The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Could it be?" The two of them looked at the row of strange oval chairs next to them.

"Don't look at them. There's nothing special about these chairs. They're just ordinary chairs made of special ultra-high-strength materials. Apart from their better load-bearing capacity and deformation resistance than ordinary chairs, there's nothing special about them." A familiar girl's voice sounded from the doorway of the room. Aze explained to Yang and Reinhardt, who were staring at the row of peculiarly shaped oval chairs.

"The reason you're seeing hallucinations is because of the function of this room itself. This room is called the World History Retrospective Observation Room. It projects records of a civilization's development directly into the target's brain or other thinking organs through electromagnetic waves or other forms of communication, creating a perspective for the target to closely observe the evolution of a civilization. The hallucination you just saw was caused by this information being directly projected into your brain."

"As for why it only starts after you sit down? It's because it will only start projecting information after ensuring that the intelligent creatures entering the observation room are in a relatively safe state."

"The moment you sat down, your body relaxed, and it determined that both your mind and body were in a relatively safe state. It then projected information about the entire process of civilization's development into your mind."

"Is that so..." After hearing Aze's explanation, the two shocked people finally felt relieved. As a military general who commanded fleets on the battlefield all year round, for Yang Weili and Reinhardt, staying vigilant at all times has almost become an instinct. They will only relax this vigilance when they occasionally rest in private.

"Want to keep watching? I brought you here largely for this."

"Then I'll accept your offer with disrespect." Yang was also very curious about what that incompatible thing with the painting style that appeared above the planet was before he regained consciousness.

Yang Weili and Reinhardt sat on the chair again, then relaxed his mind. Between opening and closing his eyes, he came to that world again. However, the strange thing this time was that his mental state was no longer in a trance. Yang could clearly feel his limbs. He raised his hand and clenched his fist. It was indeed his own hand. What was even stranger was that there was another person who appeared in his sight. Reinhardt, with blond hair, also felt the various touches of his body in this space with a puzzled look on his face. It was no different from the real thing.

"I have adjusted the mechanism of action and the strength of the consciousness perception structure. Now you can feel your body and thoughts more clearly." Aze's figure suddenly appeared not far from the two of them.

"Your body's various perceptions of itself, such as pain, are essentially chemical and neural signals received by your brain. By projecting signals to your brain, we can also perfectly simulate this feeling. You can now more clearly feel the actual touch of your body in this state."

"Is this some kind of virtual reality that acts directly on the brain?" Yang asked, feeling the real sensation of his hand touching his skin.

"You can understand it that way, but this method doesn't require any external equipment like a brain-computer interface."

"Okay, do you want to continue watching?" Aze snapped his fingers, and the surrounding scene changed in a flash of light to the planet covered with land and ocean that Yang saw.

In the sky above his head, Yang noticed the strange-shaped device again.

"what is that?"

"A space station, but it wasn't built by a civilization on this planet."

"That is?"

"Don't worry, just keep reading and you'll understand."

Something seemed to fly down from the space station in space. Following its perspective, Yang and Reinhardt came to a building on the surface. It seemed to be a scientific research institution. Everyone walking and working in the building was wearing a white coat.

However, the strange thing was that all the people in the building, including the three security guards stationed at the door, had no reaction to the translucent cube that flew directly in from the main entrance, as if the translucent cube did not exist to them.

"Didn't they see that?"

"Antimemetic invisibility interferes with the visual nerve signals received by the biological brain, causing the brain of an intelligent creature to actively ignore certain information it sees or receives."

"Then, by hacking all the sensors and surveillance equipment on the scene, or simply activating optical cloaking, this object will disappear from view to any intelligent creatures or electronic surveillance equipment present."

"The creators of this technology call it mind tuning technology."

"Is it possible that even such a thing can be done?" Reinhardt exclaimed in amazement. He couldn't imagine that if someone used such technology, then any security and vigilance would become meaningless. The other party could just swagger into an important place, steal confidential information, or even kill someone directly, and leave calmly.

"Modifying the subconscious of intelligent creatures is a fundamental technology for any civilization that wishes to embark on a transformation and advancement."

…………

The strange transparent cube came into a laboratory, and cheers broke out in the laboratory, as if an experiment was successful. The cube suddenly appeared at this time, scaring several researchers present.

"What is it?"

"A messenger from outer space arrived here just as this planet was about to be destroyed. You should have noticed that the civilization on this planet has reached a bottleneck. There are numerous nations, but their levels of development vary widely. Meanwhile, a vicious cycle of competition is rife on the planet, with first-world countries exploiting third-world nations. The conflicts within these so-called first-world countries have accumulated to a point where they are difficult to resolve. These long-accumulated problems will eventually become a bomb powerful enough to destroy the entire civilization."

"Although most people on this planet haven't realized it yet, they have already come quite close to the precipice of destruction."

"And that messenger from outer space changed everything."

"This research institute is affiliated with a company under a small national flag."

"The scientists and technicians working here don't want their findings to become political pawns for the major powers, or to be used as a pretext for persecuting dissidents. They came here, but the pervasive influence of those first-world nations can still have a negative impact on them. The envoy has extended an invitation to the leading person to become one of its agents on this planet. In exchange, it will provide him with all necessary assistance."

"And the history of this planet changed from here. It escaped from the trap that was destined for destruction and headed towards the more distant starry sky."

Afterwards, the alien moved around the planet and found several agents. Some of them were scientists who suffered political persecution for seemingly unreasonable reasons, and some were pilots whose hometowns became weapons testing sites for major powers and were forced to drop bombs on their hometowns. Under the advanced technology and miraculous power demonstrated by the alien, they became agents of the messenger.

Over the next decade or so, several agents developed their own power on the planet and grew stronger. As a third-party witness, Yang also felt the increasingly tense atmosphere on the planet in this fast-forward-like scene. The countries on the planet that could barely maintain their face more than a decade ago have now reached the brink of a global nuclear war due to differences in environment, resources and extremely unbalanced development.

The alien messenger's agents on the planet also began their own actions. They traveled around the world, committed to improving the current situation, from rescuing cities destroyed by natural disasters, to mediating regional conflicts, to preventing wars initiated and provoked by certain major powers and giant corporations.

During this period, the alien envoy, in addition to providing some technical assistance behind the scenes, also took the initiative to act several times. These actions caused considerable shock to the various countries and organizations on the planet, and provided a strong and solid display of strength as a backing for his agents on the planet. It also made the countries and violent organizations that were previously hostile to several agents in the city no longer dare to use any force to threaten the agents secretly supported by the aliens on this planet.

During this process, Yang also saw many things that were so familiar that they could not be more familiar - inefficiency and corruption spread among governments of various countries, militarism tried to divert conflicts through foreign aggression and plunder, a small number of people at the top of society enjoyed a luxurious life while treating the majority of the people at the bottom as cannon fodder and tools, conspirators and capitalists provoked ideological confrontations, ethnic and religious conflicts everywhere for their own interests and profited from them, short-sighted people became ignorant and fanatical under the deliberate guidance of politicians and capital, third world countries suffered from natural disasters, poverty, war, plunder and dumping of resources by those big countries and giant companies, chaos spread across the entire planet, and countless evil flowers symbolizing greed and short-sightedness bloomed on this planet.

Finally, when the civilization on this planet was on the brink of collapse, several agents supported by the aliens also completed the accumulation of their own power.

[Facts have proven that we were all wrong. In order to find this answer, we formed one group after another, created one ideology, dynasty, company, country, alliance after another. Countless flowers of evil born of fictitious concepts bloomed on this planet...]

You need to change, and so do we.

The agent who was a scientist announced to the whole world in a resounding voice that several agents had officially stepped out from behind the scenes.

Afterwards, under the absolute military suppression supported by advanced technological power, the forces of several agents swept across the entire planet, and the unified planetary regime began to be established at an unimaginable speed.

They removed all nuclear weapons from the entire planet, dismantling the balance of terror that had existed since the world entered the atomic age. They established a more rational and sustainable civilization order, and through continuous innovation, they promoted the progress of the entire civilization with more advanced technologies and concepts.

The establishment of a new order ushered in a civilization whose development model was radically different from that of the previous society. Under a unified force and a highly efficient resource production and dispatching system, a series of unprecedented projects advanced rapidly. An orbital elevator, like a towering tower, rose from the ground. Based on this orbital elevator, a planet-encircling star ring gradually took shape. The new unified regime established a paradise-like utopian society on this new continent of the orbital star ring. The super-central artificial intelligence governing this society, harnessing the vast solar and fusion energy collected and utilized from the star ring, a massive hardware infrastructure and computing power comparable to that of an entire planet, intervened in every aspect of society. With a highly rational mindset, unaffected by life's negative instincts, it guided the entire civilization's development. Each individual could be matched to their own abilities and preferences, even having their own customized job and work designed for them. Humanity was completely freed from the constraints of the old era, and the barriers of origin, nationality, and culture gradually disappeared. The civilizations of this planet truly merged into one.

Under the guidance of super artificial intelligence, the technological level and scale of the entire society began to explode exponentially. Thousands and hundreds of millions of solar sails were sent to the low orbits of stars. In just less than 100 years, this civilization that was once on the brink of extinction has grown to the stage where it can control the entire star.

Looking at the tens of trillions of solar sails that blocked the light of the entire star, Yang Wei-li and Reinhardt fell into a rare silence. After a while, Reinhardt asked a question.

"Can a civilization that has just escaped the brink of extinction and headed towards the stars truly achieve such a miracle? Why hasn't humanity embarked on such a path in the past?"

"It's simple. Stellar astronomical engineering requires intelligence, thinking, and computing power far beyond human capabilities. Without creating super artificial intelligence, you naturally cannot complete such a project. You know, planning the orbits of tens of trillions, or even hundreds of trillions, of solar sails and carrying out continuous, unlimited, exponential self-replication and proliferation are beyond the capabilities of carbon-based organisms like humans."

"Without super artificial intelligence, you can't harness the energy of an entire star inward. You can only choose to expand outward. However, your overly inefficient social governance system and biological foundation have plunged you into endless chaos during your interstellar expansion phase. You must know that, in our opinion, your resource utilization efficiency is horribly inefficient, so inefficient that it doesn't even resemble what an interstellar civilization should be."

"Not to mention that there are a few who are regressing, further reducing the efficiency of society's operations and development, causing civilization as a whole to stagnate at a lower stage."

"So, what happened to them in the end?"

"Of course, they leveraged the vast energy and resources brought about by stellar astronomical engineering to upgrade their life forms. During this phase, they gradually abandoned the physical limitations of their biological bodies. Their cybernetic bodies and electronic brains made them immortal. After an unimaginably long lifespan, each person possessed the knowledge and experience of an entire civilization. Assisted by super artificial intelligence capable of meticulous planning, this entire civilization began to expand exponentially across the starry sea in a consistently stable and unified manner."

"They efficiently utilize the resources of every galaxy, and ultimately control all the energy and matter of the stars in the entire galaxy."

"You know, the energy output of a single star is equivalent to the combined energy of 100 billion planets. The total amount of resources they possess and their efficiency in utilization are beyond your comprehension."

"The crisis you face now is ultimately caused by insufficient technological advancement. With further expansion impossible, you should maximize the efficiency of your civilization's resources, rather than wasting them on war."

"What you need to change is not just the development model of civilization, but also your own life form."

"The short lifespan of biological bodies and the declining ability to learn and accept new things with age will make humans short-sighted. To improve this, we must either modify the existing body or start from scratch."

"Perhaps uploading your consciousness digitally into a mechanical body would be a good option for you."

"But then, it would just be a replica of my own consciousness, right?" Yang asked tentatively.

"If a person's consciousness is uploaded, will that person still be the same person?"

"Do you believe that intelligent creatures possess souls, Admiral Yang?"

"I don't know, could you please answer this question for me?"

"Unfortunately, as intelligent creatures, you are not special enough. At least I can say with certainty that you do not have such a thing as a soul."

"In some highly specialized cosmic environments, some intelligent creatures do indeed develop and possess something resembling a soul. Beyond that, some extremely special life forms also possess true souls. Unfortunately, you humans, as ordinary, unremarkable carbon-based creatures, don't possess such a thing."

"Your consciousness is just a bunch of information that can be copied, cut, and modified, just like a string of computer code. The code itself can be modified and cut and pasted as long as it continues to function normally."

“Even if all the parts of Theseus’ ship were replaced bit by bit, it would still be the same ship.”

"Consciousness is the digitally uploaded version of you, or it can be a replica of the original, which is you."

…………

Note: The soaring divorce rate and plummeting fertility rate in industrialized countries are basically foreshadowing a possible crisis, that is, the disintegration of families and the breakdown of social networks.

Of course, it is too early to say whether this will happen, but the elephant in the room is that old family relationships are difficult to maintain at current fertility rates.

That's why some works now desperately talk about family, family, family, every day, because they know that it is the last wall to prevent social disintegration. Only when the family is stable, then the community, and finally the society, the country, and the nation.

But in a sense, the more hollow atomic people there are, the better. The complete collapse of civil society is the best. It is a good thing that the original family-civil society-state eventually breaks into individual-state and even enters the final stage of individual-community. Society will become further flattened.

Chapter 254: A Tale of Two Civilizations (6000 words)

"The problems facing human society are essentially caused by the inefficiency of social operations and resource utilization. If you could utilize 10% of a star... no, 5% would be sufficient."

"If you could efficiently utilize 5% of the energy of a star, most of the problems you face could be solved."

"Admiral Yang, think about the money the alliance has invested in armaments. How much of it has actually been spent? How much kickbacks have been taken? How much time and resources have been wasted?"

"Take, for example, the serious smuggling and reselling of food and military supplies that your colleagues uncovered during the expedition. The information I gave you also revealed that the so-called Alliance Democratic Party had long since become a puppet of these greedy and short-sighted interest groups. They alone have siphoned off countless resources."

"A small number of people occupy the vast majority of society's resources and productivity. However, rather than using these resources to further social development, these few indulge in decadent pursuits and power games, causing the entire Alliance society to remain in endless internal friction."

"And the reason you can't start a war is because your upper class is trying to divert conflicts externally. Your so-called overthrow of authoritarianism is nothing more than a small number of elites and interest groups that control most of society's resources trying to divert the public's attention and prevent them from rationally considering the root cause of the alliance issue."

"And this situation is almost impossible for you to completely resolve. Even if you replace it with a more enlightened group of leaders and reform the system, although it can temporarily improve the situation, how long can this good situation last? A dozen years? Or even decades?"

"Your own human history has clearly told you that Sirius ended Earth's system of oppression of its colonies, but did they establish a more stable human society?"

"No." said Yang, who was familiar with that history.

"You humans have been plunged into chaos for hundreds of years. Society as a whole has stagnated in this series of chaos, and the problem has never been resolved. The dragon slayers eventually became evil dragons, and the Black Flag Army became a second Earth."

"The Galactic Federation only managed to maintain stability for a mere 200 years, and that was stability, not development. At the end of the Galactic Federation, you encountered the same problem. Society fell into chaos, and people indulged in short-sighted, low-level emotional impulses. This short-sighted emotional impulse ultimately created a disaster."

"And it's utterly foolish of some self-righteous fool to hope that reversing history can solve the problem."

Yang and Reinhardt knew who the other was talking about: the source of the current galactic conflict—Rudolf, the first emperor of the Galactic Empire.

"It turns out that leaving it to you humans to run and manage such a large society will only make it increasingly difficult to manage and operate efficiently as the scale of society grows, until, after a certain point, it will be destroyed by the chaos accumulated over a long period of time."

"The Alliance's extremely inefficient resource allocation capabilities are just a microcosm of this problem."

"The real problem is that human society has reached a stagnation, yet no one on either side is considering resolving these fundamental issues. Instead, they are attempting to temporarily divert conflict by launching foreign wars that only waste resources and time."

"In order to glorify the war, they even gave themselves the title of overthrowing authoritarianism. Don't you think the whole process is really ridiculous?"

"I saw quite a bit in the document you gave me. The rate of military enlistment among the children of those Allied politicians is less than 10% of that of ordinary people. They send generation after generation of young Allies to the battlefield, while they themselves and their children hide in the safety of the rear, enjoying an extravagant life and the conveniences brought by power."

"Have you never wondered why this happened?"

"Appreciate further details."

"Because any regime composed of humans is bound to be corrupt, and any organization or group formed by humans is bound to be riddled with all sorts of shameful blemishes."

"These stains will become a heavy historical burden, ultimately trapping organizations and civilizations in a negative, vicious cycle, ultimately rotting beyond repair and heading towards disintegration and collapse."

"So, what about a society under an authoritarian system?" Reinhardt suddenly asked.

"Since you believe that a democratic society where decisions are made by the group will eventually fall into a vicious cycle, what about a society under an authoritarian system where one person has the final say? Can it maintain a more rational direction?"

Aze didn't respond immediately. Instead, he looked at Reinhardt and asked, "Do you think you're rational enough? Even if you've suffered a huge blow, can you still make the most reasonable choices and decisions for civilization and society as a whole?"

"You are not some philosopher king, Mr. Reinhardt.

When choosing leaders and management planners, humans, with their varying individual abilities and limited capabilities, inevitably examine their knowledge, thinking, tendencies, and governance experience. However, humanity has yet to escape the dilemma of choosing between luck and sheer force. Furthermore, under these circumstances, most of the time, only a barely adequate leader is chosen. In authoritarian societies, even such barely adequate leaders often don't exist. Your society remains stuck at a low level.

"If you want to develop to a higher level, you need to pursue the upper limit. You must ensure that every individual in the entire civilization, whether leaders or grassroots individuals, always stays within the upper limit."

"This is impossible for humans, whose lifespan is limited, whose ability to learn and accumulate knowledge and experience is limited, and whose thinking ability becomes rigid and declines with aging."

"If we want to elevate all of humanity, whose individual abilities vary, to their highest possible level and allow society as a whole to enter a higher stage, then the transformation of the human species itself is inevitable."

"The transformation process will inevitably lead to the collapse of existing social systems and moral ethics. You may think that humanity will become increasingly dehumanized, but this is necessary if we want civilization to reach a higher level."

"Otherwise, you will only be stuck on the lower levels, slowly heading towards destruction amidst internal friction and involution."

"But, turning humans into machines is a little hard to accept no matter how you think about it."

"So, that's why I say the existing moral system and social system will completely collapse in this process. A civilization that has reached a higher stage no longer needs those low-level social systems to constrain itself. If you were to let an ancient person from thousands of years ago come to the present, they would surely exclaim at the collapse of rituals and music."

"There is actually no difference between the two in essence. The more advanced social system is an incomprehensible monster to the old social system."

"Imagine a society like this. If you don't upgrade your body, you'll be completely outclassed both intellectually and physically. Imagine being the only person in such a society without bionic eyes. While others can directly input incoming information into their brains, clearly see targets 20 kilometers away, and perceive 90% of the spectrum, you'll be able to see, hear, and think less than 1% of what they can. Then, in their eyes, you'll be nothing more than a relic and a conservative, akin to those old aristocrats you've eliminated, Mr. Reinhardt?"

"Reforming yourself can make you more rational. And your emotions will be allowed to continue to exist. You can even gain a more comprehensive understanding of your emotions, rather than just being driven by emotions in your primitive biological body."

"When a person can freely become whatever they want, then your current society will no longer be necessary. Just as those old aristocrats view the new empire you and I have built as alien and monstrous, to you, the people of the old era, the society of that era is also alien and incomprehensible."

"Intelligence, thinking ability, and emotions are the highest values ​​of human existence. In such an era, if you do not go astray, these things will be even more respected and fully preserved. Humanity is not unique. You will be born as a new species, and will inevitably lead to the extinction of the existing biological stage of humanity.

"But in return you will gain immortality, the eradication of disease, the elimination of all unnecessary suffering, and the enhancement of humanity's intellectual, physical, and emotional capabilities. Current humans do not have to be the end point of evolution. By safely using technological means, current humans will become post-humans, intelligent beings with greater capabilities than current humans."

"It's not just about improving the physical body; it can also be used to improve negative factors in human nature, such as violent behaviors and tendencies that may harm fellow humans, or directly eliminate the mindset of rulers who oppress and exploit the lower classes."

"Remember, I'm going to show you two things, actually? Now that you've finished with the first one, it's time to move on to the second."