Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 456 - 100 Heart-to-Heart

Chapter 456: Chapter 100 Heart-to-Heart

Xiang Shan always felt that Yawgmoth was particularly combative by nature, as if there was an inherent ferocity in his bones.

It was simply a conversation about the future of humanity, a topic often casually discussed by modern youth, but he somehow managed to exhibit a "fighting" temperament.

Chewing on a chicken bone without thinking, Xiang Shan sucked on it twice, then spat it out. He said, "But, come to think of it, most intellectual property rights have a period of validity, right? They’re all limited in duration. For most countries, it wouldn’t exceed twenty years."

"How many batches of twenty years does a person get in a lifetime?" Yawgmoth retorted, "To delay the progress of human science for twenty years, isn’t that a crime? Isn’t it terrifying that every moment is delayed by twenty years? You and I are only a little over twenty years old, aren’t we?"

"Ah, that does seem to be the case," Xiang Shan nodded in agreement.

"Since the entire world has set a protection period for intellectual property, it shows that humanity is also aware that the existence of such a thing is an error—it will definitely hinder human progress," Yawgmoth continued, "And yet, this error isn’t eradicated! Indeed, not!"

Speaking of this, Yawgmoth became even more outraged, "In the age without copyrights, humanity still tirelessly created great works. Because the benefits weren’t substantial, even plagiarism was less frequent."

"Isn’t it because openly shared knowledge doesn’t bring profit, so people aren’t eager to share it?" Xiang Shan offered a dissenting opinion, "In the era without intellectual property rights, people in the Middle Ages would even duel to the death for a solution to a quadratic equation. By that standard, after learning junior high math, I’d have to kill a lot of classmates."

"That’s true, that’s also a problem," Yawgmoth suddenly deflated, "After all, the modern system of science is like the system where those Lords trained knights. At first, Lords needed scientists to add to their glory, then they needed scientists to prove something for them, and only later did they realize scientists could bring them benefits. Just like you said... science was able to develop rapidly after the Age of Discovery precisely because it stood on the side of expanding imperialism."

Xiang Shan also heaved a sigh and nodded heavily, "You’re right... I never thought of it that way before. Scientists were essentially a form of feudal knight."

"And the ’military achievements’ of these Knight Masters, they need to be paid for to be certified," Yawgmoth said, "First, public institutions fund research institutions to allow scholars to study. Next, scholars publish articles and have to pay publication fees to journals. Then, if other scholars want to read, or if a scholar wants to cite their own work, they have to spend money buying from academic publishers. Have you ever seen a knight-errant who needs to buy the enemy’s head from the Supervising Battle Officer before being allowed to claim credit?"

Xiang Shan chuckled, "Pfft..."

"Oh, you’re discussing that heartbreaking topic..." David joined in, placing a dozen canned beers on the table, opened one for himself, and offered one to Xiang Shan, who had none. Xiang Shan waved his hand, declining the offer.

David nodded, "Indeed. In that regard, we are all the most down-and-out knight-errants."

"When it comes to exploiting people, modern folks do it more thoroughly," Xiang Shan nodded, "Isn’t everyone a bit of a Don Quixote."

Don Quixote, the protagonist in Cervantes’ novel, was a minor nobleman who went mad from reading too many knight-errant novels, frequently fantasizing himself as a medieval knight, and thus self-styled as "Don Quixote de la Mancha." In his two knight-errant adventures, the great knight made countless laughable mistakes, mistook windmills for giants, inns for castles, convicts for persecuted knights, and wine skins for giants’ heads, and so on.

"Well said," David sighed, "I watched a documentary about Von Bryan when I was a kid... Oh my, isn’t space colonization the giant windmill of our time?"

Xiang Shan looked at David in astonishment, "Are you kidding? I thought humans would be able to colonize Mars before I die!"

"That’s what twenty-year-olds thought back in 1970 too," David sighed.

"So, we should change that, right?" Yawgmoth banged on the table, raising his voice.

Xiang Shan and David held Yawgmoth down to prevent him from making any more dramatic gestures.

But perhaps because of the nature of the topic, Yawgmoth was getting a bit worked up.

He said, "Moreover, I have another idea... although... I’m not sure how to express it."

"Hmm?" David said, "You can share it with us."

Yawgmoth took a deep breath, "I actually think that ’complete knowledge sharing’ has another significance. The complete sharing of knowledge is the complete sharing of machines... the complete common ownership of industry..."

"In this era, machines have already replaced human labor in most heavy industrial production and repetitive tasks. But the louder the machines roar, the richer the capitalists become, and the greater the wealth gap grows. Machines... machines are too important. Yet, machines can be privately owned.

But why should machines be privately owned? Why should only a small group of people own the rights to the machines?"

Xiang Shan scratched his head, "That logic is a bit... convoluted?"

Truth be told, he didn’t understand.

He turned to David.

David, however, nodded, "I think I get it a bit."

"Because ’knowledge’ isn’t completely shared, so there are some things that only a select few can produce. Others can’t benefit from researching this owned knowledge or freely use it. Yes, I know, this isn’t the only factor preventing ’machines from being communalized,’ but it’s an important one."

Yawgmoth looked up at the sky, "The raw materials for producing machines, those metals, are products of stellar fusion and eruptions. Metals are mined by workers and, through a technically planned procedure, become machines... Everyone should be able to freely make those machines. Everyone should have the right to do so."

Xiang Shan squinted, "Although I’d like to say... ’managing manpower in collaboration’ is also a skill. But, for the most part, you’re right. Those in charge of management now... Ah, that’s not right, the owners of ’property rights’ can even outsource the only labor involved, which is ’management’ itself."

Yawgmoth rubbed his eyes, "Yeah..."

Suddenly, Xiang Shan slapped Yawgmoth on the shoulder, "Say, Yog, I actually have an idea too."

"What?"

"Have you ever heard of additive manufacturing technology?" Xiang Shan said with a smile, "It might just be a path to your dream."