On the way back, in the shuttle car, Li Yao kept his brows slightly furrowed, thoughtfully.
He was extremely happy about the profoundness, vastness and infinite possibilities of "Civilization", but when the initial excitement gradually faded, another inexplicable emotion came to his mind.
That may be human beings' innate fear of...the unknown.
It's like the inexplicable fear that the first human beings felt when they looked up at the stars and realized for the first time the vastness and infinity of the "universe" itself.
Ling Xiaole saw Li Yao's expression in the rearview mirror and smiled: "Why, are you worried about the spirit net becoming a spirit?"
Li Yao was slightly startled.
The words "spiritual net becomes essence" were used very cleverly.
He couldn't help but blurt out: "How do you know?"
"Because when Crystal, Sea of Trees, Netherworld, and Sky Ring, the four new realms joined the Federation, their best experts and experts would come to the Federation to visit and inspect, and they would all worry about the spiritual network becoming a spirit!"
Ling Xiaole shrugged and said, "It seems that every human civilization that owns crystal brains has the same legends and fears.
They are afraid that as crystal brains become more and more developed and their computing power and deduction capabilities gradually surpass that of humans, they will It will become a spirit and in turn control and destroy humans.”
Li Yao: "Shouldn't we be worried?"
Ling Xiaole: "I don't know whether I should be worried or not, but someone has raised the same concern a long time ago.
I have a video here.
It was about sixty or seventy years ago, when two experts were at Tianhuan Academy.
There was a fierce battle over the pros and cons of the Internet.
Among them, Professor Mo Xuan, the head of the "Civilization" game at the time, supported the unified network, while the opponent was Professor Xie Wufeng, then the vice president of Tianhuan Academy. " Li Yao: "Wait a minute, isn't Professor Xie Wufeng the current helmsman of "Civilization"?"
Ling Xiaole: "Yes, Professor Xie was originally a staunch vigilant of the unified spirit network.
He had many fierce battles with Professor Mo Xuan about the spirit network and the future of mankind.
However, he was finally persuaded by Professor Mo Xuan and joined Professor Mo Xuan's group.
The team has even become the successor of Professor Mo Xuan.
Perhaps you can get some answers to your doubts and concerns in this confrontation between the two."
Ling Xiaole sent the video to Li Yao's wrist crystal.
The picture showed the crowded auditorium of Tianhuan Academy, one of the "Nine Federations".
Countless energetic young people created a passionate atmosphere in the auditorium.
Li Yao's old friend Professor Mo Xuan and another younger scholar were surrounded by many students and sat across from each other.
To Li Yao's expectation, Professor Mo Xuan did not get into a spiritual machine prosthetic body and show himself as an ordinary ghost cultivator as usual.
Instead, he appeared in his true form of "liquid metal", even his "limbs" "" and "head" are not simulated, it is just a big shiny ball of silver.
This posture made him look sharp and aggressive.
Xie Wufeng: "...Today, the behemoth of the Spirit Network has controlled everything we have, including food, accommodation, work, entertainment, transportation, and shopping.
Everything depends on the Spirit Network.
All data is collected and stored by the Spirit Network.
Once the spiritual network is lost, our seemingly prosperous civilization will collapse instantly.
This state of hanging by a thread is really too unstable and terrifying!
" Professor Mo Xuan: "The history of the development of human civilization is a process of continuous 'networking'.
In the ancient cultivation era 40,000 years ago, ancient monks could be self-sufficient and practice in seclusion for decades by just building a cave in the deep mountains and forests. , their living conditions are of course highly dependent on social division of labor and developed The spiritual network and resource circulation network of modern monks are more 'stable'.
The ancient flying swords used by ancient cultivators, which are refined from a single piece of metal, are naturally more stable than modern chain swords composed of hundreds or thousands of components.
'Stable', less likely to malfunction.
But what's the point of these two kinds of 'stability'?
"To a certain extent, the Great Unified Spiritual Network is indeed very unstable, very fragile, and easily attacked by the enemy, but you don't improve and develop it because you are afraid of being attacked by the enemy?
This is the same as 'choking to stop eating'.
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 not like a human being at all, but more like a representative of some... alien civilization.
Xie Wufeng: "Professor Mo, don't beat around the bush, you know very well that what we are really worried about is not the attack of the 'enemy', but the 'United Spiritual Network' itself.
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"Of course there are various ways to defend and crack the enemy's attacks.
No matter how advanced and evil our current enemies are, they are at least human beings and have the same brains as us, so they cannot go beyond what we can imagine.
The limit can be overcome, or at least understandable.
"But what if there is a problem with the unified spiritual network itself?
In the near future, because the computing power is too expanded and exceeds the critical point, the spiritual network itself awakens the soul, just like..."
Professor Mo Xuan said coldly: "The spiritual net has become a spirit?"
The students in the audience burst into laughter.
Xie Wufeng was expressionless and unyielding: "Yes, that's what I mean.
If we really get deeper and deeper into the spiritual network, let our civilization be completely entangled with the spiritual network, and it will be completely based on the development of the spiritual network.
Based on the basics, what should we do if one day the spiritual net becomes a spirit and has self-awareness?”
The surface of Professor Mo Xuan's body continued to ripple with sparkling silver light: "Today we are launching this discussion about the 'Great Unified Spiritual Network and the Future of Humanity' at Tianhuan Academy, which is the most famous and highest-ranking residence in the Federation. , a veritable gathering of humanities, a place where literary style flourishes.
I know that all the students here are famous for their literary skills.
Most of them are science majors, and there may be a lot of novel lovers who are romantic in nature and full of fantasy.
And you have often read or even written stories about 'the spirit network becomes a spirit, the crystal brain rebels, and the enslavement and destruction of mankind'.
Are there any students like this?
Can you please raise your hands if you have read and written this kind of content?
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 you, Dean Xie."
Xie Wufeng frowned slightly: "This may be an instinctive warning for unknown dangers common to all humans."
Professor Mo Xuan continued: "I understand the worries and even fears of the students.
In fact, since the birth of the 'crystal brain', a magic weapon specially used for 'computing and thinking', humans have never been afraid of crystal brains.
Even a long time ago, when crystal brains were just born and could only be used to perform four arithmetic operations, this fear was born and spawned countless literary and artistic works with the theme of "crystal brains enslave humans".
"Flying swords and swords 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 tend to regard the 'brain' as the most important organ of the human body, and even means human beings themselves!
Therefore, no one is worried that one day, the 'Flying Sword' will launch a rebellion and replace human hands and feet; but almost everyone is afraid of being captured by a crystal brain Replacing the brain Even today, when the mechanical prosthetics are so advanced and the human soul can reside in the crystal brain, this fear has not been eliminated, but has become 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 imagination of novelists is one thing, but the birth of a 'new life form' in the real world is another thing.
"To be honest, I would like to become an 'evil crystal brain expert' in the novel, sneaking around in the dark and creating a brand new virtual life form, but it's a pity that I can't create it!"
The audience burst into laughter again, and the atmosphere was very cheerful.
Professor Mo Xuan continued to lament: "The birth of life is so mysterious that no one can fully explain what the 'soul' or 'self-awareness' is and where it comes from.
"Professor Xie, you just said that as the computing power of crystal brains gets 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, soul, self-awareness and calculation power can be said to have nothing to do with each other!
"Of the tens of billions of people in the Star Federation, 99.99% of them have less computing power than an ordinary Dawn-4, which only sells for 12,500 star coins in the magic weapon mall.
Type 'crystal brain, and if it is the 'Magic Dragon-7' main control crystal brain used on our heavy battleships, even 99% of the Nascent Soul monks are far from capable of extreme calculations of instant spiritual thoughts. opponent.
"However, the 'Huanlong-7' main control crystal brain, which has more powerful computing power than the 'Nascent Soul Monster', has not developed self-awareness, and the 'Shuguang-4' ordinary crystal brain has even less developed self-awareness.
“But hundreds of millions of ordinary people, whose computing power is only a few tenths or even a few hundredths of them, all have self-awareness.
"Even those mentally retarded children with genetic defects and congenital stupidity have only a few hundredths of the computing power of the lowest-level crystal brains and cannot even add or subtract within ten, but they still have self-awareness and valuable skills.
'Soul'!
"What I want to say is, have you seriously thought about the relationship between computing power and self-awareness?
Is it true that the higher the computing power, the more self-awareness will occur?
If so, then what you are afraid of, 'Spiritual Network' The new virtual life form after becoming a spirit should have been produced eight hundred years ago.
No, not eight hundred years, but ten thousand years ago, because ten thousand years ago in the era of the Star Sea Empire, it had computing power far greater than that of humans.
A hundred times more powerful crystal brain!”