Chapter 98 It's Not Meaningless, It's Just Not Enough

By now.

Isaac, who came back to life after a hundred years, finally calmed down and returned to his hometown, after witnessing the world that has indeed changed and has not changed.

He also finally began to have doubts about his past career and the value of his life.

Annan was not surprised by this.

Rather, like Hugo and Salvatore, they are able to pay any price at any cost, do not pray for certain results, and burn their souls that are completely good for others... On the contrary, they are very few .

That is the qualification of a saint.

But it is impossible for Annan to use Salvatore's standards to demand Isaac.

After all, it is human nature to hope that one's efforts will be rewarded.

"As for what you said... This country has changed a lot in the past hundred years, but it seems that nothing has changed. This is actually a very normal thing."

Holding the wine glass in both hands, Annan took a sip and replied softly, "Because what you have changed is 'a lot', not 'all'."

"...Not all of them?"

"That's right. In the final analysis, hoping to directly improve society and bring about social progress through the means of 'only increasing productivity' is itself a rather idealistic expectation. It is a kind of productivity-only theory."

Annan said calmly: "Whether it is the Jade Tower or the Zedi Black Tower, the technology you have developed has indeed promoted the evolution of the times and brought great convenience to people.

"But why can you detect that the world has indeed changed?"

"...Because I haven't been back for a long time."

Isaac took a deep breath: "I've been here for more than 140 years... no, I haven't been here for more than 180 years. It's like getting along with my own child day and night. It's hard to see if he has It's the same as getting fat or getting taller."

"In other words, you actually know that no matter what new technology it is, it is difficult to immediately feed it back to the whole society."

"Well. After all, the dissemination of news takes a lot of time, and people will not easily change their way of life. Invention and civilian use, civilian use and popularization, popularization and habits are all different concepts."

As a sorcerer of the transmutation school,

Isaac still has an understanding of this situation.

Transformation wizards who have just graduated often hope that they can change the whole world immediately.

Whenever they develop a new technology, they are eager to be promoted immediately, preferably for everyone to use immediately... without realizing what the most urgent needs of the people are, and whether the people really need to spend money Come buy this thing.

And when they find that no one cares about or understands their invention, they will inevitably have a feeling of being underappreciated.

Therefore, it is also one of the jobs of the mentors in the wizard tower to vaccinate young wizards before they graduate to prevent their mentality from collapsing.

"Then you should be able to understand...the changes in production relations caused by the increase in productivity, no matter in terms of time or space, the changes will not be average and effective immediately."

Annan said slowly: "People have the habit of 'following habits'. If it is not necessary, they will not realize that this kind of production relationship needs to be changed. For a long period of time, this formed 'habit' will be quite fixed, Will not change easily.

"As long as productivity continues to develop, society will change sooner or later. Although you feel that Denisaua has not changed in any way compared to the past... But is it really not your subjective feeling? It is true that there is no change at all, except for the city In addition to the better appearance, hasn't it gotten better or worse?"

"...That's not true."

By this time Isaac had calmed down.

He was not a frizzy young man. When he heard that "this change will not be average and immediate", he has actually realized his problem.

But he still didn't know how to deal with this problem.

So he could only seriously follow Annan's words: "More than a hundred years ago, there were multiple pirate gangs in every city vying for power. For larger cities, new gangs were born every day." , There will also be the demise of old gangs.

"But now... it seems that the Zipper Gang has completely controlled the 'Black Sail Town'. There are no piles of corpses in the streets and alleys."

"That's right."

Annan nodded: "But that's not because they are more conscientious or moral than before... It's because of artillery, because the size and technology of ships have increased.

"In this way, it is difficult for pirates to fight each other as a gang. When one side gains an advantage, it will quickly turn it into a victory; and after they are completely victorious, they will find ways to consolidate themselves in these ports. 'Domination' in the city, which in turn suppressed the formation of other gangs.

"Isn't the relationship between these pirates changed because of these new technologies? But is this change caused by some 'pirate relationship modifier' technology?"

……yes.

Isaac's pupils, which had dimmed before, gradually lit up again.

He realized the problem.

The inventions of the Zedi Black Tower are all good things that can "immediately improve people's lives".

For example, convenient and easy-to-use wound medicine, cheap and safe lighting technology, papermaking and printing technology that can be popularized, underground equipment that can explore tunnels more safely and with less effort...

It is said that these things have not changed society...but have they really done nothing?

--it's not true.

In Isaac's day, a book needed at least one gold coin to start. Those books are all hand-copied, and it is impossible for the poor to even buy books. Because the price can't be lowered at all... The labor cost of the scribe and the cost of paper are hard to ignore.

Today, with the popularization of papermaking and printing technology, books have become cheap. One or two silver coins can buy a book, and there is a premium... In Noah, what is needed to take away a newspaper is not the purchase of one silver coin, but a "donation".

If you want to read books and newspapers, you don't even need to spend money-every city has a public library for the public. Only need a relatively small amount of money, you can "subscribe to a monthly card" and enter it for reading.

And this is something that is only possible because of the sharp drop in printing costs.

It is precisely because of the development of lighting technology that it is possible to have such a thing as a "street lamp" today. With this thing, the nighttime crime rate has also dropped significantly.

"What you did was not meaningless."

Annan said softly: "It's just... not enough. It's not enough."