Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 413 - 57: Turing Lineage

Chapter 413: Chapter 57: Turing Lineage

The nerve signal conduction speed in animals has an upper limit.

In the earliest nerves, the signal transmission speed was very slow, approximately just one meter per second.

This is actually the main reason why many animals can’t grow to a large size.

The nerve conduction speed for insects is only one meter per second. If an ant were enlarged to over one meter in length, then if you tapped its tail, it would need about one second to sluggishly respond, and then the nerve signal would sluggishly reach its limbs.

However, if the insect is only one centimeter, its nerve signal can be transmitted in one hundredth of a second.

Vertebrates, on the other hand, evolved a different technology. Around their nerves, they have a layer called the myelin sheath, an insulating layer. This insulating layer can prevent nervous impulses from moving from one neuron axon to another. Additionally, it can speed up the transmission of action potentials through a mechanism known as "saltatory conduction."

This allows the nerve signal transmission speed in vertebrates to reach up to one hundred meters per second.

That is to say, when vertebrates grow to one hundred meters in size, the reaction time from tail to head only becomes as slow as that of a one-meter-long insect.

For invertebrates, this could be considered a game-changing enhancement.

In the early Mesozoic era, insects actually did have a tendency towards larger body sizes. After all, they were the only species capable of flight at that time. Once arboreal dinosaurs, near-avian species, and pterosaurs came into existence, the physical size of flying insects could not grow any further.

Because once they grew too large, their nervous reactions were too slow to transmit. For vertebrates of the same size, they were just a piece of meat.

In the ocean, cephalopods, which also possess higher intelligence and larger sizes, took a different path.

They chose to make their neurons thicker. The neurons of a spear squid are even thick enough to be visible to the naked eye.

This could increase their nerve signal transmission speed to around twenty or thirty meters per second. Although not as fast as vertebrates, they were more than sufficient in comparison to the lower standard.

Still, the limitation brought by the absence of a myelin sheath was clear. The nerve conduction speed of cephalopods was still not fast enough, and these overly thick neuronal bundles also limited their development of more complex neural networks. Without solving this problem, cephalopods could not give rise to higher forms of intelligence.

But some large cephalopods have abilities that humans do not possess.

Within their limbs are neural ganglia that can operate independently. Even if nerve signals are transmitted slowly and cannot quickly relay stimuli back to the central brain, the extremities can still make correct and simple responses.

Or in other words, their limbs have a certain level of intelligence.

TX-0 thought of this type of creature once again.

He felt that the current ecology of his profession strangely resembled that of this creature.

To make their enemies misjudge their location, the Turing Lineage would create some traces "outside." Zhu Xinyu once thought that this situation would allow King Aqini to make the judgment that "she has left."

Every disciple of the Turing Lineage has several pseudo-personality masks outside. These personality masks depend on their collaborators on various planets to carry out activities.

Those pseudo-personality masks are actually integrated with them. When making contact and exchanging information, the thoughts of those pseudo-personality masks would merge with theirs.

However, this process is limited by the speed of light and hindered by the distances between the planets.

Their relationship with those personality masks is just like an octopus and its tentacles. Those personality masks are completely independent.

And during this process, the personality masks are also influenced by the outside world.

They may even develop traits that differ from the original self.

In his sleep, TX-0 thought of that personality mask that had lost contact for three years.

He stared blankly at the front, covered in pipes.

—What is that "me" doing now? Has the "self" been deleted? If not... is it living an exciting Jianghu life?

In fact, TX-0 really wished that he could wear a Personality Mask and wander in the Jianghu.

He was a war orphan from the Space City.

TX-0 still remembered his first encounter with his mentor by the Yangtze River.

At that time, he had already been wandering the space station for a long time and was in poor health.

But at that moment, a broadcast told him to wait at the doorstep of a certain house, where food would be delivered for him.

TX-0 did indeed go there. A drone dropped off three packages.

Two of them contained food and water, and the other one contained a terminal.

TX-0 inexplicably put on that strange personal terminal and, following someone’s guidance, walked into a container in a daze and inexplicably arrived at this planet.

Later, he learned that it was the result of his senior brothers and sisters twisting the Protector’s logistics system.

From that time on, he had a strong impression in his heart—that heroes were omnipotent and romantic.

But becoming a "Turing" disciple was not romantic at all. Their whole lineage was trapped on this planet.

TX-0 managed to weepingly enter his master’s gate also because a senior sister happened to see him modifying the circuit of a vending machine to get food.

Of course, TX-0 never regretted becoming a disciple under his mentor.

But in his heart, he indeed harbored the dream of "wandering in the Jianghu."

Even if it wasn’t himself, being able to synchronize with the experiences from a Personality Mask was also good.

But that was just a pipe dream.

Allowing a Personality Mask to wander in the Jianghu would create the risk of exposure.

And if their lineage was exposed, it could lead to complete disaster.

It was nothing more than a dream after all.

"Zero." A "voice" appeared directly in TX-0’s mind. TX-0 turned his camera around to see that there was also a spider-like machine behind him.

This machine had the appearance of an automated repair robot, but now he and his senior brothers were using it as a Prosthetic Body.

They were supposed to map out an "actual map" of this place, to compare it with the map read from the network.

After all, the design drawings that exist on the network are not always accurate.

It was said that when this place was being built, it was precisely the mentor who secretly altered a small part of the internal programs of the construction machinery and modified the construction plan on the server, that they were able to successfully hide here.

The senior brother said, "Zero, what are you thinking about?"

Although TX-0 protested several times, the nickname "Zero" given by his mentor was still retained.

Sometimes TX-0 had to comfort himself, thanking goodness it wasn’t the even more nonsensical "Superman Zero."

"Senior brother, I was just thinking about my disconnected alter-ego." TX-0 replied, "Three years have passed, and I have no idea how it’s doing."

"Three years... I also wonder what kind of madness Hartman is in, to actually seal off Earth."