Li Yao found it hard to imagine that brand-new virtual lives could be created in such a way, and that those virtual lives would listen to the orders of their creators obediently. "Why does it sound so unreliable?"
"Of course it is unreliable. However, creating a virtual intelligent life in a brand-new form is a field that nobody has ever set foot in in history. Who can guarantee that a certain approach is reliable?"
Professor Xie Wufeng smiled bitterly. "By the time the Virtual Spirits Sector collapsed, even Professor Mo Xuan realized that the approach was a dead end. It was neither possible nor necessary to create a brand-new virtual life. Therefore, he shifted his focus to the study of virtualizing human beings themselves. The edification idea of the 'History Museum' and the 'Grand Library' was extended in the 'Tinder Plan'. It was like an 'old grandpa', except that it was not a brand-new virtual life that was edified but a primitive civilization billions of years later.
"However, the core of both the creation of a brand-new virtual life and the enlightenment of a primitive civilization billions of years later was the same, which was to pass on the spirit of the civilization of mankind after its decline and even create a 'replica', or rather, an 'upgraded version' of human beings."
While talking, everybody slowly walked into the center of the city.
Hundreds of high and magnificent statues had been standing in the central square. They were the most influential politicians, artists, military commanders, and martial experts in the history of the Federation. Together, they constituted a magnificent forest.
At this moment, all these statues were leaning left and right, riddled with holes, mottled, and covered in moss and rust.
Many of the statues only had broken limbs left. Some were even ripped into pieces by the lightning or the earthquake and scattered on the ground nearby, only to be drowned by the weeds and thorns that grew out of the crevices.
"This is …"
Professor Xie Wufeng walked to a bare pedestal and touched it. His face immediately turned extremely weird, and his pupils constricted to the minimum.
Li Yao was immediately alarmed. "What's wrong?"
"This is odd."
Professor Xie Wufeng observed the surroundings carefully and frowned. "A statue is missing. It is not missing an arm or a leg, nor has it been blown apart. Instead, it is completely gone. Even a finger that belongs to the statue cannot be found. Look. The pedestal is very clean. Not a single pebble or iron scrap is left. It is not crumbling, collapsing, or shattering but completely gone. Perhaps … it has been swallowed by something."
Li Yao raised his eyebrow and touched the pedestal. He only felt that the place where the statue should've been connected was as smooth as a mirror and did not seem to be the damage caused by the collapse of the virtual world. "This is indeed weird. Whose statue is it?"
Professor Xie Wufeng glanced at the number on the pedestal and browsed through the experiment data of the Virtual Spirits Sector project. His face even weirder than before. "It's your statue."
Li Yao: "Huh?"
"Is it strange?" Professor Xie Wufeng asked. "This square is designed to introduce the six hundred years of history of the Federation in the first place. Basically, the dominating big shots six hundred years ago all have statues. However humble you are, it shouldn't be a problem for you to be listed in the list of the hundred most influential people of the Federation, right?"
Li Yao held back the urge to scratch his hair hard. He was almost amused. "My statue is completely gone. What's the meaning of this?"
"The so-called 'statue' is just the front-end display of the statue in the interactive interface that we see," Professor Xie Wufeng explained.
"From the perspective of the central data layer, every statue is an enormous database of information about the influential person. Naturally, the information is open to the public.
"It includes, but is not limited to, the glorious deeds of the influential person, his training experience, his battle videos, his papers, the essence of his lectures and speeches, the tomography of his brain, the analysis of his brainwaves, and so on.
"After the integration of the enormous database, what we get in the end is not a cold statue but a living virtual hero. You may consider it an early version of the 'old grandpa', and your statue is' Grandpa Yao 1.0 '."
"Wait …"
Li Yao frowned and raised his hand to interrupt Professor Xie Wufeng's introduction. "There are tomography of the brain and analysis of the brainwaves? Where did Professor Mo Xuan get them?"
"Every time you were wounded, hospitalized, and when you made a breakthrough in a new level, the most brilliant doctors and Meditation Healers of the Federation would examine you. A lot of information about your brain and your soul was left," Professor Xie Wufeng said.
Professor Xie Wufeng said. "The information was supposed to be confidential and would not be made public until your death was confirmed. But at that time, Professor Mo Xuan was already under the influence of the extraterrestrial devils. In order to produce a more perfect 'old grandpa', it was not strange at all that he tried to copy the analysis of your brainwaves and add it to his database.
Li Yao could not help but scratch his temples. "As it happened, the 'statue' that contained the tomography of my brain and the analysis of the brainwaves disappeared. Why? Is my brain any different from other people's brain?"
"Even if there is any difference, it is not something that can be seen through the tomography of the brain or the analysis of the brainwaves," Professor Xie Wufeng said.
"You know that the mysteries of the human brain are even more than those of the entire universe. Or rather, the human brain is a tiny universe. Even if all the crystal processors in the Federation are running to the point of collapse at the same time, I'm afraid that they will not be able to analyze one percent of the truth of the 'tiny universe'.
"Everybody's soul is unique and different. You are an expert close to the Divinity Transformation Stage. Your soul is even more special. How can it be analyzed by a few tomography of your brainwaves?
"In my opinion, it's possible that Professor Mo Xuan intentionally retrieved the database that stored tremendous information about you in order to deal with you.
"That doesn't make sense. At that time, he didn't know that you would return. Also, he must've had copies of your database. There was no need for him to restart the Virtual Spirits Sector and take away the data about your brain and soul.
"Then …"
Li Yao, Long Yangjun, Wei Qingqing, Professor Xie Wufeng, and all the other members of the investigation team were caught in a long silence when they saw the empty pedestal.
…
Inside the Virtual Spirits Sector, after six hours, the members of the investigation team still found nothing.
They did not find any pieces of the Hyper Spirits' No. 17 'and' No. 18 ', nor did they find the missing statue of Li Yao.
Li Yao and Professor Xie Wufeng returned to the peaceful beach again. They stared at the continuous sand paintings and the black, lifeless ocean at the end of the sand paintings in a daze.
The many weird things that had happened after he entered the Virtual Spirits Sector made Li Yao ill at ease. He felt that an invisible rope was connecting everything.
"According to the result of the preliminary exploration, No. 17 and No. 18 should've been completely deleted."
Professor Xie Wufeng was relieved. Then he said, not without regret, "This is not a bad thing. Although it is impossible to get the core database of the two Hyper Spirits, at least we do not need to worry that they will fall into the hands of ambitious schemers and cause great trouble.
"As for the disappearance of your statue, it is not a big deal. 99% of the information stored inside the statue is public data. Even the tomography of your brain is data from more than a hundred years ago. Your soul has undergone drastic changes over the past hundred years. The outdated data is garbage that cannot cause you any harm. Rest assured."
"What is it, Professor Xie?"
Li Yao stared at the sand painting in a daze. Suddenly, he blurted out, "Is it really impossible for a real virtual life with self-awareness to appear?"
Professor Xie Wufeng was slightly dazed. He smiled and grabbed a handful of sand. "It is not impossible, but the odds are rather small. How small is it? Let me give you an example. Suppose that a word is randomly written on every grain of sand on the beach, and I grab a handful of the sand right now and let it leak through my fingers. The sand that drifts away with the wind happens to be enough to form the most moving poem in the universe. That's how small it is!
"I know what you are thinking.
"Are you thinking that after No. 17 and No. 18, whose experiments failed and were on the brink of destruction, were thrown into the Virtual Spirits Sector, did they suddenly significantly evolve and grow self-awareness, turning from 'artificial intelligence' into real 'virtual life'?
"Hehe. I can assure you — no, all the specialists of crystal processors and the Spiritual Nexus in the entire Federation can assure you with their heads — that it is absolutely, absolutely, absolutely impossible.
"No. 17 and No. 18 are essentially a database plus a bunch of cold operational logic. They are no different from 'Moonlight Bringer'. They are tools, just like the stones that human beings used to crack nuts and animal bones in the beginning. They are just tools.
"Stones cannot evolve into human beings. Those 'virtual stones' naturally cannot evolve into real 'virtual life', either."
Li Yao frowned and thought hard for a long time. "Professor Xie, I once heard a theory that more than 97% of the mass of the human body is made of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, helium, phosphorus, sulfur, and other elements. The billions of stars in the universe are also made of the same elements.
"In other words, the fundamental elements that make up our body are not very different from the fundamental elements that make up the stars. We are all literal 'Children of Stars'.
"You said just now that only cells can evolve into human beings, and stones cannot evolve into human beings. But where did the cells in the beginning come from? Are the elements that made up the cells at the beginning of the Big Bang essentially different from the elements that will turn into stones?"
Professor Xie Wufeng was rendered speechless for a moment. He was dazed for a long time before he said, "As you said, it will take billions of years before the odds of one billionth turn into reality.
"If we consider it on the scale of billions of years, of course, everything is possible.
"But if we are talking about the hundred thousand years when the civilization of mankind shines, or even the next thousand years of the Xing Yao Federation, I can still guarantee you very seriously that virtual intelligent life cannot be born without the interference of the outside world!"
Li Yao's ears and eyebrows rose at the same time. "If I may ask, what do you mean by 'interference of the outside world'?"
Originally, it was supposed to be two chapters, but after taking a look, our twenty-seventh Alliance Master, "Moat Fish Occupied", was born. The old Alliance Master, "Gray White Night Sky", once again threw in a lot of money, and there were many other readers who strongly supported him.
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