Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 748 - 003

Chapter 748: 003

"You still remember, right? Back in the thirties, Xiang Shan taught you all this stuff. Don’t forget, don’t forget," Ingrid repeatedly emphasized to Yawgmoth.

"Hmm, is now the time for an interdisciplinary discussion?" Yawgmoth seemed a bit bewildered.

...

Yawgmoth picked up his notebook. After dinner, he had debated with Ingrid all the way through. But perhaps because he had eaten too much, this memory was a bit blurry. Ingrid had even chased after him the whole way.

But...

—No, wait...

—The version Inga spoke of, must be the "preliminary version" we proposed at the beginning of the thirties, which was not a mature concept. I myself in the thirties... the thirties...

What year was that paper from...

"There’s no need to meticulously verify the year of the paper in your memory right now," Ingrid said again, her face revealing that mysterious smile. Yawgmoth had hardly voiced his doubts, but she already knew. She continued, "The knowledge ’locally’ allocated to me doesn’t extend to the second half of the thirties. The timeframe for all research has been obscured. And even if you forcibly recall the memory, it will sink back into the abyss."

"What..." Yawgmoth was very puzzled.

"Xiang Shan had one question he really wanted to clear up, which is the human capacity for empathy—or rather, the mechanism of transferral of feeling. Human empathic function is quite a pain. Empathy, this ability, involves ’understanding’ someone else’s emotions and thoughts first, and then ’responding’ to these emotions and thoughts in an appropriate manner. Some humans cannot normally comprehend the thoughts of others, while others have problems at the ’feedback’ step, responding to kindness with malice."

"But the mirror neurons responsible for ’understanding’ are also responsible for ’imitation.’ Mirror neuron groups store encodings of specific behavioral patterns. Primates, through these neurons, can recognize the latent meaning behind the observed actions of others and produce corresponding emotional responses as if looking in a mirror."

"Of course, the understanding and imitation by these neurons are not precise. They attempt to grasp the intentions of inanimate and even lifeless objects, hence the birth of religions. The Liberation Emperor was very troubled by this. He believed humans should recognize like steel that ’an object without emotions is without intentions.’

"On the other hand, to understand someone, the brain first internally mimics the actions and thoughts of others. To understand someone correctly, you must first put yourself in their shoes. The so-called ’when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you’... law enforcers trying to empathize with criminals face tremendous psychological stress because of this."

Yawgmoth was bewildered once more. He vaguely remembered that these topics had already been researched. Someone... had largely solved these questions. But he couldn’t recall exactly who, not at the moment... couldn’t recall...

"But what’s certain is that human empathy is not as strong as you describe," Yawgmoth said subconsciously, "If trying to understand others necessarily leads to an uncontrollable imitation of them, human thought would have been unified at the cognitive level long ago. Humans will never truly understand each other... When humans empathize, they insert their own perspective, then retain a ’suspended’ third-person viewpoint...probably..."

"Similar to virtual machines in computers?"

Yawgmoth nodded, "Indeed, that’s the feeling..."

Ingrid stared into Yawgmoth’s eyes: "Sometimes, for a Turing Machine to understand another Turing Machine, it has to internally simulate the operation of the other machine. While ’virtual machines’ exist as a technique to boost the system’s security—there are also many ways to penetrate virtual machines."

Yawgmoth said, "You should discuss this topic with Zhu..."

Ingrid lowered her voice, "Listen, buddy. The most challenging problem right now is how to make Turing Machines truly understand human thought. Humans have yet to find a way to allow computers to perfectly replicate all neural activity. Computers can also only comprehend parts of neural activity..."

"Under normal circumstances, a machine can detect activity in specific neurons in your brain. When the neurons responsible for ’questioning’ become active, a mechanism is triggered. But science is built on doubt. Only by continuously questioning itself can ’scientific conclusions’ inch closer to ’truth.’ Hence, the Liberation Emperor’s system attempts to grasp your thought process during scientific research..."

"However, machines also have their protection mechanisms. The program makes them automatically ignore highly abstract concepts... Based on experience, it filters out questions that are difficult for itself to handle."

"However, there is a portion of thought that compels it to think, to understand..."

"Think back to the research we did in the thirties... the ’Creator’s High-Level Language’... Can you now operate cells as if they were computers? Can you program for life activities?"

Ingrid posed the question.

Afterward, she suddenly vanished, just like a fleeting dream.

Leaving only her last words.

"Get it running, you smart little guy... remember..."

Yawgmoth was startled, standing in place.

This was his office. He was sitting in his own chair, holding a connector in his hand.

—Why...

Yawgmoth inserted the connector into the port behind his ear.

Life is machinery made of flesh, only this machine is overly complex, so to humans, it appears chaotic, disorderly...

Even the most basic unit of this order already exceeds the natural memory capacity of humans, so humans fail to perceive its beautiful rhythm.

But humans after the new wave of cognitive revolution...

—No... No...

Yawgmoth looked at the things that kept emerging before his eyes.

Modeling DNA, modeling ribosomes, modeling mRNA, modeling long chains of polypeptides.

The collection of symbols, the collection of states, the collection of transition functions...

Proteins and proteins, gears at the atomic level interlocking with each other...

Like the structure of machinery, a detection device... the high specificity of enzymes, a natural programming that’s almost like intelligent design...

—Then what... what to do...

In that moment, Yawgmoth’s thoughts began to slow. But the group of neurons responsible for the sense of time inside his brain had been replaced. He was completely unaware of this.

He was just engrossed in thinking, pondering.

Then, the world plunged into darkness.

—Has humanity really undergone a new round of cognitive revolution? It must have. But in actuality, my brain hasn’t improved as much as this false memory suggests, has it?

—And then, this that seems to be called "Inner Strength"...