As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 359 Smooth Transition
"Recently, all civil servants in Singapore are on vacation, and artificial intelligence has taken over almost all public affairs. This matter has recently caused heated discussions in our country's public opinion circles. Lao Hu thinks that the issue of artificial intelligence taking over public affairs should be viewed from a comprehensive perspective.

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence taking over daily affairs can save a lot of public resources. At the same time, artificial intelligence far surpasses humans in terms of work efficiency and work ability.

However, when looking at a problem, we cannot only see the advantages but also its disadvantages. It is unlikely that artificial intelligence will take over daily affairs in my country, at least in the short term.

First of all, China's population and public affairs far exceed those of Singapore. Singapore is only a city-state with a population of 5 million, while China has a population of over 1.4 billion.

The scale of the numbers is completely different, and it has not yet been verified whether artificial intelligence can handle problems at this level.

Secondly, the sudden reduction in China's civil service is also a big problem for social stability.

Finally, the security of artificial intelligence has not been fully verified. It is also a big question whether artificial intelligence taking over public affairs in the future will cause unknown risks due to its autonomous consciousness.

Therefore, Lao Hu believes that we should not blindly expect that we will promote the application of artificial intelligence in public affairs like Singapore just because of the advantages that artificial intelligence has shown so far. "

As a well-known frisbee hero in China's public opinion field, Lao Hu is best at speaking from both sides' standpoints at the same time.

What's even funnier is that sometimes he would express the affirmative view on the first day, and then come out and express the negative view on the third day.

Even though the opinions he expresses are actually contradictory and conflicting, you feel they are so harmonious.

China actually had two initial learning goals: to learn from Japan at the national level and to learn from Singapore at the city level.

As one of the four Asian tigers, Singapore was not only not affected by the Asian financial crisis in 98 or the global financial crisis in 08, but it became more prosperous.

This makes many cities in China want to follow the Lion City route.

The same is true for Gusu, Shenhai and Pengcheng.

Therefore, the social changes brought about by technology in Lion City this time have aroused widespread heated discussion in China.

After Lao Hu posted on Weibo, the number of comments below was an order of magnitude more than his usual Weibo posts.

"Old Hu, I just want to ask you, whether it was the earliest truck drivers, the large-scale layoffs of drivers, or the manufacturing workers being killed by artificial intelligence, do you remember what you said at the time? What do you think now?"

Artificial intelligence is a major trend, and it takes time to go from concept to implementation.

By 2031, fifteen years have passed since the concept first became popular. During these fifteen years, artificial intelligence has found mature applications in all walks of life.

The widespread promotion of artificial intelligence has led to a lot of unemployment.

Especially in recent years, the gradual deepening of industrial intelligence in the manufacturing industry has led to the unemployment of a large number of traditional workers.

Manufacturing and service industries have always been the two industries that employ the largest number of people.

You can't expect everyone to be a programmer or work in the financial industry.

Moreover, low-end programmers have basically been eliminated in recent years.

The improvement in individual work efficiency brought about by artificial intelligence makes China's aging problem seem less serious.

Instead, there was a wave of unemployment in the middle. At that time, Lao Hu said:

“Technological progress is a trend, and we need to embrace this trend to gain an advantage in the global science and technology competition.

This unemployment is caused by technological development and is an inevitable trend. What we need to do is to create new jobs for those who have become unemployed due to technological development.

Instead of throwing the baby out with the bathwater and working just for the sake of working.

If we compromise on this, more people will be unemployed in the future due to technological backwardness.”

Lao Hu’s remarks back then were also dug up and refuted by the powerful netizens.

"What? Civil servants are human beings, and their unemployment will cause social instability? Other manufacturing workers, low-end programmers, customer service, drivers, etc., are not human beings?

Can the unemployment of these people be offset by a simple statement that the trend is irreversible?

Lao Hu is a real dog. Can you please take a look at your previous comments before posting? "

In fact, compared with other countries, China’s unique public opinion politics is also the so-called national politics.

As long as an issue can attract heated public discussion, no matter what the final result is, at least there is a result.

Incidents that fail to gain sufficient public attention may not even have any subsequent results.

This is not to say that this kind of public opinion field is politically bad, it is actually a good thing.

Because other countries have done worse in this regard, there are media reports in Western countries, but no follow-up.

Lao Hu's change of position gave netizens who opposed him another point to attack him.

Of course, there are also rational netizens who put forward their own ideas based on Lao Hu's logic:

“Since there are so many civil servants, can we start by stopping the recruitment of civil servants?

Then gradually introduce artificial intelligence to participate in public affairs.

Through practice, we can verify whether artificial intelligence can handle a population of 14 billion as perfectly as in Lion City.

Whether it is the risks that Lao Hu mentioned, or the comments of netizens who support artificial intelligence taking over public affairs, I think they all need to be verified in practice.

We have always followed the path of testing truth through practice.

Stop recruiting civil servants, partially transfer public affairs to artificial intelligence, and let artificial intelligence completely take over public affairs.

This is a path I envision.”

Lion City's artificial intelligence has not only sparked heated discussions in China, but also in other countries. Many countries are even considering introducing Lion City's social governance artificial intelligence.

As for the artificial intelligence technology contained therein, it has made Internet giants salivate.

Why is it that after so many years, only America and China have been able to produce multinational giants on the C-end of the Internet industry?

Even if other countries give birth to multinational Internet giants, they are B-side.

Like ERP, it is mainly the Internet giants on the enterprise side.

A very important reason is language.

Blue Star has only two major language pools, English and Chinese, with a large enough population to produce rich enough content.

Among the English-speaking countries, only America has the capital to promote its Internet applications to other countries.

Even if other English-speaking countries have similar products, the capital behind them does not have the courage to do so.

During the financing process, it was acquired by American Enterprises.

There are many such cases.

The same is true in China. With a population of over one billion Chinese speakers, China's Internet giants have a fertile soil for birth.

If artificial intelligence can unify languages, it will be a completely different concept. Chinese and English can be understood as two pools, each with its own ecosystem. Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc. are small pools.

Artificial intelligence has eliminated the boundaries of all pools. Everyone is in the same pool, which allows Internet giants to enter the markets of other language systems unimpeded.

If this technology is in the hands of individuals, it will undoubtedly be a major benefit.

But it was in Merlin's hands, and they didn't even have a way to contact Merlin.

Currently, all civil servants in Lion City are on holiday. It is impossible for multinational Internet giants to contact Merlin through senior civil servants in Lion City.

As for everyone's speculation that Zheng Li is Merlin, this is something you know, but you cannot say it openly.

Li Miaomiao thought Zheng Li was going to Singapore, but Zheng Li still stayed in China most of the time as before.

There is also a certain tacit understanding between Huaguo and Zheng Li. I know what you are going to do. If you are going to other countries to cause trouble, I won’t ask too much.

As for artificial intelligence for public affairs, China knows that this is a trend, but it conflicts with China's imperial examination system that has existed for thousands of years.

The modern civil service examination is actually a variation of the ancient imperial examination system.

And the fatal point is that repetitive tasks can be replaced by artificial intelligence, and low-level civil servants will be eliminated first.

What about middle-level civil servants? What about senior officials?
This is something that no one dares to say, but everyone knows it in their hearts.

Therefore, China will pretend not to know and will wait and see for the time being.

"Zheng Li, so many civil servants in Lion City are on holiday now. When are you going to lay them off?"

As the person who knows the inside story best, Li Miaomiao is also very curious about what Zheng Li will do next.

She saw all kinds of speculation on the Chinese Internet.

The most common view is that all civil servants in Singapore will be laid off, leaving only the parliament and police system.

Based on Li Miaomiao's understanding of Zheng Li, it is obviously not that simple.

She knew very well that Zheng Li was an extreme scientist.

"Why should we lay them off?" Zheng Li replied, "We won't lay them off for the time being."

“Since AI can do transactional work, it’s not like you’re going to keep these people’s personalities for nothing.

Could it be that after becoming the controller of Lion City, you have changed your personality?"

Li Miaomiao was amazed by Zheng Li's method of remotely controlling Lion City.

Because when Zheng Li was giving a speech in front of the Parliament House in Singapore, Li Miaomiao was sitting with Zheng Li watching TV.

Zheng Li was chatting with her while giving a speech on TV, which made Li Miaomiao have the illusion of who she was and where she was.

Zheng Li replied: "First, support them for three months, and then hold a referendum after three months.

Lion City will not need any civil servants in the future, nor will it need staff in the police system.

With me here, there is no room for any crime in Singapore.

With artificial intelligence combined with a complete city sky eye, there are no secrets in Lion City.

As for the current civil servants, some of them will be selected to operate virtual reality equipment and biophotovoltaics.

That means letting them plant trees.”

After listening to this, Li Miaomiao smiled and said, "It is indeed quite suitable.

Previously, we served businesses and individuals, and now we serve plants.

It can be regarded as the ultimate implementation of the service-oriented government.

You want to get rid of the parliament as well? Aren't you afraid that they won't cooperate and drive you out of office?"

Zheng Li shook his head: "Now the control of this game is no longer in their hands."

Li Wanqing walked into the R&D center of Sinovation Biotech in Singapore as usual. While he was eating breakfast in the cafeteria, he looked at the news report above his head:
"Lion City and America have completed negotiations on a military agreement and reached a new agreement. America will officially stop using the Changi Naval Base in Lion City from September 9.

Military observers said that after Merlin came to power, Singapore's neutrality between China and America was further demonstrated.

Five months have passed since Merlin took office. In these three months, Lion City has changed more than in the past thirty years.

First, all civil servants in Singapore were given a three-month vacation. In the last month, Merlin announced that he would hold a referendum and gave a televised speech:

“Full freedom can promote innovation
Lion City’s public service system has always been widely praised at home and abroad. With the two months of trial operation of artificial intelligence, we have realized the absolute advantages of artificial intelligence over humans in the field of public affairs.

The Lion City spends over S$10 billion annually on public servants’ salaries and wages and there are now better ways to run our public affairs.

Therefore, I decided to hold a referendum next month, which is a full quarter after the artificial intelligence has been running, to decide the future direction of Lion City’s government system.

If the Lion City wants to continue to be prosperous in the future, the most critical factor is to cultivate the spirit of scientific creation and daring to take risks."

Just by listening to the speech, Li Wanqing knew that the proposal would definitely pass.

Because in his TV speech, Merlin not only expressed the superiority of artificial intelligence, but also the superiority of artificial intelligence in transactional processing, which you will experience as long as you have been to a government office to do business.

What's more important is that after Merlin made the decision to lay off civil servants, this part of the financial expenditure will all become everyone's welfare.

With this combination of punches, who can resist the temptation?

First all civil servants were killed, then the parliament was overthrown, and now Lion City is a country completely managed by artificial intelligence.

At the same time, last month, negotiations were completed with China's Hikvision, which will help Lion City comprehensively upgrade its surveillance system.

And purchase a large number of specially modified drones from DJI.

As for the civil servants who were laid off, most of them received a considerable amount of compensation.

In addition, the bigwigs in the parliament did not object, so Lion City completed the transformation in peace.

Li Wanqing actually doesn't have too many feelings, but based on his observations in the Lion City online community, people's satisfaction with the government is increasing.

Of course, new questions also arise.

There is no parliament, no civil servants, only artificial intelligence. How can everyone's demands be protected?

Does the specific policy of Lion City depend entirely on Merlin’s subjective will?

This was also the point that Merlin was criticized the most in various media after the congressmen were ousted.

Transactional work can be done by artificial intelligence, but similar policy changes cannot and should not be decided by artificial intelligence.

(End of this chapter)