Void Jigsaw Puzzle

The monitoring hall is like an aerial fortress, always floating in a place with its back to the sun.

Cold and lonely, like a rootless duckweed.

Two full days had passed since the last board meeting ended, and Deng Ailin could still hear the lingering sound. He was leaning back in the armchair in his room, looking out the window.

Outside the window was a vast expanse of space, and as far as the eye could see was the vast Earth. The surface of the Earth was no longer dominated by blue, but was now covered with patches of red.

"After all, there's no going back..."

The meeting lasted for three days and three nights. Except for himself and a few older directors, most of the people chose to eat and sleep in the conference room.

Because the issues they discuss are directly related to the future of human civilization.

In extreme cases, if all humans flying to Mars orbit and Mars in the Spark Project are destroyed, at least the Dandelion Project can still spread the digital hope of human civilization into the depths of the universe.

Therefore, it is crucial to save data according to the data cleaning principles.

Deng Ailin was the first to put forward his own views, and thereafter each director also put forward his own views very carefully.

The 27 people quickly reached consensus on a number of principles.

For example, the points Deng Ailin raised at the end - everyone believes that mankind's "great harmony" needs to be realized in the digital age, and only before a catastrophe can everyone truly regard each other as the same kind.

Everyone believes that the carriers of knowledge - books and data related to entertainment activities related to human emotions must be preserved. The digital humans who have left their homes are already very miserable and cannot do without historical memories and physical and spiritual comfort.

Everyone also believes that the forces that maintain social order, such as the public security, procuratorial and judicial systems and other relevant data, must be retained, after all, it is necessary to fight against possible crimes.

However, on other principles, people have different opinions.

After much arguing, they finally split into two camps.

One camp, led by Deng Ailin, advocates retaining factors directly related to productivity, such as infrastructure such as water, electricity, gas, and communications networks, basic agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, sideline production, fishery, science and technology, and industrial capabilities, as well as education, medical care, and other related data. On this basis, other data that can be deleted should be deleted; the other camp, led by Director Gus, believes that priority should be given to retaining data related to the political system and culture, such as the establishment of government departments, various natural and cultural heritages, religious beliefs, economic theories, etc.

Since no one can convince anyone else, in the end, the only option is to use the most primitive voting system to decide the winner.

Deng Ailun's team narrowly won with 14:13.

Despite admitting defeat, Gus's face was still red with anger. He walked tremblingly to Deng Ailun, his belly bulging, and said angrily, "Just wait and see. With all your stuff and no top-level management system, even if our civilization is lucky enough to be restored, it will probably fall into chaos very quickly."

"Gus..." Deng Ailun said with a smile, "If we choose your direction, humanity will return to the days of eating raw meat and drinking blood."

"Even so, what does it matter? With a rigorous management system, humanity will be able to recreate the path of civilization that has lasted for thousands of years. A few thousand years of dimension, in the universe, is so fleeting that it's insignificant. Moreover, cultural heritage and religious beliefs have been preserved. Isn't that something to be thankful for?"

"Cultural heritage and other things need a storage medium, but they're all on Earth and have been or will be destroyed—perhaps only the pyramids will ultimately survive, after all, they've stood in the desert for thousands of years. If they disappear, what's the point in recreating them in other corners of the universe? To commemorate them, we can simply record them in books. Why waste so much data reconstructing them? As for religious beliefs... hehe... don't you think that preserving them would contradict the principle of 'universal harmony' we mentioned earlier? How many conflicts among humanity stem from them?"

"You are avoiding the issue! Never underestimate the power of organization. Without a top-level organization and a corresponding system, humanity will be in chaos. You also know why our European ancestors began to dominate the world hundreds of years ago, because they were the first to master 'organized violence'." Gus spoke without thinking.

The atmosphere in the meeting room was a little tense. The remaining directors, who had not yet returned to their rooms to catch up on some sleep after the meeting, looked at the two of them, not daring to speak, for fear of igniting the tense situation.

Deng Ailun replied calmly, his expression steady, "I never deny the importance of organizational skills. However, I believe that it's something humans can acquire spontaneously. As long as they survive, they'll naturally explore more effective organizational methods. This is why we need to preserve the productive foundation of modern civilization as much as possible. This will increase their chances of survival."

"We've explored for thousands of years before finally developing several effective organizational systems. Do you think they can master them in such a short time? If not, if it takes thousands of years, then what's the point?"

"We must look at things from a developmental perspective. Whatever the productive base is, the corresponding organizational system will naturally grow, just as we no longer accept slavery."

Seeing he couldn't gain the upper hand in his rhetoric, Gus changed his attack. "Okay... but you've even abandoned economics. How disrespectful! You don't think humanity will naturally prosper based on that little productivity base, do you? Without economics, many things would go against our will."

Deng Ailun pursed his lips. "Every profession has its specialties. I'm not an economics expert, but I think it's ultimately about scarcity. In other words, without scarcity, there would be no economics. It's a discipline that requires conditions to be meaningful, and the amount of data is quite large, so we have to abandon it."

Gus sneered, "Your understanding of 'scarcity' is too superficial. Do you think scarcity is only about material things? What about intangible things? For example, what about attention? What about time? As long as time is limited, scarcity will always exist!"

......

Deng Ailun didn't know how long he remained staring out the window, because the scenery outside seemed almost unchanged. He even suspected that if he wanted, he could sit here until the end of his life, and the scenery outside the window might not change much either.

However, his mind was constantly churning over the arguments that had taken place in the conference room over the past few days.

He had to admit that Gus wasn't entirely unreasonable.

“Is there any way to patch our existing solution?”