5209 The Web of the Association

Ves and Jovy barely managed to complete their juggernaut design within the 20-hour deadline.

They both had no compunctions about borrowing from existing juggernaut designs and making heavy use of the auto designer to fill in a lot of gaps.

If not for the fact that the highly intelligent and accurate auto designer program lacked any form of spirituality, it would have been capable of replacing the work of at least 90 percent of all mech designers!

Ves couldn't help but grow increasingly more frightened at the monstrous capabilities of the auto designer program.

Though it was backed up by the potent tech and the gigantic amount of processing power of an RA research battlecarrier, Ves could completely foresee a time where it could easily substitute the work of every Senior Mech Designer lower-ranked mech designers.

Would there still be a place for younger mech designers in the mech market by the time the auto designer program became available to the general public?

Perhaps the mech designers who fell outside of the Red Association might all be driven out of the real mech market and become forced to ply their trade in an elaborate virtual environment like the Design World.

Ves truly hoped that this day would never come.

So long as the Red Association was governed by enough mech designers, it was unlikely for them to tolerate the spread of the auto designer.

Its existence threatened their core interests!

The mechers in charge of the Association would be stupid to release a program that threatened the foundation of their existence!

Fortunately, enough people recognized the threat of excessive automation. Technology existed to make humanity stronger. If the excessive convenience provided by automation went too far, then it would have the opposite effect!

This was why the mechers restricted access to the auto designer.

Ves learned from Jovy that outside of special schools that relied on the auto designer as a teaching tool, it cost mechers a decent amount of MTA merits to utilize its functions.

This was not only to prevent them from growing too dependent on this tool that had the potential to substitute months if not years worth of crunch work

The limitations also served to prevent the auto designer from demanding too much processing power.

All of the computers, chips and other hardware needed to perform countless calculations were not cheap!

Even if the Red Association ranked at the top or close to it when it came to amassing an enormous hoard of processing power, its availability was ultimately finite.

A lot of mech designers as well as other professionals depended on processing power to do their work

From mineral analysis to modeling the performance of a fleet of human warships fighting against a phase whale, every department of the Red Association required a lot of processing power just to undertake their essential responsibilities!

"The auto designer can deliver excellent results when used to its full potential, but the processing power needed to perform all of those calculations are massive." Jovy told Ves in order to reassure the latter's concerns. "It is impossible to make the auto designer available to any private individual or company because there simply isn't enough processing power to satisfy all of their needs. What we can do through a combination of mental digitization and human ingenuity, the AIs programmed by the Polymath can only complete their work through brute force calculations. The latter is much more inefficient than the former."

Ves nodded in understanding. Ultimately, this economic reality was one of the driving reasons that preserved the viability of human mech designers. It was simply cheaper and more efficient to allocate a lot of work to the large amount of mech designers active in the industry today.

It also prevented rational mech designers who augmented their work with the use of the auto designer from becoming too dominant. Their signature ability to imitate the design philosophies of other peers was quite scary, but their work tended to be fairly worse than the real deal.

"Mech design is not cheap." Ves remarked as he put the finishing touches on the nearly completed juggernaut design. "1 never really saw it this way, but the higher you go, the more financial resources are needed to get ahead. Third-class mech designers can go by without any form of augmentation or powerful computers for a time, but once they reach the Journeyman stage, it becomes exponentially harder for them to conduct their research and design more complicated mechs. I bet that Seniors can't become Masters unless they invest a lot more in augmentation as well as many other expensive toys. There is no way for them to turn an impossibility into a reality by relying on a low-budget design lab and mech workshop."

Ves thought about the former Skull Architect. That guy had remained stuck as a Senior for a long time while he languished outside of civilized space.

It was only once he returned to proper civilization and gained access to a lot more resources that he started to make real progress again.

Organizations mattered. Individuals were too small and insignificant in the face of major states and organizations that had access to a lot more resources.

Only by integrating into them and earning a greater share of those collective resources would mech designers be able to break past their limits in a more efficient manner.

This was probably the reason why second-raters rarely if ever managed to advance to the rank of Star Designer.

The few ones that managed to do so had worked hard to promote themselves to first-raters, thereby abandoning much of their original identities for the sake of becoming part of the most dominant groups of humans.

Ves followed a similar trajectory now that he thought about it from this angle. Here he was, trying to develop a bunch of Carmine mechs in record time just so that he could work towards a higher galactic citizenship tier.

The myriad of benefits bestowed by people who reached tier 3 and higher had completely aroused his greed and propelled him to work earnestly to please his new masters!

Ves belatedly realized that he had fallen into a trap.

The mechers were certainly devious. They knew that there were a lot of stubborn and selfish mech designers out in the wild. The more talented and capable they became, the more they prized their independence.

However, just because these independent mech designers wanted to keep to themselves didn't mean they could escape the growing need for access to greater resources.

Ves had long been accustomed to treating the MTA and now the RA as a convenient store and service center for much of what he needed to boost his work.

From purchasing access to restricted knowledge to paying for powerful tools such as his AP-VEX Superfab, he had already become enthralled by the mechers without realizing the depth to which he fallen into their sphere!

Even now, the prospect of becoming a 3 galactic citizen and everything that came with this bump in status did not frighten him as much as he should.

Honorary membership to the Red Association? Yes please.

An escort fleet that consisted of actual first-class warships and mechs whose sole mission was to keep him safe and allow him to work in total peace in comfort? Yes please.

Entry into various ruling councils and other clubs where he could hobnob with fellow human leaders and have a say in how to shape the future of red humanity? Yes please.

The deeper Ves entered the web spun by the mechers, the harder it became for him to pull himself away!

Which mech designer would be stupid enough to reject the option of gradually transitioning to a position of leadership in one of the most powerful human organizations in modern times?

It was no wonder why so many top mech desingers gradually cut off their ties to their former states and accepted the identity of a mecher!

This model worked with great success for over 400 years for the Mech Trade Association.

It did not seem likely that the Red Association would do any worse considering that mech designers had very little alternatives to get what they truly wanted as they progressed.

Ves silently glanced at Jovy.

The Survivalists had employed a concerted effort into making him feel more connected to them. From inviting him to this conference to letting Jovy stick to him like an adorable guide hound, Ves had to admit that their tactics were working.

Ever since Ves started to get in touch with the Transhumanist Faction, he had developed a greater kinship towards Master Termaneo Dervidian and the ideals of his group.

Ves had started to drift away from the Survivalist Faction.

This was no longer the case. Ves built up so much understanding, kinship and gratitude over the course of just 5 days that he would likely consider himself as their brother long after this event had ended!

Becoming aware of this dynamic did not solve his 'problem' per se, but it was a good first step towards a more palatable resolution.

As Ves and Jovy finally finished the juggernaut design after a lengthy design session, they both felt a sense of satisfaction as they beheld their total sum of work in the last 20 hours.

Not only did they design and fabricate three functional Carmine mechs of varying sizes and properties, but they also designed a relatively functional Carmine juggernaut!

Of course, there was no way that the pair of Seniors could fabricate a 300-meter tall monstrosity in a simple mech workshop.

"It is a shame that we won't be able to see this design come into fruition with our own eyes." Ves lamented in regret. "This is the first juggernaut that I have designed. 1 really want to see it in action up close. It's so powerful that it can crush any ordinary mech by relying on brute force alone."

Jovy, who did not look winded at all despite working hard for a long stretch of time, made an odd expression.

"That is not what I expected to hear from you. Shouldn't you despise this final design for being too unauthentic?"

Ves casually shrugged his shoulders. "I am not pleased with how this design contains so little actual input from me, but what can you expect in just a couple of hours? It has been a novel experience to design such large and imposing mechanical monstrosity with the help of the auto designer. It is a substantially different experience that has added a lot of variety to my life. I don't consider our Carmine Titan to be a product of human ingenuity. It is a living monument of the enormous synergy between humans and technology. I kind of understand the Polymath's vision a lot better now that I have experienced the power of her auto designer."

The Polymath probably regarded human society and technology to be heavily flawed and underutilized.

There was so much potential being buried that she couldn't do all of the waste and missed opportunities!

Only by gaining absolute dominion over red humanity would she be able to exert her transcendent intelligence and abilities to the fullest!

So long as she gained enough authority and recognition, the Polymath could employ the same kind of problem-solving approach she used to upgrade the auto designer on everything else, thereby making existing red humans a lot greater than they were before!

Ves rubbed his hairless chin. He wasn't sure whether he would get the opportunity to cast his vote on the final day of the conference, but if he had the chance to do so, he was currently inclined to throw his support behind the Unity Plan.

Despite the hidden danger that the Polymath represented towards fragment holders like himself, right now they were both stuck inside the same crashing starship.

They first needed to work hard to prevent the ship from meeting her doom before they could even think about determining anything else!