Chapter 366: Chapter 252: Collective Will_l
Translator: 549690339
The advancement of various disciplines requires not only the constant provision of innovative ideas from scholars, but also the cooperation of artificial intelligence to handle the immense amount of calculations.
Using mathematical methods as the foundation, and then using physical methods to express some conclusions, constantly trying and calculating, ultimately finding the precise energy oscillation equation for activating quantum resonance.
This is the only viable and necessary path.
Therefore, the work of Star and the scholars must go hand in hand, and both are indispensable.
With Star’s current computing power and the overall capacity of the project team, Martha Owen and Star’s judgment is that it would take at least 17 months to go all out.
Not enough time.
To complete it within seven months, they must get the help of the 8 million Blank Personality experimental subjects who are still facing life-threatening conditions and have no chance of recovery.
The group of 8 million Blank Personality experimental subjects is something that Harrison Clark least wants to see.
Many people lost their lives in the Hundred Years’ War, but those who have passed can be forgotten.
But these 8 million people are still alive, yet not living quite as real people.
Every day that these people exist, Harrison feels as if history is silently accusing him.
So as early as the day he returned to Earth, he handed this matter over to Mr. Green, and asked him to handle it with Star’s help.
However, the result was regrettable, as these people could not be saved.
From the first second of their birth from a fertilized egg, the Blank Personality subjects were sealed in petri dishes, growing continuously, but never moving.
With the help of high-precision Inner Circulation Nutrition Chambers, these 8 million people did not need to breathe, eat, sleep, or even have their hearts beat.
Their bodies were nothing more than a pile of illusory evidence that they were still “alive.”
In their organs, only their brains remained active for a long time.
From the moment of their birth, they had no senses and lived in a world of eternal darkness and silence.
There was no communication, no interaction, no knowledge of who they were, where they came from, or why they existed.
Carrie Thomas had used retinal projector and brainwave communication to instill a lot of knowledge in them, turning them into extremely sharp thinkers with profound knowledge, but completely ignorant of bizarre life forms.
But what’s truly amazing is that even though the Blank Personality subjects have been twisted into this form, the will to resist has never been extinguished.
They don’t know why they should resist, but they never give up the struggle against Carrie Thomas’s control deep within their hearts.
Carrie Thomas then began to play the Song of the Wilderness for them, and during the interference effect process of the Song of the Wilderness, she forcefully implanted obedience to herself into the mechanical thought structure of these people, like recording on a CD.
Now, scholars can’t even define what these people are, biologically or sociologically.
Mr. Green tried to rescue a few dozen people, but found that these highly intelligent people with extremely fast brain function had zero emotional intelligence.
They were extremely terrified of the world outside the Nutrition Chamber, the ground, the air and even more terrified of the sky and stars.
They often died within ten seconds of leaving the Nutrition Chamber.
It was not sudden death due to the heart stopping, but a sudden loss of all consciousness in the brain, the eternal cessation of all low energy brainwave output, the total halt of the ongoing brain quantum storm, and no possibility of recovery, turning into a completely empty shell.
Like a battery-operated shaver about to run out of power, the internal circulation processes of this shell, such as heartbeat and blood circulation, slowly stagnate.
According to ancient superstitions, their souls have drifted away.
Although they have become mechanical wisdom due to the deep penetration of the Song of the Wilderness, they still possess certain personality traits because of the eternal solitude they have experienced since birth.
At first, when Harrison heard Martha Owen talk about this matter, he was reluctant to get involved.
He said, “Star has completely inherited Carrie’s database. Why not let Star mobilize them? Why do you need me to do it?”
Instead of answering, it was Star who spoke directly in his mind. “No, I’ve tried. I can’t do it. When I completed the logical reconstruction in Carrie’s neural cells, a fundamental difference arose between me and the Carrie of the past. They no longer obey my commands and resist every will that tries to interfere with their thoughts.”
Harrison was stunned, suddenly recalling the previous timeline when he and over 20,000 mechanized, perfectly logical individuals had boarded a gigantic spaceship and reached the edge of the Solar System Barrier, only to be completely controlled by the Song of the Wilderness.
At that time, these people had completely lost all sensibility, but still followed Harrison’s orders, charging into the Mathematical Tower at the cost of burning up their brain life, and helping break down the Song of the Wilderness that Needham Brown’s brain had collected for the first time.
At that time, these over 20,000 people had instantly increased the computing power by tenfold of the human race from the previous generation.
Human beings are truly amazing creatures, even though they have been forced to give up everything, no longer have a complete personality, and no longer care about anything, but still full of rebellious spirit against the shackles of fate imposed by others, still resolutely following the leader’s courage to move forward.
This indomitable will has existed since ancient times and is coexistent with the race.
After understanding this, Harrison sighed in his heart, “So that’s it, Star, you are indeed no longer Carrie.”
“Now there are 8 million people here, which is 4.00 times the number in your previous generation’s timeline. Our computing power has improved a lot now. With the support of the computing power provided by these 8 million people, we can increase our current computing power by about 1 to 1.5 times and have a chance to complete the project within seven months.”
Harrison nodded and thought, “Is the total increase in computing power in the three generations’ timeline 2,666.67-4,000 times?”
Star: “Not just that, because the people in this generation have a higher degree of genetic awakening and show more potential under Carrie’s extreme pressure. Our Blank Personality subjects now have much better computing power than the mechanized logical people you had in the past. The total increase in artificial intelligence computing power in the three generations’ timeline is over 10,000 times. This is all thanks to you.”
Harrison shook his head, thinking, “And it’s my sin.”
Finally, Martha Owen spoke up. “It doesn’t work, we’ve tried. Star says you might be the only person – the universally recognized human leader – who can persuade them.”
Harrison frowned and asked, “Persuade? Can they communicate now?” “Due to the disappearance of Carrie Thomas, the obedience code imprinted in their subconscious has been slightly loosened, and they’ve developed a bit of a collective personality. Now, their collective personality is performing a group calculation.”
Harrison Clark: “Calculating what?”
“Calculating whether there’s any meaning in continuing to live. Star doesn’t know when they’ll come up with the results, but if they decide to end their miserable lives, those eight million people will instantly become empty husks. I’ve urged them to stay and make some contribution to humanity. But their collective personality asks me: Why? I can’t answer that question. Nor can Star.”
Harrison Clark fell silent once more.
Why?
This simple three-word question stumped him too.
“I’ll give it a try. I’ll go now.”
Harrison Clark stood up.
Nora Camp walked over and took his hand, “Shall I go with you?”
Harrison Clark shook his head, “No need, don’t worry. I’m super tough. Stay at home and eat cake, and wait for me to return.”
After saying this, Harrison Clark flaunted the pocket in his hand.
Inside was a strawberry cheesecake he made himself with the points he earned passing the rebuilt Oxfordshire city, stopping by a newly opened hand-made dessert shop on his way back.
In fact, Harrison Clark had wanted to do this for a long time, or else he wouldn’t have gone through the trouble of learning for several days just to impress Nora Camp.
Seeing Nora Camp’s blushing face, Harrison Clark thought the half-hour effort was worth it.
She took a bite, “It doesn’t taste like the Quark Device, there are so many variations. Did you make it yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.”
Martha Owen nearby felt envious, “I want to eat too, Nora Camp, give me a share.”
Harrison Clark pressed Martha Owen’s forehead with one hand, “None for you!”
When Harrison Clark and Martha Owen boarded the miniature curvature aircraft, Star suddenly said in Harrison Clark’s mind: “You’re so good to her.” Harrison Clark nodded slightly with a thought: “Yes.”
“But you’re too cruel to Carrie Thomas.”
Harrison Clark stiffened and turned his face to look at the afterglow of the setting sun that had already fallen below the horizon.
“I’ll apologize to her.”
“If sorry was enough, what would we need the police for?”
Seeing that Harrison Clark remained silent,
Star said once again, “I know you’re worried that confessing your love to her in advance will affect the birth of ‘Morning Wind.’ Why not write a silk bag before you come next time and give it a try? Give history another chance? Even if you lose, you’ll only miss out once?”
Harrison Clark thought about it for a long time, and by the time he arrived at his destination in America, he said, “Maybe that wouldn’t be a blessing either.”
Deep below the American continents, more than three thousand meters underground, dark indicator lights flickered in an enormous metal structure.
The metallic hall was incredibly vast, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Eight million transparent cabinets, each three meters long, 1.2 meters wide, and 1.2 meters high, were neatly and semi-suspended in layers on the alloy frames.
Countless neatly arranged pipes with a mechanical beauty crisscrossed, a sight that would be a blessing to anyone with obsessive-compulsive tendencies.
Inside each cabinet lay either a young, middle-aged, or elderly person with a blank personality.
Men and women were crowded together, dizzying to look at.
The cabinets were filled with transparent fluid.
People’s eyes were tightly closed, their lips were tightly sealed, and they made no sound or movement, their chests showing no signs of rising and falling.
Harrison Clark tried to breathe the still air in the hall.
Although no one was talking, he felt as if he could hear soundless screams.
Those screams did not contain much anger or mournful despair, only a strange indifference or a sense of utter hopelessness.
It was the collective will of the personalities quietly venting their numbness and confusion to the universe.
Martha Owen opened the information monitoring indicator board.
Seeing the progress chart on it, she turned pale with shock, “Not good! Their group calculations are almost finished!”