Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 458 - 456 An Old Friend

Chapter 458: Chapter 456 An Old Friend

Zhang Yuan found that the young colleagues around him, though agreeing verbally, hardly took in what was said.

Having not lived through that era, they couldn’t genuinely empathize, and everything seemed natural to them. Perhaps this was the limitation brought about by their limited life experiences. This limitation was not one that could be compensated for by an increase in intelligence.

"Keep it up, the future is still for the young!" Professor Xue found himself talking too much in his excitement and quickly gestured with his hand.

Stepping out of the laboratory door, an old friend was already eagerly waiting. It was Mr. John, the first acquaintance Zhang Yuan met in the new civilization.

To ensure cognitive consistency and memory adaptability, Transcendents usually used bodies cloned from their original cells, with possibly minor genetic tweaks but without much change.

Thus, in the recent experiment, Zhang Yuan easily recognized this brow-wiggling fellow in the crowd.

"John?!"

"Old Zhang, it’s me! Fancy a drink?"

"Let’s go! There’s a nice restaurant over there, my treat."

With the double happiness of encountering an old friend, Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but wear a broad smile, feeling even more wonderful.

The two entered a roadside restaurant, ordered some food, and also a small cup of red wine.

Being researchers, they habitually disliked alcohol impairing their brains. However, meeting an old friend today lightened their hearts, compelling them to make an exception, as long as they didn’t get drunk, there wasn’t much of an issue.

John started the conversation, "Congratulations, genius is always genius, no matter which world... you’ve achieved again, just like long, long ago. It seemed as easy as plucking an apple from a tree."

"Geniuses are much more abundant nowadays, and with significant enhancements in learning capabilities, there’s much more to explore!" Zhang Yuan said, smiling, "If I don’t step up, I’ll be left far behind by others."

"...But if not for the intelligence enhancement brought by the auxiliary brain and human-machine interaction capabilities, I think completing this work would have taken ten times, or even more than twenty times longer."

In this era, with auxiliary brains and some human microchip technologies, whether it’s mathematical modeling or coding, it’s much simplified compared to before.

On the other hand, the increase in Memory has broken down many barriers between disciplines. Former geniuses could only master a small area in a lifetime of serious study; now, ordinary people can quickly learn much more knowledge, master several subjects, and combining different disciplines has become possible.

John nodded in agreement, "The series of changes brought by the super strong memory is indeed a groundbreaking high technology... We have finally crossed that threshold. It’s hard to imagine what our society would be like now if we hadn’t. It might be like some of the dead atmospheres in virtual worlds."

"Wasn’t it like that two or three hundred years ago... a dangerous era, thankfully, we’ve crossed it."

Sometimes, the downfall of a civilization is just a matter of one generation.

Hearing this piece of history, Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but smile wryly. John was still the same John; he remembered that during the Earth Era, this guy was always worried about the future of Earth Civilization, and he hit the nail on the head, the Earth Civilization declined.

Now he’s worrying about the already resolved issue of "not crossing the threshold."

"That was indeed a dangerous time, truly dangerous. I’ve looked through the papers on auxiliary brains, although I can’t quite understand them..."

Zhang Yuan said, "The threshold in terms of Intelligence is high but not unimaginably so. I think, as long as we refer to enough samples of intelligent life and decrypt the memory codes, it is not too problematic. It’s just a matter of how much time it will take. However, our human civilization may not be able to endure for hundreds or thousands of years, which might be the limitation of humans."

Human Memory had greatly improved, and along with it, Intelligence had also significantly increased. Even the "ε-δ" language in Advanced Mathematics, once rote memorized, was not difficult to understand.

Many people were surprised to find that some seemingly difficult subjects, such as Group Theory and Topology which involve a lot of definitions and concepts, became much simpler after rote memorization.

Once rote memorization became an instinct, it actually turned into a secret weapon, and while memorizing, many found that these subjects were not difficult after all.

Mr. John said, "The most important aspect is logical thinking, where humans have not fundamentally improved. Therefore, the enhancement brought by the auxiliary brain is still limited. This dangerous period in history could possibly reemerge and defeat us."

The more abstract the knowledge, the more it requires associative thinking, and the less improvement it can bring.

Biological scientists still do not know how to enhance the very abstract ability of "logical thinking" by transforming the brain.

Moreover, the human brain can only process a limited amount of memory. Modern humans can master three to five disciplines without a problem, but mastering thirty to fifty disciplines is impossible.

The auxiliary brain can only record some of the memories, not all. The brain itself must also bear some memories, and integrating a vast amount of memory is extremely challenging.

Zhang Yuan smiled and said, "Things are already quite good as they are, we can’t expect to achieve everything in one step. Professor Tu, who initiated the final charge and captured the Radiant Pearl, had passed away thirty years ago. I really wish I could meet this heroic figure."

"Indeed, it is very unfortunate, but the development of this auxiliary brain technology took over five hundred years, and it wasn’t just the achievement of Professor Tu alone."

Despite some minor flaws, the two were still very satisfied with the current scientific progress, or rather, they couldn’t be more satisfied. The worries about civilization are long-term, but they cannot overshadow the short-term optimism. Without optimism, people would collapse.

John suddenly asked, "What do you think is the most epoch-making technology or concept, besides the auxiliary brain?"

Zhang Yuan thought for a moment, "The Incompleteness Theorem of Random Numbers! It proved that ’true random numbers’ cannot be generated by the algorithm itself... that is, information itself cannot produce information. This theorem is so powerful—it’s a critical step concerning the essence of the Universe, Self-awareness, and even Strong Artificial Intelligence!"

Computers indeed can generate true random numbers, relying on user activities or hardware instability, and there are even specially made "true random number generators" that can use the randomness of molecular thermal motion to output random sequences. However, without the external environment, computers still cannot generate true random numbers using the algorithm itself.

Randomness is inseparable from Strong Artificial Intelligence. With theoretical guidance, how to create Strong Artificial Intelligence is another big topic.

"Next would be the subatomic theory that can break Quark Confinement."

Simply put, Quark Confinement means that the energy required to separate combined quarks is enough to form new quarks in a vacuum that combine with the original quarks, and as a result, you still cannot obtain individual quarks. But by introducing subquarks and subleptons, you can manipulate the conversion between quarks with a small amount of energy to produce massive amounts of energy.

Although Quark Energy still utilizes the Mass-energy equation, it can convert 60% of the mass of matter into energy, already nearing the 100% of antimatter!

"If we could harness Quark Energy, producing antimatter in large quantities would no longer be a distant dream. Relying solely on nuclear fusion energy is still a bit strenuous. Antimatter is basically the strongest weapon for Third and even Fourth-level Civilizations."

Zhang Yuan shook his head, "No, Quark Energy requires a trillion-degree level of high temperature, a small-scale energy room really can’t make it and even the size of the Bright Galaxy is still too small. If we hollowed out a planet, relying on its internal volume might not be a bad idea."