Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 457 - 101: Xiang Shan’s Thoughts

Chapter 457: Chapter 101: Xiang Shan’s Thoughts

Xiang Shan truly believed that additive manufacturing/3D printing could change the industrial pattern of humanity.

The inevitable path of human industrial patterns led toward "concentration," and monopolies could easily emerge. The reason for this was "mass production."

The benefits brought about by mass production were simply too great.

When human resources, capital, information, technology, and economic entities gathered in one area, they could create a "1+1>2" effect. As the scale of production institutions expanded, all production lines could share the technology provided by a single research and development institution, spreading out the cost of development. Large-scale purchasing of materials could also drive down prices.

In short, there were numerous benefits.

Of course, there was another point—having a large workforce allowed for specialization and division of labor, thus increasing efficiency and reducing costs as a result.

Adam Smith completed the study of "division of labor" in economics, and Charles Babbage, a mathematician, further developed it. Ultimately, in the hands of "the god of the brave new world" Henry Ford, this system evolved into its final form—the assembly line.

Babbage scientifically proposed that division of labor could reduce the skills each worker needed to master. This saved the time it took for workers to learn new skills, reduced the consumption of the employee learning process, saved time transitioning from one process to another, and even more time was saved by changing tools. This way, a worker only needed to repeatedly perform simple labor to quickly enhance the proficiency of their skills.

But Mr. Babbage perhaps did not anticipate how Henry Ford would implement this theory.

The tycoon Ford divided the production of the Model T car into 7882 different processes. Of these, 949 required "strong, physically fit male workers," 3338 needed "general physical workers"; other processes could be completed by "women or older teenagers"; and, "workers without legs could do 670 of the processes, those with one leg could do 2637, those without hands could do 2, those with one hand could do 715, and the blind could do 10."

Ah, of course, there was one especially important point not to forget.

Mr. Babbage was an expert in mechanics. Before the age of electricity, this mathematician was already calculating the creation of "computable machines" and "automatically operated machines."

So, Babbage also proposed a very important point—since the tasks of individual workers became simpler, "after division of labor, it’s easier to design more exquisite and useful tools and machines, thus improving labor productivity."

It was not the machines that led to mass production, but rather that humans discovered mass production was very profitable, so they designed industrial machinery according to the needs of mass production.

Everything about the modern factory system revolved around the theme of "mass production." The followers of Henry Ford implemented Babbage’s theories in the most ruthless ways.

Even if this form of labor completely destroyed the value of the workers.

Workers did not need to know what they were doing, only to rely on muscle memory to repeat tasks. Thus, it was hard for them to realize the significance of their work. This merely sapped their enthusiasm for work while severing their avenues for skill development.

Until a machine completely took over the worker’s duties.

This was what Xiang Shan thought.

Thus, although he thought Yawgmoth’s reasoning process was a bit jumpy, the concept that "machines should be public property" was quite striking.

People should not exploit other people, but they could exploit machines. Produced by machines and enjoyed by humans—this was the most likely achievable "beautiful future" imaginable. Machines would liberate people from the burden of repetitive labor, allowing humanity to freely enhance themselves through learning, express themselves through creation, and maintain themselves with entertainment.

Of course, all this was predicated on "everyone being able to access what the machines produced" and "the goal of machine production was controlled by the masses."

But this was not easy, because as long as the "economies of scale" existed, industrial concentration, authoritarianism, monopolies, overproduction, and major crises would inevitably continue to be created.

Xiang Shan believed that as long as "centralized production" had advantages, these problems were inevitable.

But 3D printing truly had such potential.

Production lines were specialized. A production line that produced screw bolts was not necessarily capable of producing nuts. This was because the materials, molds, lathes, etc., required for the two products were different. A production line that produced both screw bolts and nuts would need to switch part of the production equipment while switching products.

In that case, it might be better to have two production lines.

Thus, materials would often be shipped from foundries to different production lines and then through various complex logistics to their final destinations.

But 3D printing was different. If the technology matured, it should be able to use small-scale refining equipment to rough process metals and manufacture anything.

For 3D printing, the cost of production was only the model data, raw materials, and smelting fees. It did not include grinding tools, machines, or the material loss from mining or after rough processing, which meant no need to flow to a machining plant but could be directly transported to the consumer.

At this very moment, Xiang Shan firmly believed that 3D printing technology could completely change the industrial landscape.

Because this was not a technology designed "for centralized production."

If combined with technologies like automatic assembly...

If Ford was the god of capitalism, and the assembly line symbolized the glory of mass production under capitalism, perhaps additive manufacturing was more suited for the "Freedom Kingdom."

Xiang Shan sincerely believed this.

Of course, Xiang Shan originally didn’t think he could shake the existing system in his lifetime. Because the industry at present was entirely built on the assembly line.

His ambition was essentially akin to starting an entirely different technological tree.

But this new technological tree was up against another that had already monopolized all resources.

Xiang Shan didn’t think he could succeed.

However, with the arrival of Argon, things began to change slightly.

The "Orunmila Project" demonstrated a technological tree of "additive manufacturing."

It was certain that the aliens had also mastered similar technology and applied it to their space industry.

This was a signal.

Xiang Shan felt he should perhaps try a little harder.

No matter the direction, he needed to find allies in academia—friends willing to help him advance this ideal.

And at this moment, Xiang Shan felt that Yawgmoth Voigt was a good candidate.