Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 386 [Just when you're about to doze off, someone brings you a pillow]

According to the relevant documents released, the development of highly realistic humanoid robot products will be subject to limited demonstration, and franchise qualifications will be opened in certain industries, specifically in five sub-sectors: fire rescue, elderly care, film and entertainment, foot massage, and leisure clubs.

In other words, companies or organizations in these five sub-sectors can purchase the Liuguang Xingyu simulation robot to utilize its role as a means of production.

Apart from these five specific industry sectors, all other industry sectors are prohibited from entry.

Furthermore, the five sub-sectors of the franchise have been further restricted to specific job categories. For example, in the foot massage industry, only technicians are allowed to use highly realistic humanoid robots, while other job categories such as waiters and waitresses are not permitted.

Clearly, this is to curb attempts to exploit loopholes in the policy, such as applying for licenses in these industries and then having robots perform tasks in other industries.

Fortunately, products like AI robots have a great advantage: they can truly obey commands and prohibitions. Being "rigid" also has its advantages. If it were a person, they would have their own ideas and would be really hard to manage, and it would be difficult to stop them from doing things in private.

But robots are different. The program is directly written into the intelligent agent. Once the business owner or merchant buys it, they absolutely cannot be driven to do anything illegal. In the foot massage industry, it can only work as a technician and will absolutely refuse to perform any work beyond the prescribed scope.

Among the five sub-sectors that have been licensed, the fire and rescue sector is where government departments make purchases, and there is absolutely no fault in using highly realistic robots in this sector.

Disaster relief and firefighting are extremely dangerous jobs. For example, in fire rescue, using robots can avoid and greatly reduce the casualty rate of firefighters.

When applied to the field of fire rescue, no one objects; in fact, everyone strongly supports it.

To this end, Lingjing Technology has also made technical fine-tuning to the Liuguang Xingyu simulation robot specifically for this industry, producing a dedicated fire-fighting grade Liuguang Xingyu high-simulation robot with stronger flame-retardant and heat-insulating functions, as well as a stronger heat dissipation system.

The government department purchased the Liuguang Xingyu robot for fire rescue, and the purchase price was based on the personal consumer version price of 1.2 yuan, instead of the enterprise version price of 18.3 yuan.

……

With the implementation of a series of new policies for the humanoid robot industry, foreign forces have once again become restless, instigating some pro-democracy groups in mainland China to attack these policies. Moreover, many of these groups have even launched their own attacks, bringing their own supplies.

Many opportunistic and unearned robot enthusiasts initially thought that the suspension of the Flowing Star Language Robot would follow the meeting between the eight departments and Likang Technology. They had already celebrated with champagne three months ago. However, after seeing a series of new policies related to the humanoid robot industry released in the past week, their defenses were once again broken.

The personal consumer-grade Flowing Star Language lifelike robot is perfectly fine, and the five industry sectors for which it holds a franchise license happen to include the entertainment industry.

That's terrible. Now, even if someone wants to "go into business," there's no way out. They'll have to deal with robots for even this.

This led them to launch a fierce attack on the newly implemented policy, causing an uproar online and reigniting the gender war with various online clashes.

An economically independent woman purchased a consumer-grade personal version of the Flowing Star Language lifelike robot. After it recently arrived and was delivered, she filmed some vlog videos and shared the product on her social media accounts.

She praised the product for its powerful functions, saying it can do housework and cook, making it like hiring a housekeeper for five years for less than 2 yuan, greatly improving her quality of life. She highly recommends getting a Liuguang Xingyu lifelike robot.

This woman isn't a big blogger; she just occasionally shares glimpses of her daily life online.

But at this critical juncture, she was discovered by some extreme feminists and then subjected to cyberbullying. The comments under her vlog video were filled with all sorts of vicious insults from her female friends.

It has to be said that in today's internet discourse, being a woman is no longer a gender, but a "class." If you work hard, don't rely on men for money, understand men's circumstances, and don't make transfer payments to men, then you've essentially been stripped of your femininity; you no longer possess any feminine aura. Even in a matriarchal society, there are kings and commoners, but every woman wants to be king, to make the world revolve around her will. If you rely on your own abilities to survive, then you're no different from a man, and even if you are biologically female, you'll become a "class" enemy in their eyes.

Two days later, the actions of the female boxers stunned male netizens, followed by ecstasy, who exclaimed that they were truly brave.

It turns out that after the two sides had been arguing online for two days, a group of Jimei boxers took their group to the "government office" and not just any government office. This group shocked everyone, who exclaimed, "How dare they do this?"
As expected, the real bigwigs were alerted, and he received a solid, heavy punch.

Just a day and a half later, a major mainstream media outlet reported that relevant departments had uncovered a case involving espionage activities orchestrated by foreign forces and a group of criminals, resulting in the arrest of more than a dozen people.

These arrested individuals all share a common trait: they are all active online boxers from Jimei who have recently been launching a frenzied online attack on national policies.

The general public, who were just watching the drama unfold, immediately understood.

But it was still quite surprising. In fact, netizens knew that those female boxers had gone so far as to organize a fight that went all the way to the government office, and they were bound to get a beating. But no one expected the beating to come so quickly and so fiercely.

Suddenly, overnight, all the boxers on the internet seemed to have vanished, as if they had never existed.

Meanwhile, netizens were also discussing the matter extensively.

[I want to say, well done, haha!]
[Starting a group buy right outside the government office? Isn't that just asking for trouble?]
[Haha, starting a group buy is so satisfying, I even got a sewing machine!]
[As expected, foreign forces were behind this...]
Suddenly, the entire internet seemed quiet. All the previous uproar had died down overnight.
[I saw several prominent figures in the extreme boxing community delete all their previous posts overnight, hahaha!]
[It's one thing to practice boxing casually, but some extreme boxers think they're invincible once they've stacked up all their buffs.]
This is pure ignorance and stupidity...
[Iron Fist is still the most reliable, it can handle any kind of challenger... (Shiba Inu.jpg)]
[Even after President Zhou received a powerful punch three months ago, he immediately became obedient. Can these people possibly have more influence than President Zhou?]
……

It's worth mentioning that some actors who originally wanted to stir up trouble backed down when they saw this scene.

Last year, actors in the film and television industry could never have imagined that their profession would be one of the most severely impacted by the wave of highly realistic humanoid robot technology, especially since film and television entertainment is still within the scope of the five franchise qualifications.

Some actors initially wanted to use their influence to stir things up and try to make a comeback, but after seeing someone go in and operate the sewing machine, they immediately became obedient and dared not cause any trouble.

It has to be said that those few people who went in to step on the sewing machine were a "timely rain." If they had just been venting online, at most their accounts would have been banned, but they wouldn't have had to go in to step on the sewing machine, and they might not even have had their accounts banned.

However, it was discovered that they had contact with foreign forces, which completely changed the nature of the situation. Moreover, at this critical juncture, someone was needed to "step on the scale" to deter the villains, which was like someone delivering a pillow when you're just dozing off.

Because arresting a few people to work on sewing machines had a huge deterrent effect, the entire online environment became much clearer, and no one dared to make a fuss about it anymore. Even the actors who originally wanted to stir up trouble and fight back all chickened out.

The technological wave sweeping through the film and television industry is clearly an unstoppable trend. Actors' market value, market standing, and worth are destined to be incomparable to what they used to be. No amount of commotion will change this trend, which is beyond the control of any individual.

Putting everything else aside, just considering that it could save more than half of the production costs of a film in terms of actor salaries, production companies are the ones who most want to replace actors with robots, and are also the most motivated to do so.

Not to mention that the industry has long had a salary cap, and actors' exorbitant salaries and dual contracts have long been condemned by the public.

Many production companies have now reached a surprising consensus to push a number of projects to remove actors from their roles.

……

(End of this chapter)