On the way back, in the shuttle car, Li Yao kept frowning and thinking.


    He was very happy with the profundity and infinite possibilities of civilization. However, when the initial excitement faded away, another kind of inexplicable emotion came to his mind.


    Maybe it''s the innate fear of the unknown.


    It''s just like the inexplicable fear of the first human beings when they look up at the starry sky and realize the vastness of the "universe" for the first time.


    Ling Xiaole saw Li Yao''s expression in the rearview mirror, "poof Chi" a smile: "how, in the burden of mind net into fine things?"


    Li Yaowei was stunned. "Lingwang Chengjing" was skillfully used. He could not help blurting out: "how do you know?"


    "Because of crystal, Shuhai, Youming and Tianhuan, when the four new territories joined the Federation, their best experts and strong men would visit and investigate the Federation, and all of them would become the essence of the soul net."


    Ling Xiaole shrugged his shoulders and said, "it seems that any human civilization with crystal brain has the same legend and fear. It''s afraid that crystal brain will become more and more developed. When the computational power and deduction ability gradually surpass human beings, they will become refined and in turn control and destroy human beings."


    Li Yao: "shouldn''t we worry?"


    Ling Xiaole: "I don''t know if I should worry about it, but the same worry has been raised for a long time. I have a video here about 60 or 70 years ago. Two experts had a fierce battle on the advantages and disadvantages of" Lingwang "in Tianhuan Academy. Among them, Professor Mo Xuan, the leader of" civilization "game at that time, supported the unification of Lingwang, The opponent is Professor Xie Wufeng, then vice president of Tianhuan Academy. "


    Li Yao: "wait a minute, Professor Xie Wufeng, isn''t he the leader of civilization now?"


    Ling Xiaole: "yes, Professor Xie used to be a staunch vigilant of the unified spirit net. He had many fierce confrontations with Professor Mo Xuan about the future of spirit net and human beings, but he was finally convinced by Professor Mo Xuan to join Professor Mo Xuan''s team and even become the successor of Professor Mo Xuan. Maybe you can get some answers to your doubts and concerns in this confrontation."


    Ling Xiaole sent the video to Li Yao''s brain.


    In the picture, one of the "nine federations", the hall of Tianhuan academy is full of people.


    Countless energetic young people set off the enthusiastic atmosphere in the auditorium.


    Li Yao''s old friend, Professor Mo Xuan, and another young scholar were surrounded by many students. They sat opposite each other. They were fighting each other. You come and go, and you don''t let them.


    To Li Yao''s surprise, Professor Mo Xuan didn''t get into a spiritual body as usual to show people in the form of ordinary ghost cultivation. Instead, he appeared in the true face of "liquid metal". He didn''t even simulate "limbs" and "head", just like a big ball of silver.


    Such a gesture made him appear sharp and aggressive.


    Xie Wufeng: "up to now, Lingwang, a giant, has controlled everything. Everything depends on Lingwang for food, accommodation, work, entertainment, transportation and shopping. All data are collected and stored by Lingwang. Once Lingwang is lost, our seemingly prosperous civilization will collapse instantly. This kind of life hanging on the line is too unstable, It''s creepy


    Professor Mo Xuan: "the history of human civilization is a process of continuous" Networking ". In the age of ancient cultivation 40000 years ago, the ancient monks who built a cave in the mountains and forests could be self-sufficient and practice in seclusion for decades. Of course, their living conditions were more" stable "than the modern monks who highly depended on the division of labor, the developed spiritual network and the resource circulation network, The ancient flying sword made of a whole piece of metal used by Gu Xiu is naturally more "stable" and less prone to failure than the modern chainsaw sword composed of hundreds of components. But what is the significance of these two kinds of "stability"?


    "To some extent, the unified spirit net is indeed very unstable and fragile, and it is easy to be attacked by the enemy. But because of the fear of being attacked by the enemy, we don''t improve and develop it? What''s the difference between this and "stop eating for choking"


    Professor Mo Xuan''s liquid metal body surface is covered with silver white ripples, and the sound comes from the center of the ripples.


    It 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" unified spirit net "itself.


    "Of course, there are various ways to defend and crack the enemy''s attack. No matter how developed and evil our enemies are, they are at least human beings with the same brain as us, and they will not exceed the limit we can imagine. They can be defeated, or at least understood.


    "But if there is something wrong with the unified spirit net itself, in the near future, because of the expansion of computing power and beyond the critical point, the spirit net itself will wake up, just like..."


    Professor Mo Xuan said coldly: "is the net of spirit a essence?"


    The students roared with laughter.


    Xie Wufeng was expressionless and did not give in: "yes, that''s what I mean. If we really get deeper and deeper in the spiritual net, let our civilization entangle with the spiritual net completely, and completely build on the basis of the spiritual net''s development. One day, the spiritual net will become refined and have self-consciousness, what should we do?"


    Professor Mo Xuan''s body surface continued to wave silver ripples: "today, we are launching this discussion on" great unity and the future of mankind "in Tianhuan Academy. Tianhuan academy is the most famous highest humanities institution in the United States. It is really a place of Humanities and literary style. I know most of the students here are liberal arts majors, Maybe there are still many novel lovers who are full of imagination, and you have often read or even written the story of "Lingwang becomes elite, jingnao revolts, enslaves and destroys human beings". Do you have such students, and those who have read and written this kind of content, please raise your hand? "


    The audience roared with laughter again, and almost all the college students raised their hands one after another.


    Professor Mo Xuan''s voice contains a smile: "it seems that everyone has the same worries and doubts as you, Dean Xie."


    Xie Wufeng frowned slightly: "this may be a common human instinct warning of unknown danger."


    Professor Mo Xuan continued: "I understand students'' worry and even fear. In fact, since the birth of" crystal brain ", a magic weapon specially used for" calculation and thinking ", people''s fear of crystal brain has never stopped. Even a long time ago, when crystal brain was just born and could only be used for four operations, this fear was born, Numerous literary works with the theme of "crystal brain enslaves human beings" have been produced.


    "Flying swords and swords are the extension of our limbs; Armor and psionic shields are extensions of our bones; As for the crystalline brain, it''s an extension of our brain.


    "But we tend to regard the brain as the most important organ of the human body, which even means human beings themselves! Therefore, no one is worried that one day, the "flying sword" will launch a rebellion to replace human hands and feet; But almost all people are afraid that the brain will be replaced by the crystal brain. Even today, when the spirit of human beings can reside in the crystal brain, even with the development of the spiritual body, the fear has not been eliminated, but has become more and more intense. "


    Xie Wufeng said: "this just proves the rationality of this kind of fear and doubt."


    Professor Mo Xuan said: "it''s one thing for liberal arts students to be romantic. It''s one thing for novelists to be wild. But in the real world, the birth of a" new life form "is another thing.


    "To tell you the truth - I want to become an expert of evil crystal brain in the novel, sneaking in the dark to create a new virtual life form. Unfortunately, I can''t create it!"


    The audience laughed again, and the atmosphere was very happy.


    Professor Mo Xuan continued: "the birth of life is so mysterious that no one can completely explain what" spirit "or" self-consciousness "is and where it comes from.


    "Professor Xie, you just said that with the increasing computational power of the brain, it is possible to trigger a certain" critical state "and finally break through the limit and develop self-consciousness?


    "But in fact, spirit, self-consciousness and computational power have nothing to do with each other!


    "Among the tens of billions of people in Xingyao Federation, 99.99% of them have less computing power than an ordinary" dawn-4 "crystal brain, which only sells 12500 stars in the magic mall. If it''s the" magic dragon-7 "main control crystal brain used on our heavy warships, even 99% of Yuan Ying''s friars can''t calculate the limit of their instantaneous mind, They are far from its rivals.


    "However, the" magic dragon-7 "brain, which is more powerful in computation than the" yuanyinglaoguai ", does not produce self-consciousness, and the" dawn-4 "brain does not produce self-consciousness.


    "But the computing power is only a few tens or even hundreds of millions of ordinary people, but they all have self-consciousness.


    "Even the mentally retarded children with genetic defects and congenital stupidity have only one hundredth of the lowest level of crystal brain. They can''t even add or subtract within ten, but they also have self-consciousness and precious" spirit "!


    "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 computational power, the more self-awareness will be generated? If so, the new virtual life form that you are afraid of after "Lingwang becomes essence" should have come into being as early as 800 years. No, it''s not 800 years, but 10000 years, because 10000 years ago in the era of Xinghai Empire, there was a crystal brain that was far more powerful than human beings! "