Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 585 - 229: Boss Xiang’s Thesis Petri Dish

Chapter 585: Chapter 229: Boss Xiang’s Thesis Petri Dish

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A self-media with not a particularly large fanbase released a farewell announcement.

The operator of this self-media revealed his "Half-Person" experience, and thanked fans for their support over the years. Afterward, he mentioned that he would have a new opportunity and could no longer continue running this self-media.

At the end of the article, he expressed his hope to see everyone again in the "Jianghu".

The team also recorded a video for Lu Xuanyu. This man, who sat in a wheelchair but possessed a well-built upper body, successfully earned the tears of his audience.

The viewership of all Lu Xuanyu’s videos from the past half-year combined couldn’t match that of this single episode.

It even caused a minor sensation on various platforms, briefly trending on social media.

However, at this stage, Superman Enterprise had not officially intervened in the matter but instead allowed it to simmer down.

After all, the gene modification surgery would take months, as would the fitting of the prosthetic body. The official competition wouldn’t take place until at least a year or two later; it wasn’t the time to start building momentum yet.

The incident needed to ferment naturally.

"Shan, you could have totally come to me for help with things like this," Ingrid said as she looked at her tablet, shaking her head slightly: "I think I could have written it better—I mean the copy."

"What wuxia novels have you been reading lately, harboring a bellyful of ’wuxia novel language’?" Xiang Shan glanced over her Prosthetic Eye: "But Inga, you don’t understand communication studies, nor do you know the rules here. For such external texts, not a single word can be wrong."

Ingrid shrugged.

Xiang Shan spread his fingers: "Speaking of which, have you done any research on sign language?"

Ingrid closed her tablet: "What do you need?"

"I’m trying to find a sort of... how should I put it, ’gesture Command that can be mastered without systematic learning,’ or rather, ’gesture Command that aligns with human instincts,’ to control the human-computer interaction in the Internet of Things," Xiang Shan made a grabbing motion: "But actually, it’s not that convenient."

Ingrid looked surprised: "You’re still considering other projects now? I thought you had your hands full just dealing with the ’old guys’."

"The old fellows need to be pacified, and research has to be done," Xiang Shan said, twining his index and middle fingers and sliding them through the air: "The nervous system of Benchmark Man is highly consistent with that of Homo sapiens in structure. That’s also for the next step. Besides, this is a joint project involving other companies; I can’t just bail on it."

After all, Xiang Shan was also a successful scientist, and his name was obviously linked to more than just a few projects. In fact, several research institutions in Silicon Valley were still under his name.

Naturally, this also counted as "catering to interests." Boss Xiang, after all, was a scientist by training; whatever idea came to his mind, he’d toss it into a laboratory to be tested. Companies that made equipment were more than willing to burn a little cash to keep Mr. Xiang happy in order to secure collaboration opportunities.

The "market" is something very mysterious and unpredictable. It’s not necessarily the case that the good and efficient can dominate. For instance, consider the arrangement of the twenty-six letters on a keyboard, which is quite unaesthetic and not easy to learn. The original design was actually to "reduce the typing speed"—because the early mechanical typewriters had a limited speed and couldn’t handle fast typing. Yet today, keyboards that don’t follow this standard arrangement simply don’t sell.

Even Xiang Shan couldn’t guarantee that all his projects would be profitable.

Take this somatosensory interaction, for instance. He himself wasn’t sure if it would succeed. Perhaps after a new breakthrough in Brain-Machine Interface, "direct brain control" could be achieved with a very low learning cost, right?

Especially those peripheral projects.

Throwing such things into the labs of partner companies under his name felt great.

It’s like an overlooked Petri dish suddenly yielding unexpected results.

If an achievement was made, it meant Boss Xiang was treating everyone to soup—after all, Superman Enterprise couldn’t possibly monetize all of Xiang Shan’s ideas.

Moreover, it was also a kind of external posture, showing that "the core members of Superman Enterprise are incredibly capable and can have a greater impact, but they still know their priorities."

In the eyes of scientists and anthropologists, the primary "trunk" that Superman Enterprise focuses on has supreme significance. But those projects that Xiang Shan threw to the labs of other cooperative companies could always spark a bit of economic or communication significance, blinding some people with their novelty.

But when it comes down to it, while Xiang Shan might treat those "small projects" as child’s play, he was serious about the directions he provided.

And those companies would always send him some finished products. These trendy but not necessarily useful electronics piled up half a room in Xiang Shan’s home.

"The basic elements of sign language are ’handshapes’, ’locations’, ’movements’, and ’orientations’... Let me think," Ingrid said as she scrolled on her tablet: "I’ll recommend some monographs and papers to you. But I think, ’finger Commands’ shouldn’t follow the logic used to design ’sign language.’ It’s like designing road signs; they generally don’t use text directly. That’s too complex. It’s best to use it only as a reference—and honestly, I think voice is much more convenient, gestures should just be supplementary."

Xiang Shan replied softly: "Understood. These devices can perform quite a lot of tasks. If it’s too simple, then does it mean AI needs to make judgment calls based on the surrounding environment? But entrusting such tasks to artificial intelligence always leaves some room for doubt—besides, the budget for the labs under my name should be spent on scientific research, right?"

Ingrid tapped on the glass in front of her: "Ah, speaking of which, what projects are you currently working on? The company’s supercomputer is running out of capacity again. Are you training some AI?"

"I do have several projects going on," Xiang Shan said: "But the new supercomputer will be in place soon, no rush."

During the conversation, Xiang Shan rubbed his temples slightly.

Ingrid tapped on the glass again: "Alright, we can’t even shake hands now, so there’s no need for you to pretend to visit the sick. Off you go then, if there are any issues, we’ll communicate online."

A thick layer of glass separated her and Xiang Shan. The other side of the glass was exposed to temperatures that could burn the skin.

At this moment, Ingrid had already become a Benchmark Man.

Xiang Shan hooked his finger, and several small drones on the ground rose silently: "After all, it’s been a while since we last saw each other. Since I was passing by, naturally, I had to come and see."

"You must look at my cognitive test reports every day," Ingrid waved her hand: "I think you should pay more attention to those ’outside the company.’ Yog and I totally understand the significance of the surgery, but they may not. This could lead to completely different lines of thought."

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