Doudou waved her hand at the mastermind, with a simple and innocent smile on her face, as if she couldn't understand what "different life forms" meant, but just regarded the black pillar in front of her who could think and talk as a new friend, and incredibly, the mastermind also responded.Hao Ren held Doudou firmly in his arms and glanced down at the little mermaid.Before coming here, he had already found out that Doudou's performance along the way was not quite right, so he asked a little about the little guy's situation - Doudou's mind was not yet mature, so he couldn't say what she felt very clearly, but through guessing and reasoning, Hao Ren still vaguely grasped the truth of the matter.Doudou senses the decline and demise of a race that can only be humans in the final fortress, and the failure of the mastermind is likely to be related to it."
To be honest, I've dealt with many races, all life forms—even elemental creatures and pure spirits—but artificial intelligence is the hardest one I can remember," Hao Ren said, looking at the mastermind, "I don't know how to convince a supercomputer with stubborn logic and strict thought processes, because the evidence I can provide so far is vague and unverifiable and unfalsifiable to you."
All I can say is that if you really want to accomplish your mission, if you really remain true to your creator, then you should at least try to trust us outsiders, even if it is not supported by any logic, at least it is an option. ”The mastermind was silent for longer than before, and even the light on the surface of the black cylinder dimmed by two-thirds, just when Hao Ren thought that this super artificial intelligence had died, the latter's voice suddenly sounded again: "Humans are going to die." ”"Human ......
Going to die?
”Vivien frowned, "Can you tell me what's going on?"
”Doudou waved his little arm vigorously in Hao Ren's arms: "My dad can help you, my dad is super powerful!"
”In response to Hao Ren and his entourage, there was a slight sound of mechanical friction that suddenly came from the opposite side of the hall.Hao Ren saw that countless neatly arranged cracks suddenly appeared on the ring wall on the other side of the rotunda, and based on these cracks, the entire wall surged like water waves, and the layers of metal contracted and folded in the surge, and after the wall faded, what appeared in front of everyone was a wide passage."
The gate to the palace of the end?"
The moment Hao Ren saw the passage, he realized what the master brain meant, and was immediately surprised, "You let us in?"
”"Humans have said that no hope can be given up—even if it's like a fantasy," the Mastermind said quietly, "and it can't get any worse, my logic system can't continue to deduce what happens after this, so come in, maybe that's what humans mean." ”Hao Ren and his entourage exchanged a few glances with each other, they thought about entering the palace of the end to meet those humans, but they didn't expect that the mastermind would be so happy when he finally opened the door.But in any case, the door to the palace of the end was open, and there was no reason for them to stop.Completely different from the rest of the fortress, the corridor leading to the palace was brightly lit, the walls were snow-white, and the bright light dispelled the oppressive feeling that everyone had accumulated along the way, as if adding a touch of vitality and vitality to the cold steel world out of thin air.After walking along the corridor for a distance, murals depicting the world of the home planet began to appear on the walls on both sides, with green mountains and green waters, towering giant trees, and bustling cities hidden in the mountains, which seemed to be frozen in memories, and hung vividly on the walls for people to guess about the idyllic good times nearly 10,000 years ago.And after passing through these beautiful old landscapes, it can only be a cold reality.Another rotunda appeared in front of Hao Ren's eyes—this rotunda was about the same size as the hall where the main brain center was located, except that the main color was bright white, and there were no humming servers and cable ducts around.On the wall opposite the hall is a transparent layer of polymer, through which Hao Ren can see a large "greenhouse" with various plants and integrated houses, but no one is moving in the greenhouse.Lily ran curiously to the transparent "glass": "Mastermind, where are the humans?"
”As if in response to Lily's inquiry, a circular hole opened in the center of the rotunda floor as her words fell, and a glass vessel that looked like a giant test tube slowly rose from the circular hole.The cylindrical glass container was filled with a pale pink nutrient solution, but the solution was soaked in a mass of twisted and mutated flesh polymers, which seemed to be kneaded and mixed in the craziest way, they did not have any fixed shape, and there was no rational activity in sight, they were just soaked in the nutrient solution, wriggling and deforming aimlessly, sometimes merging with each other, sometimes splitting.Every once in a while, a faint shade of blood seeps out of the surface of the wriggling pieces of flesh and spreads into the solution, and despite the seeming filtration of the container, the diffuse blood still stains the solution a pale pink.After seeing these things, Izax subconsciously asked, "What is this?!"
”"It's human."
The Mastermind's voice came from a speaker in the corner of the hall."
Human?!"
Hao Ren was dumbfounded, "What do the humans on your side look like this?"
”As he spoke, he looked at N-6 not far away, only to see that N-6 also had a look of shock and disbelief on his face, and it was clear that the human data downloaded from the agent's memory bank was not the pile of meat in front of him.Vivien frowned, "When did humans become like this?"
”"Mutations have been happening without a definite point in time, and the power of the Devourers of Planets has been imprinted on humanity since the day this war began, or since the day the creators first fled from their home planet," the Mastermind said in an emotionless synthesized voice, "Before the creation of the Planet Eaters, they realized that humanity would never be able to escape the power of the Devourer of Planets, a power that is difficult to explain with secular knowledge, and will eventually end their civilization once and for all—the survival rate of newborns is declining."
Deadly diseases and limb mutations are on the rise, and millions of people are fleeing their home planet, but their population is declining every year.That's why they created the Substitute Walker, and let the Agent complete the mission in their place and take back their homeland. ”The Mastermind's voice continued: "In the first few thousand years, humans were able to move with the Surrogate, and they taught the Surrogate many things during that time, including how to think; In the 1,000 years since then, due to the problem of deformity and the rapid decline of physical fitness, it is difficult for human beings to continue to maintain social functions, so they built a large think tank to turn human knowledge and thinking into data that can be downloaded and understood by agents, and at the same time, they also created me and entrusted me with the responsibility of guarding and guiding the whole society; Over the next millennium, the mutations at the genetic level finally deteriorated to the point where they could not be mitigated, and the greenhouse environment in the fortress could not sustain human survival, so they had to enter the culture vessel."
For the next thousand years, no new babies were born, and humans survived and survived for a long time with the help of incubators."
Over the next millennium, they began to lose their form and even their individual isolation from each other, and they became closer and closer to the primitive cell community morphology.In ancient historical records, a similar pattern has been found on the parent planet - a phenomenon caused by the red blood tide released by the planet devourer, which dissolves into this cell population after a short period of contact with the red blood tide."
And then, that's what you see."
Vivien's brows were still tightly furrowed: "......
The surrogate outside doesn't know anything about this?
”She glanced at N-6 next to her, and from the latter's near-frozen expression, she had already got the answer to her question."
Secrets are buried in the depths of the fortress," replied the Mastermind, "and ordinary surrogates don't know what happens to humans. ”Lily asked curiously, "Because this will cause them to collapse?"
”"The Surrogate's mission is to assist humanity in reclaiming its home planet, and that mission is etched in the memory banks of each Surrogate as they step off the line," the Mastermind replied, "and what would be left of us if we lost humanity?"
”Hao Ren's gaze moved thoughtfully back and forth between the streaked N-6 and the glass container in the center of the hall."
The human condition has continued to deteriorate over the years," he said, looking up into the air, but he knew that the Mastermind had been watching him all along, "It deteriorated to a tipping point a few years ago, and this caused your malfunction?"
”"Humanity created me to serve them, but they didn't tell me what I should do if they were to leave one day," the Mastermind replied faintly, "For thousands of years, my entire mission has been to fulfill the mission they have given me—to build a lunar base, to develop a society of surrogates, to create an army, to counterattack the home planet, all because humanity needs me to do so." ”Hao Ren exhaled slowly: "But now, even the 'humans' themselves are about to disappear. ”This is the reason for the fatal malfunction of the main brain.He has already discovered that the mastermind and the agent created by the humans on this planet are not actually the same thing - if the agent is an extremely imitating human being, from words and deeds to thinking ability are no different from humans, sensually thinking intelligent individuals, then the masterbrain is more like a supercomputer with excellent computing power but lacks perceptual thinking and fuzzy computing power, this design should initially have far-reaching considerations, perhaps to ensure the stability of the entire surrogate society, or to ensure the "recapture of the home planet."
This long-term goal is eternal, but in any case, the result of this design is far from the original purpose of mankind.When no amount of technology can undo the fate of humanity, the mastermind's strict logic system can only lead to one conclusion: he will never be able to complete the task assigned to him by the creator.So he began to malfunction, began to get confused, and began to enter the countdown to self-destruct."
Do 'humans' still have the ability to think?
Or rather, can they still communicate?
”Hao Ren asked.“…… That was a long time ago. ”The Mastermind replied.Just as Hao Ren thought: there were no humans who could fix the logical conflict of the mastermind - they might have had the opportunity to do so, but now, it was too late.