Science fiction master Liu Cixin mentioned in an essay that he once talked with an old comrade-in-arms of his father, who was a veteran of the Volunteer Army who participated in the Battle of Changjin Lake.
Liu Cixin tried to discuss science fiction with him, but did not expect any meaningful response.
Unexpectedly, this veteran volunteer soldier made an unforgettable comment to Liu Cixin, can you use science fiction to let the people know what communism is like?
Many years later, Liu Cixin launched his ultimate imagination and used two novels to depict the ultimate communist society and the ultimate capitalist society respectively, which are "Supporting God" and "Supporting Mankind".
Discuss these two futures that seem to be far away, but are real.
When I was in school, I listened to the teacher talk about the concept of "social contradictions", and I thought at that time, since the communist society is still a human society, there should naturally be social contradictions and social problems, but what contradictions will there be in a society of "distribution according to needs"?
I never imagined it, and I think it was because I couldn't imagine what a communist society would look like.
Liu Cixin described such a society with extremely developed technology and civilization in "Supporting God":
They have long since ceased to call the planets home to the volatile environment, and the entire population of about two billion people lives in a closed and stable spaceship.
They piloted a fleet of tens of thousands of ships, galloping eternally through the sea of stars at nearly the speed of light.
They have defended the galaxy from foreign invasions many times, and have prevented the devouring of cosmic life by super black holes with great sacrifices.
They only need to run a simple software program to start life processes on a planet.
It was they who sowed the seeds of life on the earth and helped the birth of mankind, thus creating the civilization of the earth, which is why they are also called "God's civilization".
The machines of the "divine civilization" have become completely independent of their creators and operate independently, capable of self-maintaining, updating, and expanding.
Such intelligent machines are capable of providing everything that the gods need, not just material but also spiritual.
The gods do not have to make any effort to survive, they are completely fed by machines, as if lying in a comfortable cradle.
The average lifespan of the gods has increased to 4,000 years, and thanks to their mastery of traveling at the speed of light, they actually have near-infinite time in the regular world.
The appearance of the gods is a mixture of the characteristics of all races, absolutely equal to each other, and without losing their individuality, any one person can represent the will of the whole.
However, such an awesome "God civilization" is already in its last years and is on the verge of extinction.
First of all, although individuals live for 4,000 Earth years, their minds are completely ossified at about 2,000 years old, their creativity is gone, and it is difficult for new life to be born and grow, leaving only a large group of gray-haired old people who are more than 3,000 years old.
Then, the "cradle of machines" makes them forget technology and science, culture becomes lazy and empty, loses the ability to innovate and enterprising, and civilization ages faster.
The gods have almost lost their skills and learning ability, they can't even connect electric light circuits, they can't even solve one-dimensional quadratic equations.
Finally, billions of years have caused the ship's components to deteriorate and fail, and the system's self-maintenance and repair function has encountered more and more obstacles.
The ecological environment in the spaceship is deteriorating day by day, the ration of daily necessities is dwindling day by day, and there is only enough to survive, and the more than 20,000 cities in the spaceship are filled with foul air and despair.
God's spaceship is on the verge of obsolescence, the navigation power system is no longer capable of propelling the spacecraft to nearly the speed of light, can only carry out low-speed navigation less than one-tenth of the speed of light, the ecological circulation system on the spaceship is close to collapse, can no longer feed two billion people, God can only find their own way.
So, the gods descended to earth and asked this new civilization of their own creation to adopt them. In exchange, "divine civilization" will hand over all its materials in various disciplines and technological fields to mankind.
In the face of such favorable conditions, the United Nations immediately acceded to the request of the gods, and the countries adopted a unified "God Maintenance Law", in which all earthlings share the obligation of maintenance, and every family on the earth must adopt one or two gods.
Dependent families receive a monthly alimony payment, and government departments at and above the township level have set up "committees" (God's Care Committee) to supervise maintenance.
At first, God was warmly welcomed by the people, and the joy of everyone was palpable at the thought of being able to get unimaginable super-technology and live a communist life of "distribution according to need".
The gods live in harmony with their families, fishing, watching plays, chatting and playing chess every day.
"No one could have imagined that the honeymoon between God and mankind would soon be over. ”
With the help of God-provided interfaces, their vast amounts of scientific and technological information were quickly deciphered, and the nations were fairly divided among them, but it was immediately discovered that the technology of God's civilization was too advanced for humans to actually use for at least a century.
Controlled nuclear fusion, for example, is not available in God's literature at all, because it is too primitive.
The gods can't help scientists either, because there are very few people who can solve quadratic equations now. God's ship also does not respond to the call of humanity.
On the other hand, the earth's population has suddenly increased by 2 billion, and they are all super-elderly people who cannot create any value, and most of them are suffering from diseases, which has caused unprecedented pressure on human society.
The alimony received by human families is nothing more than the government's cuts in other public benefits, and the world economy is on the verge of collapse.
The human family found that it would take at least a hundred years for this group of living ancestors to see the money back, and the relationship with God changed from harmony to disgust.
Although the government has classified the abuse of God as a criminal felony, it cannot stop the cold language within the family, and the gods are often noisy, and many of them run away from home, and some even want to find a short-term vision.
Eventually, the gods felt that they had caused too much trouble for humanity and decided to return to the ship in their entirety.
They appreciate the zest for life shown by humans and love human creativity and imagination, but they can't stand the pity that humans have for themselves.
A God, even if he is old, does not need to be pitied.
The gods instructed human beings to quickly learn the technology they left behind and go to the sea of stars in order to avoid being wiped out by other civilizations.
One of the gods had taken away the old mathematics, physics and chemistry textbooks of the middle school that he was supporting, and he wanted to start from scratch, hoping to remaster their technology and fulfill his last wish to pursue the few explorers who had not lost their adventurous spirit and were heading into the depths of the universe.
Liu Cixin once reflected on the fact that there does not seem to be an impressive depiction of communist society in Chinese and foreign literature, including Soviet literature.
The reason is actually not complicated, the communist society is extremely beautiful, and it is difficult for the beautiful to have a deep dramatic conflict, and it is naturally difficult to produce a good work.
Therefore, Liu Cixin uses this allegorical story to explore a key question - what is the core contradiction of communist society?
Let us take a look at Marx's exposition: Labor is the essence and foundation of human activities, the fundamental condition for human survival and development, and the primary need of people.
God's civilization met all the material and spiritual needs of its members of society with highly developed technology, and also had a long life, which led to a terrible consequence - the lack of labor.
The people who are indulged in the "cradle of the machine" are completely detached from labor, and they have lost the foundation of survival and development, and there is only a group of old people left in the society who have completely lost their vitality, until the objective conditions can no longer sustain.
The depletion of resources has become the ultimate contradiction in communist society, and the lack of labor has constituted the fundamental contradiction.
Liu Cixin uses such a reverse cyberpunk story to show us what a communist society looks like, and also reminds us of what we should do today and in the future.
At present, people are worried that among the various harms that intelligent technology may bring to people, detachment from basic labor itself may be the most far-reaching and fundamental one.
Of course, the future will not be so simple, and the real threat that more people foresee is that when private ownership is combined with super technology, the poor, and even humanity itself, are facing an unprecedented crisis.
Liu Cixin's "Supporting Mankind" shows us this other ultimate form. We will continue the discussion in the next article.