Deep Space Wandering Fleet

Chapter 72: 72 Chapters: Human Relations, Best Academic?!

One of the professors suddenly said, “If in the next three thousand years, Earth Civilization’s technology could make another major breakthrough with stronger Artificial Intelligence and automated production lines, perhaps the industrial population needed for building a new civilization could be greatly reduced.”

Ding Zhaodong slightly shook his head, “We should not pin our hopes on Earth Civilization. Even if technology advances further, a population of five hundred thousand is still too few.”

Another professor also said, “Actually, it’s not necessarily the case, the history of Earth in the next three thousand years is a good reference.”

The group of professors quietly discussed amongst themselves for a while.

Academician Ding turned his head and asked, “Then, regarding the issue of a low population, would you accept the use of artificial wombs to massively incubate human babies? They would have no parents, existing just for the continuity of the new civilization.”

Zhang Yuan said, “As far as I know, the technology of artificial wombs is not yet fully mature.”

“What if, in the future, such artificial womb technology does indeed exist, what do you think?”

Is this… a political question?

It’s difficult.

Zhang Yuan thought for a long time but couldn’t find a very tactful and moderate answer.

He honestly said, “I accept. If reality demands that we must do this, we have no other choice.”

“Humans are not like livestock; their reproductive capacity is extremely limited. With a high population growth rate of 2%, in 100 years we could only increase sevenfold, to 3.5 million people, which is too few.”

“Due to long-term resource scarcity, coupled with the aging and dying of our first generation of high-quality population, it could cause a significant decline in the overall quality of our civilization’s population. Even if unethical issues arise from artificially incubated infants, we have no other choice.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ƝονǤο.ƈ0

“The cosmos is vast, yet the time left for us is limited. Once the equipment carried on the spaceship ages and we have not developed replacements, coupled with a significant decline in population quality, our new civilization would go extinct on an Alien Planet.”

Captain Ma nodded and smiled oddly.

The room became very quiet for a while.

Everyone was thinking about something.

Academician Ding said indifferently, “All right, there’s nothing more to ask. You can leave now.”

“Wait until we have interviewed everyone, then we will notify you with the final results.”

“Thank you all,” said Zhang Yuan, bowing politely as he left the room, involuntarily wiping the sweat from his brow.

There were many challenging questions that were hard to tackle.

No wonder in the selection of students by academicians, the difficulty… is considerable!

After Zhang Yuan left, the room was quiet for a while.

Captain Ma suddenly asked with a smile, “Old Ding, this nephew of mine isn’t bad, right? If you don’t take him, I will find another Academician to accept him.”

Ding Zhaodong also smiled, “He is indeed good, both in terms of skills and ideology, a very pragmatic person. However, let’s wait and see if there is a more suitable candidate, as I won’t show favoritism because of personal feelings.”

“Ha, do you really think such a talent is common as Pu Pu Grass, easily found everywhere?”

“Then, let us invite the next interviewee.”

…

Two days later, the interview results were announced.

98 points, not knowing where the two points were deducted, perhaps due to a poorly answered question.

However, with 98 points, theoretically, it was already quite a high score.

The interview score accounted for 40% of the total grade, and based on that, Zhang Yuan estimated that he had securely ranked first in the “Space Machinery Engineering” program.

Being accepted by Academician Ding was practically a foregone conclusion.

Even influenced by this event, several other well-known academicians from different fields also whimsically wanted to recruit a wave of graduate students.

This news spread among the group of candidates, causing a small stir.

“Congratulations, congratulations!”

“Boss treats!”

Zhang Yuan, in a good mood, waved his hand generously, “Eat whatever you want, everyone.”

“Big chicken legs! Big chicken legs!”

Cunning Li Zhendong wanted to eat the biological 3D-printed chicken legs that cost one hundred thousand yuan each, which scared Zhang Yuan green. He hurriedly said, “If you can steal the chicken legs from the lab, I’ll pay the fine.”

The companions chimed in, “Actually, this is pretty normal. Other people’s interviews were over in ten minutes. Zhang Yuan had an hour-long interview, whom else would they choose if not him?”

“… What kind of questions did they ask? I’m going for an interview soon too, although it’s just for an ordinary professor position.”

“The questions… were actually quite difficult.”

Zhang Yuan was busy sharing his interview experience, including some academic questions that were quite profound. Even a master’s graduate might not be able to answer them, along with various miscellaneous questions about culture and politics.

A few girls listened with their tongues sticking out.

“Isn’t this recruiting Ph.D. candidates rather than master’s students?!”

“I guess other academicians’ interviews are this twisted too. We might not even qualify for an interview; we can only watch the excitement…”

“Fortunately, I’m only interviewing with an ordinary teacher…”

Just then, Ye Kaifu rushed over from Area J, his face beaming with joy.

“Hahaha, Zhang Yuan, I have both good news and bad news for you. Which do you want to hear first?”

Not the bad news again!

Zhang Yuan grimaced, “The good news.”

“Your interview went well, and you ranked first in your major, very likely to be selected by Academician Ding.”

“Pfft…”

Everyone let out a bored sigh, indicating the news was already outdated. You must be from Zhiyuan Star, huh?

Zhang Yuan rolled his eyes and continued, “What’s the bad news?”

Ye Kaifu, looking like he was enjoying the disaster, said, “Someone is challenging your interview score!”

What?

Challenging?

Zhang Yuan was nonchalant.

If no one envies you, you’re mediocre. Just do what you believe in and let others talk.

“This isn’t something small, you can’t just ignore it.”

Zhang Yuan took Ye Kaifu’s phone, and saw a post titled “Nepotism academics, ‘best’ academics?!”

A student named Cai Kun, in his post, openly questioned the fairness of the entire interview process.

His written exam score was the highest in the “Space Machinery” major, but he only got 60 points in the interview…

“Zhang Yuan’s written exam score was 2 points lower than mine, but he scored 98 points in the interview, a whole 38 points higher than me! The other interviewees generally scored only in the sixties or seventies. Doesn’t everyone think this is unreasonable?”

“Later, I came to a possible conclusion: Zhang Yuan’s father, Professor Zhang Qiming, used to be a colleague of Academician Ding. Perhaps it was because of old times’ sake that he scored high.”

“… I left Earth because I despise all these unreasonable worldly manners. I hoped to live in a more perfect, more just civilization. But I didn’t expect that even in such a critical matter as student recruitment, personal connections would still exist!”

“Let the capable ones lead, the mediocre ones step down, the equal ones give way. This is the most suitable human resource choice! If even this can’t be done, how can we establish a stronger civilization?!”

“Especially since Deep Space University and Star University have just been established. They should really work on cultivating a good academic environment! They shouldn’t develop this bad habit of nepotism.”

Zhang Yuan’s brows furrowed as he read.