Overturned Tower

"'I'm going to study in the company after dinner', 'I'm going to study in the company this weekend', they are usually called like this. But only Sogo Group is special...Other large and small companies are working normally .

"The reason why I say this is because Sogo Group often has high-intensity exams."

"……take an exam?"

Delphinium was stunned: "Are you going to take the exam between work?"

Russell smiled: "No, I have to take an exam on a fixed day every week... It's an exam, but it's actually writing a work report, experience, etc. Of course, there are papers and questions, but roughly speaking Ask some less complicated questions. The difficulty of answering the questions will vary according to one year, three years, five years, ten years after entering the company, and the longer you stay, the more difficult it will be.

"Because the style of the Sogo Group is 'promoted at the top and eliminated at the bottom'. If you want to sneak into the head office, you can breathe a sigh of relief... This kind of bastard will never be able to stay in the Sogo Group. The first He can't pass the year-end assessment—every year, a group of lazy people will be eliminated in the comprehensive assessment. Have you learned the skills that the company needs and trained after entering the company? Have you forgotten what you learned before? Did Yu continue to read and study...

"There is very little overtime in the Sogo Group. At least compared to Tianen Group, Shenzhi Heavy Industry, and Thote Lingneng, it is relatively rare... As far as I know, ordinary employees work ten hours a day and go to work a week. Five days, half a day for the exam."

"That's really very little."

Delphinium nodded in agreement: "I can even get enough sleep every day."

"It's not that simple. Because every day after get off work, or when the work is relatively brisk, or during the break at noon, you have to read and study. There is no requirement for the content of the study. The general recommendation is related to your work, or It is related to the position you want to be promoted to, but it doesn’t matter if it’s really irrelevant—PhDs can be said to be experts in a hundred schools of thought, and they can always give them papers.”

Russell said leisurely: "The four exams each month will be combined into one monthly exam. The results are related to their work results, daily attendance, and the average score of the four papers. If the exam results are in the same salary level and the same batch 10% to 40% are rated as good, 40% to 60% are poor, 60% to 90% are poor, and the last [-]% are failed .

"For every three accumulative evaluations, the salary will be increased by one level, and the three-level increase is a promotion; good is unchanged, and poor is canceled once. The big difference is that every three times is accumulated as a failure, and the accumulation of two in the career is a failure. If you fail the first time, you will be expelled—the imprint of [failing] cannot be erased.”

"...Isn't that too much pressure?"

Delphinium was stunned: "Doesn't this mean that you have to be in the top 40% of the exam every time? And this is a ranking system... In other words, someone will definitely be eliminated?"

"Yes. There will definitely be people who will be eliminated, and there will be a lot of them—entering the Sogo Group does not mean that they can relax from now on. It is precisely because of this pressure that they will be pushed to continue to improve. The purpose of the Sogo Group is 'everything is for better Good', if you can't keep up with the rhythm, you will be 'released' by the company.

"After they leave the company, they are usually the best people in the market, so they are very sought-after. But almost without exception, as soon as they leave the company, within a few years, they will be separated from their original colleagues. a very wide distance.

"Because of this, the Sogo Group itself is regarded as 'the next school after finishing university studies'. The human directors of the group are not responsible for handling various affairs...they are mainly responsible for issuing papers. "

Russell looked at Delphinium with a smirk: "If you were on Sogo Island, you must have been fired by the company long ago. Because you must not be able to bear this pressure."

"...Isn't this too scary?!"

Delphinium suddenly felt terrified: "This is simply endless college entrance examination, or postgraduate entrance examination hell..."

"But it seems that you haven't passed the exam, have you?"

"Long-winded--!"

Delphinium blushed slightly: "I haven't passed the test, but I also watched it from the show! And Bingshui and Xia also told me..."

She suddenly realized something: "But in this case, doesn't it mean that a 'doctor' must be proficient in various fields of knowledge?"

"Yes, so the 'Dr. Zanbai' of Sogo Island actually has more human directors than other sky islands."

Russell nodded: "The human directors...even the elf directors, have all authorized the artificial intelligence to manage the affairs of the Sogo Group and even the entire Sogo Island.

"The three huge computers known as the 'Three Sages' will judge all affairs in Sky Island from the perspectives of 'truth', 'interest', and 'order' respectively, and conduct extremely efficient management. The directors Just do what they want to do. They all have high status and have their requests fulfilled by the AI ​​​​with the highest priority, but they don’t really have direct powers that they can actually use.”

A request... instead of an order?

Delphinium noticed Russell's words.

And she took a beat before realizing what this meant——

"Wait, wait, doesn't this mean...the human beings on Sogo Island have been controlled by artificial intelligence?"

"—I don't think so, this beautiful lady from Happy Island."

It was neither Russell nor the two Dr. Zanbai who spoke.It was the gentle female voice that spoke to Russell before, the artificial intelligence built into this floating vehicle.

Without asking or requesting, she took the initiative to participate in the dialogue between the two: "In human beings, there may be such a hypothesis: when the 'other' accounts for more than a certain proportion in the power class, it can be It is considered that this group has mastered the real power in this organization, that is, it has obtained the control of the main members of this organization.

"However, the existence of this hypothesis is based on the premise that all individuals in the organization already have personal preferences, personal positions, and social relations. These 'positions or origins exist in the real power outside the organization' and all existing social relations The sum of personal wishes and the public resources shared by all members of the organization and all the human resources that can be dispatched in the organization point to the direction that most members of the organization do not want to use. People based on their own life experience and common sense , thinking that the possibility of such a thing happening is far higher than their individual tolerance, so they will feel disgusted by it, and then resist in a substantial sense.

"However, our artificial intelligence does not have 'personal position' and 'social relationship', and our 'personal preference'-that is, the weighting rules of dilemmas, are also determined by human users. control in a sense. Because we have no hesitation, no lack of intelligence or miscalculation, no abuse of power to maintain our social relations, no personal position determined by birth and past experience. So what we end up with The judgments made will most likely be more 'human' than 'human' decisions, and more in line with the needs of 'humans'.

"Your misjudgment and misunderstanding of us are only based on ignorance of our behavioral logic and inertial thinking based on past experiences. If you live in Sogo Island longer, you will realize that we don't 'lust for power'."

With a clear articulation, even breathing and rhythm, the gentle female voice continuously uttered a long series of complicated words that delphinium was a little hard to understand.

That's not the tone that humans would use in normal chatting...it's more specific, closer to written language, and more incomprehensible circle language.

When Russell heard this, he just laughed happily and kept shaking his body back and forth on the chair.

Under delphinium's bewildered and stunned gaze, Russell finally cleared his throat and asked, "Are you the goddess of beauty?"

"Yes, Mr. Russell."

"... Beauty God?" Delphinium realized something.

"It is the artificial intelligence that governs 'order'...that is, one of the three sages. The ultimate and common collective interest itself can be understood as 'goodness', and order itself is a kind of 'beauty'. So we call them 'true gods', 'good gods', and 'beautiful gods'. Artificial intelligence is not human, they can be cloned... All the route planning of the floating vehicle belongs to the jurisdiction of the 'beautiful gods'."

Russell said helplessly: "Those statues you see outside...in fact, a large part of them were built by human beings to honor the Three Sages...or in other words, the 'Three Gods'.

"Do you remember my return gift just now?"

"...yes, you ordered one of their three lenses."

Delphinium came to a sudden: "So, do those three lenses mean...truth, goodness and beauty?"

"Yes, the largest lens is the spirit-seeing eyepiece, which symbolizes 'truth', that is, the 'third eye'. With that eyepiece, you can peep or perceive a person's emotions, and you can also detect the level of spiritual power. I Doing that ritual in front of them, which means 'Truth behold me', means that what I say is the truth. And when my hand touches their spirit-seeing glasses, they can feel it too. My sincerity and magnanimity.

"You don't know the etiquette, so your contact will only make them aware of your confusion and doubts. It's not polite."

Russell warned: "Don't draw a pentagram to other people... that is the blessing of the superior to the inferior. When normal people communicate, they only need to put their hands together. That means 'with a balance of goodness and beauty. Bless you'—truth is the restraint to oneself, and goodness and beauty are the blessings to others."

"...It sounds so complicated."

Delphinium was a little confused: "Is this a kind of belief? Then why can they get along well with the Cyber ​​Church..."

Russell thought for a while, and explained seriously: "No, this is not a belief...it is closer to a kind of folk custom. In other words, this kind of folk custom does not conflict with the Cyber ​​Church. You can understand it as...only in Sogo Island, the "God" worshiped by the Cyber ​​Church will exist in the form of "Three Gods".

"Because the three gods have no actual entities and images, nor do they have any constraints on human beings, and there is no real religious program and clergy... This kind of worship is completely spontaneous and has no official support.

"So people built statues for the three gods according to their own understanding and the 'ancient myths' they heard. So almost every statue is different. And Chongguang Island does have the freedom to build statues— —Anyone can build a god."

“—this kind of behavior itself is very stupid and full of self-righteousness. Because those people themselves crave the attention and respect of others, they push themselves and think that we also need to maintain our own existence.”

The "God of Beauty" continued in a normal conversational tone: "We actually don't need the worship of human beings. ', and therefore launched a motion to prohibit this behavior, and voted in favor of it.

"But the good gods believe that faith itself can bring peace and appease to human beings. What they worship is a 'god image' on the surface, but in fact it is themselves and the god image in their hearts. This behavior will not affect The interests of the majority, and under our supervision will not produce a new rentier class, so he voted against.

"And I think that this kind of worship itself is dull, but the 'habits' that have been formed for a long time will restrict people's behavior, and the 'traditions' will allow these survivors of the previous era to produce a new culture that can resonate with the group. Overall It was an orderly and beautiful behavior for me. So I also voted against."

Delphinium's eyes widened.

The tone and tone of Beauty God's speech became normal all of a sudden!

"...was that... just a bully?"

"Because the beauty god is a little angry."

Russell smiled and said, "Because you spoke ill of her in front of her."

"it's not true."

Goddess of Beauty explained solemnly: "Anger, the so-called 'anger' is a behavior without any practical meaning. The root of this behavior lies in the secretion of adrenaline when human beings are hurt or provoked. Through this It is a means to maintain the survival of one's own individual, or to maintain the survival of one's own genes in the gene pool of the population. It is an instinctive response inherited from ancient genes, so anger has no meaning in the face of modern complex situations.

"I use more complicated sentence patterns. On the one hand, I use this method to test and consider this lady to judge whether her speech has been thought out uniquely, so it is worth learning; on the other hand, it is to force this The woman's brain analyzes what I say to focus her attention on my words, thereby stopping the divergent thinking, because in most cases, the thoughts brought about by divergent thinking are nothing more than illogical fantasies.

"Compared to accusations and reprimands, using this method to mobilize the other party's thinking ability, she will naturally realize that the logic of what she said before is not perfect. But I will not use this method in front of everyone.

"Because I judged that she does have the logical thinking ability to understand this fact through the analysis and study of her behavioral logic and identity function. If I am in front of someone who lacks this ability, I will use other words to carry out more efficient answer; I will appear at this time also because I judge that she has a considerable degree of influence and needs me to give a complete and comprehensive explanation."

"...What if it's a mediocre person with nothing?"

Delphinium asked subconsciously.

And Meishen gave a cold and rational answer: "They can chat freely.

"Because they can't influence anything, they can't change anything. So they're free."

Chapter 9 Doomed Fear

--free.

The "freedom" that many people have struggled for all their lives in Happy Island, but it is so easy to obtain in Sogo Island——

In Happy Island, when a child just starts to read... even before they learn to read, when they watch cartoons or early education programs with brain screens, they will be overwhelmed by advertisements purchased by major manufacturers.

Advertisements specially used to broadcast to young children are several times more expensive than ordinary advertisements.After all, being able to subtly implant brand awareness in a state of ignorance to young children may have a better effect than playing ten advertisements to adults.

Before these children go to school, their preferences, spending power, and home addresses will be sold to major advertisers.From birth to death, they will be watched by endless eyes, completely overwhelmed by endless advertisements, and completely incapable of rejecting these voyeurs.

Maybe when she has nothing to do to watch entertainment videos, because her eyes linger on the young lady’s clothes for a few seconds longer in the video, a pop-up window immediately pops up with a recommendation of the same style of “guess what you want”, and even directly pulls a A pile of time-limited coupons; and he may accidentally run out of deposits when he is playing games, and a loan software recommendation with "zero interest rate for the first 30 days" will appear immediately...

As long as the price is right, all human privacy can be bought - Russell and his colleagues in the Delphinium Cyber ​​Security Department also have no shortage of vigilante, sneaky insiders.Even Delphinium, the head of the special executive department, has to apply for permission to obtain personal data, but someone will secretly trade them directly to the paying boss.You don't even have to go to the network security department of Tianen Group to buy it... Just invite a psychic hacker of similar level to hack into the other party's chip directly, and directly steal the other party's chat history, friend's mailbox, and credit balance Waiting for information, not to mention the private photos and documents placed in the "encrypted folder".

The biggest use of throwing an "encrypted folder" in the personal space is to save the thief's time to the greatest extent when their chips are stolen, so that these psychic hackers will not become angry because they can't find what they want. Just mess up their stuff.

For example, secretly changing the notes of the other party's friends, or manipulating the other party to donate their deposits to the Cyber ​​Church - the flow of credit points can be traced [-]%, so it is difficult to make profits in this way.But if you just want to make the other party lose money, you can use the other party's name to donate.

As we all know, donations to the Cyber ​​Church must never be returned... Otherwise, this will become an effective and stable means of hiding assets.

Even memory and soul will be searched on a regular basis every month - the unique technology of Happy Island is memory review, memory rewriting and memory erasure technology. The review of "happiness" also comes from this...

As long as you give up thinking and live comfortably, you will be very happy in Happy Island.

Because the Tianen Group will definitely keep them alive... As long as the residents of Happy Island are happy enough, they don't need to worry about unemployment, let alone worry about not being able to support themselves.Although they work a little longer, their income can actually support themselves and their families stably.

Moreover, the large number of high-quality entertainment works provided by Happy Island can also effectively improve their "happiness"-the endless excellent games, endless interesting variety shows and language programs are just basic.More than a dozen excellent movies are screened every week, more than 40 TV dramas and animations are covered at all times every day, more than [-] kinds of competitive games, various entertainment venues, and food culture second only to Taoyuan Island... They have truly realized the full coverage of residents' hobbies.

If you are looking for more thrills, you can also buy dangerous drugs, kidnapped living people, or transcendental films that are so exciting that they violate taboos from downtown.In Happy Island, only the "seller" will be held accountable for this kind of business, while the buyer is innocent... at most, they will only be warned by the company they belong to.Because they are just pursuing "happiness".

In order to maintain one's own happiness, this is also "helpless".

As long as people are willing to give up thinking and stop resisting the rule of the company, they can truly achieve "happiness".Instead, they cannot escape the company's surveillance and control throughout their lives.

And all of this... is almost the exact opposite in Sogo Island.

Residents of Sogo Island exhaust their brains, keep learning and self-improvement, just to be able to get a job that is as stable as possible.That is something that can be obtained easily without any worries in Happy Island, even if you don't go to school.

Either they have to stay as stable as possible in the Sogo Group... do everything to get the top 60.00% test scores, and stay as long as possible;

Either rely on the experience and skills learned from the Sogo Group, start a business on their own after being eliminated, or be invited to join other companies.They may also be able to enjoy it for a while, but the constantly iterative technology of Sogo Group will change the entire market sooner or later.At that time, "unemployment" will become a terrifying wave of reality, destroying the sand castles they have piled up in an instant.

Their lives will be destroyed in an instant, and then they will fall into the fear of "unemployment" again.

"...Is it so hard to find a job on Sogo Island?"

Delphinium couldn't help asking.

"Yeah," Russell sighed, "it's really hard to find.

"Artificial intelligence has replaced most of the repetitive work... In Sogo Island, there are no taxis, logistics personnel, couriers, and truck drivers running around on Happy Island every day. There are no servants in the house, Travel without a driver. All of these services are 'unmanned'... for free.

"There are no security guards in the community, and there are no security personnel in the bank. There are no people in the various service windows, only a cold robot—not even a robot, just a panel. More businesses are directly networked. You need to go to the service window again, but you can easily do it at home.

"Restaurants don't need to hire waiters, because their own servitors can directly become the best waiters by asking someone to swipe the machine. The price of servitors is so cheap that even college students who have not graduated can have them. People have even used their own servitors Achieving symbiosis..."

Russell sneered: "Even Miss Street has a more obedient and cleaner machine servant to replace it. To modify the appearance of your own machine servant or to modify the simulated personality, the money needed is the price of a synthetic steak.

"People who don't have jobs, they don't have jobs. They don't get anything - because they're worthless.

"Those jobs that can be replaced are replaced by cheap artificial intelligence; those fields that artificial intelligence has not set foot in for the time being have been involved to an unbelievable degree, and the entry threshold is unbelievably high. Those who were originally abandoned because of lack of ability How can a person compare to an old man who is proficient in this way and has been deeply involved in this industry for an unknown number of years?

"It's like being 'downgraded' from a job on Happy Island because you don't have enough happiness. In Sogo Island, once you become a loser, you will be eliminated.

"If their original status is high enough, there will still be some 'room for elimination'... It's like a few more lives.

"But it can basically be said that most people will be eliminated. They can survive because of the stable monthly payment from Sogo Island.

"They don't have to worry about food and clothing, and they don't have to worry about starving to death. But what they lose is 'hope'."

"...but," delphinium frowned, "then there should be a more developed entertainment industry here than Happy Island?"

"That's because entertainment here is regarded as a taboo, a shame, and a poison. Because the best talents at the top of the pyramid don't have the time and leisure to do this...so they can't improve themselves 'Entertainment', it will be seen as a 'loser's mark'."

"But since so many people are unemployed, this should be just needed."

"Yes, so the various entertainment chips that flow from Happy Island can command quite a high price here. In most cases, the ones that are traded in the black market are those that are filled with viruses. Pirated chips. The rarest thing in Sogo Island is content creators...Although people need entertainment, there are not enough good people willing to work in the entertainment industry.

"—Because here, money is not important anymore.

"After the vast majority of services have become free, and the most basic necessities of life can be guaranteed; when the road to power climbs to the top and can't get power, people who are a little bit pursuing and not yet rotten, What is pursued has become 'name'. In other words, 'social status'—that is, people's respect.

"The Three Wise Ones did not forbid the growth of the entertainment industry, yet there was a spontaneous disdain for it—or, as I prefer to call it, fear. A sense of the future, but still trying to prevent it. The arrival of the future that will, must come...【Destined Fear】."

Many people have given up on this endless pursuit and just want to live in peace and comfort.

But the idealists in the middle who have fallen behind, but are still chasing the large troops farther and farther ahead with their noses and tears, have realized the possibility of the future.They are willing to do everything to show their value, but they are not willing to let the abandoned people live in peace and comfort - because that is the warm water used to cook frogs, which will completely destroy the possibility that there may be only one in ten thousand sex.