Chapter 291: Survival Space

In the second half of the 21st century, the most important social resource is not energy, nor food, nor social public services and public welfare. It is a living space that everyone cannot live without, and everyone hopes to improve after reaching a certain level of material wealth.

In fact, this is very easy to understand.

Controllable fusion nuclear energy technology, especially the second-generation controllable fusion nuclear energy technology, completely solves the energy problem and makes energy no longer an obstacle to limiting the progress of human civilization. At least until the third-generation controllable fusion nuclear energy technology is released and has developed to its peak state, energy is definitely not a problem.

After the full factoryization of agricultural production, grain and food are definitely not scarce social resources.

Finally, public services are linked to public welfare, the former is directly linked to labor, while the latter is linked to productivity, so it is basically not a problem.

The result is that on earth, the total amount of living space is limited, while population growth is unlimited.

What’s more serious is that in an era when material civilization is extremely developed, everyone has a strong sense of environmental protection, so protecting the environment is the top priority of society.

Affected by this, the space available for human life has become more limited.

Around 2080, China conducted a survey. If according to the 2080 standards, that is, each Chinese citizen occupies an average of 100 square meters of living space, then the land available for development in China can only raise 10 billion people at most. If there are more, you have to think of other ways.

Of course, there is a prerequisite for this survey result, that is, China's natural land rate is 75%, and the areas that are not suitable for human life are deducted. The so-called "natural land rate" is the proportion of the total area of ​​the land area without artificial development.

This is a more scientific concept, because this includes natural environments such as forests, grasslands, Gobi, deserts, glaciers and lakes. As long as there is no artificial development, especially economic-related development, it can be considered that the natural state has been maintained.

So, when will China's population reach 10 billion?

At that time, it was estimated that it would be until the middle of the 22nd century, around 2150. The main reason was that the population outbreak could not continue. After the labor resources became sufficient, citizens would naturally reduce the fertility rate rather than add to the social burden.

There is no doubt that this estimate is very inaccurate.

You should know that if the population outbreak determines the citizens' willingness to have children, there is another key factor, namely the speed of development of productivity.

In addition, there is an invisible factor, namely the degree of demand for human resources by the large-scale development of the universe.

In fact, the population explosion that occurred after the end of World War III almost ran through the entire era of technological explosion, because in this era, productivity has been growing rapidly, and human beings’ pace of moving towards the universe is also accelerating, thus driving the population to continue to expand.

You should know that by the end of the 22nd century, the total global population exceeded 500 billion.

In 2115, China's total population exceeded 10 billion, and in 2150, it exceeded 40 billion, and by the end of the 22nd century, it reached 100 billion.

Now, the problem arises.

By the early 22nd century, China could not accommodate so many people.

what to do?

At that time, China had two main response measures. One was to expand the land capacity, that is, vigorously develop three-dimensional cities and demand land from the sky. By the end of the 21st century, China had built more than 10,000 skyscrapers with a height of more than 1,000. In the first twenty years of the 22nd century, the number of skyscrapers exceeded 20,000. If calculated based on the per capita living space occupied by 100 square meters, these skyscrapers could accommodate nearly 2 billion people. Another way was to seek living space from the ocean and vigorously develop marine cities.

It can be said that this is also the most important problem in the world at the end of the 21st century, and it almost triggered a new war.

At that time, China convened influential developed countries such as the United States and India, and held a global ocean conference in 2082, deciding to re-dividate the oceans, that is, to determine the maritime interests of each country, especially the space that can be occupied in international waters. As a result, the meeting was boycotted by the European Federation, and almost evolved into a direct confrontation between China and the European Federation, which triggered a full-scale war. Finally, the European Federation made a compromise, and after obtaining enough maritime interests, it recognized the China-led method of dividing maritime rights and interests.

From then on, it developed into the ocean and became the main activity of various countries on the earth.

You should know that the land is only 21% of the earth's surface area, the ocean accounts for 79%. There are many places on the land that are not suitable for human survival at all, such as Antarctica, plateaus with an altitude of more than 5,000 meters, deserts lacking water resources, etc. On the ocean, except for the Arctic Ocean and the north-south poles of the other three oceans, there are climate environments suitable for human habitation on the other 80% of the ocean surfaces, and what they lack is only a foothold for humans to survive on the ocean.

Obviously, in the twenty-first and twenty-two centuries, this is definitely not a technical problem.

Just three years later, China built the world's first marine city that can accommodate one million people, and began to provide free marine living places for citizens.

There is no doubt that at that time, this was definitely a sensational event, not even less than a scientific investigation on Mars.

However, compared with the marine cities that appeared later, this is nothing at all.

By the 22nd century, maritime cities could accommodate 10 million people, and by the mid-22nd century, even maritime cities to accommodate 100 million people were not rare. By the end of the 22nd century, marine cities that only operated mainly in the Pacific Ocean could accommodate about 100 billion people. At that time, about 60 billion of Chinese citizens had permanently or lived in marine cities for a long time.

Of course, when we are seeking living space from the ocean, China is also seeking living space from space.

The most typical example is to build the International Space Station into a synchronous space urban cluster around the earth, and this urban cluster eventually accommodated 500 million people.

It seems that this number is not much, but these 500 million people are all elites in human society.

Fortunately, China does not need to discuss the right to use outer space with any country, because the agreement signed during the war allowed China to enjoy the rights and interests of outer space alone before the mid-23rd century and did not need to compromise with any country.

However, China has not dominated the outer space, after all, a large-scale alliance between the state is imperative.

In fact, it is in the outer space that the biggest gap between humans, that is, the relationship between states becomes blurred, and a new civilization model eventually evolved. Under this civilization model, the country is no longer a symbol of dividing people, but only the careers and ideals they are engaged in are the only symbol of dividing people. It is precisely this that humans have been divided into humans in the universe and humans on earth.

The former pursues flying to the endless universe and realizing one's own life value in the vast universe.

The latter pursues a comfortable life on earth and spends his life in peace and dullness.

This huge difference in values, especially life values, ultimately leads to the possibility that human civilization will no longer be unified under one political system.

Unfortunately, before this, the national boundaries on the earth did not disappear.

In a sense, complex state relations are the biggest obstacle to human civilization and the fundamental reason why humans in the universe can't wait to get rid of humans on earth.

Of course, these are all off-topics.

In a sense, the problem of human living space is not prominent, or it is just a problem hyped up by politicians and ambitious people.

You should know that in theory, the earth can accommodate at least one trillion people.

Of course, this is just an extreme situation.

Based on scientific progress, human living space is not limited to the earth, so there is no need to worry about the space resources on the earth.

You should know that in the hundred years after the birth of human beings in the universe, the total number of human beings has tripled.

By the beginning of the 24th century, more than 5 trillion people lived in the solar system, of which only about 500 billion people lived on Earth for a long time, and another 90% lived in outer space or on other planets, such as the moon, which reached 100 billion. In fact, this is not the limit of the moon, because on the moon, there is no problem of protecting the environment, nor the impact of climate change, and there is no need to worry about the survival and reproduction of other organisms, so colonies can be established almost anywhere.

From another perspective, the huge outbreak of human civilization proves the first law proposed by Lu Wen.

Within the scope permitted by technology, any intelligent species tends to reproduce infinitely.

However, Lu Wen ignored one thing, that is, the infinite reproduction of species will also promote the great progress of science and technology, and will continue to promote the infinite reproduction of species.

To put it simply, the reproduction and scientific progress of species complement each other.

The result is that as long as there is sufficient time, any cosmic civilization can fill the entire universe, thus inevitably encountering other civilizations, and inevitably conflicts with other civilizations for the sake of survival space, survival resources, etc.

But, this is an extremely long process.

In theory, this is also impossible, because with the volume of the universe, even within the finite life period of the universe, no intelligent species can occupy the entire universe.

However, conflicts between species are absolutely unavoidable.

For humans, the large population outbreak that occurred in the second half of the 21st century is not a bad thing. The reason is very simple, quantitative change will inevitably lead to qualitative change.

While the population is expanding rapidly, human science and technology are also developing rapidly.

Perhaps, this is exactly what Russell hopes to see, because the life and death of human beings depends on the scientific and technological achievements made in the past two hundred years.

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Chapter completed!