Allowing emotions to control her actions was not beneficial to Gaia, nor was it beneficial to the human race. She understood that there might eventually come a time when she would be forced to make an impossible decision, perhaps sacrificing a trillion people if doing so meant saving the rest of humanity and even the wider universe. Such a situation might not arise for millions of years, but that did not mean she could afford to develop emotional weaknesses now. If she allowed her personal feelings to influence her judgment, then she might one day make a decision based on anger or affection rather than necessity.
"I cannot allow that kind of problem to develop," Gaia thought.
She immediately began practicing meditation, deliberately calming her mind and allowing her rational thoughts to return to the forefront. The process was not difficult for her in a technical sense, but it was still necessary. She had existed long enough to understand that even a being with immense power could become irrational if it allowed emotions to accumulate without control. Power did not make someone immune to poor decisions, and Gaia had no intention of discovering that lesson through a catastrophic mistake.
Even though she was still displeased with the United States, she had intervened to stop the spread of corrupted humans within the country. The culture of the United States had made it far too easy for certain people to fall toward the influence of the Void, and Gaia considered that a serious problem. The issue was not that every American was corrupt or that the entire country was inherently evil. The problem was that the structure of its society encouraged certain behaviors that made corruption easier to conceal and more profitable to maintain.
The reason was relatively simple.
The United States was built heavily around capitalism, and Gaia did not believe capitalism itself was inherently wrong. In fact, she understood that capitalism was extremely effective at generating wealth, encouraging competition, and accelerating certain forms of human progress. It could motivate people to invent, produce, trade, and improve their circumstances at a remarkable speed. From a purely economic perspective, it was a powerful system.
However, capitalism also required sacrifices in other areas.
The pursuit of wealth could cause people to neglect social stability, long-term planning, public welfare, education, and the development of individuals whose contributions were not immediately profitable. Those sacrifices might be acceptable if the only goal was to generate wealth as quickly as possible, but wealth generation was not the only thing Gaia needed from humanity.
"What I need from humanity is the ability to produce geniuses," Gaia thought.
Humanity did not merely need more workers producing slightly better versions of existing products. It needed people capable of creating entirely new foundations for progress. It needed individuals who could look at a problem everyone else considered difficult and discover an entirely different way of approaching it. Those people were the ones who could move civilization forward by several steps instead of merely improving the current stage by a small amount.
Gaia understood that ordinary experts were still valuable.
If a hundred experts spent enough time researching a particular subject, they would eventually improve their understanding of it. Their combined efforts could refine existing knowledge, solve practical problems, and make gradual progress. Humanity needed those experts because they were the ones capable of developing, testing, and applying new discoveries. However, there was a fundamental difference between a genius and even a hundred highly skilled experts.
A genius could advance a field several steps beyond what the experts considered possible.
The experts would then be needed to interpret, reproduce, and expand upon that genius's achievements. Without them, the discovery might remain isolated or impossible to implement on a large scale. But without the genius, the experts would often remain trapped within the boundaries of existing knowledge, improving what already existed rather than discovering something fundamentally new.
That was why Gaia believed humanity needed a stable and progressive society.
A civilization had to be capable of producing geniuses, protecting them, educating them, and allowing them to work without being crushed by political interests or financial demands. It was not enough for a genius to exist. That genius needed the freedom and resources to develop their ideas. If society constantly forced brilliant individuals to spend their lives fighting against corruption, poverty, political interference, or exploitative contracts, then much of their potential would be wasted.
The current United States government was not particularly good at creating those conditions.
There were too many corrupted humans embedded within its political and economic systems. Even if a genius managed to avoid being directly influenced by the Void, they would still face an environment where their progress depended on wealthy individuals willing to fund their work. Those wealthy people would often demand extremely restrictive contracts in exchange for financial support.
"If they refuse to sign those agreements, they will be suppressed," Gaia thought. "And in some cases, they might even be killed."
That was the part Gaia found most unacceptable.
A genius should not have to surrender their future to a wealthy sponsor merely to receive the resources necessary to develop an idea. Nor should they have to fear being silenced because their discoveries threatened an established company's profits. A society that treated genius as a financial asset rather than a resource belonging to the entire human race was fundamentally wasting its own potential.
That was why Gaia had such a problem with American culture.
It was too profit-driven.
The pursuit of profit was not inherently bad, but when profit became the deciding factor in every important decision, it could suffocate progress instead of encouraging it. A company might suppress a discovery because it threatened an existing product. A wealthy investor might demand ownership of an invention that could benefit the entire world. A government official might protect a criminal organization because doing so brought political support or financial rewards.
Such a system could generate enormous wealth while simultaneously preventing humanity from reaching its full potential.
"Calm down," Gaia told herself. "Look at this as an exercise in suppressing your emotions."
She had established those rules for herself long ago. Gaia was not supposed to interfere with humanity too heavily, because doing so would create an unhealthy dependence. If humans began relying on her to solve every major problem, they would eventually become lazy. They would stop developing their own abilities and begin waiting for her intervention whenever something went wrong.
She could not become the being humanity relied upon for everything.
That would be disastrous for the long-term development of the species.
Even some of the information she had given the Chinese had already been too much in her opinion. She had provided guidance that might influence their future decisions, and while she believed the information was useful, she did not want to become a permanent source of answers for them. Humanity needed to learn how to solve its own problems.
"Let's look somewhere else and calm my emotions," Gaia thought.
Her attention shifted toward Europe.
Almost immediately, her mood began to improve.
Europe was not perfect, and Gaia was fully aware of that fact. There were countless political disputes, economic problems, rivalries, and inefficient systems across the continent. However, looking at Europe was still a calming experience because of the Trade Families. Their dedication to their crafts and professions was precisely the kind of behavior Gaia wanted humanity to develop.
The Trade Families possessed immense power, but they had remarkably little interest in acquiring even more power.
As long as they were left alone to practice their crafts, develop their businesses, and preserve their knowledge, they were generally content to ignore the rest of humanity. They did not constantly seek political domination or attempt to control every aspect of society. Their priorities were usually much simpler: improve their craft, preserve their family, and ensure that their work continued into the future.
That attitude was extremely valuable.
The Trade Families were among the few groups on Earth with enormous influence who were not constantly trying to expand their influence. Their existence helped stabilize Europe in ways that were not immediately obvious. They encouraged patience, long-term thinking, and the preservation of knowledge rather than endless competition for short-term gains.
Of course, Gaia did not believe Europe was flawless.
Far from it.
The continent still had plenty of problems, and its political systems were not free from corruption or selfish interests. However, the people making decisions at the highest levels tended to consider the long-term future more seriously than many of the leaders elsewhere in the world. Europe had several layers of influence working together: the Trade Families, the Great Houses, and the European governments themselves.
The Trade Families influenced the Great Houses simply by existing.
Because the Trade Families were not interested in constantly expanding their authority, they encouraged the Great Houses to relax as well. The Great Houses still possessed considerable power, but the presence of the Trade Families reminded them that Europe's strength depended on stability rather than endless internal conflict. Their long histories had also made them more interested in preserving their influence and ensuring that the continent remained strong than in chasing every short-term opportunity.
That attitude, in turn, affected the European governments.
The governments would likely have been far less comfortable with the Great Houses if the Trade Families had not existed. However, they had to acknowledge that Europe would not have survived its history without those powerful families. The Great Houses had protected the continent, shaped its institutions, and contributed to its continued survival. Even when they were difficult to manage, they were still looking after European interests.
So the governments had little choice but to work with them.
One example was the discussion surrounding the reopening of the Silk Road. The proposal had been received positively by practically every cabinet member within the European governments because it offered a chance to give the continent's economy a much-needed boost. The possibility of reconnecting trade routes, expanding commerce, and strengthening relations with China was too valuable to ignore.
"Good, I'm calm again," Gaia thought.
She opened her eyes and turned her attention back toward the United States. The situation there was still developing, and she expected it to become an interesting spectacle. The chaos spreading through the government and among the wealthy families would likely expose more hidden corruption than a simple investigation ever could.
However, her improved mood did not last long.
"I hope that planetary consciousness leaves soon," Gaia thought irritably.
Her attention shifted toward an avatar sitting on a bench in a park in Washington, D.C. The avatar was drinking coffee and enjoying the unfolding chaos as though he were watching an entertaining performance. Gaia did not appreciate his presence at all. She would have preferred for him to leave immediately, but she had already been warned that beating up a guest was not considered acceptable behavior by the universe.
That restriction was extremely irritating.
"No. Calm down," Gaia told herself. "You're getting worked up again."
She was glad that she possessed emotions because their existence meant she was fully conscious. Emotions were proof that she was not merely an automatic planetary mechanism following predetermined instructions. Still, that did not mean she enjoyed dealing with them all the time.
"Boy, does this suck sometimes," Gaia thought.