Chapter 136: The Grand Plan
“Why did you suddenly think of going to Mars, and even sampling the Arctic Glacier?”
Mark’s eyes immediately became vigilant, and at this moment he actually felt a bit regretful, why had he so easily agreed to the other’s request to visit the Mars Base.
He had been careless!
Fan Ren looked at him with amusement, shook his head disdainfully and said: “With your base’s design and planning, have your engineers truly seriously considered future expansion plans?”
“Why do you care about these things!”
Mark asked very simply and directly.
Seeing this, Fan Ren touched his chin and pondered in his mind.
Although the current Blue Star situation appeared to have no major changes, the South Island Country to the east of Great Xia, as well as Little Japan’s stationed troops, had all withdrawn to the United States mainland.
And because Great Xia was vigorously developing the aerospace industry, all resources were tilted in that direction, and foreign trade business was basically at a standstill.
The South Island Country and Little Japan over there now had their entire spheres of influence within the military management zones demarcated by Great Xia, basically in a state of trembling in fear.
They over there didn’t dare contact the United States, and Great Xia over here ignored them.
The whole situation was one of constant anxiety.
Originally Fan Ren hadn’t thought of this, but when A’dai mentioned the Artificial Intelligence Plan to him, he came up with a plan.
“Mark, Xinghai has decided to invest in your Mars Project.”
“What kind of joke is this, there’s nothing on Mars! Or tell me what secret you discovered on this trip to Mars!”
Mark was like a boy guarding his candy, showing no sign of loosening up.
Fan Ren rubbed his forehead, and seeing this, could only repeat the words he had said to the Great Xia Leader a few days ago.
After he finished speaking, Mark stared at him in stunned silence, his eyes actually revealing a trace of fear.
“Why didn’t you immediately destroy that damn supercomputer? Don’t tell me you don’t know the severity of this problem!”
His fear was toward the artificial intelligence having gained self-awareness, not toward Fan Ren.
Fan Ren took a deep breath, his expression also becoming grave.
“Mark, even if we destroy it now, what about the future? The development of supercomputers today is already unstoppable, humanity cannot reject the convenience brought by this ultra-strong computing power, you should be clear on this point.”
“But”
“No buts, the best way to face a problem is to confront it directly, can you guarantee that the next scientist to create it will have thinking like ours?”
Fan Ren stared at him, his tone softening, then continued: “This problem is unavoidable unless the entire human world stops developing, I think you should be clear on this point.”
As his words finished, the office fell silent.
Mark was from a technical background, and precisely because of this, his initial reaction was the same as Fan Ren’s, having a huge fear of artificial intelligence with self-awareness.
People like them knew too well how terrifying the threat to humanity would be once artificial intelligence extended its tentacles into every aspect of human life.
“Put them on Mars, and form a human living circle with a technology level 50 years behind our Blue Star, while isolating them from all external connections to the network.
In future communications, all our ships responsible for transporting supplies will completely and thoroughly use traditional mechanical modes to enter the Mars Surface, while isolating all networking possibilities.
This way to ensure the plan is foolproof.”
Hearing this, Mark was shocked to the core.
He knew Fan Ren was right, the driving essence of scientific development is fundamentally humanity’s pursuit of convenience in the means of production.
And artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the most top-tier means of production in current human society development.
In pursuit of the greater convenience brought by this means of production, no large model scientist would abandon pursuing advanced artificial intelligence with self-awareness, capable of self-upgrading, learning, and self-issuing efficient and convenient instructions.
Xinghai had already encountered this problem now.
So as Fan Ren said, facing the problem and solving it was the most correct way.
Mark had made it to the president’s position today, avoidance wasn’t his character.
He looked at Fan Ren with a grave gaze.
“How does Great Xia view this problem?”
Fan Ren smiled, this was a very good cooperative attitude.
“Great Xia fully supports my proposal.”
Hearing this, Mark was secretly shocked deep down, he had always thought Great Xia would stick to that human-centric rhetoric, but unexpectedly this group of old guys were all quite cunning.
He was the purest one.
He said directly: “What does the United States get?”
Fan Ren looked at his flickering eyes and said amusedly: “Is it the United States, or you?”
Saying this, he waved his hand dismissively to stop Mark’s impending defense.
“Xinghai will handle the overall planning, construction, and investment of Mars City in this process, a Mars City for 1 million people!
This process will be completely confidential, and externally propagated as an investment by your Spitz Company.
And after the plan ends, ownership of Mars City will be reserved for you, or Spitz Company.
Xinghai has no other demands.”
With such benefits, did it matter if it was for the United States or for him?
Hearing this, Mark no longer dwelled on it.
These benefits were sufficient.
This way, after the plan is announced until the Mars Base construction project ends, his public support rate as United States president would surely reach a historical peak.
But at the same time he knew that the subsequent personnel immigration would also be handled by his Spitz Company.
And this would definitely be without any overt agreement, he knew this was the responsibility brought by these benefits.
Bullshit that Xinghai has no other demands.
Experimental data, results, and any thoughts on the produced artificial intelligence, these would all go to Xinghai.
But in the face of these huge interests, he had no choice.
“Then here’s to our successful cooperation!”
Fan Ren smiled and reached out to shake hands with Mark.
In human history, the largest-scale immigration action was thus preliminarily agreed upon in these two’s private discussions.
The next day, Great Xia announced externally that it would contract the military management zone previously demarcated in the Pacific Ocean to the South Island and Little Japan side.
Immediately after, Mark held a press conference, formally announcing externally that Spitz Company’s scientists had discovered a large amount of glacier water resources on Mars’ North Pole that could be used indefinitely by humanity.
For this, Spitz Company would heavily invest in the Mars Project, a Mars City ‘Utopia’ capable of accommodating 1 million people for survival and reproduction, which had entered formal design and planning, and would soon enter formal investment and construction.
At that time, once conditions are met, it would recruit clients from ordinary global citizens willing to go to ‘Utopia’ to live and develop.
In his introduction, Mars had extremely valuable and rare precious gemstones like those on Earth, as well as various high-value metal minerals.
This would allow Utopia city residents to occupy great trade advantages with Blue Star in the future.
The day after the news release, Spitz Company’s stock price soared, and the upward trend remained high.
