers, they would certainly hope to find a better job for their children. And what Shi Diwen could do now was just to provide them with an opportunity to prove their worth.

After sending away these old friends who were running around for their children, Shi Diwen had one last task in Victory Castle, which was to inspect the operation of the big database.

Thirty-two years and two months had passed since the day of the time travel. Despite the continuous and careful maintenance by dedicated personnel, the number of servers in the big database that could still operate was gradually decreasing. The lifespan of the few servers that could still be used had also entered an irreversible countdown.

Fortunately, the Executive Committee had anticipated this trend many years ago and taken corresponding measures to protect these precious data that span the ages.

These measures are actually nothing special. They just require that while the server is still running, as much data as possible be copied onto paper and preserved as physical documents.

For this purpose, the Executive Committee also set up a secret agency under the Ministry of Security to be responsible for transcribing and preserving information.

There are hundreds of people in this organization just responsible for copying information and drawing blueprints, and they work in shifts day and night 365 days a year.

Despite this, it is still difficult to transcribe all of the vast amount of information. We can only select some of the more important advanced technologies that cannot be realized under current conditions, and preserve them in different categories from shallow to deep.

There is a strange square building with a door but no windows in Victory Castle. It is the location of the big database.

This unique appearance is designed to maintain a stable temperature and humidity inside. All walls and floors are waterproof and insulated. Air circulation is achieved through electric-driven ventilation fans and special pipes, which minimizes the entry of various common local mosquitoes, snakes and ants into the building.

Shi Diwen hadn't seen these servers for many years, and the laptop he brought to this time and space had died more than a decade ago. After entering the building and seeing the humming servers and flashing displays, he couldn't help but feel a sense of time and space confusion.

The person currently managing this place is still Meng He, the IT technical director of the time-travel group. This professional coder was once a member of the core circle of power in the early days of time travel. However, his administrative ability is obviously far inferior to his professional skills, so he eventually returned to the computer room and was responsible for the use and maintenance of the big database.

The people working here, except for Meng He who was in charge of operating the machine and several second-generation warriors, were mostly ordinary people who had received professional training. The main task of these ordinary people was to constantly copy the various contents that appeared on the monitor.

"All the monitors we can still use are basically here. If one is broken, there will be one less monitor, and if one is missing, our work efficiency will be compromised. The current strategy is to keep working and change people every four hours to ensure efficiency."

Listening to Meng He's introduction, Shi Diwen took a quick look at the situation here. There were about forty workstations in operation, each with a copyist writing furiously and a large pile of documents. The monitors in front of them were of the same standard, and it was obvious that they were not the belongings brought by the time travelers, but the materials purchased by the organizing committee of the time travel operation.

The monitors that the time travelers brought with them usually became scrapped after more than ten years of use. The reason why these monitors purchased in bulk can still be used after thirty years is not only because of their excellent quality, but also because they are properly stored, used in batches, and a large number of spare parts are prepared for maintenance.

But even so, there was not much time left for the big database to operate. Once all the monitors were scrapped, even if the carefully maintained servers could still operate, they would no longer be able to provide the Executive Committee with the information they needed.

Shi Diwen walked to one of the workstations, picked up the file on the table and took a look. It was a record of various large-scale mineral deposits in South America. Each item had the type of mineral, estimated reserves, vein depth, mining method and detailed longitude and latitude.

The economic value of any item picked out of this file is inestimable, but for the person who copied this information, it is just one of the thousands of pieces of information they review every day.

The work being done at a nearby workstation was obviously more complicated. The transcriber was concentrating on using a ruler and compass to copy a complex drawing on the monitor.

Shi Diwen leaned over to take a look, and it turned out to be an integrated circuit diagram. This thing probably couldn't be made in this century, but this small circuit diagram might save future generations decades of research and development time.

Shi Diwen asked Meng He softly, "How long do you expect this place to remain operational?"

Meng He replied, "If the situation is good, it will last about two to three years. Maybe some individual displays can last one to two years longer. If we are unlucky, maybe one morning I will see a black screen and we will be forced to stop working."

Shi Diwen said: "So, when will this place stop working? Then you will be allowed to retire!"

Meng He waved his hands and said, "I can't retreat! Even if this place stops working, the big database will still have to continue to operate!"

Shi Diwen asked curiously: "How can it work without a display?"

Meng He said: "Of course, the data can be used if it is copied down, but it is more troublesome to search. If you are interested, I will take you to see the next generation of big database under construction."

Shi Diwen asked: "In Victory Castle?"

Meng He shook his head and said, "There is too much information. There is not enough space in Victory Castle. We have prepared another place, which is not too far from here."

Shi Diwen said: "Then I have to go and see it."