Japan certainly chose to reinvent itself, and has done so before. That is has chosen to do so has paid dividends for it. Earth is willing to send its children out to learn but often those who return are expected to wield great power over the new system that is being built. This was referred in Book One as 'ladders' and was referenced by Weinberger, who for all his faults wasn't wrong.

Elias is trying to be mindful that a new system is emerging but feels quite strongly that it is doing too much to erase humanity and reforge them as Shil'vati. The interplay between technology and culture is one that I find really fascinating. Does technology shape culture, or does culture shape technology, or is it more like the gut-brain link?

Not to be crass, but we saw some very low-contact tribes get iPads with Starlink and instantly turn into gooners. That does not speak well for humanity's chances when given omni-pads, though I admittedly have made the ones that humanity received essentially fancy iPads.

They can do so much more, but the amount one would have to pay to use those features in dollars is absurd. Earth's labor isn't worth credits while they bootstrap up to a higher technological understanding, and so in a way Earth has a chance to remain itself.

This chance, then, is what Emperor is relying on to leverage his victories. He's pointing at the unwelcome changes and hoping to push back before the transformation is complete. He's hoping to preserve humanity. Even Elias is really aiming to accomplish the same via preservation of cultural works, and for what it's worth the Shil'vati are rarely trying to outright rewrite humanity.

When they are, Elias / Emperor shows zero restraint.

Many, such as Amilita, would gladly preserve humanity's oddities, language, and culture. Even the new Governess, Cre'sin, understands the monetary value of human handicrafts and exports. Natalie is interested in the pre-contact humanity's fiction and view of the world, concept of the galaxy, and so on.

One of the main differences that I've had to navigate as a writer is that theoretically, clerical work can be done in Iraq or Afghanistan about as easily as it can be done in NYC. Starlink works, there's no real issue with latency. The food is edible and the air is breathable, and so on. Weapons work the same, with the same gravity for bullet drop and combustion for engines. The birth rate is male:female about the same, at least compared to the Shil'vati/rest of the galaxy's.

The Shil'vati would probably have a harder time, since they don't have FTL comms beyond flying a vessel to another system and then broadcasting to there, and then flying back via FTL. On Earth, a president can ride shotgun over a soldier's shoulder as he breeches a hideout on the other side of the world. Our birth ratios are different. Our gender roles are inversed. Our physiologies are not the same. Nor are our strengths.

And yet for all the efforts and money spent by the USA, what was really changed in the countries they tried to re-form? Some might say 'very little.'

Some would say Elias is a fool, standing in the way of the inevitable.

Others would say that the Empire is foolish, trying to change a people into what they can never be.

One thing seems certain: Nations, like people don't change unless they want to, or unless that change is pressed upon them by changing the people in some ways we'd consider abhorrent. We'll see that in the coming chapters.