"Some people might think a bee colony's social structure is somewhat unfair, but you can't deny that it is precisely this structure that allows the hive to function in an orderly fashion, with each bee performing its own duty and producing an endless supply of honey. Human social structures serve much the same purpose. Though they are more complex than those of bees, there is no essential difference." Mr. G took out a handkerchief and wiped the remains of the dead bee from his fingers.
"Is New Shanghai 0297 also a hive that provides an endless supply of honey?" Zhang Heng asked.
"Good question. In my view, companies, cities, and even the state systems that have already perished are all hives, merely in different forms." Mr. G spread his hands. "For thousands of years, humanity has been striving to find more efficient means of production and reproduction. From the use of tools, through several industrial revolutions, to the emergence of global division of labor, our productivity has risen by leaps and bounds, and material life has grown ever more abundant. Look at the world around you. Compared to our ancestors who lived in caves, we have it unimaginably good."
"But at the same time, we have become increasingly like our creations. The vast majority of people have lost their individual uniqueness. Like these worker bees, every one of them looks much the same, becoming interchangeable parts. We have forgotten what our true desires are, been deceived by society, and gradually reduced to tools of production. We are assigned different duties and pieced together so that the entire order can continue to operate. Yet the more productivity develops, the more we resemble tools, until the emergence of Clones pushed all this to the extreme."
Mr. G paused. "When Clones were first