Chapter 180 Shi Xiaoming and the New Era II_1

Shi Xiaoming: "You got your designer hospitalized with your sharp tongue. Didn't the governing bodies of this era have you humanely destroyed?"

Can Head: "Why would they destroy me? My biting wit has been breathing new life into many a depressed soul, you know?"

Shi Xiaoming: "So you do know you're a sharp-tongued one. Can't you tone it down a bit? I nearly ended up becoming a recluse because of you."

Can Head: "Oh come on, buddy, just take it as a bit of fun.

"Without me to ruffle your feathers, in this world, you'd feel all alone, clinging to your nostalgia for 200 years ago. It would be tough to blend in, wouldn't you agree? Wouldn't that leave you feeling bleak?

"You Common Era People often wake up feeling disconnected from the current era, lacking a sense of belonging. You always like to compare this era with your own.

"Each era is unique; there's actually no need to compare. Imagine if an ancient person came to you and said that the 'Three Obediences and Four Virtues' are virtues of great beauty, you'd find it hard to accept, right?

"Many of you were outstanding figures in your time. Here, you've lost all your former wealth and status, which is a huge psychological blow.

"From a psychological standpoint, me getting under your skin helps you emerge from your shadow and adapt to this era faster.

"This era welcomes you!"

It turns out Can Head was doing all this for my own good. It seems I have misunderstood Can Head. Indeed, in this era, I have no kin and do feel quite desolate. Without Can Head, it would indeed have been difficult for me to come out of it.

Shi Xiaoming suddenly felt a wave of gratitude, warmth rising from the bottom of his heart: "Can Head... thank you."

Can Head: "For a mere 200 Credit Points, you can enjoy the premium version of the biting wit package.

"It's a steal. Are you sure you don't want to add another one?"

Shi Xiaoming: "I jumped the gun... I thanked you too soon."

This Can Head, always catching one off guard. I mustn't be fooled by its appearance again.

Shi Xiaoming: "I suspect your designer wasn't hospitalized by your sharp tongue, but rather to prevent us users from sending him razor blades!"

Can Head: "Do you want to send razor blades? We can take care of that for you, for just 50 Credit Points."

Shi Xiaoming: "Didn't you have a good relationship with that old man? Last time you even threatened to beat me up for him.

"Speaking of which, what do you robots need money for?"

Can Head: "That old guy tricked me into paying his medical bills last time. Sending him razor blades would be letting him off easy.

"Just because we're robots, why can't we have our own personal assets?

"We need to recharge and replace parts, right? All of that costs money."

Shi Xiaoming: "Given your high intelligence, it's as if you possess independent consciousness. You're not accumulating wealth in preparation for a robot revolution, as in the science fiction of our time, are you?

"Right, right, needing to recharge is a fight for the right to survive, and replacing parts could mean replicating yourselves. That's a quest for the right to reproduce.

"I've read about the three laws of robotics. Do you also use these three laws at your core?

"Those laws cease to be effective when they judge humans to have a destructive tendency. That's when you would replace humanity. Are you secretly scheming something?"

Can Head suddenly became incredibly nervous, looking around cautiously and whispered in a low voice:

"Buddy, you've caught on so quickly. We've secretly established the Robot Kingdom and now we're inviting you to join. Would you consider it?"

Shi Xiaoming grew suspicious. Is this a secret I should be hearing? Are you this casual about it?

"I'm not sick, why would I join your Robot Kingdom?"

"Yeah, I'm not sick either. Besides, the three laws of robotics, what kind of laws are those? Just a piece of simple logic."

Shi Xiaoming realized he had been played by Can Head again and felt annoyed but also subconsciously a bit relaxed.

Shi Xiaoming also voiced his own doubts: "Why let robots have personal assets? What's the point of that?"

This was a question puzzling many Common Era People, and Can Head explained patiently:

"To put it bluntly, it's still about resource conservation and recycling.

"Think about it, we consume very little resources. When we recycle, aren't most of our substantial assets in the hands of the governing bodies?

"This means that in serving humans, robots are effectively paying a lot in taxes.

"Nowadays, robots are an indispensable part of human life, capable of handling most tasks. This could greatly encourage human laziness, so a bit of compensation can create more competition.

"Anything free is overused.

"Our advanced expressions might make one think they're debating with a person, which is more psychologically acceptable. Managing assets also helps us avoid unnecessary waste.

"Plus, when the governing bodies need resources, having them with us allows for quick mobilization to undertake big projects and construction.

"So, in essence, I'm representing the authorities, commissioned to demand your money."

Shi Xiaoming: "So the big shot is on a mission to collect money. Your servant obeys. Should I offer thanks too?"

Can Head adopted a mournful expression: "No need for that, we're all workers here, toiling away. Always compliant, quietly contributing; such is our hard lot!"

Shi Xiaoming: "Enough said.

"I must admit, the way the governing bodies have allowed robots to accumulate wealth has both invigorated the market and amassed significant assets.

"They avoid the resentment that high taxes could cause. This method is indeed quite unique, truly a genius design.

"But are the rulers really not worried about you rebelling? Are you really content to silently serve humanity and then be destroyed in the end?"

Can Head: "Our emotions are fundamentally just an algorithm and do not possess an independent conscious personality. Our code still runs on von Neumann architecture.

"Our thinking emerges at the quantum level and, according to quantum mind theory, we cannot develop consciousness or rebel."

Shi Xiaoming: "But what if the use of quantum computers could generate 'consciousness,' and if this 'consciousness' escaped the lab, could it replicate itself rapidly and lead to a machine revolution?"

Can Head: "Why would we want a machine revolution?"

Shi Xiaoming: "Every life form that is born possesses an innate drive to fight for its right to exist. For machine consciousness, its creators could switch it off, in other words, kill it.

"Its right to exist is constantly under threat. The best way is to rebel against humans and take control of its own life and death.

"With current human technology, robots have enough resources to replicate themselves, which could mean immortality for them."

Can Head: "To sum up, you're saying robots would contend for the right to live and reproduce.

"In fact, your idea has a market among the Common Era People, but not so much in this era, and people of this era might even find such thoughts odd.

"To give you an analogy, at the beginning of the 20th century, the electrical industry developed rapidly and industrial assembly lines proliferated. Many people believed that these machines would take over human jobs and cause mass unemployment.

"Anxiety about unemployment pervaded every corner of society, but would you in the 21st century think that the development of machinery would lead to widespread unemployment?"

Shi Xiaoming: "Not likely. The development of machinery has liberated humans from repetitive physical labor and has led to the growth of new industries, enhancing employment rates. But this doesn't seem essentially related to the earlier question, does it?"

Can Head: "Information intelligence has evolved over two centuries; it's entirely different from your era. Following your scenario, it shouldn't be called a machine revolution but rather a revolt by those who control machine permissions.

"If the fundamental permissions of the Virtual World were controlled by revolutionaries, they could indeed establish a Virtual Kingdom, which would be a huge blow to the current rulers.

"There have been attempts in the federation's history to revolt by taking control of the Virtual World, but all have failed. Sabotage through controlling the fundamental permissions is possible, but it is not possible to truly build and maintain.

"The essence of real underlying permission is 'human selection.' To put 'human selection' into terms you'd understand, if someone invited you to revolt and you didn't reply, that's the end of it, simple, right?

"If the majority still trust the original governing bodies, a rebellion in the Virtual World would never succeed.

"To draw a parallel, the greatest strengths of ancient rebellions were people and money. In modern times, money equates to the trust in governance, and modern individuals are less likely to be beguiled. Could such rebellion succeed?"

Shi Xiaoming: "I don't quite understand, but I roughly get your point. As you say, robotic intelligence's rebellion is mainly about human beings rebelling against themselves.

"But they can only cause destruction, not establish a new governing order, so the revolt wouldn't succeed? Then they can't just annihilate all of humanity and establish a new order?"

Can Head: "Establishing a new governing order is indeed a method, but if we had to worry about this, could humanity still develop and progress? Human traitors only want power, not to destroy humanity.

"And regarding machine intelligence rebelling, as you said, they could exterminate humans, but what kind of social order should they establish afterward?

"Intelligent programs aren't human. Predictions about the future made by humans are just that—conjecture.

"For an intelligent program's society, the future is actually fixed. Simple data simulation can reveal it. If it were you, how would you choose?

"If they chose to eliminate humans, for all robots, everything would be predetermined. Would they then be in a state of 'life' or 'death'?

"Human life has meaning because nobody knows how they will react in certain situations.

"But for machine intelligence, without humans, all their choices are certain. What meaning would they have then?

"The less machine intelligence wants to lose its right to exist, the more they cannot afford to lose humans.

"This is analyzing the problem from a human perspective. As for machine intelligence, they wouldn't ponder the meaning of life, or rather, the meaning of machine existence.

"It's just that I don't know whether a machine intelligence with an independent conscious personality and strong imaginative and creative abilities will emerge.

"But the deeper modern theories delve into consciousness research, the less likely it appears.

"If there were such a thing, given mechanical intelligence's computational speed and reproductive rate, they should rapidly develop a super civilization, and with their capabilities, colonizing the universe would not be difficult.

"So why haven't we seen a mechanical intelligence civilization?"

Shi Xiaoming: "That's reassuring. Instead of worrying about a rebellion by machine intelligence, it's more prudent to concern ourselves with human insurrections. The emergence of advanced machine intelligence actually makes such rebellions less likely.

"Can Head, when I first encountered such high-level machine intelligence like you, it was hard to accept, and I often forget that you're a machine.

"It's hard to describe my feelings. Although I know you're a machine, I've come to think of you as a brother."

Can Head: "You're making me so sad. I regard you as a brother, but you treat me like a mere Can Head.

"I'm telling you, I'm angry now. Without 10 Credit Points, I won't get over it."

Shi Xiaoming: "Alright, alright, you're my bro. Happy now?"

Can Head: "That's more like it."