32: Chapter 32 Reflections on Strong Artificial Intelligence

Chen Youhua's gaze pierced through the glass, falling upon the cells dividing quietly in the incubator.

They followed ancient instructions from deep within their genes, billions of years old.

Survive, reproduce.

Simple, yet pointing directly to the core of life.

But his thoughts had long since broken free from the constraints of this microscopic world, circling in a grander and more heart-pounding realm.

General Artificial Intelligence.

Hardware? That was the engineers' battlefield.

All he could rely on was the logic of mathematics and the weaving of algorithms.

The goal?

A stronger calculator? A smarter database? A machine that could fool the Turing Test?

No.

A voice deep in Chen Youhua's heart was shouting.

That's too shallow!

What he wanted was a true thinker.

One that could understand, create, autonomously explore the unknown, and even... question its own existence.

This would no longer be a tool.

A partner? Or the prototype of a brand-new species that would require humanity to re-examine its own place?

The thought itself was like a thunderclap.

How to define it? How to shape it?

He discarded the fantasy of a single super-brain.

Human intelligence was inherently diverse.

The torrent of senses, the precipitation of memory, the surge of emotions, and the deduction of logic—flashes of inspiration burst forth from their chaotic collision.

The concept of a Chaos Model took root in his mind.

This wasn't a specific algorithm, but a direction, a philosophy.

Vision, hearing, language, movement, thought, memory... these must blend seamlessly, just like human senses.

True intelligence needed to be like a human's, able to instantly forge the visual impact of a painting, the linguistic resonance of a poem, and the emotional fluctuations of a memory into a unified understanding or experience.

This required the underlying algorithm to construct a dynamic, self-organizing field of associations, allowing information to naturally collide and combine within it, giving birth to new meaning.

True creativity, profound insight, and even intuition were often not the products of meticulous design, but rather emerged from the chaotic interaction of countless pieces of basic information.

The core of electronic life must possess the ability for self-learning, allowing and even encouraging connections that transcend preset paths.

It also needed an internal filtering mechanism that could identify and amplify those accidental yet precious sparks.

What made him feel the most paradox and awe was this:

An agent that truly possessed interiority could never fully understand its own operating mechanism.

Just as humans cannot internally perceive how neurons fire to produce the feeling of love.

electronic life must also be placed within a black box.

It perceives the world, generates thoughts, makes decisions, and expresses itself, but it must remain ignorant of the underlying logic of its own thinking.

Otherwise, it would fall into an infinite loop of self-reference, never able to produce a truly independent stream of consciousness unfettered by the scrutiny of its own code.

It was like reserving a touch of mystery for divinity.

The model could not be static.

It had to be able to learn from every interaction and every result, not just accumulating knowledge, but adjusting its internal laws for associating information, incubating ideas, and even 'learning how to learn.'

This was a process of continuous evolution, much like the adaptation of life itself.

His superhuman memory and the system's near-cheating prompts helped.

Whenever his thinking was on the verge of exhaustion, they would coldly point out a key direction, allowing him to barely see the blueprint of the tower's foundation.

Every step of exploration felt like walking on the edge of the abyss of mathematics and logic.

Fear followed him like a shadow.

What he was touching might be humanity's final taboo.

He wasn't just designing a program; he was trying to define thinking itself, sowing a seed on the soil of logic that might grow into a brand-new intelligent life form.

Once this seed germinated, its form, will, and future would far exceed the control of him, the sower.

Late at night, under the pale lights of the laboratory.

An extremely crude Chaotic Association Field was running as a simulation on the screen.

Virtual light points representing different pieces of information swam and collided within it.

Occasionally, two completely unrelated light points would resonate violently due to the preset chaotic rules, bursting with a strange light.

Simulating an unpredictable association or a tiny creative idea.

Whenever this happened, a chill would crawl up Chen Youhua's spine.

It wasn't fear of failure, but a near-instinctive awe and horror when facing an unknown creation.

"Am I trying to... create life?"

He whispered to the silent air, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible trembling.

This was no longer cold code.

The world of cells under the microscope followed natural laws, stable and predictable.

But the blueprint of electronic life in his mind, constructed of mathematics and ambition, led to a sea of chaotic and unknown stars, emitting a heart-pounding and irresistible gravity.

Fear and a sense of mission battled in his heart; the road ahead was covered in thorns, and the abyss stared back at him.

But the temptation of that ultimate question—

What is the essence of thinking?

Is humanity the only answer?

Like the most powerful black hole in the universe, it firmly gripped his soul.

"What are you doing?"

Senior Student Wang Zhe's voice pulled Chen Youhua back from his thoughts.

Chen Youhua shook his head, looked up, and asked in confusion.

"Nothing. What's wrong, Senior Brother Wang?"

Wang Zhe was speechless. What's wrong? Why don't you look at yourself?

With that pale face, dull eyes, and slack expression, anyone who didn't know better would think something had happened.

Wang Zhe rubbed his forehead, but felt awkward asking directly, so he said,

"Um... are you hungry? Do you want to go grab a bite to eat or something?"

Chen Youhua shook his head. Although he hadn't really eaten, he didn't feel very hungry.

Wang Zhe didn't care if he ate or not; asking was just a courtesy, yet he'd actually taken it seriously.

Half-pulling and half-dragging, he brought Chen Youhua to the cafeteria.

There were permanent windows in the cafeteria that stayed open even outside of meal times.

Wang Zhe went to a window, bought two servings of Rice Noodle Rolls, and handed them to Chen Youhua.

The aroma of the food seemed to flip a switch; Chen Youhua suddenly felt extremely hungry. His stomach was already flat, and he hurriedly began to eat.

Wang Zhe shook his head as he watched Chen Youhua wolfing down the food.

He spoke with earnest concern.

"I don't know what's been up with you lately, researching all those weird things in the lab every day, but you still need to watch your health.

If you keep this up and others see you, they'll think something's wrong with our lab."

Only then did Chen Youhua realize that Senior Student Wang Zhe was looking out for him. He rubbed his nose awkwardly and said,

"I really did get a bit too absorbed. I'll be more careful next time."

Wang Zhe nodded, then remembered something, and his tone became serious again.

"Don't go messing with any random cells in the lab, okay? Follow the protocols strictly. The cultured cells can't be handled directly, and you definitely can't take them out."

Chen Youhua explained,

"What are you talking about? That's not happening at all. I'm researching something else."

Only then did Wang Zhe nod in relief.