Above The Sky
Chapter 278 - 278 264 Remnant Echo Echo and Mirror 410

278: Chapter 264 Remnant Echo, Echo and Mirror (4/10) 278: Chapter 264 Remnant Echo, Echo and Mirror (4/10) Immortality is the highest aspiration of nearly all living beings.

For immortality itself represents an almost endless amount of time, with which one can do almost anything, seek almost all meanings—as long as one has goals, no one would find immortality a bad thing since it is the epitome of all meaning, a collection of all desires and dreams.

In the Terra Continent, a land where even the Sublimators have relatively short lifespans, there are hardly any who do not yearn for immortality.

The stronger one is, the wealthier, the one who has everything and wants to keep everything forever, the more one cannot help but thirst for it.

To not pursue, chase after immortality.

But now…

Ian could only laugh.

“The Method of Immortality?”

His expression was bizarre, like that of someone who wants to laugh but also feels disgusted, mixed with a bit of pity and revulsion—probably like seeing a young person deliberately run a red light for a video, only to be crushed into a scrap needing to be shoveled up by a large truck.

That was how he felt, wanting to laugh yet feeling sad, sensing disdain but also harboring genuine sympathy for him and his family.

The white-haired youth repeated with a complex sentiment, “Is this it?

You call this immortality?”

“Yes.”

As if also affected by Ian’s emotions, Patrick sighed and then became expressionless.

He closed his eyes, and after a while, he sneered, “They think this is immortality.”

Ian fell silent for a time.

Learning machines, which can instill knowledge through the subconscious, are based on Terra People’s possession of a ‘Signal Bone,’ an organ that can directly communicate with electronic devices, and must be paired with a brain adapted to digitized information transmission…

The structure of Terra People’s brains has clearly been modified, the result of fitting them for their electronic creations.

Learning machines can enable one to learn professional knowledge and even ‘aesthetics’ and ‘manners’—aside from thinking patterns which can’t be learned, it can basically learn almost all knowledge.

It can even help those who have lost part of their memories to ‘relearn’ their previously backed-up memories!

Back on Earth, there was the concept of a ‘memory and knowledge bank,’ after all.

Thinking patterns also have an adaptation rate; the higher the adaptation rate, the higher the efficiency and stability of learning and the easier it is to fully master.

So, here comes the question.

If someone’s brain is a blank slate, possessing no self-thinking at all and learns another person’s ‘memories.’

Can it be said that the learner and the person learned from are the same individual?

Can the person learned from achieve ‘immortality’ in this way?

The answer is obviously no.

Putting aside that only memories are learned, brain structures differ, nerve structures differ, even with a blank individual learning someone’s memories, they would not regard themselves as the ‘person learned from’—identity confusion may arise, but the learner and the person learned from won’t necessarily make the same ‘choices.’

This is clearly just another person with the same memories; not to mention immortality, they can’t even achieve the same goals, let alone body snatching or the like.

At most, at very most, it could be considered a ‘Remnant Echo.’

But then again…

“This is not an impassable path.”

Though outwardly very disdainful, Ian’s mind was already sounding alarms: “Learning machines are just the most basic ‘memory’ and ‘knowledge’ indoctrination—but a Cyberization consciousness upload machine, if its input and output logic is rewritten, could indeed achieve ‘consciousness replication’ and ‘thinking algorithm reproduction’!”

“A blank Body, after consciousness replication and thinking algorithm reproduction, followed by some surgery and drug catalyzation to reset its neural structure, could basically be considered ‘the second me in the world’!”

“And this, could already be termed an ‘Echo’!”

An Echo’s thought logic is entirely consistent with the original, they would make the exact same judgments when encountering the same situations, and any different choices would only be due to different information.

If all conditions are met, such as an identical neural network, then accepting the consciousness algorithm, instilling memories, and reconstructing the neural system, it’s indeed possible to resurrect one person’s will and thought in another’s Body.

Even, just like an Echo, one could produce as many as desired.

At this point, it could barely be called ‘immortality’…

For those who do not care much about self-identity but simply want to fulfil their ‘purpose’ and ‘dreams,’ and do not mind which self it is, having another self who is exactly like oneself, making the same choices, and will never betray oneself to continue living in their stead, to achieve their objectives.

What difference would it make compared to living on by oneself?

But the problem is.

“They can’t possibly just accept an ‘Echo’ of this caliber.”

Ian slightly titled his head, looking in the direction where Yisen Gard had left, and said gravely, “How can these Sublimators, with such formidable power and authority, accept another ‘weaker self’ to take over everything that’s theirs?”

“What they need is not an Echo, but a ‘Mirror’!”

—What they need is not consciousness replication, but ‘complete consciousness transfer’!

—To upload their own thoughts, completely and intact, into another person’s brain, thereby achieving an outcome equivalent to ‘spirit possession’!

“You are actually this astute?”

This time, Patrick was truly surprised.

The blond Noble had originally thought he’d need to roughly explain the difference between Echo and Mirror, but he didn’t expect Ian to so easily grasp the distinction.

But this was even better.

So he smiled and shook his head, “Of course, what a ‘Mirror’ needs is not merely the transmission of thoughts, but also the ‘transfer of the soul’…

After reaching the Third Power Level, the ‘Heart Light’ stage, the body and soul become intertwined and bound together, and even at the Fifth Power Level, it’s impossible to separate one’s intact spirit from their healthy body.”

“Although theoretically there’s no essential technological difference between a Mirror and an Echo, the existence of the soul does indeed add many difficulties.”

Indeed.

Ian thoughtfully considered…

Consciousness copying and thought algorithm replication have no essential difference from consciousness upload and download, but this is the Terra Continent, a world with a self-proving ‘soul.’

Thus, the difficulty of consciousness upload is far greater than on Earth.

Earthlings have no soul; what proves you are you is only your thought algorithm and memories.

Upon upload, it’s equivalent to transferring oneself.

But on Terra it’s not enough—apart from memories and algorithms, you must also transfer the soul!

Remnant Echo, Echo, and Mirror.

Pure memory; memory and algorithms; memory, algorithms, and soul.

This is indeed a path to immortality by constantly transferring oneself.

The only flaw might be that even if memory, algorithm, and soul are all transferred, the original Sublimator’s power cannot be retained by the new body.

But this isn’t unsolvable.

The youth now fully understood why it was Yisen Gard—He had the royal bloodline, and he carried the ‘Sun-eclipse Refining Dragon’ bloodline…

If nothing unexpected happens, then that Guardian Axel’s goal should be to take over Yisen Gard’s body, and then use the modified Dragon Blood of Light Erosion to ‘devour’ or ‘symbiotically’ incorporate his past body!

Thus, he wouldn’t even need to retrain and could directly have the Fifth Power Level strength once again…

What follows is merely to gradually sever the Refining Dragon Bloodline from the decrepit body, and when he ‘cuts off the old self’, he will have effectively lived a second life!

In the process, he could even take the opportunity to seize all the wealth and power of the Ellen Family, further strengthening the royal authority!

—Such a cunning play!

Ian wasn’t sure this was Axel’s complete plan, but based on the current intelligence speculation, this is probably the Guardian’s goal, logically consistent, and it also explained Patrick’s actions.

As the subject of the experiment and the future transfer target, Yisen Gard needed to have at least Fourth Power Level strength to attempt transferring to the ‘Emperor’s corpse’ of the Fifth Power Level.

Otherwise, he had to either retrain from scratch or rely only on the Sun-eclipse Refining Dragon Bloodline.

“Truly…

diabolical.”

At this moment, even Ian, who wasn’t very concerned about these matters, couldn’t help but understand why Inega II…

would denounce his own family ancestors as ‘utterly evil’.

Especially since the ancestor who acquired this technology might have already used it privately, or perhaps, was eroded by an ‘Ancient Echo’ preserved in the mechanisms of a previous era’s civilization.

Ian had no intention of clarifying whether Inega II or his ancestors were right or wrong, as they were all dead anyway.

As for now, he had completely understood why the people of Redwood Base would denounce The Great Elder as a devil.

Because, whether it’s a Remnant Echo, an Echo, or a Mirror, they all require using people as material.

In the absence of clones, this typically means erasing one person’s thoughts, preserving their body as a vessel for another life.

This is far less moral than simple destruction.

With most of the doubts resolved, the current Ian was left with hardly a question.

“What about you?”

Raising his head to meet Patrick’s gaze, Ian narrowed his eyes, shielding the shimmer of silver-green brilliance in his eyes, “Why haven’t you disclosed this to Yisen Gard?”

“Patrick…

what exactly is your purpose?”