Everyone: Are mechanics weak? I wake up and rectify the natural disaster

After a while.

The Control Tower of the planetary capital, or as it is formally known, the 'Executor's Tower'.

The back room separated by a wall from the Governor's office.

A large living room decorated with the utmost comfort.

Black walnut floors and light-colored wall skirts.

The floor was covered with an inch-thick camel hair carpet, with a pomegranate red background and gold thread borders. The pattern in the middle was the coat of arms of the English royal family - three golden lions arranged up and down.

Su Wen leaned on the easy chair that almost sunk his whole body into it, watching the fire in the fireplace dance with crackling sounds.

In my ears was the gentle serenade from the gramophone.

And the inaudible white noise of the pointer scratching on the lines of the vinyl record.

There is an illusion that time has been slowed down.

"Darjeeling tea. Milk and sugar."

Guanghui returned to the living room and put on a solid-color waist-length skirt.

"Let it dry for a while, maybe you'll feel better."

She put down the teapot with a smile and sat on the sofa opposite Su Wen.

The hem of the silk skirt slid down from her legs that were sitting side by side like water, revealing a graceful curve.

Su Wen looked up at her.

"Is there something uncomfortable?"

"No, no. I feel fine...this is a nice place to relax."

indeed.

Su Wen does feel quite relaxed now.

However, it’s not so much the environment as it is the people around me.

It makes people feel relaxed and peaceful... brilliance always seems to have such magic power.

Although he has no pressing crisis now.

But it’s good to come here often to sit and sit, which is good for your physical and mental health.

..

Guanghui had no intention of getting down to business in a hurry.

Su Wen was naturally willing to do as he pleased.

With a beautiful woman by your side, talking about the general trend of the world with open mouth, it would be a bit embarrassing.

Just like every time he returned to Jiangbei Apartment Building during this period, he would not drag Jiang Chirui to talk about work matters.

In a comfortable, private setting with a perfect audience.

Su Wen's topics gradually became rambling.

The two of them just chatted away.

In this living room, which is like a dream back to the Victorian era, even time seems to be back to the era before the invention of the telegraph and social media, gentle and soothing.

Until the topic went round and round and inexplicably came to 'views on prosthetics and implants'.

Su Wencai vaguely recalled that there was something to talk about today.

"Ascension..."

As he muttered, his eyes slowly became misty.

Soaring.

A very mysterious word.

in this world.

Ascension, although it is not like Xian Xia Pin, who attains enlightenment and becomes an immortal.

but...

In essence, there is no fundamental difference between the two:

——They are all transitions in life levels.

The difference is that,

One is to achieve the goal through scientific and technological means;

The other is through the mysterious and mysterious 'cultivation'.

These different methods are determined by the prerequisites of the world in which their respective civilizations are located.

To a large extent, it does not depend on the will of civilization itself.

But ultimately,

Both are efforts made by intelligent life to develop to higher levels of life forms.

The word 'ascension'.

Even in the sea of ​​stars, there are many interpretations:

For a race,

Ascension refers to the entire race, under the control of the only government of civilization,

Artificially controlled evolution of all members of the race through a specific path;

This kind of evolution will have multiple controllable choices, and the direction is often based on the innate characteristics of each civilized race and the target characteristics that the race hopes to have in the future.

It may be 'design evolution' based on biogenetic technology.

That is, like the 'gene enhancement technology' that Su Wen himself accepted and transferred to China,

By modifying gene expression, people can evolve in the desired direction...

——The only difference is that when he accepted it, it was 'for individuals', while when Hua Guo accepted it, it was 'on a small scale'.

If it is carried out by the whole clan, the popularity will be countless times greater.

This is 'evolution by design' based on biotechnology.

There is also 'mechanical evolution' based on prosthetics and implant technology,

This is the so-called 'flesh and blood are weak and the machine is ascending'.

but...

'Mechanical Ascension'.

In other words, in terms of the general idea of ​​'replacing flesh and blood with machinery, and replacing innate evolution with postnatal creations',

There are also some differences.

Use strong and reliable prostheses to replace weak and diseased tissues and organs.

This is a very common train of thought.

It is the tone of the fantasy near-future cyber world.

we can even say...

Human civilization is now on this path:

——It’s not only “upgrading” such as replacing the brain, heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and spleen that can be considered as implanting a prosthetic body.

Receiving an artificial leg, replacing an artificial cochlear, repairing an artificial Adam's apple, etc. can also be counted!

If the standard is broader, even a cardiac stent can be considered a prosthetic body.

Who said this is not a prosthetic body?

After all, these are not original products that are born in the human body!

However, the path of prosthetic evolution is a controversial one.

It should be said that when any civilization begins to embark on this path, there will be thinking about 'machinery, consciousness, and soul'.

After all, compared to genetic technology and other ascension paths.

Choosing the mechanical ascension of 'species prostheticization' is indeed a path that is easily accessible when a civilization has just entered the early stage of the interstellar era.

In other words.

Compared with other ascension paths, mechanical ascension usually appears earliest.

therefore.

Among major civilizations, it is often the first to be affected by it, leading to in-depth thinking on the definition of "what is a human being".

Questions like the 'Ship of Theseus' are not just raised by human civilization.

All interstellar civilizations have had similar doubts.

therefore...

Many civilizations have taken different paths.

Some people insist on being 'pure' and believe that a God-given body cannot be shaken and only need to borrow external tools;

Some people aim for 'harmony' and embark on the path of design evolution and genetic ascension;

Some people choose to be 'supreme' and go further and further down the path of prosthetic, half-human, half-mechanical life forms.

but...

There are also some civilizations that have chosen a more radical and thorough approach:

——Digital evolution.

Completely abandon the physical body, burn consciousness into data, and upload it to the Internet.

Take the road to digital life.

Depending on the differences between "whether to retain the actual body after becoming a digital life" and "whether to retain individual consciousness", there are often new branches to follow:

Choose to abandon the body altogether.

and retain individual consciousness.

Then eventually, a civilized society composed of information life and living in a virtual world will be formed.

From the perspective of a civilization that still retains its physical body, this is like a group of 'cyber ghosts'.

And if the actual body is retained.

This often leads to the path of 'synthetic evolution'.

After there is no restriction of the body.

People can use the best materials to build themselves a body with extremely powerful properties.

Use digital consciousness to control the mechanized synthetic body.

This is a mechanical intelligent civilization whose entire race is composed of synthetic humans.

Further on,

If on this basis, individual consciousness is not retained,

Instead, based on the characteristics of "information life is extremely easy to swallow each other and overwrite each other", all information lives uploaded to the virtual reality by consciousness are allowed to merge with each other...

This will most likely create an unprecedentedly large 'information life swarm consciousness' that has no physical existence but can control physical existence through information networks, becoming a huge threat.

...all of these are not enough.

"The future is hard to imagine,"

Su Wen put down the bone china tea cup and shook his head.

“It is difficult for us to explore how those super civilizations succeeded;

It’s also hard to imagine how many civilizations there are in the universe. At certain times that we can’t even imagine, they did stupid things that ultimately led to the complete demise of their civilizations..."

Choice.

The direction of racial ascension is itself the most important decision for a civilization.

It may be a priceless treasure map, or it may be a ghost gate that seduces souls and threatens their lives.

It all depends on how their people, their leaders, choose.

Obviously, making such a choice will put people on the back of a mountain of pressure as heavy as the ocean.

Fortunately...

Su Wen does not need to make such a choice for his own people.

The mental humanoids themselves are a new and perfect race. As a special 'species' with infinite plasticity, half virtual and half real, they are capable of 'prosthetic evolution', 'information life', and 'mechanical intelligence'. .

It is equivalent to completing the ascension in itself, and Su Wen does not need to worry about it.

But now...

But it was his turn to make his own decision.