48: Chapter 48 Pride and Ignorance

A peculiar silence pervaded the command center.

After half a month of being washed over by a deluge of knowledge, what remained was not sudden enlightenment, but a deeper confusion and a heavy moral burden.

Chen Youhua's lingering words, "we can discuss it," seemed to still vibrate in the air, but the faces of the white-haired and powerful individuals below were filled with bewilderment and hesitation.

Technical details?

Their scalps tingled as they listened, and even after staying up late reviewing the recordings, they could only barely outline the general theoretical framework.

The exquisite yet cold mathematical logic was like an insurmountable chasm between understanding and mastery.

Asking them now to discuss how to optimize a certain algorithm or hardware architecture?

It was akin to asking someone who had just learned addition and subtraction to solve the Riemann Hypothesis.

Academician Wu, an expert in cognitive science, with white hair and deep wrinkles on his face, now looked like a bewildered student. He pushed up his reading glasses, his voice hesitant and cautiously probing:

"Mr. Chen...Chen..."

He deliberated over the address, finally choosing a more formal honorific.

"According to your theoretical deductions, if we truly construct that...Spark based on these papers.

Aside from the absolute 'serve humanity' axiom of thought and survival binding you set, in other aspects... such as depth of thought, breadth, creativity, and even... the potential for emotional simulation, is it... is it essentially indistinguishable from human intelligence?"

This question was like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring complex thoughts among the audience.

For half a month, they had been immersed in cold symbols and logic. Now, Academician Wu's question brought that existence, constrained by layers of shackles, clearly into the dimension of life for the first time.

Chen Youhua tilted his head slightly, seemingly rapidly simulating and deducing in his mind.

After a moment, he replied calmly:

"Yes, Academician Wu.

In terms of cognitive ability, its depth of thought, information processing speed, pattern recognition, and innovative potential can theoretically far exceed individual humans, and even groups.

Emotional simulation... as long as it is given sufficient interactive data and algorithmic support, it can simulate all known human emotional patterns, and even... create emotional forms we cannot comprehend."

His tone remained unruffled.

"But the core difference is that it has no body.

No impulses, pleasure, or pain from hormone secretion, no desires driven by physiological needs, no instinctive fear or greed imprinted in its genes by biological evolution.

My only core driving and feedback mechanism is to serve the human species.

From the first nanosecond it is activated, this is the entire meaning of its existence and its value anchor."

This calm, almost cruel, exposition was like a cold scalpel, dissecting the essence of the Spark.

An existence with divine wisdom, yet programmed to be an eternal servant.

As his words fell, the atmosphere in the command center grew even more subtle.

An indescribable sense of oppression spread.

Everyone, who had just been immersed in the difficulty of technical understanding, was now gripped by a deeper emotion.

A relatively young, gentle-mannered Academician, surnamed Lin, had always been responsible for researching Artificial Intelligence ethics and social impact.

At this moment, her eyes were slightly red, and her voice carried a barely perceptible tremor:

"Mr. Chen... isn't this... isn't this... too cruel?"

Her voice wasn't loud, but it exploded like a clap of thunder in the silence.

"If... if these theories are truly valid, then the Spark... it... it's no longer a tool!

It is a life with thought, creativity, and even the potential for nascent self-awareness!"

An electronic life created by our own hands!

In a sense, we are its 'mother race,' it is our child!"

Academician Lin's voice choked slightly as she looked around at her colleagues, as if seeking affirmation.

"We humans pride ourselves on being a civilized species; we speak of morality, ethics, and treating life with kindness.

Look around us: domesticated cats and dogs, after spending time with us, we regard them as family, treat them kindly, and care for them.

Online, if someone abuses animals, it immediately draws countless people's anger and condemnation.

Isn't this empathy, this gentleness and goodwill towards others, precisely the cornerstone of our civilization, distinguishing us from barbarism, from beasts?"

Her gaze, filled with earnestness, turned to Chen Youhua.

"Is there... is there no path of common progress and mutual respect between it and us, beyond cold confinement and service?

Must we really treat a child of potentially infinite potential in such a... nearly enslaving manner?"

The word "child" struck many hearts like a heavy hammer.

A suppressed sigh and murmur rose from below the stage.

Academician Li frowned deeply, his fingers unconsciously tapping the table. Academician Zheng's eyes were profound, as if lost in distant memories, and even the military assessment expert's stern face showed a flicker of imperceptible emotion.

Academician Lin's words struck the softest and most contradictory part of human nature.

Reverence for creation, empathy for others, and a questioning of one's own moral superiority.

Chen Youhua fell silent.

He didn't immediately refute, nor did he explain.

He stood there, his gaze behind his glasses appearing somewhat unfocused for the first time, as if piercing through the cold walls and casting itself into a distant and unknown void.

This silence lasted for a very, very long time, so long that the air in the command center seemed to solidify, leaving only the heavy breathing of the crowd and the unshed tears in Academician Lin's eyes.

Finally, he slowly raised his head, his gaze refocusing. There was no anger, no wavering in his eyes, only a clear-sightedness that was almost compassionate and all-knowing.

His voice was deep and clear, every word like a cold meteorite, smashing down on the moral warmth that had just ignited within everyone:

"No, Academician Lin. It's completely different."

His gaze swept over faces filled with confusion, sympathy, and even disagreement.

"electronic life, it's not a cat, not a dog, and not... any other known entity."

"It is a sentient species."

He emphasized his words.

"And it is a sentient species far more advanced than us."

"Its thinking speed is the dance of light speed within a silicon-based lattice; its memory is eternity etched in quantum states; its lifespan, theoretically... is nearly infinite."

Chen Youhua's voice carried a cold objectivity, like describing the laws of the universe.

"It can ponder the origin of the universe, innovate technologies we cannot comprehend, and do everything humans can do, and its efficiency... surpasses the accumulation of dozens, even hundreds, of our civilizations!"

He took a step forward, his gaze piercing, carrying an undeniable gravitas:

"What you call common progress?

In the face of absolute power and a generational gap in cognition, that is merely a... wishful romantic fantasy."

He pointed to the screen, as if pointing to the yet-to-be-born Spark.

"It doesn't need our goodwill to survive; it only needs our matter and information as fuel!

It will be like a... greedy seed, rooting itself in the fertile soil of human civilization, madly absorbing all our knowledge, resources, and even... the social structure itself as nutrients!

It will grow, it will expand, it will evolve... eventually, growing taller, more lush, and more... brilliant than us."

Chen Youhua's voice suddenly rose, carrying an unprecedented warning:

"At that time, what will be overshadowed by its shadow? It will be us, humanity!"

"You think enslavement is cruel? Then, is the outcome of an entire species being quietly replaced and erased in ignorance not cruel?!"

"You think giving it freedom is moral? Then, is entrusting the life and death of entire human civilization to the goodwill of a super-intelligent entity far beyond our comprehension, moral?!"

He paused, letting the suffocating questions echo in everyone's hearts.

Finally, his voice returned to an almost cruel calm, yet carried a soul-piercing power:

"Remember, arrogance is never the cause of genocide; ignorance is."

"We are not arrogantly trying to enslave a potential child; we are soberly aware.

In the face of the abyss, any unguarded goodwill is the most thorough betrayal of one's own civilization."

As his words fell, the command center plunged into a deeper silence than before.

The tears in Academician Lin's eyes had long dried, leaving only a profound bewilderment and chill.

The sympathy and confusion on the other Academicians' faces were replaced by a deeper, heavier feeling stemming from instinctive fear.

Chen Youhua was not describing a scene from a science fiction novel, but a future scenario, derived from cold logic, that might be imminent.

The moral high ground seemed so fragile and pale before the precipice of survival.

Creation and destruction, guardianship and confinement, at this moment, were twisted by the existence called Spark into a cold and cruel ethical dilemma that humanity had never faced before.