The office was very quiet.
Dai Zixuan sighed and said, "Menjie, you told me some of your true feelings today, so I will return the favor. Although I guess
I am the same age as your father, at this moment, I still hope that you will treat me as a person with whom you can communicate on an equal footing, rather than a superior
teacher."
"I have always been like this."
"..."
Dai Zixuan stood up, walked to the door of the office, closed the door gently, and then went to the refrigerator to get a can of soda water, "pop" opened the pull ring, and took a big sip.
The bubbles that flowed down his throat with a cold air rose up his determination.
"Before answering your question directly, I want to talk to you about my thoughts on the development of human civilization. I don't usually have the opportunity to talk about these. In a nutshell, I am pessimistic, especially when facing the current situation. You will find that the millions of years of evolution and thousands of years of civilization that we are proud of are so fragile that they are not worth mentioning. The Spark Project has brought together the world's top scientists in every field, but until today, twelve years have passed, has there been any breakthrough system progress? No." "But there are often reports of new breakthroughs in the news. The safety of nuclear fission engines used for launch vehicles and spacecraft has just been exponentially improved a while ago. At least when we are on short-term interstellar voyages, we will no longer worry about sitting in a place that may be damaged at any time. The atomic bomb that exploded. There have also been many advances in nuclear fusion engines, although they have not yet reached a fully controllable state..." "Mentzer, these are of course all progress, but in essence, they still have not gotten rid of the concept of working fluid propulsion - nuclear energy propulsion and chemical energy propulsion, in my opinion, can all be considered working fluid propulsion." "From chemical energy to nuclear energy propulsion, it can also be considered a technological advancement, right?" "Of course it is an advancement, but there are insurmountable obstacles between advancement and breakthrough. I teach you comprehensive science, and I am also good at physics and chemistry. Look at the theories in today's textbooks. Which ones are not hundreds of years old? How long has it been since the constants we are familiar with were updated? Planck's constant, Avogadro's constant, universal gravitational field ... Gravitational constant... The only breakthrough in recent years is the Dunn limit that breaks through the Shannon limit. But that happened in the fields of communications and information theory, not basic subjects like physics and chemistry. "
"So... Teacher Dai, you don't want to participate in the cryogenic hibernation plan? Because living a few more years can't witness fundamental changes? "
"Yes. Not to mention that cryogenic hibernation can only last for five years now, even if there is a sudden leap in technology, it can last for a hundred years. After a hundred years, when I wake up, if I see that there is still no breakthrough in basic subjects, I will be very desperate and regret that I would rather die a hundred years ago. "
"Then... do you support the Ascension faction more? "
"Humph, that's even more unreliable. What do the Ascension faction call themselves? Decarbonization and Siliconization Faction . Listen to this statement, as if humans, as carbon-based creatures, can be reborn into silicon-based creatures overnight, and from then on, they can rely on AI to control composite and alloy space shuttles to roam freely in the universe happily, and no longer need the earth. Even if humans have the awareness of annihilating their own bodies, as long as this thing does not happen in an instant, as long as it is a gradual process, it is bound to go through a stage of coexistence between humans and AI, just like now, but, look at what AI has brought? Once the evil of human beings and the unrestrained AI are superimposed, it is ten thousand times more terrifying than cancer. "Menjie shook his head. Most of his time is still focused on his studies, and he does not have the luxury of Dai Zixuan to fully understand the world. "Have you heard of Lingjinghui, which Zou Tong mentioned in class just now? I know you are a self-disciplined person and will not get involved in it too early, but this so-called 'AI+Metaverse' immersive game has become a spiritual opium for the world. Too many people are deeply trapped in it and cannot extricate themselves. The most terrible thing is that you can not only go to its 'access points' all over the world to enter the extremely grand and exciting virtual world, but also use your own VR equipment to access it anytime and anywhere. It can be said that as long as you want, you can enter it from any corner of the world and live in it 24 hours a day. Many people are addicted to it and don't know that they have incontinence, stomach problems caused by hunger, and even dehydration... Can such AI help humans escape from the earth?" "Teacher Dai, how do you know so much?" "Because... I have played it too." Dai Zixuan coughed lightly. "......"
"Also, yesterday a senior high school student in our school jumped off a building. You must know about this, right? But do you know why? It was not what was said in the announcement. He was impulsive because of his poor performance in the college entrance examination. The truth is that someone used AI to spread rumors in his various social accounts and cloud external devices without his knowledge and authorization, revealing that he cheated in the college entrance examination and confessed. Because the evidence was conclusive, even the live video was provided - of course, it must be forged by AI. He usually has good grades and a strong self-esteem, so how could he tolerate this false accusation?"
"But how do you know the truth?"
"The school's internal faculty and staff network has posted fixed-point push reminders , let's all keep it a secret. "
"Then...how do you know that this fixed-point push reminder is really an official push from the school, and not someone deliberately using AI to cause panic and incite suspicion?"
"You are right, it is too difficult to know the truth of a matter now. The truth has become a nesting doll. So, this just proves my point. Compared with the Eternal Sleep Sect, although they are under the guise of "immortality", they are at least doing things down-to-earth, and the cycle of low-temperature hibernation is indeed likely to continue to increase. What about the Ascension Sect? What did they do with the AI fed with massive data? "
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The two chatted non-stop for a long time, both felt a little dry in the mouth, and drank a big sip of soda water in sync.
The office briefly returned to silence, and the setting sun shone in. The scorching sun was tamed very docilely by the various high-tech means of this building, and it seemed completely unaware of how much waves were stirred in the hearts of the two.
After a long time, Menjie frowned.
Dai Zixuan's performance at this time was different from the way he stood on the podium just now.
But Menjie still insisted on his point of view.
"Teacher Dai, I think you...how should I put it? A little cynical. In the past two years when there were not so many homeworks, I studied the materials of the Spark Project. Although I couldn't understand many descriptions, I always felt that the plan constructed by the smartest brains of mankind would definitely ensure the continuation of our civilization."
Dai Zixuan smiled bitterly and stared at Menjie with some sympathy.
"You are right. Our human civilization as a whole must be able to continue. I have no doubt about this. But what about each of us as individuals? When Academician Deng and his elite colleagues were formulating the Spark Project, did they consider every person on the earth? If the cost of continuing human civilization is to sacrifice 4 billion people and ensure the survival of another 4 billion people, and the two of us are exactly this cost? If only 4 billion people survive, does it count as the continuation of human civilization?"
Menjie was a little speechless.
He really couldn't answer this question.
The answer to this question is a bit too heavy for him, who is only 16 years old.
"There is an ancient saying, 'If you are rich, you should help the world; if you are poor, you should take care of yourself.' In my opinion, the current situation is: 'If you are rich, you will be in the stars and the sea; if you are poor, you will be a walking corpse.' Look at the players in Lingjinghui, do they look like walking corpses? AI may bring them the meaning and hope of survival, but can it give them the possibility of survival? And more people who are between rich and poor, including me, don't really care whether they can leave the earth. For me, being buried with the earth and being buried in my hometown may be a more reassuring option. Do you believe that there are some people in this world who are willing to choose death as long as the process of death is simple and painless, because living is more painful."
Menjie's eyes flashed a little dim, but soon became bright again.
He didn't speak, but looked out the window.
Although the world outside the window was shrouded in heat, the shady green trees were still standing upright, not withering.
Dai Zixuan also realized that he had said too many words to his students that he could not swallow immediately, so he leaned back, leaned comfortably on the chair, and adjusted his mood.
Menjie's familiar smile returned to his face.
"Go ahead. If you want to apply to join the new generation of human cryogenic hibernation experiment, then hurry up. At least from the school and from my side,
you have been given the green light. As for whether they want you or not, what this experiment means to your future life, and what the world will be like when you wake up again, I don't know. I only know one thing, you will most likely have to take the college entrance examination."
"..."
Menjie stood up, nodded slightly to Dai Zixuan, and then walked out of the office without looking back, leaving the teacher who had restored his familiar appearance at the last moment.
He took two steps at a time and quickly walked to the lobby on the first floor. The environmental adaptive system in the lobby detected his presence before he went out, and immediately sprayed a layer of light transparent freezing film in the half-meter space around him, covering him to resist the upcoming heat wave.
Menjie rushed out of the building.
Although he still felt cool, the sunlight suddenly became dazzling.
He regretted not wearing sunglasses.
He squinted his eyes and rushed to the central transportation station not far from the school gate. There he would take the daily electronic vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL), commonly known as the flying car, from Lingang to Qingpu in 30 minutes. After getting off the train, he only needed to take a few more subway stations to get home smoothly.
He didn't have to travel so much, but the school no longer provided student dormitories during the summer vacation.
Just two hundred meters away from the central transportation station, he suddenly caught a glimpse of a group of transparent frozen films moving in the shade of the trees beside the stream near the school wall not far from the road.
He looked closely and saw a slightly fat student with a short flat head among them. This person was wearing VR glasses, tilting his head, dancing, and was obviously immersed in the virtual world.
A cold light flashed in Menjie's eyes. He decided to change his route temporarily and ran lightly and quickly behind the short-haired man.
When he was two or three meters away from the man, Menjie pushed his left foot hard, kicked the ground, and flew into the air. His right calf was first tightly contracted, and then he stretched it out with the rotation of his right knee, and kicked straight at the short-haired man's buttocks.
With a cry of "Ouch", the short-haired man flew forward.
While he was in the air, he was still waving his hands.
He couldn't tell whether this was virtual or real.
The reality was that he fell hard, buttocks backwards and face down into the stream.
And the stream was almost dry.
Menjie quickly looked around, there were no witnesses, and the nearest surveillance camera had been removed - the school was just taking advantage of the summer vacation to replace a batch of equipment these two days.
A faint smile flashed across his mouth.