40,000 Years of Cultivation

On the way back, in the shuttle car, Li Yao kept frowning, thoughtful.

Although he was extremely pleased with the profoundness and infinite possibilities of "Civilization", when the initial excitement gradually subsided, another unexplainable emotion came to his mind.

That may be human beings are born with fear of... the unknown.

It's like the inexplicable fear when the first humans were looking up at the starry sky and realizing the vastness of the "universe" itself for the first time.

Ling Xiaole saw Li Yao's expression in the rear-view mirror, and smiled "why, are you worried about the spiritual net becoming refined?"

Li Yao was startled slightly. The words "ling nets become fine" were used cleverly, and he couldn't help blurting out: "How do you know?"

"Because of Crystal, Sea of ​​Trees, Nether and Sky Ring, when the four New Territories joined the Federation, their best experts and powerful people will come to the Federation to visit and inspect, and they will all coincide with each other. I am worried that the spirit net will become a fine one!"

Ling Xiaole shrugged and said, "It seems that any human civilization with crystal brains has the same legends and fears. They are afraid that crystal brains will become more and more developed, and computing power and deduction ability will gradually surpass humans. Will become refined, which in turn will control and destroy mankind."

Li Yao: "Should we not be worried?"

Ling Xiaole: "Should you worry about it? I don't know, but the same worries have long been raised. I have a video here. About 60 or 70 years ago, two experts were in Tianhuan Academy. The pros and cons of the net were in a fierce confrontation. Among them, the supporter of the Unification Lingwang was Professor Mo Xuan, who was at the helm of the game "Civilization", and the opponent was Professor Xie Wufeng, who was then the deputy dean of the Tianhuan Academy."

Li Yao: "Wait, Professor Xie Wufeng, isn't he the current leader of "Civilization"?"

Ling Xiaole: "Yes, Professor Xie was originally a staunch guardian of the Lingwang unification, and he had repeatedly fought with Professor Mo Xuan about the Lingwang and the future of mankind, but he was eventually persuaded by Professor Mo Xuan and joined Professor Mo Xuan. The team has even become the successor of Professor Mo Xuan. Your doubts and concerns may be answered in this confrontation between the two."

Ling Xiaole sent the video to Li Yao's wrist crystal brain.

One of the "Ninth National Congress of the Federation" appeared in the picture, the crowded auditorium of Tianhuan Academy.

Countless energetic young people set off a passionate atmosphere in the auditorium.

Li Yao's old friend, Professor Mo Xuan, and another younger scholar were surrounded by many students. They sat opposite each other. They talked and talked about each other.

To Li Yao’s surprise, Professor Mo Xuan did not get into a psychic prosthetic body as usual, showing people in the form of ordinary ghosts, but generously appeared in the true face of "liquid metal", even with "limbs". Neither "and the "head" were simulated, it was just a large gleaming silver ball.

Such a posture made him appear sharp and aggressive.

Xie Wufeng: "...Today, the behemoth Lingwang has controlled everything about us, eating, lodging, work, entertainment, transportation, shopping, everything depends on Lingwang, and all data is collected and stored by Lingwang. Once we lose the spirit web, our seemingly prosperous civilization will instantly collapse. This state of life hanging by a thread is too unstable and too creepy!"

Professor Mo Xuan: "The history of the development of human civilization is a process of continuous'networking'. In the ancient cultivating era 40,000 years ago, an ancient monk who could be self-sufficient and self-sufficient and practiced in retreat for decades in the ancient cultivating era in the deep mountains and forests. , Their living condition is of course more'stable' than the modern monks who highly depend on the large division of labor, the developed spiritual network and the resource circulation network. The ancient flying swords used by ancient repairers were made from a single piece of metal. Naturally, it is more'stable' than modern chainsaw swords composed of hundreds or thousands of components, and is less prone to failure-what is the meaning of these two kinds of'stability'?

"At a certain level, the Great Unification Spirit Web is indeed unstable and fragile, and it is easy to be attacked by the enemy, but because of the fear of being attacked by the enemy, it is not perfected and developed? What's the difference?"

Silver-white ripples appeared on the surface of Professor Mo Xuan's liquid metal body, and the sound came from the center of the ripples.

This makes him look like a human being, more like a representative of a...different civilization.

Xie Wufeng: "Professor Mo, don't go around the corners. You know very well that what we are really worried about is not the attack of the ‘enemy’, but the ‘Great Unification of the Spirit Net’ itself.

"The enemy’s attacks can of course be defended and cracked by various methods. No matter how developed and evil our current enemies are, they are at least human beings, and they all have the same brain as ours, and they will not surpass what we can imagine. The limit can be overcome, at least it can be understood.

"But if there is a problem with the Great Unification Spirit Web itself, in the near future, because the computing power is too expanded and beyond the critical point, the Spirit Web itself awakens the soul, like..."

Professor Mo Xuan said coldly: "The spirit net becomes a fine?"

The students in the audience roared with laughter.

Xie Wufeng was expressionless and did not back down: "Yes, that's what I meant. If we really sink deeper and deeper in the spiritual web, let our civilization be completely entangled with the spiritual web, and build on the well-developed spiritual web. On top of the foundation, and one day, when the ling net becomes refined and self-aware, what should I do?"

Professor Mo Xuan’s body continued to ripple with silver light: “We are starting this discussion about the'Great Unification Spirit Net and the Future of Mankind' in the Tianhua Academy today, and the Tianhua Academy is the most famous and highest humanities institution in the Federation. , A veritable gathering of humanities, a place where the style of writing flourishes, I know that most of the students here are majors in liberal arts, maybe there are many novel lovers with a lot of life and fantasy, and you often have read them, even I have personally written a story about'the spirit net becomes a spirit, the crystal brain rebels, and the enslavement and destruction of mankind'. Is there any such classmate? Classmates who have read and written this kind of content, please raise your hand?"

The audience burst into laughter again, and almost all college students raised their hands.

Professor Mo Xuan's voice contained a smile: "It seems that everyone has the same worries and doubts as Dean Xie."

Xie Wufeng frowned slightly: "This may be shared by mankind, an instinctive warning of unknown danger."

Professor Mo Xuan continued: "I understand the worries and even fears of the classmates. In fact, since the birth of the magic weapon dedicated to "calculation and thinking", the crystal brain has never been feared by humans. It stopped, even a long time ago, when the crystal brain was just born and could only be used to perform four arithmetic operations, this fear was born, and countless literary works with the motif of "the crystal brain enslaves humans" were born.

"Flying swords and war knives are extensions of our limbs; battle armor and psychic shields are extensions of our bones; as for crystal brains, they are extensions of our brains.

"But we often regard the'brain' as the most important organ of the human body, even human beings themselves! Therefore, no one is worried that one day, the'Flying Sword' will initiate a rebellion and replace human hands and feet; but almost everyone is afraid of being crystallized by the brain. Instead of the brain-even today when the psychic prosthesis is so developed, the human soul can live in the crystal brain, this fear has not been eliminated, but it has become more and more intense."

Xie Wufeng said: "This just proves the rationality of this fear and doubt."

Professor Mo Xuan said: "The romance of liberal arts students is one thing, the wild fantasies of novelists are one thing, but in the real world, the birth of a ‘new life form’ is another.

"To be honest-I want to become an'evil crystal brain expert' in a novel, sneaking in the dark to create a brand new virtual life form, but unfortunately, I can't create it!"

The audience laughed again, and the atmosphere was very cheerful.

Professor Mo Xuan continued to sigh: "The birth of life is so mysterious, no one can fully explain what'spirit' or'self-consciousness' is and where it comes from.

"Professor Xie, you just said that the computing power of the crystal brain is getting higher and higher, it is possible to trigger a certain ‘critical state’ and eventually break through the limit and develop self-awareness?

"But in fact, spirituality, self-awareness, and computing power, it can be said that there is no relationship at all!

"Among the tens of billions of people in the Star Federation, 99.99% of them have a computing power that is not as good as an ordinary'Dawn-4' which sells only 12,500 stars in the Magic Mall. Type' crystal brain, and if it is the "Phantom Dragon-7" master crystal brain used on our heavy battleships, even ninety-nine percent of the Nascent Soul cultivators are far from it in terms of the instantaneous spiritual mind limit calculations. opponent.

"However, the'Phantom Dragon-7' master crystal brain, which has more powerful computing power than the'Natal Infant Boss', did not produce self-awareness, and the'Dawn-4' ordinary crystal brain did not produce self-awareness.

"But the hundreds of millions of ordinary people whose computing power is only a few tenths or even a few percent of them all have self-awareness.

"Even the mentally handicapped children with genetic defects and congenital stupidity have only a few percent of the lowest level of computing power. They can't even add and subtract within ten, but they also have self-awareness and have Precious'soul'!

"What I want to say is, have you seriously thought about-is there really a relationship between computing power and self-awareness? Is it true that the higher the computing power, the self-awareness must be produced? If this is the case, then what you are afraid of,' The new virtual life form after Lingwang became refined should have been produced 800 years ago. No, it was not 800 years, but 10,000 years. Because 10,000 years ago, the Xinghai Empire had a lot of computing power. A crystal brain a hundred times more powerful than humans!"