Manhattan Reborn 1978

Chapter 832

San Francisco, South Bay.

It’s approaching noon~

David and his friends' car parked outside the gate of a suburban villa.

After Bob got out of the car, he stood at the door, looked up at the sky, and smiled at David.

"My grandpa used to live in Chicago, but my grandma Mary's health was not good, and the winters felt too cold and long living in Chicago, so they moved here."

"Oh, how many years has it been since they moved here?" David then asked, holding the gift box prepared in his arms.

"Almost another 20 years..."

"When I was a child, I grew up playing in this yard..." Bob raised his finger and pointed at the grove of more than a dozen beech, redwood and oak trees in the yard in the distance.

"In my memory, they were planted for us by my parents' generation..."

"A tree under each tree means there are more children in the family~"

"Look at the white oak tree on the far right, it was planted by my parents for me!"

"Well~ it has grown so tall now."

"Hmm!" Bob smiled as he looked at the tall and straight white oak tree, with countless good memories related to it flashing through his mind.

"When I first entered high school, Grandma Mary made acorn cakes for me using the acorns from that oak tree. It tasted great!"

"is it?"

David heard Bob say this and recalled that when he and Panaris came to visit last time, Mary also made acorn cakes to entertain them.

"Let's go in~"

"Grandpa and grandma should have prepared lunch for us!" Bob, with a simple and happy smile on his face, pulled David towards the door of the villa.

. . .

Ten minutes later.

in the living room.

Royce, who had white hair, listened quietly to Bob telling them interesting things about his work and life in New York in recent months.

Louis' wife, Mary, with a kind smile, sat between David and Bob. While listening to her grandson's talk and dancing, she silently observed David who was eating snacks.

David, because his work and rest schedule has been completely disrupted in the past two days, he was actually hungry for a long time.

He drank Mary's special juice with one hand, and quickly stuffed several flavors of desserts into his mouth with the other hand.

The way he was eating made Mary feel like a child who had just run back from playing outside all day without eating. .

Of course, Louis also saw the way David was eating. Although there was curiosity and smile in his eyes, his attention was always on the work mentioned by Bob. He asked him a few questions casually and soon understood everything. ~

He smiled at his grandson Bob and asked: "Do you think the current domestic production process of high fructose syrup has reached the level that can meet the conditions for industrial mass production?"

"Yes!"

When Bob heard his grandfather ask the most important key point, he nodded seriously and said: "In order to find out whether fructose syrup can be produced on a larger scale, I visited several professors at the University of Chicago."

“They also introduced me to experts from many domestic professional universities and research institutes such as the University of Minnesota, the University of North Dakota, the University of South Dakota, and Kansas State University.”

“They all believe that if the small amount of impurities contained in fructose syrup can be further solved by enzymatic hydrolysis and its purity can be improved, the current domestic production process of fructose syrup can be further improved, and the production cost will be reduced by about 30%. "

"30%?"

"You learned... what is the overall production cost in the industry?"

"Uh... wait a minute!" Bob remembered that he had just said that and did not take out the information he brought back. He immediately found his briefcase, took out two large folders and handed them to his grandfather and said.

"These are detailed output and cost data that I collected on-site from many production companies in central, northern and eastern states."

"Look~"

"These enterprises located in the main corn-producing areas in the central and northern regions have a great market competitive advantage due to their lower transportation and storage costs and production costs compared with those of enterprises in other states."

"However, these are only small and medium-sized enterprises. They do not have much funds to update equipment and improve production processes, and are about to face the fate of being eliminated from the market."

"So, if we can..."

When Bob said this, he took out an almost torn map of the United States from his briefcase, laid it out in front of Grandpa Lois, pointed at the dense dots of various colors on it, and said.

"If we can divide these companies according to their respective regions, let them carry out enzymatic primary processing of corn, the main raw material for the production of fructose syrup."

"Then the syrup raw materials produced by them are transported to deep processing enterprises in various regions for secondary production, which can solve the difficulties faced by these small and medium-sized enterprises."

"This will allow the entire fructose syrup industry chain to form an assembly line production model, and use the concentrated advantage of low cost and high output to launch a price war with domestic sweetening additive manufacturers!"

"Hmm..." Lewis looked at the information in his hand for a while, and then carefully looked at the map of the United States spread out by Bob, and asked with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Every little dot on this represents a company?"

"Yes 1"

"They are all companies that I have personally inspected on site, and I have kept good records of each one."

"Then what identity or name did you use to inspect these companies?"

"Forehead.."

When Bob heard that his grandfather had accurately found the key point again, he scratched his head in embarrassment and smiled.

"I took on some identity and lied about who I was."

"Lie?"

"Haha~" Louis couldn't help but glance at his wife Mary with a smile, and smiled at Bob with a hint of teasing in his voice.

"In order to get the real production data of these companies, you also learned what you hated most... lied?"

"...Yes!" Bob blinked and thought for a while, then nodded helplessly with emotion.

David heard the conversation between the two, put down the juice cup in his hand, smiled, nodded and thanked Grandma Mary, and smiled.

"I can answer this question for him."

"But I'm probably going to have to take up about twenty minutes of your time, okay?"

"Okay~" Louis leaned back on the sofa with interest and waited quietly.

David smiled and gave Bob a "reassuring" look, and after sorting out his thoughts, he said.

“I was particularly fond of natural science when I was a student.”

"Because I want to understand the principles of everything. I think that since everything in the world is composed of atoms, the most fundamental principle of motion of everything should be physics."

“Our understanding of the world, including our understanding of culture and art, should be based on sufficient knowledge of natural science to understand and view ~ because people’s cultural character has national characteristics, etc., which are also determined by the natural environment. .”

“So when I was a student, I one-sidedly understood humanities subjects such as literature and politics that were separated from the natural sciences as ideological indoctrination.”

"But after years of exposure to more knowledge, I slowly discovered new problems."

"First of all, after I had a preliminary understanding of natural science, especially life science, I discovered that based on the "Theory of Evolution", in the process of evolution by natural selection, almost all life, including humans, was created~"

"Based on this, the most direct conclusion I draw is that human life has no meaning at all. Life, like wind, rain, thunder and lightning, is a natural phenomenon produced under physical laws."

"But as a conscious person, I find this result unacceptable."

"Because the human brain needs a purpose for everything it does, and this is also the result of evolution."

"A noble purpose can be called the meaning of life."

"This meaning will change with the development of society, the growth of experience and vision, and the changes in one's own environment."

"When I was a kid, I imagined I would be an astronaut. The difference between me being a bartender in a New York bar is so big..."

"The continuous development of science and technology has brought about more efficient machines and a more efficient economy, and also brought about the continuous development of social productivity."

"The continuous improvement of social productivity has given rise to newer production organization models. From tenant farmers to laborers, from students to engineers, etc., the social relations updated with the times have been quietly promoting the development of people's consciousness and cognition. Change."

"Obviously, the natural sciences cannot resolve this variable meaning problem."

“The study of the natural sciences, as mathematical a language as it is, cannot express what is produced by the consciousness of all human beings.”

"Personal consciousness is indeed determined by matter, but can we use computers to calculate the movements of all cells in the brain and predict people's emotions?"

"Can you tell us through calculations and statistics what life goals should be established?"

"Even if one day there is a supercomputer breakthrough in computing power, it will be able to predict human emotions or thoughts through some mathematical calculations."

"But the very act of prediction will affect the future..."

"With one-way recursion, the amount of calculation is not a matter of size, but a completely unlimited amount of calculation."

David spread his hands to the three of them and said with a smile: "So, I think I must study sociology and psychology."

"Moreover, studying human consciousness still requires the use of many new social and humanities perspectives and innovative methods."

"However, when I came into contact with philosophy, I discovered that philosophy is the earliest science that begins to observe and understand the world."

(Two hundred words are omitted here...)

"This is why philosophy must exist in the present and in the future."

"Marx first started from a philosophical perspective and mastered a variety of tools and basic methods for understanding the world."

"Subsequently, he began to focus on the economic aspect based on the life problems of ordinary people. He learned from the current philosophical theories and created the interaction between materialist dialectics and productivity and production relations to explore the path to the future of human society."

"The first half of Marx's life was a life of freedom and relaxation in a wealthy family under the influence of the French Revolutionary ideology. There was no pressure to survive, and he developed various hobbies and learned various knowledge based on his interest and enthusiasm."

"At the same time, under the influence of his lawyer father's pursuit of the system and justice, he did not just pursue personal liberation and ignore the suffering of the people at the bottom. He tried to solve various contradictions and problems in human society in the context of drastic changes across Europe and with careful thinking. "

"So when he was 17 years old, he made a plan for his life...to pursue the important mission of human happiness and self-perfection."

"In that era, in order to theoretically completely end the organization of kings and churches, Marx first had to fully affirm the self-interested side of people's hearts."

"Utilitarian desire is human nature, and everyone has the right to survive and develop."

“According to Adam Smith’s discussion in The Wealth of Nations, the bourgeoisie wants to utilize and release the self-interested and selfish side of people. Only by allowing people to make the most self-interested choice can society develop better. "

"Because survival requires material, people need to use labor to create material, but human energy and ability are limited. As the types of commodities increase, it is impossible for one person to master all production skills."

"So, Adam Smith proposed that human beings should divide labor to the maximum extent, allowing everyone to specialize in one labor skill, produce specific goods or engage in specific services. People who engage in one labor for a long time will accumulate more wealth. experience, productivity will become higher and higher.”

"To put it simply, every worker will become more and more professional, so that all mankind can obtain the maximum amount of goods."

"Then people, driven by reason and instinct, exchange their products with each other to meet the maximum needs of society."

“In this way, the three elements of demand, supply, and exchange form a market.”

“When the demand for a commodity or service increases, the price will rise, and the profit from producing this commodity will increase, attracting more profit-seeking people to enter the market, and eventually form a fully competitive market to achieve social benefits. maximize."

"And if this market wants to continue to develop, it will definitely require the free flow of labor and materials~"

“So when Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations appeared at the end of the 18th century, probably everyone saw it as the end of an important period of human history.”

"But~"

"Adam Smith believed that the bourgeois revolution must create a beautiful free world where everyone is equal, and there must be two basic conditions~"

"Human nature determines that people are absolutely self-interested, and at the same time they are very rational."

"But after reading this paragraph, I thought about it carefully and couldn't help but ask myself questions~"

“Is there any reason in human nature?”

"According to Darwin's Theory of Evolution, when people who evolved naturally face a changing environment, the first thing that is triggered is the emotional mechanism, not the rational thinking mechanism!"

"Emotions allow people to respond quickly to changes in the environment, while rational thinking requires a long period of brain operation to form various factors to be realized, which is extremely unsuitable for the living environment of prehistoric humans."

"Therefore, only after emotions take effect in time and people's primitive animal impulses are restrained with self-discipline, can people's rational thinking play a role in the accumulation of time."

When David said this, he reached out and picked up the juice cup, looked at Bob, put away his smile, and said.

"In the entrepreneurial stories we usually hear, most people who start a business go through a process~"

"Initially, they all thought that they and a few friends could do great things, change the world together, and contribute to society together."

"This was originally a romantic journey for passionate partners to pursue their interests and dreams..."

“But after they received investment and shareholders moved into the company to achieve stable replication of the business model and make the company bigger and bigger, the original founders of the company had already unknowingly lost the romance at that time.”

"They began to pay more and more attention to financial reports, public opinion evaluation, their company's debt ratio and cash flow, and outstanding talents who meet the job requirements."

"The core business of the decision-making level will also be handed over to the most skilled and efficient employees, who will make regular and periodic mechanical movements that maximize benefits under fixed processes."

"They did make a lot of money and built a lot of wealth for themselves."

"However, if you were to ask these mature entrepreneurs about the best time in their memory, no one would think it was...myself who is now mature and always feels helpless, right?"

Bob nodded in agreement and looked at David intently, lost in thought.

David felt the "strange" look from Grandma Mary, turned to look at her, and smiled.

"Most young people like to try different fields, different jobs, different lifestyles and acquire different knowledge."

"But in a world where the underlying thinking is capital accumulation, these natures of young people will be covered up, and they will be full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge. The so-called maturity is to find the most profitable lifestyle."

"Just like many young people working on Wall Street, in order to dress decently to cater to the public's evaluation and thus reflect their status, they often buy luxury cars and live in suburban villas that are much larger than they need after making money. Reflect one’s earning power and social status.”

"When people specialize in one field, they will gradually create the maximum output per unit of time. However, specializing in one field deprives people of the freedom to experience the world and loses the opportunity to gain more happiness."

“But if people’s purpose of making money is no longer to accumulate a lot of wealth, how many goods will no longer be needed?”

"..."

Grandma Mary put her hand on her grandson Bob's arm, ostensibly listening to David's endless "speech." .

But her thoughts have already gone to what her husband, Louis, said during breakfast today~

David, David!

Why is it that every time I see you, I always feel refreshed?

Is having Bob by your side a good thing or a bad thing?

Which path will he take under your influence?

Grandma Mary, who had met countless young talents, felt that she was a little unsure about this young man named David. .