Chapter 497: The Describer_1

Jiang Yu began to smoke; everyone had been sitting here for several hours, and the energy expended was considerable.

In the beginning, the robots only brought some regular beverages, but now they had been replaced with strong tea and strong coffee.

Before there was a basic solution to the incident, no one should think about resting.

The task entrusted by Jiang Yu was almost impossible to complete because humanity's understanding of consciousness was so limited that they couldn't even be sure if the consciousness epidemic could be transmitted through videos of survivors or infected individuals.

What's more, there was no way to sever the transmission of the consciousness epidemic. Even if there were some ideas, there was no theory to verify whether these ideas would be effective.

But everyone was still racking their brains, thinking, and many experts and scholars had been invited to support the effort.

Whether it was those involved in psychology, biology, or scholars engaged in consciousness research, they were all a bit bewildered by the task given by the Wallfacer, as they had never encountered such a problem before.

What was surprising, though, was that there soon emerged some lines of thought.

One scholar suggested, could they not set up a large mirror while playing the video and watch the recording through the mirror's reflection?

This proposal immediately sparked debate among everyone. Some believed that even with a mirror, it would still constitute a form of communication with the other party and fail to cut off the transmission pathway.

Others felt that watching a recording didn't count as official communication. Although unsure of the reaction at the level of consciousness, it should only be considered indirect contact, and adding a mirror would be an additional layer of precaution — indirect's indirect contact, which should prevent infection.

The opponents argued that it was risky because by watching the recorded image of the other party, merely knowing about them was tantamount to establishing a connection with them at the level of consciousness.

Even adding a mirror wouldn't eliminate this connection!

Though this idea was met with significant controversy, it gave everyone a new train of thought: they couldn't follow the "Paradise" approach; they had to use conditions accessible to humanity to solve the problem.

Using science and technology to sever the spread at the conscious level was virtually impossible for contemporary humans.

So, humanity could look for loopholes in "reasoning," like the mirror suggestion just mentioned.

Right after, someone proposed an even more refined solution: let the consciousness-lacking artificial intelligence watch the video and then have it describe the contents to everyone.

But then everyone fell into a new debate: do the current artificial intelligences actually possess consciousness?

Given that current artificial intelligence technology is already quite advanced, if they were covered with skin and hair, and dressed in clothes, their external appearance would be no different from a normal person!

This is precisely why the legal regulations concerning artificial intelligence in the Solar System State clearly stipulate that the appearance of artificial intelligence cannot be humanized.

If they relaxed the requirements for humanization, people would soon be unable to distinguish the pedestrians on the streets as real humans or intelligent robots.

This could cause many social issues, such as romantic relationships between artificial intelligence and humans, or a criminal killing a person but using an identical artificial intelligence to fool the people around for a while, buying the murderer time to escape.

The most crucial issue was the ideological conflict: if artificial intelligence had the same appearance and capabilities as humans, then should we acknowledge their right to life?

Most people do not have absolute rational thinking. After living with an artificial intelligence indistinguishable from humans for a long time, one would definitely develop different kinds of feelings.

Therefore, there must be clear distinctions between artificial intelligence and humans to fundamentally prevent the aforementioned kind of emotional attachment from occurring.

Essentially, artificial intelligence is just a tool for humans. If this concept got blurred, it would throw everything into considerable chaos.

So, returning to the previous debate, does artificial intelligence currently count as having consciousness?

After debating for a while, Jiang Yu cleared his throat, and everyone, knowing the drill, quieted down and looked towards him.

Jiang Yu said, "Now is not the time for debating these issues. Our time is very short, and the enemy might launch a new offensive at any moment.

"Therefore, it is better to conduct experiments with artificial intelligence than with our compatriots."

Moral standards are only necessary when a civilization is at leisure or relatively at leisure.

He took a puff of his cigarette and continued, "Go arrange the experiment immediately. If the artificial intelligence's response to those videos is normal, then let it be the describer."

Number Three nodded and immediately went to arrange the experiment, while the experts, scholars, and team members took the opportunity to rest a bit.

Jiang Yu also took this time to contact his family. Jiang Que had already returned home and was now playing with her space skateboard.

With a domestic robot at home, there was no worry about her going hungry.

Jiang Yu then contacted Yang Dong to say he had urgent work on his end and asked her not to work too late but to go home early and spend time with their daughter.

Afterwards, Jiang Yu took the opportunity to rest for a while, anticipating a late night ahead.

More than two hours later, Number Three came to the rest room to report to Jiang Yu, "The experiment has results. The artificial intelligence that watched those videos has had a completely normal reaction."

He then explained in detail, "According to the infection speed of Fleet 66 and Wu Xiangzhong, if contaminated by the consciousness plague, there would be a reaction within about an hour.

"Two hours have passed, and the artificial intelligence is still functioning normally, which means they haven't been infected."

Jiang Yu smiled and said, "This also means that no matter how human-like the artificial intelligence seems, they do not possess souls as of now."

As the two made their way to the conference room, Number Three said, "Indeed."

The team members and scholars had already arrived. Once Jiang Yu was seated, he said, "Let's begin! Let's hear what the survivor had to say first."

The main screen in the conference room lit up, and a female figure representing Galaxy III appeared, "Now beginning the description:

"At the start of the video, the survivor Ji Kang appeared very agitated, shouting, 'I died, and now I am alive again, I am currently at the juncture of life, I can deeply feel the sensation of death!'"

Galaxy III performed an "emotional reading," and though the voice quality hadn't changed, it essentially mimicked Ji Kang's somewhat mad tone.

Galaxy III continued to describe, "From the camera's perspective, two bodies could be seen at Ji Kang's feet, identified as his colleagues.

"The first thing Professor Wu Xiangzhong said was, 'Your colleagues are dead?'

"Ji Kang replied, 'Yes, dead, no no no, not dead. They've found life's ultimate destination! Uh, but yes, they currently show no signs of life, so they could be declared dead!'

"Wu Xiangzhong asked, 'You seem very excited.'

"Ji Kang said, 'Yes, I have seen life's destination! It is Paradise. I believe everyone who sees that sight would feel their life was worth living.'

"Wu Xiangzhong asked, 'Can you describe what Paradise looks like?'

"Suddenly, Ji Kang became very vague, pondered a long time before saying, 'How have I forgotten what it looked like?'"