48 Hours a Day

“Unfortunately, I have to undergo a mental stress assessment every year. So far, my mental state is not bad,” Qiu Ming shrugged.

E-Goat looked at the group of calm applicants in front of him. Then as if rushing to grab the last straw, he asked impatiently, “So they are actually clones and not real humans, right?”

​ 

“I think there’s no need to worry about the production method that brought you into this world because there is no difference between a clone and an ordinary person,” Qiu Ming said. “A while ago, severely declining fertility rates aroused the concern of all parties. As a result, in collaboration with several pharmaceutical giants, the federal government launched an artificial reproduction program. They decided to use machines to simulate the human uterus to breed babies to increase the population. You are actually right. There are no physical and genome differences between natural childbirth or a new human born of a machine. Thus, since the beginning, the federation has decreed that these two kinds of people be given same political and survival rights.”

“Are you kidding me? Why are clones and ordinary people treated so differently in New Shanghai 0297 then?” asked E-goat.

“Don’t you get it yet?” Qiu Ming sighed. “In New Shanghai 0297, the so-called clones are still ordinary people. You just have to treat them as different occupations. They’ve been artificially segregated by us to meet different labor needs. However, there is no difference in the nature of the people who engage in these two occupations. Let me put it this way, have you ever bought luxury goods?”

“What do you mean?”

“There is a huge difference between the price of a luxury shirt and an ordinary shirt, but there is no difference in the material used. It’s just that one of the shirts has a luxury company’s logo printed on it. Similarly, the clones of New Shanghai 0297 are the same as ordinary people. Whether it’s the locator or the code on the back of the neck, it just serves as a logo to convince the people living here that their values are different. It’s that simple.”

“Then only can the clones’ memories be rewritten? Is that a lie?”

“It was like that at the beginning,” Qiu Ming nodded. “Clones, or new humans, hatched by machines, were raised by the federation. Regarding this, there have always been experts who have expressed some concern. This was because these people had shared a similar living environment since childhood, and they were raised together as well. They were worried that the individuals would become too identical due to this kind of social behavior that they grew up in.

“In addition, people have been arguing about how to raise them. The first batch of new machine-hatched humans was just like ordinary people. They received all kinds of education since they were young, but they lived together and were separated from their families. Apart from the overly similar problems mentioned before, there were also character defects brought about by the absence of the original family. In addition, the cultivation cycle was very long, and the investment in education was also huge. It also cost the taxpayers a lot of money. It didn’t take long before civil protests arose, and the federal government’s finances began to crumble.

“At this time, some large corporations like Shengtang Morgan offered to set up a fund to support the artificial reproduction program. In this way, the federal government wouldn’t need to invest more public funds, and the population problem could be solved. The two sides hit it off, and everyone was happy. Not long after, these big corporations came up with a new training program.

“Memory coding?” Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows.

“That’s right. This technology was successfully developed under such circumstances. In the beginning, it was to solve the problem of the machine-hatched-homo-evolutions becoming too similar due to prolonged exposure to identical living environments. At the same time, the first mate reduced the investment in education. Memory coding could give the homo-evolution different personalities and memories, making them just like ordinary people, unaffected by similar growth backgrounds.

“After that, the corporations thought that since they had achieved this, they might as well go one step further and compile their skills. Through this, when they leave the cultivation base and enter society, they’d be able to find better jobs.”

“What was the result?” E-Goat asked.

“The result was, of course, a great success,” Qiu Ming said. “At least, that was the case at first. The artificial reproduction program was initially sponsored by these large corporations who were very familiar with their own employment needs. Of course, they knew what skills needed to be compiled for the new humans that were hatched by machines, especially for certain high-end specialties. There has always been a shortage of jobs in the talent market. Everyone was fighting over people, but they were still unable to meet their employment needs.

“However, when memory coding technology appeared, this problem no longer existed. Other than some special professions that relied heavily on inspiration and talent, high-end talents that were purely technical could be mass-produced. Moreover, the new humans that were hatched by machines were also humans. Of course, there would be some very talented and inspired people among them. In addition, they would have a firmer grasp of basic knowledge, in turn accelerating their development.

“Very soon, many of the management and technical backbones of the companies on the market were occupied by these new humans. Moreover, many of them had better personalities and were more obedient. They were even willing to work overtime. As a result, the boss naturally knew what to choose. By the time the ordinary people reacted, they would realize that their supervisor or their immediate boss had already become a new human.”

Qiu Ming paused, “But on the other hand, the emergence of these new humans did accelerate the development of the economy and technology, giving human society unprecedented prosperity. This was a period of abundant talent reserves that had never been seen before in history. Even though many ordinary people had begun to protest at that time, feeling that high-end employment opportunities were being crowded out and it was getting harder to get promoted, these objections became powerless in the face of rapid economic growth.

“From the perspective of the federation, it is impossible for them to reverse the course of history, stop the artificial reproduction program, and allow mankind to return from this once-in-a-thousand-years golden era to the primitivity of inefficiency and retardation. A backward productivity rate will inevitably be replaced by advanced productivity, just like the unemployment wave caused by the emergence of machines. This is the social consensus in itself.

“Humanity has already experienced three industrial revolutions. Well, this is the fourth. More and more voices cried out in this manner. At the same time, they criticized those who were protesting. They felt that they were just maggots, blinded by envy. They were not willing to properly learn and hone their skills to become better. Instead, they were jealous of others. This was simply the fury of the incompetent. In addition, the federation has been sparing no effort to promote coexistence between ordinary humans and new humans. Soon, the voice of opposition became much smaller, and the entire human society began promoting memory coding technology more and more.”