This is the Best of Times

Samad's lecture was excellent, even better than the best ones Chen Yuanguang had heard at Jiang University.

The "excellent" here referred to the richness of emotion. He could hear the emotions of the literary period in Samad's lecture, the emotional preferences of different historical literary works.

He could hear a longing for the feelings of the authors of that era.

This was very difficult to achieve through lecturing alone.

Usually, to achieve such an effect, one would need a combination of film, music, visuals, lighting, and atmosphere to convey emotions more accurately to the audience.

Samad could achieve this effect in a casual setting, which filled Chen Yuanguang with admiration. He thought, As expected of someone who can be a professor at a contemporary university.

After taking a sip of water, Samad said, "Today's lecture ends here. Next time, we'll discuss various popular literary works of the 21st century. Also, I'll send some book lists to your campus account later. You can download and read them if you're interested."

Chen Yuanguang smiled and nodded, saying, "Okay, I'll definitely take a look when I have time.

Professor, if we discuss popular literature next time, could we focus on science fiction or, more specifically, science fiction mystery?

I'm quite interested in this type of work."

Chen Yuanguang hoped Samad would recommend some science fiction mystery works so he could absorb inspiration from them.

Samad clearly misunderstood Chen Yuanguang's meaning. "You want to find the murderer behind your father's death?"

Chen Yuanguang was surprised. Did the other party also know about this? "Professor, you've heard about it too?

I remember the media reports about the rare car accident near Kek Lok Si Temple didn't use real names. As for connecting it to me, that should be even more difficult, right?"

Samad waved his hand, indicating that this was a piece of cake for him. "Information is blocked for the lower levels, but for the upper levels, who doesn't know that a junior from the Yingchuan Hall Chen Clan was taken out?

I just complained about Chen Dingsong earlier. I've also met your father. I met him when he was still a police superintendent and I went to lecture them on high-tech crime.

Your eyebrows and eyes are very similar to his, plus you're surnamed Chen. Isn't it easy to guess?"

Samad shook his head. "Buddhism says that all appearances are illusory, and all conditioned phenomena are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows.

Death is also like this. Everything in the world, birth and death, reincarnation, everything is predetermined.

Death is blissful outside Kek Lok Si Temple, and it is the same inside Kek Lok Si Temple.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, it's all nonsense. There is no predestination; only what has happened is predestined. If you could go back to the past, you would definitely be able to prevent your father's death.

It's just that the result has already happened, so it has become predestined, not that it was already predestined before it happened.

Science fiction mystery cannot help you solve the problem. If you want to find the real killer behind it, you need to use the power of Alpha.

You can briefly tell me the specific situation."

Chen Yuanguang changed the subject. "Professor, I want to rely on my own strength for this matter."

He wasn't sure about the background of this old man with typical Southeast Asian features, so Chen Yuanguang didn't want to reveal too much.

He wasn't interested in pursuing the killer at all.

Samad had changed from standing to sitting cross-legged. When he recited that Buddhist verse just now, he had quite the air of a charlatan.

Samad didn't mind. "Okay, you have to believe that Alpha can do anything, as long as he wants to.

Besides Alpha, other methods will have loopholes. Even True Judgment may not be able to find the truth."

After saying that last sentence, Samad appeared profound and mysterious, as if he knew something.

Chen Yuanguang wanted to press further, but the thought arose and quickly subsided. He had plenty of time to interact with this old man; this matter wasn't a high priority.

He always had a feeling that the people he encountered, from Chen Yonglin to Shi Huilan and then Samad, were always intentionally or unintentionally guiding him towards finding the real culprit. The more this happened, the less he wanted to do it.

"Professor, I'm very curious, isn't the society shaped by Alpha very good? Even the poorest people can get basic living security; food, clothing, housing, and transportation are all guaranteed.

Humans can get clothes, food, housing, medical care, etc., without working. Compared to before, human living standards and average lifespan have greatly increased, and the average working hours have significantly decreased.

I can hear contempt and dissatisfaction towards Alpha in your words. Why is that?"

When you don't want to follow the path others have set for you, you have to forge a new one.

Of course, this was indeed a topic Chen Yuanguang was curious about – Samad, a highly educated person, possibly with a background he didn't know about, and his views on Alpha.

"Is it really good? Not necessarily, right?

To describe it, a quote from Dickens's 'A Tale of Two Cities' is most fitting: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'" Samad rose from his cross-legged position on the chair and stood up, waving his arms, appearing somewhat frenzied.

He recited Dickens's famous quote in its original English.

"It is the best era for the individual, and the worst era for humanity.

Individuals don't need to work, and they can't find work; there are no jobs provided for them. They can completely immerse themselves in various forms of 'bread and circuses.' The extreme development of AI has made 'bread and circuses' flood the entire platform. Movies, TV series, and games are gushing out as if they were free. Even with extended human lifespans, they can't play them all.

AI creates thousands of AAA games for everyone to play. Those with enough users to be popular can be developed into series, and when a series is unpopular, there are new ones.

This is just games. Various commercially written bestsellers are enough for a person to read until they die. AI cannot experience emotions, but AI can combine and arrange, always creating works with emotions that are selected by humans.

AI creates literary works, and humans filter out those full of emotion. We don't need real writers; the global bestselling human writers date back to the 21st century.

'Bread and circuses' have been developed to their peak by AI, and there are no worries about food, clothing, housing, or transportation. This is undoubtedly the best era for the individual.

After seeing the society Alpha has built for humanity, I realize that in the cyberpunk of the past, the lower class lived miserably, surviving on painkillers and hallucinogens. How high were the maintenance costs of such a society's stability?

Now, energy is almost infinite. After the explosion of productivity, supporting these humans is almost zero cost for AI. Providing them with material security plus 'bread and circuses' is the way to go.

The cyberpunk setting is based on the idea that society is not stable enough."

Samad seemed particularly excited, speaking so much in one breath that Chen Yuanguang even suspected he might run out of air.

Chen Yuanguang initially thought it sounded great, but as he listened, he felt something was wrong. Based on his knowledge structure, when things are obtained so easily without effort, people can easily become empty.

It's like doing nothing during a university summer vacation, lying at home every day. At first, it feels great, but it quickly becomes empty. It's the same principle.

And the humans on Earth in this timeline would be lying down for a hundred years.

Chen Yuanguang felt a chill just thinking about it.

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