Chapter 565 - 553: Assistance

Li Sheng looked at the 2101 model, which seemed to be looking back at him, and for a moment he couldn’t quite respond.

Although he had been informed in advance that a biomimetic robot would be sent up for testing, his understanding was still stuck in the era from over a decade ago when humanoid robots from the Island Country performed mechanical dances. Very few people on the Moon knew about "14" to this day.

What he didn’t know was that although the housekeeping robot introducing itself as the first generation was actually considered the fourth generation within the base, the comprehensive performance might not be the strongest. Yet, it had achieved the optimal trade-off among various performance indices and could adapt to many harsh environments.

Such a revolutionary robot in his heart should be named something significant like a name from ancient mythology, but the appearance of model 2101 clearly did not fit.

"Engineer Zhao, this... how do you guys name things at the company?"

He looked hopefully at the engineer who had awoken the robot, then the latter just glanced and said:

"It’s wearing blue clothes, so just call it Little Blue. Actually, calling by code number is more convenient, but it feels a bit indecent, like calling out prisoners."

"..."

Li Sheng looked at the 2101 again and asked Engineer Zhao:

"Can I talk to her now?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, Li Sheng carefully faced the robot, slowed his speech, and asked in as standard Mandarin as possible:

"2101, what would you like your name to be?"

"Regarding your question, I request network access to provide a better quality answer."

The response from 2101 was like a lever being perfectly pressed, smoothly continuing after Li Sheng’s words without the gap of human thought.

But what surprised him more was that 2101 was not connected to the network at that moment, relying only on its current intelligence to achieve this was enough to cause alarm.

"In regular use, her default response time is the same as a human’s, but it’s a bit stiff now because it’s in developer mode."

Engineer Zhao looked at the silent Li Sheng and quickly explained, then commanded 2101:

"Authorize connection to the space station’s wireless network... Look, we don’t need to apply any specific formula or movement; she has pre-built information about here and can now connect to the internet."

Just then, 2101 also turned its head towards Li Sheng:

"’Wen Xin’ seems to me a good name, originating from Liu Xie’s literary theoretical work ’Wen Xin Diao Long’ from the Southern Dynasty, with the interpretation drawn from ’as the finesse of the Five Elements, truly the heart of heaven and earth...’

...If you would like to make that the default name, please confirm, or you may name it manually."

"No, ’Wen Xin’ is a very good name, let’s go with that."

"Alright, first-generation housekeeper ’Wen Xin’ at your service."

Li Sheng no longer looked at "Wen Xin" but began to check the inventory list, which included a total of six housekeepers, one for each living module.

Although these robots are all called service types, their professional knowledge would definitely not be less than that of these professional astronauts. They are indeed the most qualified space citizens in the space station.

"Wen Xin, please release the other housekeepers as well."

...

Presidential Palace.

John’s desk was as always piled high with thick stacks of various documents. He was now reviewing them with Sullivan, with whom he had established a good trust relationship.

Although the space industry was booming, the troublesome documents in front of them were not much related to space but rather a mess concerning domestic manufacturing.

Starting from the beginning of last month, the manufacturing reshoring actions mandated by the "Industrial Act" had already been rolled out on a large scale. Congress was pushing the entire society to move in that direction.

Note the "entire society," so opportunely, cutting off 60% of imports from China the following quarter and imposing up to a 1200% increase in tariffs were also part of it—these were the fastest measures to be implemented.

All across America, Walmart supermarkets were hit by a panic-buying wave of toilet paper the moment news broke that they would no longer import the "non-eco-friendly Chinese paper" which apparently made up 90% of their supply.

Whether the news was true or not, the public was unclear, but the stocks of a few domestic paper companies certainly soared, and cars stuffed with toilet paper in their trunks could be seen all over the streets.

Similar situations occurred in other industries as well. There are YouTube vloggers and TikTok influencers, some with possibly less than a middle school education, who constantly muddle the water with phrases like "the XX you use often will soon disappear from the shelves", even claims such as "the raw syrup for American cola all comes from Hong Kong" emerged, forcing Coca-Cola to hastily deny the rumors, insisting that all their cola supplies were from Mexico.

Of course, things were far from that severe, even if John had resolved to sever most imports, it would take time to gradually adjust. The cancellations were for future plans, and at least for the fiscal year of 2017, there would be no significant changes in imports and exports.

But the "Industrial Act" and the "Consumption Act" had taken effect since last month, and the initial reaction to the loosening of the money supply was quite positive.

Firstly, on the most visible front of consumer power, most states began accepting unemployed citizens into schools to improve their education in response to the laws, building on the increase in both the number and methods of welfare disbursements John had raised since taking office. But the direct increase in economic vitality could not be overlooked either.

Secondly, various domestic manufacturing enterprises gained more investment and orders in the categories the Federation explicitly intended to stop importing, with a high growth rate of new enterprises—all though most were merely to cash in on the subsidies issued by the Federation.

The new enterprises were predominantly focused on aerospace and new-energy vehicles, with no shortage of overlap between the two.

"Jack, what is Faraday Future, exactly?"

"What about it?"

Sullivan looked up to see John frowning as he said:

"This company unveiled their first car in January this year, and by September, they had only sold 3 units. But why did they then sell 2000 high-end cars in October and even start a rocket launch service?

Look here, they’re also planning to land on the Moon and mine for gold and rare metals by 2019, and now they’re applying for a $640 million aerospace sponsorship fund for the next quarter."

"This is absurd!"

Without having to think, Sullivan knew what was going on and believed that John could see it too.

John: "Yes, we all know the sort of trickery this represents, but Faraday Future seems to have a significant influence, with many investors choosing them.

What I mean is, investors are focused on space. Right now, there are many on Wall Street who believe that United Mining is about to strike it rich on the Moon, as if it’s the new Gold Rush, just like San Francisco was in the 19th century."

"Space is much more perilous than the sea, so the risks should be adjusted up at least two orders of magnitude."

Sullivan had more to say, but in the time it took to open his mouth, he had already come to understand something:

United Mining’s first ultra-large-scale exploration mission was about to start. They had prepared an unprecedentedly large rocket for this purpose, utilizing the full power of the aerospace sector, and they were even willing to use nuclear devices.

Although the prospects of space mining are extremely unclear, under their frenzied actions, Wall Street would unlikely be able to sit still.

John’s sudden proposal also gave Sullivan some insight into the president’s agenda: the president wanted to keep pace.

United Mining’s grand preparations for exploration had significantly elevated the scientific community’s opinion of them, to the point where some were even beginning to subtly criticize NACA for inaction. This was not a good development.

The emergence of the aero-space plane had only exacerbated this perception, and Sullivan surmised that John had always been looking for an opportunity to regain ground in the field of space exploration.

With that thought, Sullivan couldn’t help but advise:

"The SL-X rocket is set to launch tomorrow, and the JFT’s nuclear engine will be officially delivered for the first unit next year. The nuclear-powered Endeavour is scheduled to take its maiden flight in the first half of 2018.

We can start preparations for some lunar development plans now, and begin construction in the second half of 2018, only half a year later, without the need to formulate additional plans."

He had expected John to argue a bit to stick to his position, but surprisingly, John just fell silent for a moment and then nodded:

"Yes, you’re right. The Federation doesn’t need to waste additional effort.

However, I still think we can do something for the common progress of the human world, especially for the countries that aspire to a free world."

Facing John’s puzzled look, John named a term:

"Star of Asia. We ought to help these two democratic countries fulfill their space dreams."