Digital Kingdom

Although the brain-computer company has launched a variety of products, such as blind vision glasses D1, "brain portal" system W1, and the "brain plasticity" experiment for treating paralyzed patients, they have formed a good reputation in the market.

However, in terms of revenue and expenditure, it is not balanced and the loss is large.

So far, Zhao Ziming has invested a total of nearly 30 billion yuan in research and development funds, and all product revenues add up to just over 1 billion yuan.

Judging from the financial statements alone, it can be described as terrible.

Of course, for R&D companies, financial reports are not important, or even optional. The key is how many patents they have and what technical barriers they can rely on.

Because R&D companies have been in a situation of "only input but no output" before the product goes on the market, the financial report must be losing money every year.

The brain-computer company is a bit better, launching a lot of products, and finally opening a way. Other smaller-scale laboratories rely solely on project leaders to raise funds, and there is no profit point.

Of course, to concentrate on research and development, it is certainly true. In order to reduce external interference, Zhao Ziming entrusted other companies to market all the achievements of the brain-computer company in the form of authorization.

It is precisely under this mechanism that both scientific research and R&D are paid equal attention to. The brain-computer company has been established for less than three years and has achieved many major technological breakthroughs, becoming the top company in the field of brain and nerve in China and even in the world.

Of course, in terms of market value, its valuation may not be high, but its potential is huge and its future prospects are limitless.

Every time a new progress is made, or technological progress, or product comes out, He Gan will take the initiative to report.

To show the results, let the leaders feel at ease, the previous capital investment was not in vain, after all, a benefactor like Zhao Ziming, who completely let go and try his best to support, is also rare.

Take He Gan’s previous boss MattAngle as an example. The annual funding is only about 1 billion yuan. It is a world of difference. Although there is input, there may not necessarily be output. However, if you want to have output, you must have money input.

Second, strive for new support.He Gan is well versed in human nature and still knows when it is easiest to ask for funding and support.

This time Zhao Ziming came to the brain-computer company again because of the good news.

In the past June, the research team led by He Gan's Gao Yongyan completed a product called "Dream Control System", which aroused his great interest.

When the "long-air war" subsided a bit and the dawn of the acquisition of ARM emerged, Zhao Ziming couldn't wait to see what the "dream control system" was?

According to He Gan's report, the system uses hand and head sensors to detect the moment when a person is about to fall asleep, and then triggers the machine to say a sentence, such as "think of a little rabbit."

Then, rabbits will really appear in the experimenter's sleep!

Hearing it felt incredible, no wonder it would poke his appetite.

Gao Yongyan is a master's degree graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He used to work in the media laboratory, the laboratory that created the perverted intelligence "Norman".

Of course, the two have nothing to do. The Media Lab has more than 300 R&D projects and nearly 500 R&D partners. The research fields span digital life, thinking objects, future news, digital countries, changing places, etc. .

Gao Yongyan is just over 30 years old this year. He is definitely a genius among geniuses, at the golden age of life.

He was able to join the brain-computer company. It was completely coincidental. Because of the idea of ​​dream control, it was too advanced and not taken seriously in Massachusetts. In addition, he was relatively introverted and had an average ability to find funds. The idea of ​​returning home was born.

On the other hand, He Qian began to gain fame in the study of cranial nerves. Under the operation of Zhao Ziming, he vaguely gained the reputation of being the world's first person and still attracted the attention of a large number of scientific research elites.

Working with top talents is a matter of course for Gao Yongyan.

Today, Zhao Ziming has become more aware of the importance of the threshold. The siphonic effect in the field of scientific research is the most significant. Many people would rather work with Daniel for less wages.

If there is no such thing as He Gan, if you want to recruit a genius like Gao Yongyan, you will have to spend more effort, not to mention that there is no way.

"What are the current attempts?" Zhao Ziming asked after listening to He Gan's introduction, looking at the equipment in his hand, a simple glove and a coil.

"The prompt test and creativity test have been conducted on 100 audiences," Gao Yongyan replied,

"What is a creativity test?" Zhao Ziming was a little curious.

"The short consciousness between wakefulness and sleep is scientifically called'Hypnagogia' (Hypnagogia). Dreams at this stage are full of imagination and creativity. We don’t know when people really fall asleep, but they can To be sure,'sleeping hallucinations' is a natural phenomenon that almost everyone encounters every night.

"Creativity test is to improve people's creativity. As long as possible for users to stop in "sleeping hallucinations" without entering deep sleep, it is also called an alternative use task, as the name suggests, this test requires the subject to imagine Alternative uses of the prompt language (rabbit or watermelon), and write a creative story based on the prompt language."

Zhao Ziming is curious: "How is the effect?"

Gao Yongyan replied: "We reminded rabbits, watermelons and other objects before going to bed, which can be perfectly presented in the experimenter’s dream. Sleeping hallucinations occur in the first stage of sleep. During this period, people will have strong audiovisual hallucinations or micro dreams. It is possible to generate belief associations based on prompts, and this association is different from waking associations. From this, it can be concluded that dreams can be implanted."

Zhao Ziming's heart is lifted, and his dream is implanted. Isn't that the space of inception?

Will there really be scenes in movies in the future?Live in dreams, modify memories, or even kill?

Zhao Ziming raised the "glove" in his hand: "How does it work?"

Gao Yongyan: “The subject put on gloves before going to bed, clenched his hands into a fist, and applied pressure to the sensor. At the same time, the electroencephalogram (EEG) sensor monitors the electrical wave activity of the brain. If the hand and head sensors detect that the subject enters In sleep state, muscles begin to relax, brain waves begin to change, and a nearby intelligent robot will say a pre-set sentence. This sentence aims to prepare the subject’s brain to change the dream according to what the intelligent robot says Content."

Zhao Ziming: "It sounds uncomplicated. Just remind the experimenter when you are about to fall asleep."

Gao Yongyan nodded, indeed: "In this regard, we were inspired by Thomas Edison. In order to record the dream, Edison thought of a way: He would fall asleep with two iron balls, and his hand muscles when he fell asleep. Relax, drop the iron ball on the ground, wake yourself up, and then record the dream you just had. He thinks this stage is the stage of the explosion of creativity."

Zhao Ziming is a little curious: "Is that really the case? Can creativity be induced?"

Gao Yongyan smiled, as if he expected the boss to ask such questions, he explained:

"Some of the most outstanding scientists and artists in history have dreamed of bedtime consciousness. In addition to Edison, there are also Edison Poe, Mary Shelley, Einstein, etc., all of whom expressed their fascination with bedtime hallucinations. It is claimed that in this state of mental dimness, creativity or clear thoughts can be exploded.

"But the most noteworthy thing is that in the 1990s, Nobel laureate and biophysicist Eric Kandel (Eric Kandel) expressed in a more scientific and rigorous way that'consciously acquiring potential unconscious power' is creativity This view of the root cause almost affirms the role of'sleeping hallucinations'.

"According to our research, in "sleeping hallucinations", multiple areas of the brain are active and in a state of divergent thinking. Divergent thinking will give birth to more creative solutions. It takes users to write "creative stories" more time than controls The team is faster. When you are fully awake, you will ignore these plans.

"Although creativity is difficult to measure with objective methods, the test results of the control group and the experimental group showed that the dream volunteers showed signs of creativity explosion. After going through hallucinations before going to bed, they spent an average of time writing creative stories Extend by 600 seconds. Compared with the control group test, 99 of the 100 volunteers obtained higher scores in alternative-use tasks after using the device. Almost all volunteers stated in their self-reports, They find the ideas that arise during the hallucinations before bedtime are very creative."

After listening to Gao Yongyan's series of explanations, Zhao Ziming couldn't help taking a deep breath to calm his excitement.

The latest achievements of the brain-computer company are really unexpected, almost unbelievable.

You know, dreams have always been the most mysterious existence. Between the waking life of the day and the strange dreams of the night, this intermediate zone, we pass every day, but rarely stay here. It is full of both wonderful and terrifying illusions. It is the spiritual product of the blend of reality and illusion.

The achievement of cracking dreams is no less than colonizing Mars.It's all about the destiny of mankind in the future, one looking inward for oneself, the other looking out at the stars.

He Gan looked at the leader in a daze. He didn't know if it was shocked or puzzled, so he took the topic over:

"Our equipment can maximize the time users spend between waking and sleeping, and shape the micro-dream content they experience.

During these "slight naps," people will not fall asleep completely, but will have strange illusions and thoughts that are unique to hallucinations before going to bed.In this state of mind, the world seems to begin to dissolve, but people still know that they are trapped in the subconscious and memory mixed with hallucinations and gain unconscious power."

He Gan paused, and then said, "I had a peculiar experience when I was in junior high school. I recite a piece of text in a dream. After waking up, I found that I had completely remembered it and vividly remembered it."

After listening to Zhao Ziming, he vaguely felt that he also had this experience, as if it was a few years ago...

Standing next to Shen Yiyi heard the words: "I remember a month ago, I worked overtime at the company and fell asleep thinking about the plan, as if I was inspired in a dream, but after waking up, I can't remember many details."

Facing Shen Yiyi's mature and charming temperament, Gao Yongyan, an otaku, seemed afraid to face it, his eyes were erratic:

"This is because the condition of the brain is different during sleep. Although the neural mechanism of hallucinations before going to bed has not been fully studied, the strict control of sensory information by the frontal lobe of the brain seems to be loosened by sleepiness, resulting in unpredictable sensory experiences.

"When you are sleeping, your brain loses a lot of frontal lobe functions, which means that you are super associative. You lose your sense of self, time, and space, and you are more likely to engage in divergent thinking. This kind of thinking is strange and weird. Thoughts are closely related, and you will ignore them when you are fully awake."

Zhao Ziming looked at these "crazy" guys, yes, they were "crazy", and an impulse broke out uncontrollably in his heart. He had never been able to believe that the future would be created by them, and the world would change.

Brain-computer companies go further and further along this road.

One is to manipulate dreams, and the other is to induce an explosion of creativity.

The prospect of dream control is fully manifested in Inception. Needless to say, once it succeeds, it directly creates a second world and completely changes the form of human society.

The explosion of creativity may bring a leap of intelligence to human beings, coupled with the concentration of flow experience, creation and concentration, is an intellectual superman!

Humans may have their own evolution.

He Gan noticed the excited expression on the leader’s face, fearing that his expectations would be too high. After all, the "Dream Control System" had just made progress, and there was still a long way to go before a valuable breakthrough. He quickly took the words and prepared to talk about difficulties. Pour some cold water:

"However, speaking of it, this phenomenon is difficult to grasp because its effects vary widely, including vivid illusions and dreams, as well as external psychological cues that are almost unrelated to the thoughts before going to bed..."

"I know", Zhao Ziming interrupted him with a smile, and said directly: "How much money or support is needed!"

He is quite familiar with the usual routines of his subordinates, and it is not profitable and early.

He Gan was stunned. He didn't have the idea of ​​applying for funding this time. After all, the previous 10 billion, there are still a lot of them that have not been used up. However, who would abandon the money and turn his mind in a hurry with a look of embarrassment on his face. : "It requires a lot of support from the leadership."

Zhao Ziming laughed: "Don't worry, I have no other requirements for you, and I don't have to consider the issue of profitability. Please remember that we have only one mission, to make products that can change the world."

He Gan heard the words and nodded solemnly.

Although changing the world sounds too far away, however, the world is changed little by little in this way,

People who devote themselves to scientific research have somewhat naive ideas. Although He Gan is a bit utilitarian, he, like many scientific researchers, doesn't care about money or money. He only wants a little ideal in his heart and is willing to endure the boring and monotonous day and night.