Noldrei was the biggest Proliferationist of them all.
When he acted, he unhesitatingly used the methods of Proliferationism. To him, it was just one step in the process of opposing Proliferationism.
Producing replaceable social environments and cluster-conscious humans was the greatest power Noldrei exercised for the construction of his own ideology.
This is exactly the kind of method he described as Proliferationism!
Dr. Tesla realized what was going on. It was just like how the proletariat could only use the tools of the bourgeoisie to maintain their own political power. This meant that the proletarian regime would, in reality, become a capitalist group existing in the form of a political party.
Dr. Tesla now fully understood what Noldrei's world of geneticism was all about.
The feudal system ranked people based on land ownership. The capitalist system ranked people based on ownership of the means of production. And geneticism ranked people based on the right to reproduce the population.
And now, Noldrei was throwing this problem at them...
I haven't even seen what that social crisis looks like. How can I possibly help come up with a solution?
It wasn't just Dr. Tesla who felt Noldrei was being unreasonable. Was there anyone in the family who didn't think Noldrei was being unreasonable?
But Noldrei's unreasonable demands stopped there. He wasn't in a hurry about this matter and instead focused his attention on other things.
He needed to manipulate the path forward from multiple directions by transforming this world's replacement—the next parallel world.
This sparked a particular suspicion in Dr. Tesla's mind...
Could she, too, be a "population product" that could be replaced at any time?
This thought kept Dr. Tesla awake all night. It even made her wonder if Noldrei might replace her at any moment.
But Noldrei wasn't particularly cruel to others. In fact, apart from some initial control, he had pretty much let them act on their own.
His overall strategy was more like balancing the left and right, then choosing a direction to act upon. Once he had grasped the main contradiction, he started his own work.
And Kiana was more like a replacement he had created for himself. It was just that he didn't deliberately describe it or act that way. He had even guided Kiana to success based on her own needs.
Dr. Tesla couldn't help but think this way because Noldrei had used such methods and means in many of his successes. He had never hidden his path dependence on these kinds of methods.
---||---
Some time had passed since Otto walked into the Imaginary. The people of Anti-Entropy finally had a chance to breathe and sit down together again to discuss the future.
They sat together once more, but this time, they weren't discussing future development, but the actions of Noldrei.
Dr. Tesla shared her personal suspicions with her friends. Although she didn't want to think this way, the terrifying thought lingered in her mind.
As the first Herrscher created by Noldrei, Dr. Tesla could be said to be the first to feel the terrifying threat that Noldrei's so-called Proliferationism posed to humanity.
Welt Yang didn't suspect Dr. Tesla was overthinking it. After all, apart from Kiana, the person closest to Noldrei right now was Dr. Tesla.
He pondered for a moment before asking, "Are you saying that the method used to create Noldrei was Proliferationism, that his actions are a continuation of Proliferationism, and that the power of this 'population reproduction' from Proliferationism permeates his every thought and action? So much so that even when he wants to oppose Proliferationism, he uses its very methods to do so?"
Dr. Einstein was no political expert, but she too sensed the subtle cycle at play. She remarked with a sigh, "It sounds absurd, yet it's completely logical. It's like a revolutionary using the emperor's centralized power to strengthen the revolutionary forces and overthrow the emperor. In the end, to others, it looks as if a new emperor has just been born."
Dr. Schrodinger believed the current situation hadn't reached that point yet. This was her conclusion based on the political content Noldrei had taught.
She offered some reassurance, "It probably won't come to that. In this process, the key to 'population reproduction' is humanity's own continuous strengthening through geneticism. At this stage, it's a completely progressive social form and hasn't yet reached a point of stagnation. We might not even see that kind of stagnant society in our lifetimes. As for the issue of replacement..."
On this point, Dr. Schrodinger really had nothing to say. It was essentially putting the power of 'if you don't do it, someone else will'—the power of natural population production—into the hands of an organized group.
With only geneticism, humanity would only devolve into a cruel Darwinian animal society.
But Proliferationism without the foundation of geneticism would be like a castle in the air, unable to develop the social vitality of population reproduction.
It was no wonder Noldrei had repeatedly emphasized that only humans in the age of geneticism were qualified to speak with him.
Welt Yang mulled over these topics. He knew that under these circumstances, humanity couldn't break through that barrier. The new society Noldrei had shaped possessed an incomprehensible life force, and its struggles and conflicts would far exceed those of the previous era.
He then asked, "Tesla, when did you start to feel... I mean, this idea that you would definitely be replaced?"
Dr. Tesla shook her head. "It was in the Stigma Space. In the past, human communication required contact, probing, exchange, misunderstanding, conflict, understanding, and so on, just to accurately transmit information. But in the Stigma Space, these processes are completely eliminated. We no longer need this backward method of communication. We can directly exchange our experiences, thoughts, and emotions. I think you know what this means, Yang. It means that a person's social consciousness can be constructed more easily and can be formed through communication with others in a short period of time."
Dr. Tesla had also looked forward to the emergence of such a society. But now that it was here and new conflicts were arising, she was also terrified of the conflicts born from this new society.
"This means the cost of learning will be drastically reduced. Just like in industrial society, where many bosses would say to the person tightening screws, 'If you don't do it, someone else will.' In the society of geneticism, the same can be said to us, the monopolizers of knowledge, the so-called geniuses of the old era, and even to those professional managers, politicians, and business leaders who manage social relations: 'If you don't do it, someone else will.'"
"The possibility of having thousands, tens of thousands of Tesla replacements is unlimited."
"In the past, the probability of an Einstein emerging was that out of a country with tens of millions of scientific workers, one Einstein might be born. But in the future..."
Dr. Tesla looked at everyone present with a grave expression. "In the future, among seven billion scientific workers, several Einsteins will emerge. You could even say there might be billions of Einsteins all thinking about the problems Einstein faced."
Dr. Einstein was sweating profusely.
Could you please not use me as an example?