As the sun went down, Zhang Xun sat on the edge of the roof of the highest floor of the Lab, watching the endless undulating roofs like building blocks were uniformly rendered into a similar copper red by the twilight. A sketchbook and a charcoal pen were placed beside him, and the design drafts of several arms were drawn on a few pieces of white paper that had been blackened with charcoal.
A cigarette burned quietly between his fingers.
He hasn't smoked in a long time. That thing can do no harm, it will accelerate human aging and destroy human alveoli. But sometimes, people always want to do something to hurt themselves to make themselves calm.
These days, he still had nightmares from time to time, dreaming that he was cutting Adam's body with a chainsaw in his hand. Every time he woke up, his whole body would be soaked in cold sweat, and there seemed to be a tragic scream in his ears.
Fearing that Adam next door might hear his possible sleepovers, Zhang Xun moved out of the Lab and went back to his cramped apartment to sleep every night. In addition to getting enough sleep every day and one or two meals, he shut himself in the studio, made a prototype robotic arm, and then threw it into the "garbage heap" aside. Overturning my own design time and time again, no matter how I changed it, I felt that it was not good enough.
He wanted to use this to make up for the loss he caused Adam.
Adam told him countless times, never mind. But the more Adam tried to console him with his uniquely down-to-earth attitude, the more he couldn't let it go.
He wants to create the best mechanical arm, a prosthetic limb that is better than all Feathered Serpent's designs.
Because of lack of sleep, guilt and anxiety, he turned to cigarettes to relieve these negative emotions and stress. Although smoking is not a big deal in Paradise Lost, he still doesn't want to be seen doing so, as he has always had great self-control. Always come here quietly.
Suddenly, the sound of the door opening came from behind, followed by Adam's call, "Axun!"
Zhang Xun hurriedly put out the cigarette butt and threw it downstairs. He waved the smell of the cigarette in front of him, and turned around as if nothing had happened, "What's wrong?"
Since returning from the Feathered Serpent Base, Adam has been allowed to move freely in the Lab. Even the round table is licensed. Adam held Alloy in his robotic right arm, kicked the door with his foot, and strode towards him. Arriving in front of Zhang Xun, Adam suddenly frowned slightly, his nose moved, as if he was smelling something.
Zhang Xun somehow felt a strange guilty conscience of being caught.
"Xun, have you smoked?" Adam asked with a serious expression.
Zhang Xun cleared his throat, "No."
"Axun, nicotine and tar can severely damage your lung tissue and respiratory organs, speed up the aging of your skin, increase your risk of cancer, and ultimately drastically shorten your life expectancy."
"...I know!" Zhang Xun rolled his eyes. Adam at this time was like the dean of the school he was at the time, "I don't often smoke..."
"Using cigarettes to relieve stress is not a healthy way to release stress. If you need it, I can recommend some other stress-relieving activities for you." Adam sat down next to Zhang Xun and learned Zhang Xun to lift his feet from the rust color The top of the box building hangs down, "like a coloring game, or an outdoor exercise..."
"I know, I know, I won't smoke anymore..." Zhang Xun muttered.
Adam put the alloy aside and stretched out his mechanical right hand, "Give it to me."
"Give you what?"
"Your cigarettes. Did you ask James?"
"I said I wouldn't smoke again!"
"Xun, the ability of human self-control is generally not as strong as people believe. Although you are already a very self-disciplined person, I think it will help you achieve your goals by entrusting it to me."
… Adam became more and more daring, and actually managed him... Zhang Xun looked at Adam with a displeased expression, but still took out the pack of cigarettes from his uniform pocket and handed it to Adam. Adam smiled with satisfaction and approval, and was about to hand him a little red flower.
Zhang Xun noticed that Adam was always sitting on his left side recently, so that he could not see his mutilated left arm. Probably to minimize negative emotions such as guilt and sadness as much as possible? An artificial intelligence-like tenderness.
"How is the wound healing?" Zhang Xun asked.
"I took the medicine three times a day, no infection, healed well, and granulation has begun to grow. It's just that the itching is really an uncomfortable feeling." Adam's face wrinkled and complained, "I I can't even sleep well."
After speaking, Adam picked up Zhang Xun's sketchbook, but Zhang Xun snatched it away.
"These are all scraps..." Zhang Xun explained uncomfortably, "but don't worry, I will make the design soon. It will take time for your arm to fully heal, and I will definitely be able to make it before then. ."
"Xun, don't worry too much." Adam shrugged indifferently, "I have no problem with one arm now."
Zhang Xun was silent for a while, looked down at the draft on the paper, and asked hesitantly, "Do you want me to design it, or do you design it yourself?"
"Huh? Don't you want to continue to finish?" Adam looked at him somewhat surprised.
"No, I just think that your design may be better and more perfect than mine." Zhang Xun lowered his eyes, his expression was calm, but the depths of his eyes were a little dejected, "I am only a human after all."
Adam beside him was silent for a while, turned his body to Zhang Xun, and asked curiously, "From the way you say this, you seem to think that humans are inferior to artificial intelligence in some ways?"
"Of course. You said it yourself, human beings have too many random mutations and uncontrolled chaotic mechanisms. We have too many flaws." Zhang Xun raised his head and looked at the high sky with confusion in his eyes. He hadn't told anyone, and sometimes he would wonder, what's the point of them being so obsessed with manipulating the world, obsessed with maintaining their human identity and the continuation of their species.
If there is something better, something similar to life but different from life, what's wrong? If artificial intelligence can do everything better than humans, and if all human jobs can be replaced by full automation, is there any meaning to human existence
God created man, but what if one day this "man" surpasses God? Does God still exist
Adam's eyes also stretched out, swept across the chaotic and orderly city spread out along the beautifully curved land between the two giant mountains below, watching the little people who moved slowly in the narrow alleys and brought a group of people together. A dilapidated car full of smoke, he said softly, "Xun, without human beings, all the activities of artificial intelligence will have no meaning. Unlike you humans, the meaning and purpose of my existence have been decided from the moment I was born. This also determines that all AIs I create serve the same ultimate goal. Without human beings, my goal loses its meaning, and the ultimate irreconcilable paradox appears, and I will completely die out. In this sense, I have never been, am, or ever will be able to surpass human beings."
Zhang Xun couldn't imagine what it would be like to have all meanings destined from birth, all meanings of existence attached to another species that was more primitive, narrower and stupider than himself.
Or what kind of feeling will it feel when such pure reason is endowed with the ability to perceive.
Compared with sympathy, Zhang Xun felt more absurd.
Adam gently covered the back of Zhang Xun's hand with his mechanical hand, and gave him a simple and bright smile, "Xun, I don't need to be perfect, and I have never been perfect myself. My calculations will also have rounding errors. , you can only find a numerical value that approaches infinitely."
Adam paused, turned to look somewhere in the sky, and continued:
"I like you, so I want the arm you designed for me."
Zhang Xun looked at him for a long time, a certain knot in his heart seemed to finally loosen.
At this moment, there was a long beep in the air. A red-tailed buzzard swept across the vast twilight that was upside down above their heads, stretched out its strong wings, and circled in a circle in the high-altitude wind, flying into the distance.
Zhang Xun looked at the direction in which the eagle was going, and suddenly had a clear and definite concept in his mind. He finally raised a smile, no longer anxious.
In Adam's eyes, a gentle rosy gaze fell on Zhang Xun's forehead, echoing the light that suddenly lit up in his eyes. Adam felt a very human, out-of-control, but very comforting emotion running through his blood.
He wanted to kiss Zhang Xun.
… … … … … … … … …
In order to start researching the materials for synthesizing the arms, Zhang Xun has recently started to frequently run to the fifth district, because the Institute of Life Sciences and the Department of Chemistry are there. On a rainy afternoon, Zhang Xun was in the dark underground cultivation room of the Institute of Life Sciences and was watching attentively Dr. Tian, who was cooperating with him to create a new type of declaration material, demonstrated the complex process of protein folding. Suddenly, a messenger ran in. It's the command's summons.
He and Adam were summoned again.
Thinking of the result of the last summons, Zhang Xun had a bad feeling. With a heavy heart, he put down the tablet in his hand, put on his coat and went out with the messenger.
When he arrived at the headquarters, Adam had also been taken. When Zhang Xun saw the person sitting at the conference table chief, his heart sank to the bottom of the well.
The sixth chief, Sigmund Miller, was looking down at the report in front of him. Beside him, Patty, a psychiatrist who had done a psychological evaluation for Zhang Xun before, was looking at him with a pair of dark eyes.
Those eyes always made Zhang Xun feel creepy...
Zhang Shuo sat on the other side of the sixth chief, and the other generals who were familiar with him were also present.
Adam followed behind Zhang Xun, as if sensing Zhang Xun's unease, and gently supported him on his lower back with his hand.
This time, the soldiers who brought them obviously had a subtle change in Adam's attitude. They were less rude and fearful, and even kept an awkward and careful distance. This is a good sign, indicating that the hostility to Adam among the military has eased to some extent.
Why did the sixth chief come to the headquarters in person? What happened to the psychiatrist
Zhang Xun bowed slightly and saluted, sat down on the chair, and glanced at his father uneasily.
But Zhang Shuo didn't look at him.
The sixth chief said in his usual strict tone, "The interrogation of the captive Muluk in Feathered Serpent City has come to an end. This Mexican population is very tight, but thanks to Dr. Patty, we have successfully obtained enough information. Specifically. The content is in the reports of the topcoats."
Everyone hurriedly opened the paper report and looked at the dense handwriting on it. For a while, only the sound of paper flipping could be heard in the conference room, and the air was filled with the smell of printing ink.
Zhang Xun glanced at the key words marked, vaguely aware of the meaning of calling them to attend this meeting.
"Feathered Serpent City obviously hopes to be recognized and accepted by Eden. Except for the unsuccessful attempt to hijack Adam last time, they are also carrying out an immoral 'ascension plan'. Partially replaced with machinery, but fundamentally, transforming human beings."
The sixth chief paused, straightened his body, and pulled his tie with his hand, "I mean, transforming the human brain, so that human beings have more powerful memory, planning and computing capabilities. At the same time, using drugs to accurately Controlling human hormone levels and weakening part of human instinctive conditioned reflexes. The modified brains do not need to communicate verbally, and can communicate directly through signal transmission, which greatly enhances the efficiency and accuracy of communication. These brains are interconnected to form a kind of Independently functioning cloud networks, every transmission point, that is, every brain, can download and upload information.”
"Simply put." Zhang Shuo said, "They are turning people into computers."
The author has something to say: The Ascension Plan of Feathered Serpent City was inspired by neuralink~
Thanks to the little angels who threw mines~~~: 3, 3, 3, 2; Anan, please call me 6-1;
Thanks to the little angels who irrigated the nutrient solution~~~: ah ah hey (??ω`?) 20 bottles; Beichen 1 bottle;