Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 407 - 405: Identity of One’s Own Origin

Chapter 407: Chapter 405: Identity of One’s Own Origin

Zhang Yuan whispered, "So, the development of this civilization is slightly different from that of humans, but it is quite easy to understand. The abolition of slavery has always been determined by productive forces, not by moral transformation or the calls of a few knowledgeable people..."

"Economic foundation determines the superstructure; it is only overturned by the great trends of the times when it truly hinders progress. This should be a commonality among civilizations."

"As of now, those small countries that still retain slavery are basically not yet industrialized, and slaves still play a significant role. This planet is simply too vast, transportation is inconvenient, and it is something like the emperor being far away; other countries simply have no interest in dealing with these countries."

"Furthermore, with transportation being inconvenient and no satellites or major powers acting as global police to criticize human rights issues, it’s simply a thankless task."

"A planet being too large is not necessarily a good thing. Although there are abundant natural resources and large land areas, unifying thoughts becomes more troublesome. Even to this era, there are still some countries in a state of disconnection, which is unimaginable on Earth."

A planet being too large indeed presents various problems, with a vast number of countries remaining isolated and uncommunicative. However, this phenomenon also introduces many variables—namely, that the spark of science is more likely to ignite.

Due to the limitation in domesticating livestock, transportation hasn’t developed well, making it difficult for countries here to occupy millions of square kilometers like those in the Earth Era. The lack of adequate communication ensures that nations easily lose control over their borders, leading to fragmentation.

In the Middle Ages, the largest countries reached up to three million square kilometers. These countries only thought about external aggression to capture more slaves, leading to their self-destruction due to overly large territories.

Such regions fell into a long spell of dynastic cycles, with one dynasty overthrowing another, interspersed with slave uprisings, but no particularly significant overall progress.

However, some remote regions focused on developing various technologies, especially in the fertile Two River Valley with advantageous geographical conditions, where the large-scale use of hydropower made the thoughts of the Taipu people more flexible.

The invention of waterwheels and steamboats spurred the Taipu people to delve deeper into the essence of mechanics, which later became the origin of modern civilization.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Yuan raised his hand and said, "Professor Luo, what about the religion of the Taipu Civilization? Didn’t it too cause much trouble for development?"

Standing on the stage, Professor Luo said, "The development of this civilization wasn’t much troubled by religious factors, mainly because... the most powerful nations revered ancestor worship rather than divine worship."

Every country rose from brutal primitive wars; without brave ancestors, there would be no Taipu people today, so worshipping great ancestors became a very natural thing.

Spiritually, there was only room for one dominating belief. Since "ancestor worship" took precedence, divine worship found it hard to catch up.

And the religious method of ancestor worship made it difficult to form a unified global religion.

If your ancestors and my ancestors are different, there naturally wouldn’t be mutual belief; if there were historical conflicts, these conflicts would be hard to resolve and could turn into ethnic hatred.

"The method of ancestor worship couldn’t explain all doubts and did hinder the development of science to some extent, but it undoubtedly imposed much lesser spiritual shackles than divine worship... Some Taipu people thought the words of ancestors were absolutely right and not to be defied, but there were also Taipu who believed that the ancestors might not be always correct, dynasties could be overthrown, and nothing was absolute."

"...If religion lacks strong political influence, it also finds it hard to interfere with the normal development of society, and instead might even play a promoting role."

This simple belief was easy to understand, similar to the humans in Kunlun Mountain who believed they originated from the Solar System, Earth. This wasn’t merely a cultural symbol but included spiritual values of blood, culture, and more on a spiritual level.

Identifying with one’s origin was a critical factor for the cohesion of a civilization; if the origins weren’t the same, why strive for the same goals?

Just like the former Soviet Union, which was the most ethnically diverse and complex country in the world. To address ethnic issues, the Soviet Union deliberately promoted the identity of the "Soviet People" and consistently publicized its achievements in building a nationalist state.

But with democratization reforms allowing freedom of choice, each of the Affiliated Republics placed their own national and ethnic interests above those of the Soviet alliance, directly leading to the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Practice showed that the Soviet method of dividing administrative regions based on ethnicity didn’t help maintain national unity and eventually became one key reason for the Soviet Union’s collapse.

But the people in Kunlun Mountain didn’t have this problem. Everyone acknowledged their origin from Earth, and former national identities had long dissolved under the sands of time. Everyone’s acceptance of their origins from the Solar System, Earth, was enough to unite them.

"...However, countries deeply rooted in ancestor worship were not the first to develop scientific technology."

"On the contrary, a small country rising from ruins was the first to start the Industrial Revolution and became the most powerful country on this planet."

As for the reasons, they are too complex; Taipu Civilization itself has a wealth of sociological literature trying to explain this fact.

Some sociologists felt that the thought pattern of "ancestor worship" hindered the progress of some large nations. To maintain social stability, rulers would proclaim "Everything the ancestors said is right, their laws are immutable," thus, a "natural philosophy system" centered on axioms and "formal logical systems and causal relationships discovered through scientific experiments" found it hard to truly emerge.

Other sociologists proposed a "lack of demand" theory, putting forth that these once powerful nations fell into a fixed mindset by continuously waging wars to gain benefits.

Even if a dynasty was overthrown and replaced, it was the same ruling pattern; thus, there was no incentive to delve into the underlying principles of technology.

The inconvenience of transportation unexpectedly became an advantage. At most, this planet had over 20,000 countries, each with its own ideology. Various challenges finally led to low-probability events occurring because the world had enough nations to furnish a large enough sample.

"Science," had emerged.