Deep Space Wandering Fleet

In this great debate, a towering social collective IQ of 108 played its role, ensuring that the whole did not descend into blindness and chaos. The voices of opposition were loud, but those who opposed blindly were quickly drowned out by massive waves of criticism.

Different people focused on different things, some on the short-term and long-term benefits humans could gain from cooperating with the Half-sphere Civilization; some were making suggestions on what the government should do, not allowing the other party to cheaply acquire too much high-level technology; and others were concerned about whether the alliance would lead to cultural and ideological conflicts...

A significant portion of scholars focused on the social systems of the Half-sphere Civilization, pondering if there were aspects humans could learn from.

In particular, the series of articles represented by Key Governance Bureau Director Ma Mingtao quickly sparked a great uproar.

"Individual self-awareness" seemed to have truly become an obstacle to the advancement of civilization.

This point, indeed, was where the argument was most intense.

"...Individual memories are the most private and core aspect of a person. If memories are transparent and can be altered back and forth, what safety can be spoken of? This kind of future is terrifying! What is our purpose in modifying memories? Is it for a better self, or for the betterment of the entire civilization? Or is it for some dictator's personal desires, for more efficient domination?"

Many science fiction works describe similar stories, like in one novel where a character suddenly gains the superpower to modify memories, uses it to rule the whole world, becoming the sole dictator.

Or cases where modified memories lead to collective issues that cause many people to go mad.

Such concerns are not unfounded panic but reflect that memory modification is indeed a tempting but very real Black Technology.

Like strong artificial intelligence, humans have a low degree of control and understanding of it. Even though humans have been decrypting memories for a very long time, most of the applications are still related to virtual worlds. That Black Box has not been fully decoded yet.

Used well, humans could become more perfect biological beings; used poorly, the New Human Civilization could easily plummet into an abyss.

But then again, when it comes to modifying the ethereal aspects of genetic philosophy, humans are still quite far from understanding how to proceed. However, memory modification is somewhat attainable to an extent.

Becoming a Level 5 civilization is a promising shortcut.

Some extreme social figures believe that if even the Half-sphere Civilization can master this to some degree, why can't humans? Has traditional culture become entrenched as an impediment to social development?

There was a lot of support for this idea, and also a lot of opposition.

"...We have an old saying: do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire. If you are not willing to modify your own memories, what right do you have to push this technology onto the next generation?"

"The idea of memory modification is just too frightening! Whose memory template would be used? Our civilization has no Saints, and there are no perfectly pure people in the world!"

"Although I say I'm unwilling, I'm actually very willing! I don't want to be idle, it seems I can't lose weight by willpower alone, give me an awesome template to save myself!"

"Exactly, I also want to lose weight! I'm very envious of those with good figures willing to spend time exercising daily. I just want their determination, wouldn't it be possible to develop such a technology? I wouldn't mind altering a bit of my memory."

Netizens always come up with array of wild and fantastic ideas.

At 3 pm, Zhang Yuan saw that the vast majority of people online were still quite rational. He finally breathed a sigh of relief, and it seemed that this matter could basically be accepted without risk, judging by the current situation.

On his post, he wrote, "Hello, friends. I am Zhang Yuan, and now I'm here to clarify some doubts. Actually, there are many different modes of memory, with the most basic being world views and values, which involve one's perspective of the world, personal interests and hobbies, what professions would bring one joy... The saying 'watch a three-year-old for clues to his future, seven-year-old for signs of his old age' is proof of this, childhood world views are very important."

"Then there's the higher level of actual image-based memories; what you've experienced daily, a beautiful childhood, attending high school, university and so on, stored in the brain in the form of images. What everyone considers privacy probably refers to these image-based memories."

"The highest form is the application of various knowledge. Remembering a formula means nothing; the significance lies in the application of the formula, and this is indeed quite difficult."

"If it is merely using this technology to modify world views, I can still accept that. Everyone wants to become a more perfect self!"

The post quickly received a slew of comments.

"Awoo!"

"Not accepting, not debating!"

"Mother Teresa wannabes start to mislead the country again."

"Passing by from the Unreal Laboratory, a scientific researcher dog here to add, big boss's viewpoint is not fully mature. Randomly modifying memory will only turn oneself into an idiot. And we don't have what's called a Saint Memory Template; it's really hard to define. What does it mean to become a more perfect self…"

Zhang Yuan continuously browsed these posts in front of his computer; he had developed a unique hobby — reading these water-cooler talk posts by netizens was pretty amusing.

The differences between individuals are what make the New Human Civilization rich and diverse. Among these netizens, there were silly ones, serious ones, Mother Teresa types, those pretending to be Mother Teresa but were actually trolls, and even some who were sarcastic and strange...

It was precisely this diversity that made the New Human Civilization vibrant and colorful.

As for whether an excess of self-awareness might end up hindering the development of civilization... it could only be said that when the cup is full, it overflows; when the moon is full, it wanes. Excess is not good, but one cannot be completely without it.

Zhang Yuan had once visited the social network system of the Half-sphere Civilization. Their online culture was not as rich as humans', rather it seemed a bit dull, with everyone speaking in a serious manner. There were no clickbait headlines or gossip news.

The Half-sphere Civilization only had 366 memory templates, which meant only 366 modes of thinking. Many Half-sphere people shared similar thoughts. While every individual possessed excellent spiritual quality, this monotony, to some extent, formed a thinking paradigm, suppressing the emergence of new cultures and even hindering the progress of science to a degree...