Chapter 280: Technology Ethics: Establishing Future Norms

When Jia Dongxu pushed open the meeting room door, he still held the freshly printed paper in his hand. The corner of the paper was slightly crumpled from him pulling it too hastily from the printer. He glanced at the experts in the room; some were flipping through documents, some were writing notes with their heads down, and a few were muttering something quietly.

The triplets sat by the window; Zhao Xing moved his chair back half a step, toes lightly tapping the floor. Zhao Chen stared at the old recorder on the table, as if listening to the turntable spin. Zhao Yang held his portable terminal, the screen lit, the interface paused on a document's first page.

"Everyone's here." Jia Dongxu closed the door, walked to the main seat and stood firm, "I won't beat around the bush. This morning, the archaeological team sent over the oracle bone data, and it has been decoded. You've also seen the content—it's not myth, not superstition, but technical drawings."

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

A bespectacled old professor set down his pen: "This is too dangerous. Quantum computation in ancient times? What does our current research amount to then? The whole history of technology would have to be rewritten."

"That's not the point." Jia Dongxu said, "The point is, the fact that this could be decoded shows the technical threshold is lowering. It's not just us; outside, things are starting to move as well."

As soon as he finished speaking, someone turned to look out the window.

Xu Da Mao's robot stood in the center of the courtyard, one hand holding a piece of cardboard with four crookedly written characters: "I want to vote." Its other hand kept swaying, as if greeting someone—or as if the signal had gone wrong.

"It's been holding up the sign since dawn." a young researcher said quietly, "It's already gone through three batteries."

No one laughed.

Jia Dongxu didn't look outside, continuing: "We can't wait any longer. We must immediately establish a set of rules to control these technologies, or trouble will inevitably arise."

He paused, his gaze falling on the triplets.

"So I called you here not to hear a case, but to hear your opinions—how to use them without misuse."

The room suddenly fell silent.

Several experts exchanged glances, some frowning, some shaking their heads. A middle-aged scholar in a gray jacket spoke: "No matter how smart, they're still children. This kind of thing……isn't it too early?"

Zhao Xing lifted his head, looking at that person: "You say it's too early—is it because you fear we don't understand, or because you fear we might be right?"

That person blinked, then had nothing to say.

Zhao Chen then spoke, his voice low but clear: "What we know isn't stolen or guessed; it's what we dreamed. And the more we see in those dreams, the clearer it becomes that some technologies shouldn't appear now."

He paused, then added: "Like a spark—it can warm the right hands, but burn down the house in the wrong ones."

The room grew even quieter.

Zhao Yang opened his terminal, pressed the send key. The projector turned on automatically, and a document title appeared on the wall: "Seven Prohibitions on Spacetime-Related Technology Usage."

Article 1: No altering major historical junctures.

Article 2: No copying core modules to unauthorized individuals.

Article 3: No using precognition for personal gain.

Article 4: All inventions must disclose their basic principles.

Article 5: Establish a Children's Supervision Committee to participate in decision-making.

Article 6: Each technology must undergo a "Social Impact Simulation" before activation.

Article 7: Violators automatically trigger the System Isolation Mechanism.

As the articles were read out one by one, no one spoke.

Only after the final article ended did the projection stop.

The old professor took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose: "This……this isn't a draft; it's a fully formed system."

"We've discussed it." Zhao Yang said, "Each clause is backed by an example. Take Article 3, for instance—it came about because someone tried to profit from precognition in stock trading, which triggered a local temporal disturbance."

"A temporal disturbance?" the young researcher asked.

"It means two things happening in the same minute." Zhao Chen answered, "For example, a person being both dead and alive at the exact same moment. The system couldn't hold, and in the end it glitched— a corner broke off."

He said it lightly, but the listeners felt a chill run down their spines.

Jia Dongxu stared at the clauses on the wall, then slowly sat down: "When did you write these?"

"Last night." Zhao Xing said, "Zhao Yang handled the structure, Zhao Chen organized the cases, and I added the execution process."

"And what about the 'Children's Supervision Committee'?"

"Adults often overlook children's perspectives." Zhao Xing said, "But we know which technologies affect kids. Take that memory-altering device, for example—on the surface it treats trauma, but in reality it might make people forget pain, and thus stop resisting injustice."

He said this without changing his tone, yet the atmosphere in the room shifted.

A female expert suddenly recalled: "Did you see last week's psychological intervention report?"

"We checked the data." Zhao Yang said, "That system was originally meant to ease post-war trauma, but later it was turned into a control tool. If there had been oversight back then, it wouldn't have become like that."

She opened her mouth, but no words came out.

Jia Dongxu raised his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet.

"I now announce that this proposal officially enters the review process." He said, "I will submit it to the superiors, recommending it as the foundational framework for the 'Technology Ethics Library'."

Someone wanted to object, but he raised his hand to stop them.

"I know what you're thinking. They're young, inexperienced, and shouldn't bear such a heavy responsibility. But the question is——" He looked around the circle, "In the past three months, who warned of the earthquake ahead of time? Who restored the broken-off documents? And who, while everyone else was still arguing over authenticity, had already drawn up the diagrams?"

No one responded.

He knew the answer.

Just then, the system prompt sound softly chimed.

Only the triplets heard it.

【Establishing the Technology Ethics System, rewarding Philosophy Specialization】

A faint light flashed across their eyes, quick as a blink, then vanished.

Their thinking became clearer. It wasn't that they gained more knowledge, but that their way of viewing problems changed. Before, they solved problems; now they see where problems originate.

Zhao Xing lowered his head to glance at his hand, then lifted his gaze toward the window.

The robot was still holding up its sign.

The four characters "I want to vote" were bleached white by the sunlight.

"Why does it keep holding that up?" an expert couldn't help but ask.

"Because it has no voting rights." Zhao Chen said, "But it knows voting is important."

No one in the room laughed.

Jia Dongxu picked up the pen and wrote a line in the notebook: "It is recommended to establish a civilian technology grievance feedback channel."

He had just finished writing when Zhao Yang suddenly spoke, "There's another clause that wasn't included."

Everyone looked at him.

"Article Eight," he said, "Before any technology is promoted, it must be evaluated jointly by three generations—elderly, middle‑aged, and children. None may be omitted."

"Why?" the female expert asked.

"Because technology affects everyone," Zhao Yang said, "Those who decide on technology are often only a certain group. If we ignore it now, later someone will use today's 'reasonableness' to deny tomorrow's possibilities."

The room remained silent for a long time.

The senior professor slowly put on his glasses, opened his notebook, and began copying the seven prohibitions. The young researcher took out a phone and photographed the Projection. The middle‑aged scholar in a gray jacket stood, walked to the Triplets, and crouched to look them straight in the eye.

"May I… propose a revision?" he asked, his voice a little low.

Zhao Xing nodded, "Go ahead."

"Article Five, 'Children Supervision Committee,'" he said, "Could it be changed to 'Youth and Children Joint Supervision Mechanism'? That would make approval easier."

Zhao Xing thought for a moment, "It can, but one third of the members must be no older than twelve."

The person smiled, "Deal."

Jia Dongxu watched the scene, and the corner of his mouth relaxed a bit.

The meeting continued: some asked questions, some took notes, some debated details. The Triplets took turns explaining the logic behind each clause, their tone steady and their answers concise.

The Projection on the wall flipped to the appendix page, listing each prohibition's corresponding historical case and technology risk level.

Zhao Chen pointed to one of them and said, "This clause on information blockade draws on the lesson of 2045. Back then someone deleted over three hundred civilization chapters from the global education database, claiming they were 'unsuitable for dissemination.' As a result, the next generation spent twenty years rebuilding the knowledge."

"But that is a future matter," someone objected.

"For us, it is already past," Zhao Chen said.

The words fell, and the room fell silent again.

Jia Dongxu was about to summarize when he suddenly heard a commotion outside.

Clack, clack, clack.

It was the Footsteps of a robot.

It had entered the hallway at some unknown time and was walking step by step toward the conference‑room door, still holding that sign, but this time the cardboard's back bore an extra line: "I also want representation."

The door handle turned gently.