Long ago, society had enshrined in law that biological parts could be cloned and cultivated for medical use, but reproducing a fully viable individual of a civilization by any means was forbidden.
With advances in molecular materials, however, cultivated biological bodies were rarely used in medical care anymore. Most individuals who suffered accidents used a Self-Assembling High-Fidelity Medical Needle to restore their missing body parts themselves.
Lan Feng knew that Nagus's proposal could indeed play a decisive role during wartime, but researchers would consider more than that. They might wonder how they would be dealt with after the war.
Nagus watched Lan Feng quietly, waiting for his reply. The lack of an outright rejection meant there was still a chance.
After completing a model simulation based on the data available to him, Lan Feng told Nagus, "A civilization's technological strength is indeed closely tied to its number of researchers. Mass-producing researchers could rapidly advance our technological capabilities... but no one can guarantee that every replicated researcher will follow the prescribed plan."
"A top researcher has far too many ways to evade everything, all sorts of clever tricks to avoid surveillance or interfere with monitoring."
Lan Feng paused, then continued, "And we'd have a whole crowd of people like that. If we simply kept each individual from communicating, we couldn't develop the best plans without the clash of ideas. That would defeat the original purpose..."
Watching Lan Feng analyze the issue in all seriousness, Nagus thought, Researchers really are easier to talk to. An ordinary person would surely reject this plan on all sorts of moral grounds.
Nagus said, "Freedom. We can give them freedom."
Lan Feng froze for a moment. Yes, freedom is a wonderful thing.
Even if it was only an empty promise from their civilization, it would be