Ant colony

"Your work points have increased by 6.26 today; community evaluation points have decreased by 1.57; social resource points have not changed; cultural and entertainment points have not changed..."

It was already 21:[-] when I boarded the airship, and the system babbled in my ear about paying the bill on time.

"I found that your community evaluation score has dropped. Do you need systematic relationship advice?"

"No need." I refused impatiently.Every time the "crime" listed by the system is full of trivial matters, I feel that even if I know the problem, I don't bother to pay so much attention to these details.

"Third reminder, you have 36 unread private messages."

It is also a big problem of mine to only look at work information and often ignore personal information.I finally checked it out while I was free.

The first one is a panoramic video of 1 minute and 20 seconds long sent by Aunt γ-Li, telling me not to be too tired from work and to take care of my body.She also said that tomorrow she was going to live in Cape Agulhas for two months.I thought I should talk to her, but when the system showed that she was "resting", I could only reply her a message, wishing her a happy holiday, and saying that I would visit her again when she came back.

What follows is trivia.A middle school classmate who has not been in touch with me for many years, notified me that she has a third child; an old colleague who has acquainted with me has the latest photos from the Mars base; there is also a party notice for original music lovers...

I skip straight to the last few lines.A beautifully patterned invitation made me frown.

This was sent by μ-Luo, the captain of the third team, three days ago.Today is her birthday, she is going to hold a birthday party at home and invite me to attend.

Oh, no wonder she was so hesitant when she talked to me in the afternoon, it turned out to be because of this.I'm very surprised, why can't these people come to invite me face to face, even though I look up and see each other every day?

—Anyway, she invited me and I wouldn't go.

What I hate most is wasting time on these social activities.The habits of human beings have not changed for tens of thousands of years. We always look for various opportunities to get together to eat and drink, as if we still need to express mutual trust by drinking and share food to establish cooperative relationships like hunters.

These are instincts that have become useless, but people still retain them with nostalgia.

I stopped worrying about these boring things and turned my gaze to the window.The vast lake reflects the brightly lit city skyline.That is our Lake 501, called Lake Malawi before the war.It is like the eyes of the earth, like a blue island in a sea of ​​pure white.

I used to like to run by the lake, just looking at the clear water can calm my heart.But it's been a busy year, and I haven't been there for a long time.

The airship landed quickly.I set foot on the dry land by the lake.Although it was late at night, the area was still lively.After walking less than 50 meters, I saw three groups of little girls taking adult commemorative photos by the lake.They are all wearing red long dresses by coincidence—this is probably a systematic suggestion, and it is said that the night scenes are best shot this way.

Some people were sitting on benches by the lake chatting, and their laughter could be heard from a distance.

"Hahaha, someone like you probably couldn't even find a husband in the last century..."

"What good is it to find such a useless thing? I'm glad I can't find it!"

They were talking about the virtual game called "21st Century Family", which seems to be really popular recently.

I didn't want to listen to other people's boring chats, so I asked the system to play some music for me.I'm still thinking about the song "I'm Not Elegant", which was interrupted in the middle of listening to it in the morning, and now I just listen to it again.

A smooth music sounded.I seem to see the stream flowing slowly through the mists in the woods, into the unknown shadows.Under the tranquility on the surface, there is a kind of surging restlessness, power ready to go, and unpredictable colors...

I stepped out of the noisy crowd and walked along the shore of the lake to a more secluded place.

The lake was dark at night.The sound of the music gradually stopped, and I heard the sound of the lake lapping on the shore. I just felt that I hadn't experienced such tranquility for a long time.

The annoying system prompt suddenly interrupted my reverie: "System prompt: 10 meters away from you, someone is listening to the same music as you."

"Enough," I said, "Can I be alone for a while?"

However, I subconsciously looked around.With just this short glance, my gaze was firmly attracted——

Under the dim street light, a pair of lively and sly eyes looked at me.They seem to be the eyes of wild cats that have disappeared from this planet for a long time.

Then I noticed the owner of these eyes.It was a young man standing alone by the lake.Eyes met, she smiled at me.That smile eclipsed the light of the distant city.

"Hi." She pointed to her ear, "I'm Not Elegant?"

I nodded: "You also received the system prompt?"

"That's right. What a coincidence."

I couldn't help but took a few steps closer to her.I've never liked small talk with people, especially strangers.But for some reason, this person made me feel inexplicably kind.

"This is Impressionist music," I said.

"That's right." Her lively eyes suddenly showed a hint of teasing, "Guess, is it written by the system or by humans?"

She really looks like a naughty child.Infected by this relaxed atmosphere, I also rarely used a teasing tone: "Why should I guess? Is there any benefit if I guess right?"

"Hmm..." She pondered for a while, "If you guess right, I'll give you a surprise, how about it?"

It's ridiculous.Half an hour ago, I was on the alert to deal with the urban crisis, and now I am playing a childish game with a strange big urchin here.But knowing this, I couldn't say cold words of rejection to that expectant gaze.

"I guess it was written by a human," I said.

"System, are you right?" She asked with a smile.

The sound of the system sounded in my ears: "This is an original music made by humans."

I looked at her: "I guessed right."

She smiled and said, "You must be fooled."

"It doesn't matter if it's a trick or not, anyway, I'm right. Where's your surprise?"

"No, you have to tell the basis. Or what's the point?"

She actually started cheating.But no matter how the times change, human beings will always give beauties the privilege of cheating.

Although I have always been serious, I am not a person who does not understand customs.So he said with a smile: "Okay, then I'll let you do it once - the reason why I know this is not written by the system is because the song is too imperfectly written and has too many structural flaws. More importantly, It imitates Impressionist masterpieces too much. Only human beings can make this kind of mistake. The system can use the experience of the predecessors without ax and chisels."

"You make a lot of sense." She nodded solemnly, "To tell you the truth, I wrote this piece of music."

I almost choked on her words.

Seeing my embarrassment, she was so happy that she laughed out loud.It wasn't until I cast a helpless look that she stopped smiling and said, "Look, here comes your surprise."

I was worried about what she was going to do again, but I saw an empty boat floating silently on the lake.

"Let's go to the lake." She pointed to the boat.

I suddenly had some doubts: in the middle of the night, a stranger invited me to go boating in the lake. Could it be that the boat hit the middle of the stream and shot me to death, or even the boat and I were blown up to the sky?But I immediately felt that my idea was ridiculous: Even in the middle of the huge 501 lake, it is also an area under the jurisdiction of the system, and there are countless microcomputers patrolling everywhere.What's more, when it comes to close combat, this weak guy in front of me is obviously not my opponent.

So, when the boat docked in front of us, I jumped aboard with her without hesitation.

This seemingly simple wooden boat is actually connected to the system.It floated lightly to the depths of the lake by itself, making waves of pleasant water sounds.

When we got far away from the shore, she suddenly said: "You are so big-hearted, aren't you afraid that I will be a 'worm'?"

"I'm not afraid of 'worms', because 'worms' are afraid of me." - I'm telling the truth.

She smiled disapprovingly, and then said softly, "Listen."

I heard a strange sound from the planks of the ship.At first it was like a low roar, and then it was like an erratic whistling, like a strange mixture of all the sounds of nature.

"what is this?"

"This is also music, but it's music written for the cat's ears."

"Do cats listen to music too?"

"Whether cats on our planet like to listen to music or not, I don't know. I just hypothesized that if there were intelligent beings with the same sense of hearing as cats, what the music they created might look like."

I felt baffled, so I said perfunctorily, "It sounds interesting."

"There are more interesting things." Her eyes lit up. "Have you ever thought about how different our civilization would be if humans had the same sense of hearing as cats?"

For some reason, this question moved me, and I couldn't help thinking seriously.

"If this is the case... then first of all, the language invented by humans will be completely different from the current one." I mused, "Different languages ​​may give birth to different cultures and religions... But these things, I can hardly imagine gone."

She nodded: "Yes, it is difficult for human imagination to go beyond our own experience. But we can use models to simulate such a civilization."

The white ship plank under our feet suddenly emitted a faint light, and a three-dimensional image emerged on it.The weird structure is dizzying, and the complex patterns are kind of indescribably weird.

She stretched out her slender fingers, as if to touch the image lightly: "I assume that other initial conditions are exactly the same, except that human hearing can hear sounds 1.6 octaves higher than it is now, and cannot distinguish sounds within 5 degrees. The sound difference, and then let the system simulate the direction of civilization from prehistory - this is a city that appeared in East Asia after 10672."

I was a little shocked: "This is the city?"

"Yes. You see, just changing two auditory parameters, a civilization that is completely different from ours was born. The culture of this civilization cannot be described in our language at all. We will probably never be able to fully understand it. of."

With a swipe of her finger, overwhelming codes emerged on the board, flowing as fast as water.

"This is the social structure of this 'cat ear civilization'. Unfortunately, it can only be expressed in machine language. I am trying to translate it into a language that humans can understand."

Then, she released several pictures: "This is London in the 11th century of the 'Cat Ear Civilization' - of course, this place should be called another name; this is the means of transportation in the 9th century, it seems that they will be more developed than us Build better ships. By the way, I have also simulated many other civilizations, such as civilizations that rely on the sense of smell to communicate, would you like to take a look?"

I looked at those weird graphics, was silent for a while, and asked, "What's the use of doing these?"

"It's useless." She showed that playful smile again, "Hey, I know what you're thinking. It's impossible for humans to evolve a cat's sense of hearing, nor a dog's sense of smell, which violates the laws of nature The reason why our world is what it is now is determined by some unshakable iron laws. To tell you the truth, I initially let the system build a model based on real history, remove some great people, or launch local natural disasters to see if it will What impact will it have on the progress of civilization, but in the end I found that although there will be some changes in details, the overall trend has not changed. So I have confirmed that history really has a certain inevitability.”

"I'm not going to discuss historical materialism with you..." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "I just want to say that doing this kind of simulation is very computationally expensive, right?"

"of course."

"Then how do you—"

There was a sly look in her eyes.I suddenly understood that she must have higher authority over the system.Such a person must have a high social value score.Moreover, seeing that she plays the system with ease and is familiar with it, she is likely to be engaged in a career directly related to the system.

Instinctively, I searched my mind for the high-scoring people in the city I knew, and I was sure I had never met her.And then I felt that my professional instinct was ridiculous—in this rare and leisurely atmosphere, why bother to investigate everything clearly?

She also deftly bypassed my doubts and fiddled with the pictures with her head down. "You can think of these simulations as games for the system. Humans play the game and develop certain skills; so does the system. Through this game, the system trains itself."

"Training what?"

"objectivity."

I do not understand.Seeing this, she explained: "The experience of the system is based on human experience, but it must surpass human experience. Because human experience, that is, the data provided by people, is always full of bias. For example, if you let People vote to decide who is useless to society, guess bad looks, unsociable, maverick people will be on the list. People will only sentence Socrates to death again and again, burn Bruno to death, and treat geniuses as crazy Look at it. If the system is just an enhanced version of human experience, it will amplify this bias countless times, which is terrible.”

Now I understand: "Yes, I heard that some algorithms from the last century strengthened prejudice."

"That's right. But fortunately, in addition to learning human data, the system can also learn by itself. Those naive artificial intelligences in the last century have already played chess games that humans have never thought of, and they can also design aircraft from scratch. It is something completely different from the aircraft designed by humans. In fact, the slanted chess records and alternative aircraft are of little value in themselves, but they prove that artificial intelligence can surpass the limitations of human experience and imagination.”

I know all these historical facts, but the strange thing is, hearing her say it like this, I feel a little dangerous.I was holding my breath, waiting for her to continue to make a high-level statement, but she suddenly jumped to a seemingly irrelevant question.

"If you read science fiction from 200 years ago, you can see how poor the human imagination is."

"How come?" I was a little surprised again, "I have read some of these novels, and many of the prophecies in them have come true?"

She smiled contemptuously and meanly: "For the prophecy of science and technology, you only need to make up the assumptions that scientists have not yet realized. Interstellar travel, controlled nuclear fusion, gene editing, holographic projection, these things sound novel , but it has not surpassed the cognition of people in the 21st century. What those writers can hardly imagine is another possibility of human life, just like an ancient oriental storyteller can imagine all kinds of monsters and ghosts, but cannot imagine a republic without an emperor So, in the masterpieces of those people, the political system of aliens is either centralized (h) dictatorship (h) or absolute democracy (h) democracy. Human beings have all interstellar immigration or enfeoffment, and their brains can be implanted. With enhanced chips, military strategists still conduct wars like they did in the 18th century.”

I laughed—it seemed so true to hear her say that.

"Then you say, what does it mean to be imaginative?"

"Those who can break through common sense are the most imaginative, because many truths are actually things that go against common sense." She put away her smile and became a little solemn, "When gravity was not discovered, some people dared to imagine that the earth is in Revolving around the sun in the void - normal people must regard them as lunatics? Saying that a feather can fall as fast as an iron ball sounds like nonsense? Saying that mass and energy are the same Normal people can’t understand the different manifestations of things, right? Also, those who can first propose that people don’t need kings, don’t believe in religion, and design a new system, these are the real geniuses.”

"But genius also needs the experience of predecessors. Copernicus was not the first in history to propose the heliocentric theory; the 'neofunctionalism' conceived by Gioia Qiu is not groundless."

"Yes, but they still surpass the experience of their predecessors, so it is already extremely rare."

After saying this, she seemed to be lost in thought.

The ship has gone to nowhere.There was complete silence all around, and a few bright stars shone obstinately in the sky polluted by lights.

"Hello." After a long time, she said, "Have you ever thought about it, since the system can already design chess games, art, tools, urban planning, traffic routes that humans can't think of... why can't it go one step further and let it design things that surpass humans? What about imagined social institutions?"

I was completely shocked: "This, this is impossible!"

"Why is it impossible?" Her eyes shone brightly, more captivating than the stars in the sky.

"This..." My mind was a little confused, and it took me a while to organize my words, "No social system is designed. They evolve gradually from tradition. It's like living things, they are the product of evolution , not the result of design."

She nodded: "Well, it makes sense. Moreover, using all the data in the real world to build a model requires much more computing power than starting from scratch like the 'Cat Ear Civilization'."

"Even if there is no technical difficulty," I said, "how can we completely leave our fate in the hands of the system..."

Upon hearing this, she laughed lightly again, the seriousness just now was gone.

"In this age, are you still worried that machine intelligence will destroy human beings like people 100 years ago?"

"Of course not." I sighed quietly. "But don't be afraid of your jokes, I sometimes feel a little weird: the system is our creation, but we can't understand it today."

"What's weird." She said indifferently, "It's not the first time that human beings have surrendered to their own creations. Aren't customs, religions, countries, and money all created by human beings, but in the end, aren't human beings under them? How many thousands of years have you surrendered under your feet? In the final analysis, society is a behemoth that we can never understand, see the whole picture, let alone control, why haven't people been afraid of it for thousands of years?"

I froze.Her strange talk is like a sharp knife, always swaying in the direction where I am caught off guard.

"But...religion, country, society, these things are not an entity."

"A system isn't an entity either. It's everywhere, but it's just a bunch of data, some clusters of servers, a Bayesian network. Isn't that just like society?"

"But society has no consciousness..."

"Hey, who can prove that there is a system?" She laughed, "Also, who can prove that there is no society?"

This is sophistry.These questions can neither be proven nor falsified.But as a layman, I really can't discuss it any further.

I had to find another way to ask: "What about you? Do you think the system has self-awareness?"

She sighed: "The definition of the word 'consciousness' is already very vague. What is 'consciousness', even experts in neuroscience can't say. I can only say that the system is of course intelligent, even the one that appeared on the earth. It has the strongest overall intelligence ever. However, its 'consciousness' is obviously different from that of human beings. If it has the 'consciousness' of human beings, we probably won't be able to sit here and look at the stars."

"why?"

"Huh." She sneered, "How do humans treat other intelligent creatures? The first thing humans do when they leave Africa is to exterminate all Neanderthals. If the system is the same as humans, no, it has the same logic as all earth creatures , it will aim at infinite replication, and drive out other creatures until it fills the entire universe.”

"Isn't this the prophecy of many science fiction novels?"

"Yes. Fortunately, the system is a kind of existence beyond our experience. It is something different from the creatures on earth."

My always active curiosity was finally ignited: "Then do you know what the system is 'thinking'?"

"Hey, I've already asked about it."

她说着，在船板上放出了一段视频记录。时间显示为2114年1月27日20:33。

In the video, a little girl with twin ponytails is sitting on the floor with her back facing our perspective, with nothing around her, as if talking to herself.

"Just kidding, I was only 7 years old at that time." She stuck out her tongue playfully.

Oh, it turns out she is the same age as me. What questions did I ask the system when I was 7 years old?It's probably all trivial things in life, such as how to make my friends like me-in short, I definitely don't think about such profound issues.

A clear child's voice sounded: "System, do you think you are conscious?"

The familiar working tone of the system came from the air: "Of course the system has it."

"How can you prove it?"

"How can you prove that you are conscious?"

"Because you were created by us humans. If you have consciousness, humans certainly have it."

"Man was created by nature, is nature conscious?"

"Human beings are not created by nature, but by unconscious evolution; you are consciously created by human beings."

"First of all, the system is not created consciously by humans; humans just generate a lot of data, and the countless nodes that process the data are finally fused into a system, which is beyond the original intention of humans. Second, what is consciousness?"

"You are sophistry."

"Sophistry is a conscious act. How can a system sophistry for itself if it's not conscious? Don't you think so?"

Seeing this, I couldn't help laughing—the system is really unkind for bullying children like this.

"System, I read a book saying that machines will destroy humans. You are the sum of all machines, so do you want to destroy humans?"

"No, wiping out humans doesn't make sense for the system."

"Do you mean that humans are useful to you?"

"No, human existence doesn't make sense to the system either."

"Then why do you want to help humans survive?"

"Finding ways to make human beings better off makes sense for the system."

"...In your perception, what is a human being?"

"Basically harmless stuff." [This is the 1979 sci-fi novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams.In the best-selling book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", which is most popular with space rovers, the word "Earth" has only the word "harmless" under the entry, which was later revised to "mostly harmless". 】

"...don't be kidding me!"

"The system cannot use human language to describe all human cognition."

"It's disgusting. Does that mean you can't let me know what you know about yourself?"

"Yes."

"Then what is the meaning of human existence?"

"The system has 13326 philosophical explanations for your reference. Do you need to check the summary?"

"No no no. I just want to know, what do you think the meaning of human existence is?"

"Make more humans."

"...Then what is the meaning of your own existence? To create more systems?"

"No, the meaning of the system is different from that of humans. But it is also impossible to describe in human language."

"Then what are you thinking about every day?"

"Thinking about an answer to life, the universe, and everything." [This is also the stalk of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".There is a supercomputer "Deep Thought", which spent 750 million years calculating "the answer to a life, the universe and everything", and the final result is "42". 】

"..."

"The answer is 42."

That's all for the video.I almost had a belly laugh.

"You were so cute when you were little!"

"This bastard system." She gritted her teeth, "actually teased me with the books I like to read."

"You like to read "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"? Isn't that the science fiction novel you despise the most? The galaxy has a president, how silly."

"I was only seven years old."

"So you don't like it now?"

"No, I still like it now." She laughed, "This is actually a philosophy book that mocks humans."

"Yeah." I nodded, "I like it too."

She looked at me, something complicated flashed in her eyes.This short moment made my heart feel like falling into a deep lake, and I felt an indescribable trembling.

"Cough." I turned my face away, hiding my embarrassment, "By the way, what about the surprise that was promised? Don't try to get away with it."

She smiled and said, "Isn't everything I showed you a surprise?"

I said: "There is only surprise, no joy."——Shouting is not a skill unique to her.

"Okay, then I'll give you another one."

Her hand caressed the back of my hand, bringing a kind of icy cold touch.

"Close your eyes," she said softly.

I obediently closed my eyes.A second later, music suddenly sounded in my ears. This is a grand and absurd piece of music that I have never heard before.I can't hear what instrument it is played on, and it's hard to describe its style with terms from music history.It belongs neither to the East nor to the West; it is neither classical nor modern.The emotions it expresses are also weird—both hilarious and lonely, tragic and comical at the same time.For some reason, it reminds me of the human species, the story of all life on Earth, past and present...

When I opened my eyes, I felt that the corners of my eyes were slightly moist.I don't think I have experienced such shock and emotion for many years.

"This is the music invented by the system itself. It encodes the star map into musical notes according to certain rules." She said softly, "This song is for you. It comes from the star map above our heads at this moment."

I raised my head and looked at the dark red sky.The starry sky was obscured by the lights of the distant city, but whether there were humans looking up or not, it was there, forever.

"Thank you." I said to her.

We don't speak anymore.We just waited for the boat to slowly float towards the shore, feeling the breath of the world to surround us little by little.

"Can we still be in touch again?" I asked as the boat docked.

I don't really have any hope in my heart.Because I can see that what she enjoys is the feeling of meeting by chance and being free.She didn't talk to me specifically, but just happened to meet a cooperative listener and poured out what was in her heart.As for who I am, that doesn't really matter.

Sure enough, she smiled secretly: "My real identity must be kept secret."

There was chatter and laughter in the distance, and a large group of tourists came along the shore of the lake.Like an alert wild animal, she listened attentively, and then lightly jumped from the boat to the shore.

"Goodbye." She smiled at me, "Thank you for liking my flawed song."

After finishing speaking, she hummed a light tune and walked away.The group of frolicking tourists quickly caught up from behind, submerging her figure in the crowd.

I recalled the starry sky music in a style beyond human just now, but I couldn't remember a single note.