Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 422 - 420: The Age of Robots

Chapter 422: Chapter 420: The Age of Robots

"The sunlight is so nice! This is what it feels like to be on the Mother Star," Zhang Yuan thought lazily as he yawned, his days as a student were now relaxed and free.

The knowledge learned in class was very simple, at least for him, simple to the point of being boring.

He, a great scientist from the Kunlun Mountain, truly a great scientist before becoming a captain, his brain had reverted to its youthful days, dealing with such problems... well... ahem, I digress.

Cicadas! Cicadas! Cicadas!

It was a bright summer day, cicadas were incessantly calling from the trees, the teacher was lecturing in front, and the surrounding students listened sleepily. These so-called teachers were just like those in the Kunlun Mountain society, all robot teachers, only distinguishable by the green color of their pupils.

Zhang Yuan was authentically experiencing life similar to his student days in the Kunlun Mountains.

But there was a subtle difference, the robotics education system in the Kunlun Mountain Fleet always had experts ensuring its perfection, yet in this world... Zhang Yuan seemed to have never seen a human teacher.

"Hey, where are the human teachers? Could it be that these robot teachers are already perfect and need no adjustments? Truly bizarre."

Zhang Yuan looked around, some classmates were studying, some were daydreaming, and the cute girl next door, feeling his gaze, quickly winked at him playfully, mouthing a sentence.

"Why are you looking at me?"

Who’s looking at you!

"What was her name again?"

"Oh, her name is Wang Nana, quite a simple name... a girl with poor math skills and lower intelligence. My... sister?"

Memories easily surfaced in his mind, reminding Zhang Yuan that he had indeed lived in this world for 18 years, beyond any doubt.

"Zhang Yuan, do not look around during class!" The robot teacher, having noticed Zhang Yuan’s wandering gaze, emitted a series of texts on the electronic screen on his desk.

This was a private message to spare the student’s pride, other people could not receive such a message.

Zhang Yuan’s face flushed with embarrassment, and he quickly sat up straight, no longer looking around.

The teacher at the front said, "... Human civilization originated in ancient Antarctica, one million three hundred thousand years ago, our North Pole was not at the North Pole but near the northern coast of today’s Canada, and Antarctica was not at the Antarctic point but in a temperate region. The temperate and suitably climatic Antarctic Continent nurtured a highly developed ancient civilization... our ancestors, humans."

"The past world was not beautiful, having erupted in four major world wars, and even after entering the interstellar era, it experienced a series of wars due to economic crises. This is the nature of capitalism, the occurrence of economic crises has nothing to do with productivity... but periodic outbreaks of production surplus crises in the reproduction process."

For students who have never experienced the darkness of capitalism, it was as boring as chanting scriptures.

However, the history of this world had always been a very interesting part for Zhang Yuan.

Listening to the teacher’s lecture, he opened a history textbook.

The history of this world was so incredibly long, spanning a million years!

It wasn’t clear whether it had been a real million years or entirely fabricated; nonetheless, there was a complete history behind it.

After stepping into the interstellar era and following the last war, human innovation of intelligent robots and Controlled Nuclear Fusion Technology, particularly the flourishing of cold nuclear fusion, made it quite easy for humans to enter an era of great prosperity.

"Even cold nuclear fusion has emerged," Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but marvel to himself.

"Clever ancestors, tired of the unending cycles of war combined with a significant reduction in population, established today’s social system amidst the backdrop of great prosperity."

That is to say, endless energy plus widespread automation technology allowed all of humanity to live without the need for labor. Robots could even maintain themselves, creating their own industrial systems. Thus, humans no longer needed to learn, not even maintenance tasks.

However, humans here had no desire to explore outer space, mainly because... there was only one constant star in this universe!

That was a profoundly sad realization. Or perhaps the Pangu Brain had deliberately made it so to save on computational power.

"Besides the Sun, there are no other stars in the universe. The universe has reached the era of heat death, and even the birth of the Sun was a small probability event. It truly is a lonely and desolate world."

Since there was no external world, naturally, humans could not explore it, at most they could conquer their own Moon; there was little need to venture to Mars.

"The tremendous affluence in productivity, coupled with the birth-rate control of the social welfare system, ensured that humans could live well on their Mother Star, preventing any population explosion..."

After the robot teacher had finished this segment of history, seeing a large group of students nearly falling asleep, it chatted for a while about some common knowledge after entering society, such as how to apply for public resources, how to live in society, including manners of daily life, and so on and so forth. This turned out to be quite interesting, and the students quickly became excited again.

In this society, robots held numerous important positions, such as police officer, judge, doctor, and various service providers, maintaining all aspects of society. Anyone who broke the law would be arrested and put through a streamlined trial; the so-called personal connections were utterly useless because the judge was a fair and just robot.

"Isn’t this world just being farmed by robots?" Zhang Yuan’s first reaction was as such.

Of course...

It wasn’t.

Because the laws were made by humans. Humans could, by city, vote to amend laws; actually, such amendments were infrequent because the ancestors who initially drafted these clauses had almost considered every aspect. The scope of laws was still quite appropriate; humans didn’t feel constrained yet could gain a sense of security.

In this world, people were completely "free"; robots merely provided a basic system and ensured order, and that was all.

After stepping out of the school gates, people could choose their preferred lifestyles—academic pursuits, art, sports, music, traveling, games, or other various professions—as long as they did not violate the law, anything was possible.

In fact, most industries were also not necessary, except for certain entertainment businesses; robots performed most jobs even better.

Even if someone felt they were being caged, they could abandon the social welfare provided by robots and establish their own nation, although very few chose this—more accurately, those who did often failed. Without robots, they would find life too tough, utterly unbearable for humans.

"What a prosperous era, a truly intoxicating ideal utopia. Complete personal freedom, right?"

However, Zhang Yuan still felt that something was missing in this era...

This feeling was somewhat indescribable.

Perhaps only through future experiences could one truly understand this world.