Bringing the Railway to Daming

A world consisting of a rich man and 20 billion poor people?

Although such a world is unlikely to exist, Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiong Ying, and others all felt a chilling sense of dread.

They couldn't explain why they were afraid; they were simply terrified of being on the planet the video described as "Brother Planet."

After all, if one were born into that world, there is a very high probability that one would be one of those 20 billion poor people.

The video continues to illustrate how terrifying the development of Brother Planet has become.

"At this point, the constitution that private property is inviolable remains in effect, and the law enforcement system still faithfully protects the private property of that rich man. Anyone who dares to steal or rob will be eliminated by the law enforcement system composed of robots and AI."

"In the end, the final owner bought the entire planet of his brother—the continents and oceans were his living room and courtyard, and even the atmosphere was his private property."

"The remaining 20 billion poor people all live in enclosed housing, each of which is a self-sufficient micro-ecological cycle system. They breathe and drink polluted air and water that has been filtered countless times by the system, and eat food synthesized and regenerated from their own excrement."

“Even if they live in a natural world with abundant water and grass and rich resources, they cannot get anything from it, because everything is the private property of the ultimate owner.”

"If you want to splurge a little and get out of your cooped-up home, you can spend some money to buy an air meter and swallow it. It can detect and count the amount of air you breathe, and every time you breathe, a little bit will be automatically deducted from your bank account."

"For the poor, every breath of fresh air is sweet and so fresh it brings tears to their eyes."

"But because it's too expensive, I can only go out once or twice a year during holidays. When I do go out, I don't dare to do strenuous activities. I usually sit still to control my breathing."

"Before going home, you should carefully scrape the soles of your shoes, because the soil outside doesn't belong to you either..."

Then, the older brother began to recount how his parents died because of a "small thing".

However, from Zhu Yuanzhang to young children who have just come to understand things, they are still shocked by the poor living conditions on the planet Brother after the birth of the final producer.

Zhu Yuanzhang, for example, thought of the landlords he had met in his childhood and when he was a wandering monk during the late Yuan Dynasty.

The Yuan Dynasty implemented a tax farming system, in which the Yuan court would hand over a piece of land to a certain Mongol or Han landlord for management, and everything in that place would then belong to the Mongol or Han landlord.

Like his family, they didn't even own a piece of land; they were tenant farmers for landlords. Therefore, when his parents died, they didn't even have a place to bury them and could only beg the landlord in the same village to give them one.

Similarly, at that time, the forests, grasslands, and rivers in their area belonged to the landlords or Mongols. They could not freely go into the forest to gather firewood or hunt, nor could they go into the river to catch fish and shrimp.

Think about it: the social state described in the video, where the planet Brother was bought by the ultimate producers, may seem unbelievable, but it's not necessarily impossible. After all, there were similar signs during the late Yuan Dynasty and even the Tang and Song Dynasties when land annexation was rampant.

This AI-generated video, titled "Supporting Humanity," is over twenty minutes long. After explaining how the parents of the brother alien died, it tells how, when all the poor people on the brother alien were struggling to survive, the ultimate donor, out of "kinship" and "great compassion," sent them to Earth to seek a new life.

The video then came to an end.

After killing the three poorest people, the assassin Smoothbore went back and killed the thirteen richest. Meanwhile, the Brother Aliens began to take over Earth and implement the "humanity support" plan—that is, to send all humans on Earth to Australia to be kept in captivity according to the minimum living standards at the time.

As for what standards the aliens use to support humans, neither the novel nor this video explains, leaving it as a mystery.

If the plan of those 13 billionaires is followed, then every human being will be supported according to the standard of having one million yuan in assets and live a fairly good life.

But if the aliens from the other planet knew the true extent of wealth disparity on Earth and applied the standards of the poorest Earthlings, then billions of Earthlings would be scavenging for a living in massive garbage dumps…
After watching the video, everyone felt like they had just watched a movie, and it took them a while to come to their senses.

But Lan Yu was the first to speak out: "Even the air we breathe and the soil under our feet belong to that so-called end producers and need to be bought with money. The poor can only survive on that so-called circulatory system—this is even worse than the poor people at the end of the Yuan Dynasty!"

Zhu Yuanzhang scoffed, "Do you think some landlords at the end of the Yuan Dynasty didn't want to declare ownership of the air and soil? It's because they lacked the vision and couldn't do it. If they could, they might not have been more benevolent than the final owners of that brother star."

Although Lan Yu was still young at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and had almost no experience of being oppressed by landlords, he still couldn't help but say, "If this Brother Star didn't have that damn law enforcement system, the poor people would have definitely rebelled long ago. Marquis Jiangning, I remember watching a video before, and robots and that AI are very advanced in later generations. Will they also come up with some kind of law enforcement system in the future?"

Old Zhu and Zhu Biao were surprised that Lan Yu had asked such a valuable question, and they immediately perked up their ears to hear how Liu Kuan would answer.

Liu Kuan thought for a moment and said, "I had previously discussed with His Majesty the Emperor that as long as it is a system of rule by man, there will inevitably be various acts of favoritism and corruption due to people's selfish desires, which are difficult to completely eliminate."

"Therefore, in later generations, quite a few people have actually thought about letting artificial intelligence and robots govern the country and even the entire human society." "Because AI and robots have no emotions, they will faithfully do things according to the law and the established rules, which can maximize the realization of social fairness and justice."

"Of course, there are also many people who do not believe in artificial intelligence and robots and are wary of them. They believe that once human society is taken over by artificial intelligence and robots, then it will not be far from extinction."

"Firstly, there is the concern that artificial intelligence may develop self-awareness and then betray humanity."

"Secondly, as described in the video, there is concern that a society managed by artificial intelligence is not flexible and adaptable enough, and that some kind of loophole could eventually lead to the collapse of human society."

"Therefore, it is hard to say whether there will be countries in the future that are entirely governed by artificial intelligence and robots. If I had to make a prediction, I think it will most likely be governed primarily by human rule, supplemented by a system composed of artificial intelligence and robots."

After hearing Liu Kuan's words, everyone couldn't help but ponder for a while.

Immediately, Zhu Biao asked very seriously, "Brother-in-law, has the technology mentioned in the video, which uses a brain-computer interface to directly input knowledge into the brain, been developed in future generations?"

Liu Kuandao said, "Actually, the concept of brain-computer interface technology appeared several decades before I came to the Ming Dynasty, so people have been researching it since then."

"Before I came to the Great Ming, the richest man in the Bald Eagle Kingdom had been investing heavily in brain-computer interface technology. Hmm, Your Majesty, do you remember that I once mentioned that a wealthy man in the Bald Eagle had his genes edited? This is the same person."

"Although the official explanation for its investment in brain-computer interface research is that it hopes to enable disabled people, especially those who are completely paralyzed, to communicate with the outside world through their thoughts, and then control machines to achieve self-care, and even live and work like normal people."

"But many people know that once brain-computer interface technology develops to a certain level, it will inevitably give rise to 'knowledge transfer' technology."

"Brain-computer interfaces are actually similar to laptops, tablets, and mobile phones; they are all types of computers, except that they can be implanted in a person's brain and can connect and communicate with human consciousness."

"Your Majesty can imagine that my laptop and mobile phone can store so much information. Once brain-computer interface technology is realized, it will certainly be able to store a lot of knowledge. If it can also communicate with human consciousness and memory, then the 'knowledge transfer' mentioned in the video will be possible."

"Before I came to the Ming Dynasty, the information released about this technology had already progressed to the point of conducting human trials, and the subjects could use brain-computer interfaces to perform simple operations on external computers and machines."

"This technology has even been used in clinical medicine—as for the level of the related technologies that are still being kept secret by various laboratories, I have no idea."

After hearing this, not only Zhu Biao, but also Zhu Xiong Ying, Zhu Yun Wen and others were stunned for a moment.

It was already surprising enough that later generations were researching "brain-computer interface" technology, but what surprised them even more was that the technology had already broken through to the application stage!
After regaining his senses, Zhu Biao couldn't help but ask, "Wouldn't it be that future generations are not far from possessing this kind of 'knowledge transmission' technology? Aren't countries afraid that social changes like those on the planet depicted in 'The Support of Humanity' will occur in the future?"

"I don't know about that," Liu Kuan shook his head first, then offered his personal opinion, "However, I think that even if technology continues to develop in the future, it will still be quite a distance from achieving 'knowledge transmission'."

"Because the human brain is the most complex area of ​​the human body, and there are still many unsolved mysteries about human consciousness and memory, even in later generations. Even if brain-computer interfaces were to emerge, it would not be easy to reach the level depicted in novels."

"Furthermore, novels are novels after all. They often ignore other complex factors when describing events, and instead focus on an extreme situation."

"The real world and society are always complex and influenced by various factors. So even if the 'knowledge transmission' technology shown in the video were to actually exist, human society would most likely not develop to the level of that planet."

After listening, while Zhu Biao and the others were still pondering, Zhu Yuanzhang said, "Liu Kuan is right. The development of Brother Planet mentioned in the video is an extreme case."

"Putting everything else aside, in our Great Ming Dynasty, no matter how advanced the technology becomes, there will never be a case where a rich person buys up an entire planet."

"Even super-rich people who are wealthy enough to influence major military and national affairs should not appear. Because if such people appear, they will affect the authority of the court."

"Moreover, merchants are profit-driven and may do things that harm the interests of the imperial court in order to make a profit."

"So, Biao'er and Xiong Ying, you must both remember that in the future development of our Great Ming, we must not only curb the large landowners who annex land, but also suppress those overly wealthy merchants."

Although he was quite surprised that Zhu Yuanzhang had brought up the governance of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Biao still replied, "Father, rest assured, I will write this matter into the 'Imperial Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Dynasty' later."

At this moment, Zhu Xiong Ying said, "Teacher, I think the book 'Supporting Humanity' just now seems to be overly worried about the development of human technology."

"For example, brain-computer interfaces and knowledge transfer technologies, if applied properly, can make it easier for everyone to acquire knowledge, thereby achieving a leap in the wisdom of the entire population."

"In this way, human technology and even cultural thought will inevitably experience another great explosion, and develop to an even higher level. Wouldn't that be wonderful?" (End of Chapter)