"Dream creators, virtual worlds, incessant torrents of data …"
Li Yao vaguely grasped something.
"Exactly. Those are the things."
Xiaoming waved his hands. In the hazy darkness around the two of them, thousands of brilliant sparks suddenly glittered. Every spark represented a translucent crystal ball. Inside the crystal balls seemed to be a mysterious space made of countless data vortexes. They also seemed to contain the ever-changing but real microscopic universes.
Among them were not just the hundred crystal balls that were tied to Li Yao but also countless crystal balls further away. They were all connected by the light threads into a whole, glittering like the neural network of a primeval behemoth.
Li Yao had seen such a scene before in the depths of Fuxi's mind. Every crystal ball was like a brain cell of Fuxi. When all the brain cells were jumbled together, they constituted many 'sulci' and even the entire brain.
He did not expect that Xiaoming would be able to reproduce the scene and maintain the integrity and vitality of at least thousands of virtual worlds.
"When Fuxi's core database was shattered, and its self-awareness was completely obliterated, the entire virtual space and countless other virtual worlds collapsed. When Lu Qingchen was defeated and Wenwen and I took over the virtual space, most of the virtual worlds had been obliterated. Only a few virtual worlds were still lingering on the edge of doomsday."
Xiaoming said, "Originally, I did not want to bother with the virtual worlds that were on the verge of collapse. I wanted to leave them to their own devices. After all, saving and maintaining the continuous operation of the virtual worlds would consume a lot of my precious computational ability. When I was in a hurry to control the entire Fuxi fleet, such a pointless consumption was indeed a waste.
"However, Wenwen insisted on doing everything she could to save more virtual worlds and the virtual figurines living in them.
"Wenwen said that we were born in the virtual worlds of the game 'Civilization' at the beginning too. Also, in the surging torrents of data, we developed feeble self-awareness and embarked on the amazing journey of life.
"Then, aren't the virtual figurines in the virtual worlds that Fuxi created our compatriots too to some extent, and it is possible for them to evolve into 'real human beings' one day?
"No matter what, in their own world, they will cry and laugh. They have their own families and homes, and they have all kinds of dreams and aspirations. They do not realize that they are 'fake' at all. What right do we have to judge their authenticity and deprive them of their right to live?
"Dad, you know, Wenwen is just like that. She's too compassionate. She's too compassionate."
"That's right. However, this kind of gentleness is better than cold-bloodedness and disregard for all life. It's ten thousand times better."
Li Yao thought for a moment and couldn't help but laugh. "You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of a fish? We are not virtual figurines. How do we know if they have self-awareness and if they are seriously living in the unpredictable virtual worlds, searching for and defending the truth of life? Perhaps, for us, the flood of data and the collapse of the virtual worlds is an out-and-out doomsday for them. That's what Wenwen is thinking, isn't it? "
"Yes. Wenwen said, what is the definition of the so-called 'life' exactly? Even the virtual lives such as us are not necessarily acknowledged by the carbon-based intelligent lives of flesh and blood as their own kind. How are we qualified to judge whether or not those virtual figurines are real life and whether or not they are human beings? "
Xiaoming went on. "The so-called carbon-based intelligent lives are made of countless cells. Every cell, when decomposed to the maximum, is nothing more than molecules, atoms, neutrons, and electrons. The elements of iron and carbon that make up the fleshly body are no different from the fundamental elements that make up stones, iron ores, and even stars. They are all products of the big bang of the universe.
"The elements that make up human beings, the elements that make up stars, the elements that make up spiritual puppets, and the elements that make up crystal processors and chips are essentially the same. They were all born at the beginning of the big bang of the universe. Then, why is it that the multicellular aggregates born from a certain arrangement can be called 'life', but the virtual figurines in the virtual worlds created from a different arrangement cannot be counted as life?
"In the eyes of the information lives, or at least in the eyes of Wenwen, the 'Mother of Mercy', human beings and virtual figurines are the same. She must save them both!"
"That's right …"
Li Yao looked at the glittering crystal balls around and seemed to have seen the picture when the universe was just born.
Perhaps, Wenwen was right.
When the universe was just born, the boundless power of the Big Bang threw countless elements in all directions like mud. Space expanded rapidly, and the elements spread everywhere. After billions of years of cooling, colliding, and fusing, they formed all kinds of planets and all kinds of substances.
Some of the materials on some of the planets gave birth to carbon-based lives with fleshly bodies after billions of coincidences.
Some of the seemingly cold materials, on the other hand, were excavated by the previous life a long, long time later and refined into all kinds of silicon-based chips, which were assembled into crystal processors. A lot of seemingly 'virtual' beings were born in the crystal processors.
However, if the carbon-based lives at the beginning could make the thrilling leap from death to life, why couldn't the virtual figurines calculated by the crystal processors grasp the miracle of one billionth and become real lives?
Before the birth of the first cell, the world was cold, lonely, and dark. How could one determine whether or not the first cell was a life? What was the difference between the most primitive cell and a bunch of complicated, bouncing data? If the first cell could break the threshold, why couldn't a bunch of data break the threshold and become real lives?
The question was too profound and mysterious. Li Yao was deep in thought, unable to reach a conclusion for the time being.
"Wenwen's theory is too complicated. I'm not interested in arguing with her. However, when I was about to turn her down, I suddenly thought of something."
Xiaoming said, "I was thinking that, with Fuxi's ambitions, he certainly wouldn't waste his precious computational ability for nothing. Since he went through all the trouble to create and maintain the operation of so many virtual worlds, he must have his reasons.
"Of course, the noble reason was that he was preserving the civilization of mankind in such a way. He believed that he could control everything as long as he controlled the data.
"But I always felt that the reason was not good enough. He had obviously betrayed the civilization of mankind and embarked on the wrong path. Would he still be so loyal?
"All in all, under Wenwen's pleading and my suspicion, Wenwen and I rescued a thousand virtual worlds together and tried to maintain their normal operation to help them survive the 'apocalypse'. If we couldn't save them, we would try our best to restore their original data so that they could start anew.
"As it turned out, after we devoted tremendous computational ability to maintain the normal operation of a thousand virtual worlds, we discovered something wrong after a while.
"Those virtual worlds are like fruits of life. At first, we have to invest tremendous computational ability in them to create and maintain them. But once they are 'mature', especially after countless virtual figurines are born and boast wisdom and civilization, they will begin to 'feed' the computational ability to the outside world incessantly, which can be used to nurture our database and Dad's soul!"
"What?"
Li Yao bulged his eyes and looked at the threads of light around him in disbelief. "What did you say?"
"You heard me, Dad. I said that creating and maintaining those virtual worlds is like planting fruit trees," Xiaoming said.
"At first, of course, we had to devote tremendous computational ability to the construction and care of them carefully. It was truly a painstaking work. Occasionally, an error in the calculation of a fundamental law could lead to the collapse of the entire world. All the previous efforts would be in vain no matter how much computational ability we devoted to them.
"However, when all the fundamental laws are established, the mountains and rivers are stabilized, and all the creatures are thriving, especially after intelligent lives are born, those virtual worlds seem to be 'alive' and can run and develop automatically. Not only do we no longer need to invest too much computational ability in them, they can also output computational ability incessantly and feed back to our database and your soul, Dad. Well, aren't you enjoying the nourishment of a thousand virtual worlds right now?
"Also, we discovered, to our surprise, that the more prosperous the civilization in the virtual world is, the more virtual figurines appear, the more complicated the social structure is, or when the whole world is in a golden age of sharp conflicts and strides forward, the more computational ability it feeds back.
"It was exactly because of the feedback of the computational ability of the virtual worlds that we were able to clean up the mess so quickly and restore part of the Fuxi fleet's combat ability. It was also why Wenwen was able to march into the heartland of the Holy League and unite all the super crystal processors and the Ultimate Benevolence there!
"It was not until this moment that we finally realized why Fuxi created so many virtual worlds. As it turned out, it considered countless virtual worlds as its' energy source '. No wonder it was so strong that it became the' mainframe 'of the entire Holy League.
"On the other hand, Fuxi established countless' laboratories of humanity 'to test and extract the emotional data of human beings without any scruples. Therefore, there is a more reasonable explanation. It hopes that the real data based on the real world can help it build the virtual world more complicated, more intense, and more realistic. In other words, by growing the' fruit 'bigger, sweeter, and juicier, it will be able to harvest more computational ability from it.
"Do you understand now, Dad?
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