In the boundless spiritual world, above a silver-gray landmass floating in the space.
The moon tree, which had shrunk countless times, stretched out its bright branches. Below, Lin Tuo sat on this side of the stone table, and heard Governor Ueno narrating in an illusory voice.
She speaks from the distant days of the Empire.
In her description, the "Empire" was born a long, long time ago. At the beginning of its birth, it was no different from other extremely rare planets of life in the vast universe.
Human beings also stand out from the beasts and gradually evolve. After spending many years, they finally established the initial civilization on the primitive planet and evolved accordingly.
However, unlike the Earth, the stars in the empire’s home galaxy are somewhat special. The light and heat it emits helped the early imperial people explore some evolutionary abilities.
Therefore, in a long time, he has explored a practice system of absorbing ether through meditation, breathing, and awakening one's own spirituality.
Originally, those early evolutionists expected to get rid of the limitation of lifespan and achieve the transcendence of life in this way, but soon, they discovered that this expectation was unrealistic.
On the one hand, the short lifespan of human beings presupposes the ceiling of practice.
On the other hand, with the prosperity of civilization, the occasional invasion of the spiritual world has also made human beings aware of the enemies hidden on the other side of the world.
Fortunately, despite some disasters, the civilization created by the imperial people still grew unstoppably, and after the hopelessness of practice, they turned to building tools, trying to explore and research the truth of the world they lived in.
That is to say, in this process, a whole set of understandings about the basic components of the world, such as the spiritual world, ether, and spirituality, as well as related theories, and applications appeared one after another.
"The understanding of the spirit world and the mastery of power became an opportunity for the imperial civilization at that time to leap forward.
Therefore, for a long period of time, human cognition of the world and the use of energy have entered a stage of rapid growth.
The evolution of the whole people, the growth of human physique and lifespan, the appearance of machines imitating 'extraordinary items', and even gave birth to intelligence comparable to human intelligence...
The weapons using ether energy helped the imperial people take the lead in solving the spiritual world invasion that lingered throughout the history of civilization development, making it no longer subject to external aggression.
The emergence of the spirit world leap technology has greatly expanded the pace of development. Human beings have finally got rid of the restrictions of the birth planet and can carry out long-distance voyages... "
"It is even possible to mine some other resource stars in the empire's local galaxy through the jump ship... In the civilization history of the imperial people, that period of history is called the 'technical explosion' and the 'interstellar age of navigation'..."
Governor Ueno spoke in a calm voice, telling those distant stories.
Lin Tuo, who was sitting opposite, listened quietly.
Constantly comparing it with the history of the earth, I can't help but imagine the era in her mouth:
"It sounds like an era full of changes."
"Yes, although at that time, not to mention me, even His Majesty the Emperor was not 'born'... But reading historical materials, compared with today, it was indeed a great era full of turbulent winds and clouds, full of variables..."
Governor Ueno sighed with emotion, then changed the subject:
"It is conceivable that the emergence of leap technology has expanded the territory of the empire, and the rapid development of society's consumption of material resources has also forced them to explore outside..."
"So, as it should be, they aimed at another habitable planet in the galaxy, and started the mighty interstellar immigration and development..."
"However, any development is accompanied by the breeding of problems. Although most of the social problems are covered up by the expansion of the territory and the crazy growth of resources, the wise men in the empire have noticed the hidden worries behind the prosperity earlier...
The speed of human evolution is difficult to adapt to faster and faster development.
Although the contradictions can be transferred and suppressed in a short period of time, as the speed of upper-level technology exploration slows down, they know that the backlog of contradictions will explode sooner or later... "
"And if these concerns are only focused on the future, then there are other real problems that are urgent and need to be resolved."
Lin Tuo raised his eyebrows: "A practical problem?"
Governor Ueno nodded and said:
"Yes. First, as the number of interstellar immigrants increases, the new star immigrants and the society of their homeland begin to separate, alienate, and form their own faction.
This situation was not prominent when the first generation of immigrants appeared, but it became more and more serious when the second and third generations of immigrants appeared. These people were born and raised on the new star, and they lacked enough food for the 'distant' home planet. Cultural identity and closeness.
And the old social form of human beings, organization and management, it is also difficult to control the territory that spans the stars. "
Lin Tuo nodded, this is not difficult to understand.
Organizations of different sizes have different management challenges.
With the expansion of the territory, the original administrative structure must be adjusted. A typical sentence is "the sky is high and the emperor is far away". If the territory exceeds the management capacity of the old organizational structure, problems will definitely occur.
The following statement by Governor Ueno also confirmed this point:
"At that time, although the interstellar transition was realized, the long-distance communication technology was somewhat backward, the new star was highly autonomous, the resource delivery to the parent star began to decrease, and there was a faint hostility between the two planets, which made the upper echelons of the empire at that time very nervous. "
"Another problem is the utilization of resources.
In the past, through the plundering of new stars, there was a huge waste of resources in the operation of human society. This refers not only to the waste of materials, but also to the waste of manpower, waste of computing power of equipment, etc...
The various regional organizations within the planet restrain each other, and the information between the two planets is not smooth. Many things can be done with high efficiency, but in fact, it takes a long time, and the repeated circulation of the various regions...
The wise men found that, in the final analysis, it is still the original society that cannot adapt to the new era. "
"There are many similar problems... and in order to solve this problem, people began to try to give supercomputers higher authority, trying to use a huge central computing power to allocate the resources of the two planets...
Theoretically, if it can be successful, it will solve multiple problems in one fell swoop... It was against this background that His Majesty the first emperor was finally born. "
Governor Ueno recounted with some regret:
"It wasn't all smooth sailing. There were also many people in the empire who opposed it. However, after a complicated and lengthy struggle, it was finally implemented."
"Of course, human beings are not without vigilance, after all, the spiritual world invasions in history have left enough lessons.
Therefore, at the beginning of His Majesty's birth, its bottom layer was bound by rules and regulations to prevent it from harming humans... You should be clear about these. "
Governor Ueno looked at Lin Tuo.
Lin Tuo did not deny it: "Yes, this is also the point where I wonder why the taboo experiment can pass."
Governor Ueno smiled and said:
"I'll talk about this later. Let's continue to tell the story... In short, after a series of struggles, His Majesty the Emperor was finally born and took the lead in orbiting on the home planet.
This project was also initiated by the mother star, and there was a lot of resistance from the new star, which is why the emperor did not successfully deploy it on the new star at first... "
"However, when the wheel of history turns, no one can resist it.
As deduced by the wise men, as the emperor gradually replaced the old human organizational structure, the resource allocation of the entire home planet and the efficiency of business management increased dramatically.
And in a very short period of time, through high efficiency, the overall strength of the mother star was greatly improved, thus successfully suppressing the new star, thus resolving the original hostility...
It is in this process that the empire becomes an 'empire'... ”
Governor Ueno seemed worried that Lin Tuo didn't understand, and said emphatically:
"Before, the empire did not have an emperor and a governor, and it was not an 'imperial system', but a political party that voted representatives from various places... In fact, as of today, it is still voted, and the so-called 'emperor' is not able to follow his own emotions. and try to enforce any order."
Lin Tuo nodded, he was clear about this.
What I saw in the Ueno star area was vivid enough.
In other words, this empire is not that empire, and its essence is completely different from the social form he is familiar with, where the emperor controls the highest power.
"Go on," he said.
Governor Ueno pursed his lips, and the steady voice continued:
"During this process, the people of the empire fully realized the emperor's ability and the superiority of the advanced system compared to the old system. The new star also ushered in the first governor who belonged to the emperor's subordinates."
"The emperor and the governor's spirituality are both powerful and can communicate across the stars.
Therefore, those worries were resolved one by one, and the entire human race successfully passed this transformation, avoiding the occurrence of internal disasters, and once again embarked on a period of rapid development. "
"People have gradually discovered that the emperor's ability is stronger than expected, not only in the allocation of resources, but also in the service of all aspects of society, and even the promotion of scientific research.
Such as the material converter is a technological breakthrough achieved with the help of the emperor...
However, everything has two sides, and the emperor also brought many problems, one of which was the huge consumption of energy. "
"Spirituality? Or ether?" Lin Tuo asked back.
"Spirituality." Governor Ueno said seriously, "Although the main energy source of the entire empire is ether, and the consumption is huge, however, the spiritual world is infinitely vast, and the reserves of ether are almost endless.
Moreover, after it is consumed, it will not disappear itself, but will return to the spirit world and circulate.
In contrast, although spirituality is almost indelible, it does not flow like ether... and the more work the emperor has, the greater his need for spirituality. "
"In the beginning, the emperor's spirituality was far from being as strong as it is now, and even worse than me now.
However, as the Imperials delegate more and more work to the Emperor and Viceroys, we need greater spiritual reserves in order to accomplish these tasks. However, spirituality is not as easy to collect as ether... ”
Lin Tuo interrupted: "So, your solution is to implement 'contribution points'?"
Governor Ueno nodded:
"Yes. In order to obtain more spirituality to ensure the operation of the emperor, after voting and passing relevant proposals, the empire began to implement contribution points and gradually replaced currency. All citizens of the empire can contribute their own spirituality."
"The effect should be very good?" Lin Tuo said.
"Indeed," Governor Ueno sighed, "for a long time at the beginning, this plan solved the problem almost perfectly.
The emperor is getting stronger and stronger, he can provide more and more services, and the social efficiency is accelerating. The people of the empire have obtained better and better experiences in terms of material and spiritual enjoyment, which in turn positively strengthens their spirituality. "
"It was during this process that the empire entered a second period of high development, expanding its territory and incorporating more and more planets.
Of course, habitable planets are not so easy to find.
Therefore, people also try to make large-scale isolation enclosures, and build artificially cultivated ecosystems on some planets with poor environments. "
Lin Tuo's eyelids twitched, and he realized that this should be the initial version of the "sandbox" technology.
Earlier, the other party also mentioned the material conversion technology.
As for the reduction of a large area... According to the observation in the Ueno Governor's Mansion, it should be related to the construction of a large Ethernet network.
This immediately gave him a feeling... as if... "Derivation Sand Table" is a collection of important technologies from generation to generation of the empire, a "master".
Suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Lin Tuo changed his sitting position, and saw a trace of depression suddenly appearing on Governor Ueno's illusory and dull face.
There is also a twist in the content of the narrative:
"...everything seems to be developing in a good direction. The territory of the empire is getting bigger and bigger, and the overall strength is getting stronger and stronger. Compared with their predecessors, the lives of citizens have almost reached an ideal state, and even achieved a certain area. Cosmic supremacy…”
"However, with the development of the empire, the inherent spiritual light group in the critical area corresponding to its planet has gradually shrunk."
Lin Tuo was surprised: "What do you mean?"
"Since you have reached the level of life detachment, you should know where the spirituality of human beings comes from." Governor Ueno said softly.
Lin Tuo pondered for a while, and said:
"According to my observations, human beings, or intelligent life itself, is like a converter between the material world and the spiritual world.
Human beings are born in the material world, but the meridians of the body are innately connected with the power of the spiritual world. Everyone has ether and spirituality in their bodies, and the stronger they are, the more they have.
And he can take the initiative to absorb these two kinds of energy from the spirit world through cultivation... However, after death, these two kinds of power will return to the spirit world together with his soul. "
"As expected, you already know." Governor Ueno's illusory face was not too surprised:
"As you said, human beings, and even all intelligent life, are part of this great cycle system. Life and death also affect the cycle of two forces between the two worlds."
"As long as human beings are alive, they will attract ether until it reaches a steady state.
Similarly, as long as human beings are alive, they will also attract spirits, and those spirits come from the nearby 'spiritual light group' hidden deep in the spirit world. "
Lin Tuo's expression changed: "Could it be..."
"That's right," Governor Ueno sighed, "The emperor, or the setting of contribution points broke this cycle."
(end of this chapter)