Legend of the Cyber Heroes
Chapter 901 - 146 Isozyme

Chapter 901: Chapter 146 Isozyme

David was stunned: "The answer... is that simple... but..."

"There must be a lot of high-precision instruments on that spaceship, right? To at least replicate an Industrial Mother Machine-level machine, you need a sorting machine that possesses measurement capability. And this sorting machine naturally has ’measurement’ functions. This means that the blueprint only needs to store a simplified diagram. The rest, the machines can obtain from themselves," Xiang Shan pointed at a workshop in the distance.

There lay an alien wreckage.

The real information that needs to be encoded into the stele via a ’cipherbook’ is actually just ’measurement’ only.

"What about the parameters for metal smelting? How do machines observe the changes in metal under high temperatures?" David held his head: "This..."

Xiang Shan shook his head: "It’s not needed either. Inside Argon, there’s a stable environment, nearly vacuum, microgravity, and no other sources of interference. For metal smelting and assembly, it’s only necessary to determine what is needed under this environment... Well, perhaps after landing on a planet, certain physical phenomena triggered by gravity may activate certain protocols. Once these protocols are triggered, those machines can trial and error themselves to adjust some parameters, to ensure they can complete smelting and assembly on other planets as well—probably."

David nodded: "Indeed... this is almost feasible..."

Yawgmoth widened his eyes: "Wait, if those machines land intact, will they... evolve?"

Xiang Shan shook his head: "No, that’s impossible. These machines are products of precise design; every component has a clear and unique purpose. They cannot accomplish tasks beyond their design goals, with extreme redundancy. They’re not like living beings; life is undesigned. They don’t have the basis for ’evolution’. But if we must say something..."

After contemplating for a moment, Xiang Shan said: "They might experience changes at an extremely slow pace, perhaps even further diversification? The changes might first appear at the software level? They might gain group intelligence in a way similar to an ’ant colony’?"

"Would they be allowed to autonomously add to their AI’s code? Or learning capabilities? This volume of data, can it support an AI with deep learning capabilities?" David was shocked: "They... really have hope of coping with complex... environments..."

"I’m just saying it’s possible," Xiang Shan shrugged: "It’s just a possibility. This kind of hypothesis has no substantial basis. Inside Argon’s steady environment, robots don’t need to care about ’efficiency’, they just need to ensure stable reproduction of the next generation. But once they arrive on a planet’s surface, their self-replication efficiency must surpass the rate of damage. I think those machines probably can’t do it. After all, they were designed for Argon’s enclosed environment. But, who knows? What if the planet that this spaceship lands on is just right for these machines to operate? If I were the designer, I might give the robots this additional function, right?"

David was almost convinced by Xiang Shan.

As if the "structure of cells" came from deep-sea volcanic vents, rather than from the cells themselves. The initial robots didn’t originate from the information recorded within Argon, but from the civilization of Argon’s builders. Those aliens acted as the "miracle".

These little fellows can obtain their data by measuring themselves. And they only need to scan other parts of the spaceship to repair Argon’s shell.

But at that moment, David also realized something.

They probably already lost the opportunity to solve the puzzle.

The robots had already stopped due to unknown reasons.

And the reason for the robots stopping was probably...

"Generations of accumulation finally made the error expand to an unacceptable degree?" David murmured: "Some of the robots can’t work, the missing links in the work chain eventually caused the whole system to halt?"

Yawgmoth whispered: "Sounds kind of like a hypothesis about ’aging’."

"The robots we found, some were shattered to pieces, the parts inside seemed unfit. It’s probably true," Xiang Shan nodded.

Warrior David pulled a chair from behind, sat down, and said: "In that case... countless millennia of metal transmutation, impact from landing, plus the inherent error..."

"Will we... never be able to know that ’original data’ anymore?"

David was very despondent: "If what you’re saying is true... a lot of information was never recorded on the stele. So... the information not on the stele seems mostly lost..."

Xiang Shan laughed: "That’s what’s impressive about me..."

Saying this, he pulled out a stack of freshly printed documents: "Do you know? Inside biological entities, there’s something called ’isozyme’..."

Yawgmoth widened his eyes: "Your knowledge structure is a bit odd. You don’t even know some high school-level knowledge, yet you know this... well, complex, professional, and profound concept."

"Enough is enough," Xiang Shan waved his hand: "Those knowledges from yesterday, I knew about them but wasn’t sure, so I just asked a bit. My mentor at least has collaborative projects with brain science experts, so I know a bit. In any case, isozyme is..."

Just as Xiang Shan got stuck, Yawgmoth interjected: "Different enzyme molecules catalyzing the same reaction in the same organism. Of course, in the broad sense, any enzyme molecules catalyzing the same reaction can count. But in the narrow sense, it’s generally considered only those within the same organism."

"Thank you for the explanation, teaching assistant," Xiang Shan nodded: "In fact, we don’t need to know the original appearance of those machines. We can create something with the same function... equivalent to replacing all reactions with isozymes."

David rapidly flipped through the plan Xiang Shan just printed, his body trembling slightly: "My God... you... this..."

Xiang Shan nodded: "First thing we need to do is to restore a set of machines that’s roughly the same. Then, based on this roughly similar set of machines, continuously simplify to approach the initial machines. What we need to do is not fully decipher the meaning behind that set of symbols. In fact, what truly matters is the ’cipherbook’ itself. The only thing that needs deciphering is the ’cipherbook’ itself. And the industrial system configured from the cipherbook using ’reading rules’ can be replaced—using human technology."

"And our true aim is to restart that unknown-purpose, complete instrument."

Yawgmoth asked curiously: "That Industrial Mother Machine? Also can be replaced with human technology, right?"

Xiang Shan shook his head: "If I’m not mistaken, that is the meaning of why the aliens sent these things into the stars—David, let me ask you a question. If you were to plan an interstellar migration now, how would you do it? Using only existing technology, just existing technology."