Cyber ​​Heroes

Chapter 458 Xiang Shan's Thoughts

Xiang Shan sincerely believes that additive construction/3D printing can change the industrial structure of mankind.

The path of human industrial structure will inevitably lead to "agglomeration", and monopoly will be very easy to appear.The reason is because of "mass production".

The benefits of mass production are simply too great.

When human resources, capital, information, technology, and economic entities gather in a region, they can produce the special effect of "1+1>2".Due to the expansion of the scale of the production organization, all production lines can share the technology provided by one research and development institution, which equalizes the cost of research and development.When purchasing materials on a large scale, it can also drive down prices.

All in all, there are many benefits.

Of course, there is another point-a large number of people can realize the specialization and division of labor of personnel, improve efficiency, and thus reduce costs.

Adam Smith completed the study of "division of labor" in economics, and the mathematician Charles Babbage developed it further.In the end, in the hands of Henry Ford, the "god of the brave new world", this set of systems evolved into its final form - the assembly line.

Babbage proposed from a scientific point of view that the division of labor can reduce the number of skills each worker possesses.This saves the time for workers to learn new skills, saves time for employees to learn, saves time to switch from one process to another, and saves time to change tools.In this way, a worker only needs to repeat simple labor to quickly improve the proficiency of labor skills.

But Mr. Babbage probably did not foresee how Henry Ford would practice this theory.

The big capitalist Ford divided the production of the Model T into a total of 7882 different processes.Of these, 949 require "strong, well-conditioned male workers" and 3338 require "general physical workers"; other processes can be performed by "women or older youths"; Of the 670 procedures, workers with one leg can do 2637, people without hands can do 2, people with one hand can do 715, and blind people can do 10.”

Ah, of course, there is one more thing that should not be forgotten.

Mr. Babbage is an expert in mechanical research.Before the age of electricity, the mathematician contemplated building "machines that can calculate" and "machines that can run autonomously."

Therefore, Babbage also put forward a very important point - because the task of a single worker becomes simpler, so "after the division of labor, it is easier to design more sophisticated tools and machines, thereby increasing labor productivity."

It is not that machines lead to mass production, but because humans have discovered that "mass production" is very profitable, so industrial machines are designed to meet the requirements of mass production.

Everything in the modern factory system revolves around the theme of "mass production".Henry Ford's disciples and grandchildren practiced Babbage's theories in the most brutal way.

Even this form of labor will completely destroy the value of workers.

Workers don't need to know what they are doing, they just need to rely on muscle memory to repeat the work.Therefore, it is difficult for him to realize the meaning of his work.In this way, it is simply killing the worker's enthusiasm for work, and at the same time cutting off the growth channel of his labor skills.

Until a machine completely replaces the worker's job.

Xiang Shan thinks so.

Therefore, although he felt that Yawgmoth's argumentation process was a bit jumpy, the concept of "machines should be public" can make people's eyes shine.

Man should not exploit man, but man can exploit machine.Produced by machines, enjoyed by people - this is the most likely "beautiful future" that can be realized in imagination.Machines liberate people from heavy and repetitive labor, and humans can use learning to improve themselves, express themselves with creation, and maintain themselves with entertainment.

Of course, the premise of all this must be that "everyone can obtain the things produced by machines", and that "the goal of machine production must be grasped by the public".

But this is not easy, because as long as the "scale effect" is still there, industrial agglomeration, totalitarianism, monopoly, overproduction, and major crises will inevitably be continuously created.

Xiang Shan believes that as long as "centralized production" still has advantages, those problems are inevitable.

However, 3D printing does have some such potential.

Production lines are specialized.A production line that produces screws may not necessarily produce nuts.Because the materials, molds, lathes, etc. required by the two products are different.If a production line produces both screws and nuts, it is necessary to switch part of the production equipment while switching the production products.

At this time, it is better to have two production lines.

Therefore, materials are often transported from smelters to production lines in different places, and then transported to the destination through various complex logistics.

But 3D printing is different.If the technology is more mature, it should be possible to make anything from metal roughed by small smelters.

For 3D printing, the cost of production is only the cost of model data, raw materials and smelting.Tooling, machinery and material loss are not included.After the ore has been roughly processed, it does not need to flow to a processing plant, but can be shipped directly to consumers.

At this moment, Xiang Shan firmly believes that 3D printing technology can completely change the pattern of industry.

Because this is not a technology designed "for centralized production".

If combined with technologies like automated assembly...

If Ford is the god of capitalism, and the assembly line symbolizes the glory of capitalist mass production, then maybe additive construction is a technology more suitable for the "Kingdom of Freedom".

Xiang Shan thought so sincerely.

Of course, Xiang Shan didn't think he could shake the existing system in his lifetime.Because the current industry is completely based on the assembly line industry.

His ambition is actually equivalent to re-opening a completely different technology tree.

However, opposite to this new technology tree is a technology tree that has already monopolized all resources.

Xiang Shan didn't think he could succeed.

However, with the arrival of Ogun, things changed a little bit.

"Project Oron Mira" shows a technological tree of "additive construction".

It is certain that aliens have also mastered similar technology and applied it to the aerospace industry.

This is a signal.

Xiang Shan felt that perhaps he should work harder.

Regardless of the direction, he must find his allies in academia—friends who are willing to help him pursue this ideal.

But at this moment, Xiang Shan felt that Yawgmoth Voigt was a pretty good person.

(End of this chapter)