Almighty painter

Chapter 1066 Warhorses
In the final year before Gu Weijing graduated from university, during a podcast episode he recorded with Mr. Sloth, the host asked himself—

"If one day, an omniscient, omnipotent, and all-powerful ultimate machine were created. It would know everything in the world and all the answers. In the time it takes you to go to the bathroom, it could directly calculate God's phone number and stick it on a sticky note on your door..."

"If, two hundred years from now, there is a machine in the world that can replicate your paintings at the molecular level, your so-called exquisite brushstrokes, your light and shadow, your colors, everything you have polished day after day, everything you are proud of and enjoy, and replicate a thousand copies per second."

"Do you believe such a machine could exist? Or... do you believe, based on some moral or religious belief, that humans have a unique place in the universe, and because of human divinity, such a machine could never be created?"

Gu Weijing's answer at the time was, "No, Mr. Sloth, I believe that such a machine will be manufactured one day."

Mr. Sloth countered with a question—

"So what do you think is the meaning of those works, those brushstrokes, those light and shadow, those things that make you so-called 'unique'?"

The Industrial Revolution replaced the horse.

It brought about unprecedented technological innovation, and the huge increase in productivity propelled the world forward amidst billowing smoke. It took 20 years for Homo erectus to learn to use fire. From the first manned aircraft heavier than air taking off to watching astronauts leave footprints on the moon via satellite signals, it only took 66 years.

In one century, the world has changed more than in the previous million years.

If you're a technological optimist, it's easy to believe that technological advancements can solve all the world's problems. Fly! Fly! Fly!
Fly into the sky.

Fly out of Earth.

Flying towards the Milky Way.

This will be an incredibly magnificent era.

The question is, will there still be a place for humans on that spaceship heading to the galaxy?
Coincidentally, Gu Weijing has always been a technological optimist, echoing the famous line from Jurassic Park: "Life always finds a way!"

Often, our imaginations about the future are somewhat unfounded. The steam revolution did not replace human value; it merely changed people's lifestyles.

People used to travel by horse-drawn carriage, the clattering of the horses carrying them. In the future, people will travel by train, the whistling of the trains carrying them.

From "da da da" to "woo woo woo", the world has become more convenient and efficient than ever before.

Gu Weijing envisioned the future in the same way: people would always travel by "train," only more and more diverse trains would be invented.

The train used to run from London to Birmingham.

The train that follows may travel from Earth to the Large and Small Magellanic Clusters.

That conversation with Mr. Sloth was the first time in Gu Weijing's life that he seriously considered this question: what if the irreplaceable value you believe in can be copied a thousand times in a second?

In terms of technical difficulty, the so-called "Mona Lisa" is no different from toilet paper used in the toilet.

So what is the meaning of your existence?
The world no longer needs you.

well.

Gu Weijing, holding a paintbrush, originally thought he was a passenger who went from clattering to moaning, but when he turned around and looked... wait a minute... it turns out he was the "horse" pulling the carriage!

happy.

Trains have arrived, and horses are all out of work; the world no longer needs so many horses. A prized horse, having broken its leg and lost its value for galloping, often ends up being euthanized.

Ordinary horses fared even worse.

Where did the large number of culled horses go in North America, which had one of the world's largest livestock resources at the time?
He was quite confident at first.

After all, animal protection policies are so strong, cowboy culture is prevalent, cowboys in movies are always cuddling with horses, and they own the world's largest ranches and farmlands.

Gu Weijing also knew that, for moral reasons, many people at the time refused to eat horse meat, considering it cruel.

In American TV shows, cowboys are often more heartbroken when they see their horses die than when they themselves are shot.

In his imagination, those horses ran freely across the fields of Illinois, living a pastoral and happy life. In the telephoto lens-like scene of the movie, in the sunset, an old cowboy with a broken leg stood at the entrance of the village and whistled.

An old horse came running over.

The old cowboy patted the horse's head.

"Oh, bro! My old friend, you have completed your mission. Now, run free!"

Moved, Gu Weijing googled the question and found that the answer was—uh, canned food.

Yes.

Americans don't eat horse meat very often.

So it's his dog food cans.

In 1922, the Chapelle Brothers Company, located in Rockford, Illinois, USA, produced the world's first canned dog food, called "Ken-L Ration." Its main ingredient was horse meat from working horses that were too old or injured to work.

Once launched, the canned food became a sensation across the United States, and the Chapel Brothers Company quickly became an industry giant, slaughtering approximately 50,000 old horses a year.

This is also the origin of pet canned food. The encyclopedia also notes that converting animal products that are no longer consumed by humans or have been phased out into raw materials for other products was a common practice for almost all pet food companies in the early days.

Gu Weijing even found an advertisement on a video website for products specially launched by the canning company for animal lovers, which had the style of American posters from that era.

A blonde, busty woman dressed as a housewife, wearing an apron and looking very virtuous, stood by the sink, next to her family's dinner.

The housewife was scooping a large spoonful of steaming minced meat from a can and placing it on a clean white porcelain plate, while a Corgi with a napkin tied around its neck lay beside her.

Below is a black English slogan—

Still neglecting their lives? As members of the family, they deserve to be treated better than leftovers! Gold Medal Pet Food, 100% pure meat!

As members of the family, they deserve to be treated better.

Gu Weijing looked up from his phone screen and saw Awang and August happily eating in front of the pet feeder, and felt a chill run down his spine.

Eat, eat, eat.

All they do is eat.

If you upset Grandpa that day, you, Awang, will have to become a vegetarian tomorrow, you know that?

There's nothing wrong with canned pet food itself, and the business practices of canned food companies are also understandable, even quite clever. They accurately found ample and inexpensive raw materials, and then unearthed a blank blue ocean market in the daily consumption habits of the general public, launching such a successful new consumer product category.

Their ability to make a fortune and become a leading company in the canned food industry has proven this.

but……

His sunset, the lame old cowboy, and that idyllic, pastoral life!
Because of a love for animals, a desire to provide them with a better life, and a moral obligation to refuse to eat horse meat… so the solution is to finely chop up old working horses into minced meat and feed it to the dogs. Isn't that just taking advantage of the fact that they can't climb out of their food cans and kicking you in the chin?!
That's dark humor.

Gu Weijing stared at the product advertisement for a long time, and he actually saw in this advertisement about loving animals a hint of Countess Elena's love of art. The image of the horse has also undergone a dramatic change in the past two centuries. For the horses themselves, or rather for those horses that haven't been turned into canned goods, no longer working for humans isn't necessarily a bad thing. But for human society as a whole, horses were originally a crucial part of society, and now, you often only see horses in pictures or on television.

It has transformed from a significant family asset into something of imagination.

When Gu Weijing read "Out of Africa," the opening words of the book were just three words: "Horse riding, archery, and telling the truth." Later, he read a private interview with Karen Blixen, the author of "Out of Africa," by the Paris Review in the last century.

Blixen had a very deep affection for horses.

In the interview, the Baroness said to the magazine editor with great sadness, "These days, children don't ride horses anymore."

Gu Wei has received professional training, so he generally doesn't complain.

Unless you really can't help it.

"Sigh, kids these days don't ride horses anymore."

Is this something a normal person would say? What respectable person would have a large estate and horse farm when they were a child?

After reading the interview with Danish Baroness Karen Blixen, Gu Weijing glanced at a photo of Anna sitting sideways on horseback as a child in the manor and seriously complained to Austrian Countess Anna Elena: "Only people like you would talk like that and not feel embarrassed."

Putting aside that strong, ethereal rich girl vibe, when he reads that sentence now, he can actually understand to some extent what the other person is trying to express.

Horses held a very important place in the heart of Brickson.

It is a part of life.

Now, horses are no longer important.

Gu Weijing wondered if, one day in the future, the value of human beings might be completely replaced in a completely new society that you could not even imagine, just like the value of horses.

On the bright side...

They won't be canned. Probably, probably, maybe not... As long as the future society isn't like "The Matrix" or "The Terminator," then they probably won't.

But on the other hand...

Even if it's not The Matrix or The Terminator, it's highly unlikely to be Star Wars, Star Trek, or Cyberpunk 2077 either.

There is no war between humans and computer chips, nor Jedi Knights wielding lightsabers and performing rhythmic gymnastics-like dances.

It's simply... completely unimportant now.

When a machine that can completely replace your abilities in every aspect is created, then you will face this "stand-in" who is superior to you in every way.

Where does your personal significance lie? In that era, did humanity, as a whole, fade away in society like galloping warhorses, ultimately becoming nothing more than an imagined figure in a painting?

Who knows.

Gu Weijing didn't know.

Gu Weijing told Mr. Sloth that he believed in the significance of thinking itself; the answer itself might be important, or it might not. Even if someone tells you the ultimate answer to the universe tomorrow, you should still try to understand the ultimate questions of the universe.

Whether humans are meaningful or not is irrelevant to the universe, to nature, and to all things.

It only matters to the individual themselves.

Therefore, people need to think.

This was a beautifully crafted, concise, and decisive statement, but in reality, Gu Weijing evaded the real core issue.

He... had no answer.

It's like a student facing the last big question on an exam. He realizes he can't even understand the question, so he raises his hand and says, "Even though I don't know how to do it, I'll try my best to fill up the scratch paper."

He hoped the teacher would give him some sympathy points.

This is Gu Weijing's answer. He's the kind of desperate student who writes down a solution and then copies the question verbatim back into the answer area.

The good news is that Gu Weijing feels he doesn't need to answer this question.

He's just a painter; what does a machine from two hundred years in the future have to do with him?

Humans are inherently hypocritical; Countess Elena loved art, the Chabenin Canned Food Company loved animals, and Gu Weijing loved contemplating philosophical questions.

He believed that there were so many professors in the university, so many people smarter than him, so many scholars smarter than him, who were thinking about this problem.

He has no right to answer.

Two hundred years later, the profession of artist has disappeared. What does that have to do with Gu Weijing? Did Gu Weijing really have the ability, or rather, the ability to do nothing, to change all of this?

Super machines may not be the only thing that could destroy the world.

It's like everyone knows that global warming will bring huge disasters and rising sea levels will submerge cities, but what does that have to do with Gu Weijing flying across the Atlantic in a Dassault jet and leaving a huge carbon footprint in the Atlantic sky?

What does it have to do with his plan to order another plane?

If the Netherlands is to be flooded first, it will be the Netherlands. He has already run away with the Dutch dairy cow, so let Rembrandt and Rubens worry about this problem.

When he chose to drive his 1.5T Polo around Germany back then, the polar bears had already lined up to thank him once!

How hypocritical!

The funny thing is that Gu Weijing suddenly realized that he still had to face this problem eventually.

The time for submitting the paper was not two hundred years, nor was the time for the warhorse to lose its value.

It was seven years.

A super machine that surpasses itself in every aspect, including brushstrokes and form, has not yet been invented.

Hunter Bull has come out.

Gu Weijing watched the three-hour live video over and over again, thinking that if Hunter Bull had enough time, he could draw it again at the same size.

It is not a painting that is 99% or 100% copied, but a painting that is 120% copied.

It is not merely inferior to the original.

Rather... it is even better than the original.

(End of this chapter)