Chapter 271 - 252: Milestone Surgery

California Governor Arnold Newsom was very robust.

It is said that the vehicle that hit him was an out-of-control van; thankfully, it wasn’t a dump truck, or even gods would have struggled to save him.

However, his current condition hadn’t improved much.

"Five ribs are broken, including the third to the seventh rib, and emergency treatment has already been administered. The issue now is that the lungs are scratched by the broken bones."

"The spleen is slightly bruised, and the bleeding is getting worse, but that’s a minor issue. Blood cloning is already in progress, and it will soon be resolved."

"The spinal damage is severe, which could lead to limited mobility and nerve pain."

"The most troublesome issues are the concussion and intracranial hemorrhage."

The rib fractures were severe but not fatal.

Massive bleeding from organ damage could also be directly addressed with blood cloning technology using his own blood, so there wouldn’t be any immune reaction.

As for the wounds, they could be stitched using biocompatible suturing materials replicated from the Cyberpunk World—

Of course, that was still a very delicate operation.

So when everyone saw Lille manipulating the mechanical arm to perform nanoscale surgery...

"Incredible..." Dr. Otto expressed his shock, "You’ve perfected the Octopus Arm?"

"Almost."

More precisely, the Little Octopus had refined its own drive program, increasingly enhancing its intelligence.

In comparison with the mechanical arms from the Cyberpunk World, Dr. Otto’s Octopus Arm was unbelievably flexible; it just lacked a powerful drive to match its sophisticated biomimetic structure.

Dr. Otto’s idea was to use an artificial neural network AI to automatically optimize it, but that proved to be too dangerous.

According to the original script, this Octopus Arm would continuously run, fit, and eventually become more sensitive and intelligent until it unleashed the ambition and brutality from Dr. Otto’s subconscious and then merged with him.

However, now, these processes had already been completed in Lille, and neither had exhibited any degradation in behavior.

The modified Octopus Arm pulled out a suturing needle from the window and shook it in front of Otto—

Although it was a completely different entity, it knew its source code came from Dr. Otto.

Watching the Octopus Arm, Dr. Otto showed a relieved smile amidst his astonishment, "Is it greeting me?"

"Yes." Lille patted the Octopus Arm, which began to autonomously change its blade head, "If you want to try it out, once the chip is in place, we could install one in you too."

"Every scientist should have an assistant like this—that was my original idea when I created it. I will definitely try it if I get the chance."

Dr. Otto nodded happily.

Professor Conners, who was intently watching the monitor, said, "No, that’s not right... Governor Newsom still shows no signs of waking up. The neural damage might be more severe than we thought."

Trouble had indeed arrived.

Unexplained brain injuries are always the most difficult to treat, and being comatose could be a precursor to death.

Lille made a decision immediately, "Prepare for a brain-machine interface implant surgery."

"What do you plan to do?"

"Use the brain-machine interface to read neural data, monitor and adjust brain electrical signals, and address abnormalities with precise adjustments and repairs."

"But..." Conners hesitated.

If combined with the chip functionalities Lille had just introduced to them, it was indeed possible to achieve detailed monitoring.

But medicine requires extensive experimentation and data accumulation. Even if the chip and its accessories could monitor detailed brain electrical data, how could Lille determine what’s normal and what’s not?

That would require a massive amount of data and case studies to develop a mature medical protocol!

But Conners thought about what he had seen in Lille...

That artificial spine.

Then he nodded complexly, "Alright, prepare for the brain-machine interface surgery."

Dr. Otto, who had been listening to the entire process, interrupted them confusedly, "Wait—so why did we suddenly decide to go straight to brain-machine interface surgery?

Even though the chip could facilitate this medical procedure, we don’t even have the chip yet!"

This problem... Conners had thought of it too.

However, he had no intention of asking, merely watching Lille quietly—more precisely, watching his jacket pocket.

But this time he was looking in the wrong direction; the Octopus Arm was hiding behind Lille, quietly pulling out a chip from the hanging clothes...

[Interdimensional Material Transfer: BioRhythm Chip 8Z]

[Technology Points -600]

By the time the chip reached Lille’s hands, Conners cursed silently for being tricked!

"Actually, we have it; I created it with the Octopus Arm and have done some experiments already,"

Dr. Otto was speechless, pointing at Lille and then looked at Conners, who was shaking his head in secrecy—

"You... I... Alright... I’ll go prepare the materials."

"I’ll go and communicate with the family."

Conners walked out of the room, shaking his head as if he had failed.

...

In Marvel World, this would be a surgery of monumental significance.

After a brief reflection, Lille decided to disclose the details of this surgery—

He hoped that through this surgery, the standards for brain-machine interfaces in Marvel World could also be established.

The surgery started, and because there was no complete set of technical standards, the equipment was somewhat improvised.

Firstly, the sensors and electrodes were implanted, the device was modified from technology previously used by Dr. Otto, Lille had a standard in mind for the surgical method.

After placing these devices in the corresponding brain regions, the signals were transmitted through circuits to the signal processing unit.

This signal processing unit’s core was the BioRhythm chip, connected to a large amount of modulation equipment, finally visualizing various signals on the display screen—

This display screen took over the role of early prosthetic eyes in the Cyberpunk World, allowing human-machine interaction with the developers in the room.

With the signal pathways established, programming was needed next to process the collected signals into understandable natural language and then convert that natural language back into corresponding brain signals, stimulating the neural centers.

Since this surgery was about establishing technical standards, Lille explained the processes and design thoughts in detail, and through feedback from these Marvel technology experts, deepened his understanding of brain-machine interface technology.

The entire process was documented by Peter, and later, he would collaborate with Professor Conners to organize it into a volume standardizing prosthetic surgeries.

Subsequently, all the equipment used was standardized and integrated to achieve a standardized brain-machine interface.

In Cyberpunk World, a surgery that Lille would need less than an hour to complete, took him a full eight hours here, from afternoon till night.

The display screen showed simple, easy-to-understand data, marking the areas of neural damage, and the differences between normal readings and those measured.

"...These anomalies usually indicate neural damage, which could be due to a variety of reasons; doctors need to make assessments based on actual conditions.

In this case, we know this is due to trauma caused by impact; in areas without physical damage, appropriate electrical stimulation can assist in recovery.

But in regions with significant physical damage... we need to perform surgery for cerebral ventricle drainage."

With various life support measures and accurate neural electrical potential monitoring, it was theoretically possible to precisely locate every bleeding point and abnormal location.

"...This is definitely a revolutionary medical breakthrough," Conners wrote a lot on his notebook, "It will play a significant role in treating a wide range of neurological diseases."

"Exactly," Lille nodded.

Understanding the disease is the foundation of treating the disease.

Such thorough monitoring methods would allow the medical community to gain more insight into the mechanisms of neural diseases like Parkinson’s, epilepsy, migraines, and chronic pain.

Further promoting the development of techniques like deep brain stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation, humanity would no longer be helpless and constrained in dealing with these diseases.

"Moreover..." Otto thoughtfully considered other aspects, looking at Conners’s empty sleeve, "we could use another method to help people with limb loss, which would be much less risky than direct external limb attachment."

By this point in the treatment, Governor Newsom’s head was full of various tubes, and he had already undergone two rounds of electrical stimulation therapy.

Drip... Drip...

The buzzer sounded, and a new prompt appeared on the display.

Governor Newsom was about to wake up.