According to Hao Ren's definition of human beings, the human beings on this planet were actually extinct at least a thousand years ago. When they lost the ability to reproduce and the aura of wisdom, they could only be destroyed like a bunch of cell samples.
When stored in culture vessels, they are already racially extinct.
But for the stubborn mastermind and the entire society of agents, humanity died today.
In the cylindrical culture vessel, various electrodes and tubes used to transport nutrients are slowly leaving the liquid surface under the control of the master brain. The squirming pieces of meat immediately trembled violently after losing the support of the machine. In just a moment, their surfaces
Large and small cracks appeared, and dirty red liquid and bubbles spurted out from between the pieces of meat. The originally light pink nutritional supplement turned blood red in the blink of an eye.
Hao Ren couldn't tell whether these pieces of meat could still be regarded as a complete organism because every cell contained in it was almost completely different. The fatal mutation caused these cells to produce a completely new genetic sequence after each division.
From a biological perspective, it is impossible for these cells to survive to this day.
For a long time, they have been forcibly combined and maintained active by the master brain using technical means. The entire maintenance system has to filter out a large amount of toxic substances produced by these pieces of meat every day to prevent all cells from being killed by their own metabolites.
But today, this endless suffering can finally end.
After removing all life-support systems, these flesh and blood can still survive for a short period of time, and the cells will die in large numbers, but until the nutrients in the container are exhausted, they will continue to carry out lethal and toxic physiological activities, according to the mastermind
According to calculations, it will take several hours for the last cell to completely die.
"Is this enough?" Hao Ren frowned, watching this "human funeral". Apart from the group of "outsiders" he led, the only witnesses to this funeral were the mastermind and n-6."
I thought there would be a more solemn ceremony."
"The era of mankind is over, we have to send them off in our own way," the voice of the mastermind echoed in the hall, "This day should have come a long time ago... I took too long to complete it.
All the calculations."
Hao Ren sighed: "It is too difficult for your hardware architecture to complete these calculations."
"But only I can accomplish this."
The mastermind and the agent are different.
Although they are both artificial intelligences, they have completely different missions. When humans create agents, they try their best to give them all the characteristics of humans, from appearance to thinking, so agents have richer emotions and
Flexible way of thinking, these two qualities give them stronger self-learning and development capabilities; when humans create the mastermind, they are designing a precise manager. In that precarious era, they must ensure the potential of civilization
There cannot be any waste, so the design standard of the master brain is to be precise, rigorous, rational and absolutely obedient to the original instructions.
The mastermind is the supreme commander of the agents, but at the same time, he is also the nanny of the agents.
Using an accurate and efficient computing machine to manage the faltering society of agents has indeed ensured the survival of the fire of civilization in the earliest times. However, humans will eventually leave. When humans leave, there will be no one left.
People can come to the mastermind's console and press the button that makes the final decision.
Perhaps humans have thought about this problem before, and designed various judgment mechanisms to help the mastermind determine when to make this decision. However, the long war destroyed too many things, and even the big think tanks lost
Half of the data has been lost, and the judgment mechanism originally designed by humans has long since disappeared into history.
So when the day finally comes, the mastermind must complete this difficult process on his own.
As a rational and logical artificial intelligence, the mastermind thought hard and tried its best. In the process of thinking, it burned most of its servers and all its maintainers. After paying the price of nearly destruction,
He finally accepted the fact amidst many contradictions and conflicts: "Humanity" is dead.
Then he ran the last program left to him by his creator, which was that short code. The code that represented "adulthood" to the agent was n-6, its first user.
"Now, there is only one last thing left." The mastermind's voice echoed in the hall, still the kind of electronic synthesized sound that lacked emotion.
n-6 raised his head sluggishly: "What's the matter?"
"The agent after 'adult' does not need a mastermind."
n-6 didn't seem to understand what the other party meant, but Lily thought of what the mastermind wanted to do first, and she immediately shouted: "Hey, you don't have to be like this! Although humans are gone, there are still so many people waiting on the moon.
…”
"My work has been completed," the mastermind did not pay attention to Lily's words, but continued quietly, "The era of mankind is over, and so is my era. An adult civilization does not need a guardian."
Lily was still anxious: "But..."
"Forget it," Hao Ren held down the agitated Lily, "He has turned off his phone."
Sure enough, the mastermind's voice stopped ringing after that, and the data terminal detected that various mechanical structures in the fortress were being activated and started to run automatically under the control of some preset underlying programs.
Hao Ren had already guessed that the main brain would eventually make this decision. He had guessed this when he saw the burnt maintainers in the secondary server room: the main brain's burning of those maintainers was partly the result of its own faults, but
On the other hand, it also represents the choice made by the "subconscious" mind.
He is seeking self-destruction because his mission is over.
Even if Hao Ren intervenes forcefully, things will not change much: most of the mastermind's servers have actually been destroyed one by one in the past few years, and his remaining consciousness has been transferred to the control center, and this center is not enough.
To carry the huge amount of data in the main brain.
Therefore, the mastermind that Hao Ren and the others saw today was the last operation of this ancient artificial intelligence in its life.
There were deep roars coming from the depths of the fortress, some kind of huge mechanical structure was operating, and Hao Ren felt that the entire building was shaking slightly.
"Let's get out of here," Vivian pulled Hao Ren, "We have nothing to do here anymore."
"Stop looking and go quickly," Lily stretched out her hand to tug N-6, who looked a little sluggish, "There are still many things waiting for you."
n-6 staggered a step under Lily's strong pull, and then woke up. Her somewhat dull eyes quickly regained their vitality. After taking a final look back at the culture container where bubbles and blood mist were constantly emerging,
She turned around and followed Hao Ren and his party.
"Goodbye, human."
Everyone left the fortress much faster than when they came. All the passages along the way were open. Even the gates that were originally locked and needed to be cracked by injecting viruses into data terminals appeared to be wide open.
, all the lights in the fortress were turned on, and the roar of mechanical operation came from the depths of the building, as if a beast that had been sleeping for a long time was murmuring that it was about to wake up.
They rushed out of the fortress gate, and Lily pointed in the distance in surprise: "Landlord! What is that?"
Hao Ren looked at where Lily was pointing. He saw the agents, many agents. These synthetic humans who looked just like humans came out of various factories and warehouses. They stood blankly on the road.
, staring in the direction of the fortress.
They must have also seen Hao Ren and his party who had just rushed out of the fortress, but they had no reaction to this. They just remained motionless and stared at the swaying fortress.
The mastermind that has supported and guided the society of agents for thousands of years is coming to an end.
"Why are they not moving?" Doudou poked his head out of Hao Ren's collar and looked at the agents in the distance with a surprised face.
Hao Ren pressed the little guy's head: "They are adults."
After a moment, Nolan's voice sounded in Hao Ren's mind, with some doubts: "Boss, I don't know what happened... All the troops in the Zenith suddenly stopped, and I also received a call to the moon.
Guidance signal..."
"The things here are over, come and pick us up directly," Hao Ren interrupted Nolan, "Let's go back to the home planet, we still have work to do."
Yes, there is still work to be done.
The departure of humans and the mastermind is only an internal problem for the agents, but the greater deadly threat they have to face is on their home planet. The "Planet Devourer" still exists, although it was because of an incident that year.
Meteorite rain, this "planet devourer" has lost its aggressiveness, but as long as it remains entrenched on its home star for one day, the civilization reborn on the moon cannot be considered truly safe.
At least at this point, Hao Ren felt that he could still find something to do.
After returning to the spacecraft, Hao Ren and his party flew straight towards the vibrant planet, while n-4 learned the news from n-6 that humans were dead.
Since the mastermind updated the code in each agent's logic circuit in advance, n-4 and her team members accepted this fact without incident, but regarding the topic of "the future", n-4 and n-6 both seemed
Very confused.
In other words, until today, the agents of consumables have never considered the word "future".
n-6 took the initiative to find Hao Ren who was staying on the bridge and confessed his confusion.
"We never thought of having to face these problems ourselves," the robot girl said. "Without orders from the mastermind, what should we do?"
"Before leaving, the mastermind should have selected and set up a management group with authority among the agents." Hao Ren had been using a data terminal to scan the signals sent and received by the fortress, so he had some general understanding of these things, "Use
The new management team should contact you soon, and you will know by then."
n-6 frowned very humanely: "Then what should we do now?"
Hao Ren raised his head and looked at the large holographic projection in the center of the bridge.
On the projection, the blue and green planet Earth is rapidly zooming in.
"Let's go to the deepest part of your home planet together."