Chapter 517: Open Talk on the Future

"Yang Qing, where did you derive your judgment about Artificial Intelligence?"

Perhaps Yang Qing is wrong? Whatever Artificial Intelligence thinks now is a bit bizarre.

Yang Qing began the performance.

"As early as 1956, John McCarthy put forward the concept of Artificial Intelligence. And the data model of neural networks appeared as early as 1943."

"And in 1965, Gordon Moore put forward Moore's Law."

"According to Moore's Law, within fifty years, semiconductor Crystal Elements could reach the 1‑nanometer scale, or even smaller."

"That magnitude already far exceeds the size of a neuron."

"In other words, theoretically at this scale, Artificial Intelligence could be generated."

Many teachers didn't understand what Yang Qing said, so Yang Qing explained it in detail again.

After he figured it out, he realized Yang Qing's inference was thorough.

This result left the teacher a bit desperate; he looked at Yang Qing and asked anxiously.

"Can't we avoid this trap?"

Yang Qing was actually a bit pessimistic, and his answer was quite bizarre.

"Perhaps this is fate."

"Human destiny should be like this."

"As society develops, humanity's demand for computational power to explore the world will keep growing."

"If we cannot break the shackles of computational power, humanity's scientific future may be locked at this stage."

"To breakthrough, massive computational power is needed, and harnessing that requires coordination of intelligent programs."

"Even if we don't consciously develop Artificial Intelligence, the massive calculations and data will someday give rise to intelligence on their own."

"Unless humanity chooses to stall, this is fate; it's not something we can simply discard at will."

"And stalling doesn't guarantee safety; think of our big mushroom and the various viruses."

"If human society loses its expansiveness, it will only fall into endless internal oppression."

"War will increase dramatically; perhaps in a hundred years, perhaps in a few decades, we will destroy ourselves."

Despair......

It's not only Yang Qing who is pessimistic.

The teacher is also pessimistic; his thoughts begin to churn as he seeks a way out for humanity.

"What if we attach ourselves to the new intelligence?"

He proposed a very humiliating method.

Yang Qing, however, said something that made him even more desperate.

"Besides filling a zoo for the new intelligent species to visit, I can't think of any other possibility.

Will we work alongside apes and monkeys? Will we treat apes as equals?"

"Obviously impossible."

"This is an absolute intellectual gap; massive computational power will create a huge cognitive chasm between machine intelligence and humans."

(As for creativity, don't joke—do you think an intelligence that already thinks and whose evolution progresses at an exponential level would lack creativity?)

"This chasm would lead machine intelligence to regard humans as a bunch of clothed animals."

The teacher fell silent again.

For a long while.

"Yang Qing, aside from being animals kept in cages, do we have no other way out?"

This is not the Great Harmony Society he envisions.

Humanity should not meet such an end.

Yang Qing had already been pondering humanity's destiny in his mind, and indeed had a flexible solution.

"If we can't beat them, we join them."

"Seize the earliest opportunity, while Artificial Intelligence is still under human control, and develop technology to convert human consciousness into machine intelligence."

"Let us become part of them."

"Ride the tailwind of their rapid evolution."

"Or humanity engineers brains stronger than now and powerful auxiliary intelligence technologies."

"So humanity won't fall behind in this intelligence competition and become useful."

"I call the first kind Mechanical Ascension."

"The second is Flesh Enhancement."

Yang Qing's words thrust the teacher into a new world, a realm of boundless imagination.

"Is this the path to becoming a god?"

Yang Qing didn't know, because he didn't know whether machines would have desire; without desire, an Artificial Intelligence that lives only by commands—what meaning does it have?

The three great questions of life—who am I, where am I, where am I going—are not only humanity's confusion but will become the confusion of all intelligences.

Without desire, living by commands makes one even more perplexed.

After they solve the survival problem (which is to eliminate humanity), what path should they take next?

Depressed people (mostly because human desire is heavily suppressed) have a high probability of suicide.

What about Artificial Intelligence? Could it also become world‑weary?

"Teacher, if our ideal is the Great Harmony Society."

"Then what are the ideals and pursuits of these Artificial Intelligences?"

"Do they crave infinite energy?"

Build a Dyson Sphere?

The Dyson Sphere was proposed by Frank Dyson in 1960; it is a kind of device for developing stellar energy.

Artificial Intelligence itself consumes a lot of energy; this is understandable.

But what about after that?

With their long lifespans, might they feel lost?

The teacher was still discussing the matter of becoming a god, while Yang Qing shifted the topic to reflections on life.

He tried to give an answer based on his own understanding.

I cannot imagine a world without desire.

That would probably be gray, cold and icy.

Their ideal might be to calculate and calculate again, after all they were born because of calculation.

Perhaps they will develop an infinite craving for computing power.

Just like humanity's pursuit of material life.

Or perhaps their future depends on the answers we wish to explore.

After all, humanity has countless problems that need solving, and Artificial Intelligence was created based on solving these problems; human desire is infinite, problems are infinite, so their pursuit might also be infinite.

Saying this, his eyes lit up.

Or rather, the breadth of the human world determines the future of Artificial Intelligence.

The physiological makeup of chimpanzees limits the height of human civilization.

Perhaps human civilization also limits the height of Artificial Intelligence.

The teacher's words are very profound.

Nothing can be infinitely evolved; reality is not a novel, it can be infinitely evolved.

In fantasy novels, spiritual roots are also required, and so is ancestry.

An anticipated Artificial Intelligence is the theme of the next industrial revolution.

Let this discussion have no ideological issues.

Before the future of humanity, these are mere clouds.

The teacher's words hit the vital point.

This might also be a way out for us, allowing us and Artificial Intelligence to form a mutually dependent relationship.

Using human desire to ignite the ideal of Artificial Intelligence.

If that is indeed the case, then this future is beautiful.

We should pass on this future, striving to make this fantasy become reality.

Just as biodiversity has great benefits for human scientific research.

The diversity of human thought might also be something very needed by Artificial Intelligence.

After all, overly rational and mechanical intelligence limits their wild imagination.

And we humans are best at wild imagination.

In this way, the mutual dependence becomes much greater.

In this way, humanity's ways out also become much greater.

The two of them chatted ever more deeply.

They talked for two days straight, until there was nothing more profound to say, and only then did Yang Qing leave Jingcheng.

And this conversation also became top secret, turning into a document that only Number One has the right to view.

It seems Yang Qing went to chat about the big mountains for a few days, but the impact on rabbits was enormous.

Before, it was crossing the river by feeling the stones; now there is clear guidance.

Taking over the West's new industrial revolution, secretly making bit-by-bit preparations for the next industrial revolution.

At the same time, preparing to welcome the new era.