Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

Professor Mo Xuan's silver and white metallic body surfaces shook a circle of ripples, which quickly broke through the boundaries of his body and spread to the entire lobby, every corner.

Whether the fantasy college students in the video or today, decades later, Li Yao, who is watching this video in a shuttle car, was deeply shocked by the magnificence, longevity and infinite possibilities contained in Professor Mo Xuan's short story.

Even the representative of the "vigilante", Xie Feng, pale, caught in deep thought, moments later he began to struggle: “… I still think, Professor Mo, that you are too optimistic and too idealistic about the ‘subcivilization'. As I said, I have two sons and a daughter, and I watched them grow up a little bit, so I know very well how natural babies and children are, even if not called ‘evil’, at least driven by unconscious curiosity, full of unscrupulous destructive power!

“Babies and children can burn ants with magnifying glass and laugh with joy; they can frankly break dragonfly wings just to observe insect creep and distortion; they can also spend an hour or two and work hard to build a building block tower, but only to enjoy the pleasure of completely destroying them within a second!

“This is the child, this is the evil of an undisguised humanity!

“We, the powerful 'adults’, may be able to nurture and educate ourselves against ordinary 'bear children', but we have no idea what form or power a virtual subcivilization, or ‘bear child civilization’, would have based on the crystal brain and spiritual web!

“I would like to remind Professor Mo, as well as my fellow students here - even ourselves, in a sense, is a 'bear child civilization'! Think about it, our harsh ‘father', against our arbitrary squeezing and enslavement of Pangu civilization, has been reversed, repressed and eliminated by us! But our merciful ‘mother', who helped us selflessly and woke us up completely, where did they go? Will it be reversed, repressed and even completely destroyed by us?

“This is what I'm trying to say. Never underestimate the destructive power of a bear child, let alone avoid its evil. In a dark and cold universe, there is no such thing as' human nature at first '! ”

This remark allowed the atmosphere to resume to the extreme, and many of the classmates fell back into deep thought, making this rumbling argument.

“Your concern is very valid, and I very much agree with you, Professor Xie. ”

Unexpectedly, Professor Mo Xuan uttered such a sentence, and then in the amazement of his classmates, he turned his head and said, "Well, there are only two paths ahead of you and all the vigilantes.

“The first path, Professor Xie, and all those here who agree with Professor Xie's view that the development of the crystal brain and the spiritual network will eventually give birth to a terrible 'virtual bear child civilization', eventually destroying human classmates, please immediately remove your companion crystal brain, severely smash it, from now on no longer touch the crystal brain and the spiritual network, no shopping online, no Internet ordering, no online games, no tele-education of the spiritual network, no online dating, no use of the Internet shuttle, no use of online financial services… back to the era of self-sufficiency, knife farming and sparking.

“Not only do you do this yourselves, but you also find ways to persuade the federal authorities to do so by banning the existence of crystal brains and spiritual nets throughout the Federation.

“No, starry federally sealed crystalline brains and spiritual nets are not enough, real human empires and Covenant allies have more powerful dominant crystalline brains than federally operated ones, and their spiritual nets are at least as developed as ours, so you must also persuade the imperial and allied authorities, as well as all unknown human civilizations in the 3,000 world, and all unknown non-human civilizations outside the 3,000 world - to abandon all technologies similar to crystalline brains and spiritual nets.

“If it is not possible to ‘persuade' the Empire and the Alliance, then you must find a way to expand the strength of the Confederation to the point of the total elimination of the Empire and the Alliance without relying on the crystal brain and the Spiritual Network.

“Come on, who's here to try it first? I won't say forever, don't ask you to spend the rest of your lives not using the crystal brain, not touching the Internet, even if you just do a little experiment first, a year! Who can swear not to go online for a year? Did anyone raise their hands? Other students can supervise him and testify for him! ”

A senseless laugh broke out around the auditorium for a minute, and no one dared raise their hands.

Professor Mo Xuan laughed, “Well, Professor Xie, how about you? Are you so vigilant about the Unified Spiritual Network that you are willing to walk physically, as an example, and will never touch the Internet from now on, without using the crystal brain? I noticed that the miniature crystal brain you wear on your left wrist is the 'Flying Swallow -9', a super high grade miniature crystal brain that just came out last month, and from the spiritual lines engraved on both sides, are you still choosing the highest configuration with the most computing power? Looks like you're not too worried. This‘ Flying Swallow -9 'will work! ”

Once again, the auditorium was filled with laughter and an atmosphere of joy.

Xie Wufeng blushed, subconsciously shrinking the naked wrist crystal brain to the sleeve, stuttering: “I, of course, we are not going to completely deny the significance of the crystal brain and spiritual web, just to say that the development of this technology should have its boundaries...”

“Boundaries, where and how exactly? ”

Professor Mo Xuan asked aggressively, "For example, does the Federal Assembly pass a new law that would force all brain computing in the Federation to run no more than a billion thoughts per second? Or stipulate that the maximum speed of the transstar sea light path across the four-dimensional space shall not exceed, once exceeded, is an illegal crime?

“Face it, Professor Xie! The reality is that once we start using the Crystal Brain and the Spiritual Grid, we can't stop it from getting more and more computational, faster and faster, up in geometric order of magnitude until we break through the so-called 'critical points’ again and again! If in a virtual world like this, a new form of life is truly born, then life will find its own way out, not any power can stop it!

“Your vigilance, it is too late! Perhaps before humans invented the first crystalline brain, or even the first rudimentary algorithm, you gave such warnings and fears, and that was useful! But now, the wings of the butterfly have long flared, and the invisible storm has been born and bred deep in Starling Networks, and in the near future it will sweep the universe!

“We cannot enjoy the convenience and progress of the crystal brain and the spiritual net while refusing to bear the unknown variables and consequences that it can bring, something that is not so cheap in the world! Your vigilance, with all due respect, has no practical significance other than to bring some kind of ‘Everybody Drunks Me Alone' pleasure!

“If you are a true ‘vigilante' and want to avoid the catastrophe brought about by 'civilization of bear children', this path is impossible to follow, only the second one can be followed.

“That's -- join us! ”

Professor Mo Xuan's liquid metal body surface slowly grew eight metal tentacles, which made his appearance even weirder, much less “human” in the traditional sense.

His voice has also become more and more empty, deep and calm, "Professor Xie, and all of you here, most of you are literary and artistic practitioners, who can be excellent script architects and content managers. Welcome to the production team of Civilization. Together, we will create a beautiful new world, a bright future, a virtual universe derived from reality and above reality!

“Thus, even if one day our child, some kind of new virtual form of life, is really born in Civilization, when it awakens the first strand of self-consciousness, the first time it opens its eyes, it sees such a warm, kind, beautiful new world, which will treat the order and laws of this world as the truth of the scriptures and the earth, as true ‘humanity’, as something worthy of its inheritance and guardianship!

“Understand, gentlemen, whether it turns into a 'civilization of bear children' depends on what we, each of us, do in both the real and the virtual world!

“This is my view, on a ten-million-year-old scale, that virtual subcivilization based on the crystal brain and spiritual web is bound to be born, and the only question is whether it was born in the Federation, the Empire or the Alliance! If born in an empire or an alliance, there is a great chance that it will grow into the 'civilization of bear children' that Professor Xie fears and destroy us all.

“Since it cannot be stopped, we can only find ways to make it a ‘virtual civilization' of the next generation by making it one step ahead of the federation and dotting it with the ‘heart’ of the federation!

“We often say that the wars of the Confederation, the Empire and the Alliance are not merely a struggle for the hegemony of the Stars and Seas, but a ‘battle of the avenues’ for the evolutionary philosophy of humankind.

“Who, then, bred the 'virtual civilization', would inherit the heart and spirit of which power and become the next generation of the 'Union’, ‘Empire’ or ‘Alliance of the Holy Communities’?

“Perhaps this is the ultimate expression of the so-called 'boundaries'!

“The birth of a virtual sub-civilization is not an overnight event. This‘ ultimate avenue struggle ’is likely to last hundreds of years, thousands of years and even longer, but the starting point of everything is in your hands right now!

“Join us and join Civilization, thank you, fellow students! Civilization needs your help, the Federation needs your help, the future needs your help, ‘Son of Humanity', the child civilization we will finally be born with, needs your selfless help! ”