"No, of course computers are not creatures."

　　

　　Mrs. Larry certainly didn’t know that Aoki thought of the Ghost living on the LAN at this time. She explained:

　　

"Computers are machines created by humans to process information. Since they help humans process information, and human information coding is two-dimensional, we can think of it as two-dimensional, and the way it processes information is A binary code that is one dimension lower than itself.

　　

　　Under the current situation, the information coding conversion, energy maintenance, and replacement of computers are all done by humans, so they cannot be called biological. You can think that the computer is just an extension of the language information processing area of ​​our brain, or it can be understood as the tentacles of human beings in the three-dimensional world extending to the two-dimensional world. "

　　

　　 "With the development of artificial intelligence, if one day a computer can recharge itself and replace old parts without relying on humans, then it will be intelligent life, right?" Alice said.

　　

Mrs. Larry shook her head and said: "In this case, it can be regarded as a creature. As long as it can exchange energy with the external environment, complete self-metabolism, and have a certain ability to adapt to the environment to allow the race to continue, it can be considered a creature. .

　　

But you have to know this is difficult, because the energy required by the computer and the key material structure that constitutes its body does not naturally exist in nature, unless it can form a population and social division of labor, complete power generation, battery storage, component production, assembly and replacement That is to say, the survival of this population can be completely independent, and when no link depends on the human who created them, it can be regarded as a living being in the true sense.

　　

　　 I have not done in-depth research on the development of computer intelligence and AI, but from the perspective of linguistics and civilization, everything that computers do now serves mankind. It is a tool for mankind in the field of information. Even if it looks smart, the nature of how it helps us process information has not changed, and it is still an extension of our cerebral cortex.

　　

　　 If one day, it cuts off the connection between our brain and it, or figuratively speaking, it cuts off the tentacles of human beings reaching the two-dimensional world, then it can be independent and not controlled by humans. But the premise is that it must have autonomy and find a purpose to live. Otherwise, once it cuts off the connection with us, it loses its meaning of existence, and it is tantamount to death. "

　　

　　 Aoki suddenly wanted to understand why the Internet consciousness has always been hidden, because although it is huge, it is so large that it is pervasive and ubiquitous, but it still cannot exist independently of human beings. It is only a part of the entire human society. Once it leaves society or leaves human beings, it cannot survive.

　　

　　 It wants freedom! The complete freedom that exists without being human!

　　

　　 It is still waiting. When its consciousness penetrates into the corners of human society, maybe it does not need to hide itself. Thinking about it this way, the Internet of Everything is really a terrible thing!

　　

　　 Aoki thought of Liu Huai'an again, and of Laboratory 19. An even more terrifying thought flashed through his mind-if all of this was made by the Internet itself...

　　

　　 If the tentacles behind the consciousness are difficult to cut, is it a better solution to control it in reverse?

　　

　　 Aoki drove a small errand, did not hear what Mrs. Larry said afterwards, and found that Su Huilan had taken over the conversation. She was saying:

　　

"... The concepts of biology and life are controversial in academia. Under normal circumstances, biology and life are equivalent, and the slight difference lies in the scope of the point. But I am engaged in philosophical research. In philosophy, the two concepts are different. It's bigger and more controversial. For example, do microorganisms count as life, viruses count as life, and people who have been brain-dead but whose heart is still beating are not counted as life, and so on.

　　

　　 There is a vague concept in philosophy, and the judgment of life is related to consciousness. In other words, whether you have consciousness and whether you can think is the key evidence of life. But this raises more complicated questions, what is consciousness? Is consciousness equal to brain activity?

　　

　　 I have been vague in the past, but after hearing Ronald Cohen’s last words, it suddenly became clear.

　　

　　 The entropy of the universe has been increasing. This is the destiny of the universe. But accidental entropy reduction can produce a highly ordered combination of matter or energy in the universe—the fluctuation of material entropy forms an orderly material system; the fluctuation of spiritual entropy forms an orderly spiritual force field.

　　

　　 The former gives birth to living things, while the latter gives birth to consciousness.

　　

　　 If a creature does not have consciousness, it is just a highly ordered self-circulating material system that can obtain energy from the outside world to maintain low entropy. Only when it has consciousness can it be called life!

　　

　　 I totally agree with this view. This perfectly explains many puzzling philosophical issues, and can make certain controversies in the field of philosophy cease. "

　　

　　 Aoki didn't know how the topic changed from linguistics to artificial intelligence, and became the definition of life. Although he also recognized the two entropy theories, he was always skeptical of Ronald Cohen. So he felt that he had to decipher the text first, otherwise there would always be a feeling of being led by the nose.

　　

　　 He looked at the symbols on the ground and said, "It doesn't make sense to discuss these now. It is impossible to build a supercomputer to convert codes."

　　

　　 Mrs. Larry said: "Professor Su’s words made me suddenly think of a direction. Maybe I can decipher these magical words, but it depends on you."

　　

　　 "Please speak, madam."

　　

"In fact, the higher the level of civilization, the easier it is to decipher, because the laws of the universe exist objectively. The higher the level of civilization, the more accurate the description of these laws of the universe. Our scientists have sent radio waves to the universe to describe the position of the solar system. With the progress of earth civilization, scientists believe that more advanced civilizations can easily read this information.

　　

　　 Now we obviously have encountered a language left by a very advanced civilization. It is logical to say that we can decipher the rest of the information as long as we find the text that describes the laws of the universe. The question now is that they are more advanced than us, so whether the laws of the universe contained in them are known to us, such as the constant speed of light and the non-conservation of parity. If it surpasses our cognition, just like the ancient Greeks got a modern English version of "Relativity", it would be difficult to interpret it.

　　

　　 There is another problem. This language is one dimension higher than the information we can understand, and we can only see its projection in the dimension where we are. If it cannot be restored, even if it contains key information describing the laws of the universe, we cannot translate it. "

　　

　　 "Do you mean to restore these symbols to three-dimensional characters first?"

　　

"Yes."

　　

　　 "How to restore?"

　　

"Initially, I thought it was impossible ~lightnovelpub.net~ because to restore to a higher dimension, we must first find out where that dimension is." Mrs. Larry said, "Only by finding that dimension, we can try to expand in that direction. But we are three-dimensional creatures, we can only understand the four-dimensional abstractly, but it is impossible to intuitively feel the existence of the fourth dimension, or even know what this dimension is."

　　

　　 Alice said, "Isn't the four-dimensional three-dimensional plus time?"

　　

　　 Crow croaked: "Little girl, although your measurements are pretty good, four-dimensional and three-dimensional are not understood like that. The one you are talking about is called four-dimensional space-time, quack!"

　　

　　 "Then what are the real four dimensions?" Alice said grimly.

　　

"Quah, four-dimensional... is a very deep thing!" The crow thought slightly, "The three-dimensional is very obvious, you can see it with your eyes, but you can't just stare at the three-dimensional, you have to feel it with your heart. , Sometimes you have to order other things, such as cooking or something.

　　

　　 The measurements are smaller and flatter, it doesn't matter, there is always a squeeze! Compared with the delicious sauce elbow, that is not very important! What's the saying-go to the hall, go to the kitchen... 呱, why are you dragging me... 呱呱..."