322: Memory collapse

The next morning, the Hive Experimental City resumed full-power operation.

The arrival of a new batch of fusion fuel brought energy reserves back to a safe level, and the equipment in the laboratory was once again running at full capacity.

Xia Er and Anderson arrived at the experimental center early, both with a hint of fatigue but excitement on their faces.

They had stayed up almost all night, using up all remaining simulation runs and formulating a detailed experimental plan based on the results.

They immediately began preparing for the first human memory extraction experiment. Based on the simulation results, they carefully selected ten most suitable volunteers.

These ten volunteers all had distinguished educational backgrounds, having graduated from the Watson Business School and Law School in Skyreach City. These elites were not only intellectually superior but also had rich life experiences, capable of providing extremely high-quality memory samples.

"Look at their resumes," Anderson said, meticulously checking the volunteer profiles, "This one is a former financial analyst, whose career peak was handling a transaction worth billions of credit points. This one is a senior lawyer, who participated in hundreds of complex cases."

"Their cognitive abilities and consciousness strength far exceed ordinary people, with a significant advantage in cognitive capacity compared to old humans. It's just a pity..."

Anderson didn't say the rest, but Xia Er could guess.

Eastern Federation People would definitely be a better choice, but it was impossible to find so many volunteers.

As for paying... it was feasible, but confidentiality would be difficult.

Although he was also an Eastern Federation Person, he had joined the company right after graduating from university. Given the company's benefits and treatment, even if a war truly broke out one day, he would have to stand and fall with the company.

The experimental team began the final preparations. In the control center, technicians were calibrating the memory extraction equipment, while the medical team checked the life support systems.

"All equipment calibration complete," the chief technician reported, "Safety systems fully ready, life monitoring system operating normally."

"Very good, begin."

"Yes."

Ten volunteers were guided into the experimental cabin.

They sat calmly in specially designed medical chairs, with metal caps on their heads connected to a precise array of sensors.

"Relax," Xia Er said to the volunteers through the communicator, "This is just a brain scan, there will be no risks. It's like having a CT scan, but without the loud noise of a CT."

The volunteers were quite cooperative. After all, the agreement had clearly stated that there would be no high-risk experiments, and they would benefit from full cooperation.

The experiment began. The memory extraction device emitted a soft hum, and the sensor array began collecting neural signals.

On the holographic screen, complex consciousness fluctuation curves began to form.

As Xia Er watched the visualized memory data gradually take shape, he couldn't help but recall the unsettling discovery from last night.

Just after they completed the third simulation experiment, Anderson accidentally discovered an anomaly while organizing the data.

"Xia Er," Anderson's voice was puzzled at the time, "Come look at this. The memory data previously extracted from monkey brains seems to have a problem."

Xia Er walked to Anderson's workstation and saw strange fluctuations occurring in the data curves displayed on the screen.

"What's going on? Is there a problem with the storage medium?"

"It shouldn't be. I checked all storage devices," Anderson frowned, "The hardware has no faults, and the software is running normally."

"The system has also self-checked, with no hardware or software error logs recorded."

"But look, all the memory data from the monkey experiments are disintegrating at the same rate. It's like... it's like something is eroding this data."

"No, that's not right. It feels more like, degradation."

"Could it be a limitation of the storage medium?" Xia Er had a guess. Previously, Anderson could only use mechanical hard drives or solid-state drives to store data, but the company typically used storage crystals or biological storage media.

The two immediately conducted a comprehensive check of the storage system, and the results were shocking. Regardless of whether quantum storage crystals, biological storage media, or traditional solid-state and mechanical hard drives were used, all monkey memory data were steadily disintegrating.

"This is impossible!" Xia Er looked at the data in disbelief, "These storage media are the latest models, with a theoretical preservation period of over 500 years!"

"The company's solid-state technology can even eliminate data loss caused by physical impact; this situation should be absolutely impossible!"

They immediately called the technical team overnight to conduct a thorough investigation of the storage system. But no matter how they tested, they couldn't find any technical problems.

The storage media were intact, read/write functions were normal, data verification passed, but the memory data was irreversibly disappearing.

This discovery made the entire team uneasy; they had never encountered such a situation. Memory data spontaneously disintegrated and could not be stopped.

Dr. Li Shan then proposed a hypothesis: "Perhaps, animal memory, due to its lower complexity, has some kind of instability we don't understand? Just like simple ecosystems are more fragile."

Inspired, Zhang Ai also had a similar guess: "Indeed, in ecology, diversity equals stability. Complex ecosystems, with more redundancy and feedback mechanisms, are less likely to collapse."

"Memory might also possess this characteristic."

Although this hypothesis sounded reasonable, it contradicted conventional understanding. Generally speaking, simpler things should be more stable.

Situations like ecosystems are only a minority.

After weighing the pros and cons, Xia Er could only make a temporary response at an emergency meeting, "As things stand, we can only use human memory to find a solution. Human consciousness is more complex, and perhaps it can provide answers."

It was based on this decision that they adjusted today's experimental plan. Instead of conducting higher-risk memory modification experiments, they focused on memory extraction and stability research.

"Extraction progress 50%... 70%..." The monitor's voice pulled Xia Er back from his memories to reality, "All physiological indicators are normal, consciousness fluctuations are stable."

The memory extraction process was successfully completed, and the memory data of the ten volunteers were completely stored in various media. The research team immediately began stability tests, nervously observing the data changes.

"Initiate accelerated aging test," Anderson ordered, "Simulate the same storage conditions as the monkey experiment."

The laboratory was silent, everyone staring at the data curves on the holographic screen.

Time passed minute by minute, and when the test time reached the point where monkey memories began to disintegrate, human memory data remained stable.

"Excellent!" Dr. Li Shan said excitedly, "Human memory is indeed more stable! We've found the reason!"

The team breathed a sigh of relief and began preparing to record this important discovery. But just as they thought the problem was solved, an unexpected event occurred.

"Wait!" Dr. Zhang Ai suddenly pointed at the monitoring screen, "The data is a bit off!"

On the holographic screen, the previously stable data curve began to show subtle jitters, and then the amplitude of the fluctuations became larger and larger.

"Disintegration has begun!" the chief technician exclaimed, "Human memory has also begun to disintegrate!"

The team watched the data in shock. Human memory was indeed more stable than monkey memory, but it only lasted twice as long before also beginning the irreversible process of disintegration.

"How is this possible?" Anderson looked at the data in disbelief, "Even human memory will disintegrate? Were our deductions completely wrong?"

Xia Er frowned: "It seems the problem is more complex than we imagined. This might not be a simple instability issue, but some kind of inevitability."

The team immediately launched an investigation, attempting to find the cause of the disintegration. They tested various storage conditions and adjusted environmental parameters, but nothing could stop the disintegration process.

"All attempts have failed," Dr. Li Shan said somewhat dejectedly, "Although the disintegration rate has changed, it cannot be completely stopped."

The experiment reached an impasse.

At lunchtime, Xia Er sat alone in the lounge, eating his luxurious lunch while browsing the news on his terminal. Suddenly, a report from the other side of the planet caught his attention.