Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 286 - Chapter 286 286

Chapter 286: 286 Chapter 286: 286 Time flew by, years passed like a shuttle…

It is now the year 5534, thirty years since the Glizerians departed aboard the “Earth Era,” and humans have been in this star domain for seventy-four years…

In the past thirty years, four major events occurred.

First was a change in personnel. Captain Zhao, his hair turned gray, began to feel a decline in energy and a lack of confidence in his work, and started preparing to step down…

The position of captain can be said to be the highest rank in all of civilization, responsible for the overall planning and coordination of cooperation between various departments. Since the civilization’s development is still in an early stage, the captain must have a broad knowledge of all sectors, which is extremely challenging. If one can’t even understand the reports submitted from below, what kind of captain would that be?

Moreover, with only one political party in the entire civilization, to ensure the consistency and effectiveness of policies, the term of office for the captain is set for twenty years (according to the life-extension methods of Earth Civilization, the theoretical average lifespan can reach 322 years), and the current constitution has not yet stipulated a specific number of terms for re-election.

Unless the captain committed a serious error during their tenure, they could only be removed by the Scientific Council.

And in this transition, Zhang Yuan from the New Civilization Development Department was the most suitable candidate. Whether it was qualifications, prestige, or capability, there was no one more appropriate to succeed him.

The related voting decision was easily passed.

When the baton of power was passed to his junior, Zhao Qingfeng let out a deep sigh of relief, feeling the burden lift off his shoulders…

This mood was very subtle…

The passing of the torch is also an incredibly important task. From Professor Qi Yuanshan of the 22nd century to Captain Ma’s generation, then to Academician Ding, Zhao Qingfeng, and now Zhang Yuan in the 56th century, it’s hard to imagine how many hardships they faced and how many difficulties they encountered…

It is with pride that under the struggle of generation after generation, the New Civilization School has grown from a mere seed into a true towering tree.

Whenever Zhao Qingfeng thought about this history, he couldn’t help but sigh. When they set out from Earth, they were about the same age, but now, he was almost the eldest of these millions of people. Having taken over the position during the hibernation phase, he had experienced several more conscious periods than others.

And the life extension technology back then was not as advanced as it is now.

Waiting until one is older to extend lifespan is much less effective. The difference between receiving treatments in your twenties and thirties versus in your fifties and sixties is fundamental.

Therefore, compared with Zhang Yuan, Li Zhendong, and others, Zhao Qingfeng aged faster and his lifespan was cut short by about a hundred years.

However, there was no point in complaining about this outcome; it was understood from the start.

Human life naturally progresses through birth, aging, illness, and death; this cycle is a part of nature’s law, and gaining something inevitably comes with the need for sacrifice.

For a civilization to advance, some must make sacrifices, and the future of civilization inevitably lies in the hands of the young.

As Zhao Qingfeng himself said, “Being alive to see the achievements of the new civilization and its steady progress is already very fortunate.”

Among his contemporaries who retired, there were over sixteen hundred. Those who aged more rapidly were mostly the former high-ranking officials, including several former deputy captains and a group of expert scholars.

Stepping back had its benefits; at least they were relieved from the workload and were no longer burdened so heavily, allowing them to peacefully enjoy retirement.

The new civilization had a very advanced retirement system, and all sixteen hundred retirees gathered in a community for the elderly, serviced by a dedicated team of robotic caregivers.

These old folks were never the type to sit still. During their leisure time, they would look into the latest technological advancements, immerse themselves in the campus life of the children, and educate the next generation; they would occasionally attend high-level civilizational meetings or engage in intellectual work, as human intelligence declines much slower than physical strength…

This kind of retirement life seemed quite fulfilling indeed.

Furthermore, many of the new civilization’s internal policies were decided by calculation. Officials’ wealth was public, and power was very effectively controlled.

In order to ensure fairness and justice, even the appointment and dismissal of some middle-level cadres were determined by “Civilization Contribution,” a standard, rather than designated by senior leaders.

There was also an abundance of mathematical talent studying this area. How to measure a person’s “Civilization Contribution” as fairly and justly as possible was a main research direction for these mathematicians.

Of course, top leaders like Zhang Yuan were still elected by middle-level cadre votes, and in situations that couldn’t be calculated or in emergencies, he had some special rights.

…

Aside from changes in personnel appointments, another major event was the gradual decline in the whole civilization’s birth rate, slowing from an initial 5% to the current 1.2%.

A 5% population growth rate was a bit too high–equivalent to Earth Civilization, where a couple would have to have five children!

With the current population base reaching ten million, rampant growth was becoming inappropriate. A base increase of 1.2% per year meant an absolute increase of 120,000 children–much more than the original 5%.

Even though the current population was still insufficient for the development of various industries, the limitations that were constant were no longer present. Simple service and manual jobs could be completely replaced by intelligent robots.

Plus, the emergence of the “fully automated universal factory” significantly improved the automation of production capacity, reducing the number of industrial workers needed. The peak technology of a Second-level Civilization was indeed more powerful than that of Earth Civilization, and after thirty years of hard reverse engineering, almost everything crackable was cracked. This technology from an Alien Civilization began to be used in various industries.

Therefore, to maintain long-term population health while accommodating the ever-increasing average lifespan, future population growth will be controlled at around 0.5%-1%.

What’s more important is… according to New Civilization History, a population of less than fifty million is healthy for the administration system once it’s in operation.

The current system still relied on a dynamic planned economy, not a traditional market economy. The planned economy provided strong civilizational action, but it also required the government to have very strong overall planning capabilities; otherwise, it could easily lead to uneven development like the Soviet Union.

The calculations for a population of one million, ten million, and one hundred million were entirely different.

According to Zhang Yuan’s estimates, fifty million people would be the limit of the current calculation method. Venturing beyond this population scale too rashly would inevitably affect the entire civilization under the impact of Parkinson’s Law.

Parkinson’s Law is a synonym for “bureaucracy,” known as one of the three great discoveries of the twentieth-century Western culture, also called “officialdom disease,” “organizational paralysis disease,” or “big company disease.”

Its main idea is that due to human selfishness, mediocre managers tend to look for more mediocre assistants so as not to affect their own status. By extrapolation, this leads to a bloated organization where people outnumber the work needed, resulting in a system of inefficiency and finger-pointing.

The current New Civilization’s data monitoring system was very strong, essentially eliminating this phenomenon, but its ability to control the population was limited. If the population increased significantly, people would always find loopholes in this system, and the organizational efficiency of the entire civilization would instead decline.

Moreover, maintaining a state of underpopulation in certain areas benefitted economic vitality and the long-term struggles of citizens.

The reason for controlling the growth rate at over ten million people was that population planning must maintain sufficient foresight. Waiting to control it at thirty to fifty million people could easily lead to an aging population structure.

For a New Civilization aiming for robot public support, controlling the population growth rate was a simple matter–just a reduction in the births from artificial wombs would do.

…