Chapter 6296 Castrated Avatars

Chapter 6296 Castrated Avatars

Jovy made a convincing argument why going too far with granting people access to powerful deities would be detrimental to human society.

"Imagine what it would be like for people of faith to gain access to their personal hotline that connects directly to their supposed 'gods'. They will not only pray to the higher existences for protection against the aliens, but also many other reasons. This can be an earnest plea for their sons and daughters who are fighting in the frontlines to survive. It can also be a more trivial request such as letting them win a lottery."

"If you are afraid that a bunch of newly appeared gods will come and change stuff left and right, then the Red Collective can impose laws on them that should restrict their behavior. I am also sure that we can use technological and more exotic solutions such as my Pacifiers to minimize these divine manifestations in the areas where they are less than welcome."

"None of these are perfect solutions." Jovy said. "It is impossible to monitor every instance of power usage, and the glow of your law enforcement mech produces too many side effects that render people insensitive. We need to solve this problem at the root, for we cannot allow society to change beyond recognition due to the chaotic and uncontrolled meddling of these supposed deities."

"I... can see why you are concerned about this, but why not try it out for a time? You told me yourself we live in troubled times right now. I would have imagined that you guys think we should get all of the help we can get."

"That is true up to a limit. There comes a point where excessive or misguided help turns into harm. Let me give you an example. Think about high school graduates who are undertaking entrance exams for their chosen degrees at a prestigious university. There is one worshiper among them that hasn't made sufficient preparations to pass the exam, but still prays for success. His god answers his prayers and 'helpfully' infuses a large amount of unearned knowledge in the student's head, or simply compels his fingers to type out the perfect answers. Now try and answer these questions for me. First, does this 'blessed' student deserve to pass the exam and begin his studies? Second, how would you rate the intervening god's actions in the spectrum of good and evil?"

Those were deep questions that involved a lot of ethics and philosophy. Ves was not in the mood to think so hard on this issue, so he plainly voiced the first thoughts on his mind.

"I can see where there are circumstances where the student does deserve to get accepted, but in my opinion this should not happen. The university has a limited quota for the amount of students who can enroll for a study program, and it is only fair to reserve those spots for the best performing students. The ones who are supposed to get in are those who are intelligent enough and put in the hard work to memorize a lot of stuff and learn how to apply their knowledge. I don't think anyone will argue that they have deserved their places fair and square, but it becomes more difficult to hold this stance if others come around who are simply better."

"There are many parts of our society that only value results. They do not necessarily place any emphasis on the process, which means that the believers of gods may be able to exploit this to their own advantage."

Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "If you purely want to judge by competence and capability, then a student who skipped all of that and directly had his knowledge implanted by his 'god' may be able to get into the study program anyway. However, if we start doing that on a civilization-wide scale, then a lot of 'cheating' will occur where those who play by the rules get disadvantages while those who pray to their gods for instant success will get ahead. If this trend becomes prevalent enough, then a lot of people will simply stop studying and start praying instead. They will never be able to develop the critical thinking and problem solving skills necessary to become competent mech designers, engineers and so on. This may eventually plunge our entire civilization into a pit of superstition."

"That is a highly apt description of one of the scenarios we are most afraid about." Jovy said. "One of the driving reasons why we have yet to fully automate every job that is currently performed by humans is not only because we are afraid of hostile takeovers of our AIs. It is also because we need to give people enough activities for them to make progress, better themselves and climb up the ladder. We absolutely cannot give them any reason for them to grow lazy and remain idle. As soon as humans begin to give up on working hard on a large scale, then that usually presages the utter collapse and extinction of a race, human or alien. Even if that does not happen, humans will most certainly be reduced to slaves of their gods as they can no longer do anything difficult by themselves."

The consequences could be very dire. Ves got reminded of all of his fears about developing an overdependence on the Mech Designer System for his success.

If Ves managed to implement the plan, then the landscape of gods or rather 'divine avatars' would become much less chaotic and prone to producing unforeseen disasters!

The mechers wanted to impose a lot of order and predictability in what could have otherwise unfolded into absolute anarchy.

"I do. It is quite a clever and elegant solution to this problem. I think I will try it, though it may be hard for all of those church representatives and leaders to swallow this limitation."

Jovy smirked. "You do not need to concern yourself too much about that. Simply inform them of the changes in conditions. If they accept the limitations that we have set, then that is for the best. If they refuse to cooperate, then simply end your engagement with them and wait for my faction to intervene. There are good reasons why these bastions of ignorance and superstition fear our Association."

Well, that was certainly an effective way to solve a problem.

The unspoken message here was that it didn't matter if Ves or the churches were not willing to cooperate. The mechers would force them to comply one way or another.

This was exactly the kind of tyranny and oppression that the Coalition of Faiths was supposed to end!

Right now, Ves had no choice but to abide by the directive of the Survivalist Faction, but it should be different in the future.

Once the Red Collective got up and running and gained enough power to threaten the existing hegemony of the Red Two, that would be the point where Ves would no longer be forced to dance to the tune of the mechers anymore!

Ves couldn't wait for that day to come.

Even though he acknowledged that Jovy and the Survivalists had good reasons for ramming through a change of plans, it still galled Ves that the mechers did not even think about listening to his input!

As far as Ves was concerned, the Coalition of Faiths became even more necessary for his future ambitions!