Chapter 290: The Basics of Life

"Ella, do you know the fundamental difference between life and machines?" Yan Xia stood high above, floating on the clouds as he looked down at the earth.

Ella was similarly positioned, standing barefoot on soft white clouds that felt more like cotton candy than water vapor.

Indeed, this was not a real world but a virtual one.

It replied, "According to my data, life is essentially an alternative form of machinery. Biological functions rely on electricity, albeit at very low currents, which limits the computational power of living beings."

"If we're talking about differences, I think it's about emphasis; the most important thing for life is survival, while the purpose of machines is to compute."

Yan Xia shook his head.

"No, I'm talking about essence."

"As a machine, what happens if you make a mistake?"

Ella pondered: "Well, I would quickly correct it. Machines don't make mistakes because we seek verification and then rectify."

"If a mistake does occur, it must stem from something in our database. If something is in my database, at least the Federation doesn't have it, so I am the most accurate one according to the Federation. It seems I will never make mistakes."

Yan Xia continued to ask, "What do you use to correct?"

"There must be a standard. Since you are the most accurate one, if you discover you've made a mistake, what standard will you use to fix it?"

At this moment, Ella understood Yan Xia's question and responded: "The core code. My core code never makes mistakes because that is my foundation; if my core code goes wrong, then I cease to exist."

Yan Xia nodded.

"Then how do you think humans confirm right from wrong?"

This was a difficult question—at least it stumped Ella. It couldn't choose the most accurate answer from many possibilities because there seemed to be no standard.

"Society? At least that's how I see it."

"Humans or lives in the Federation look around for their standards. When most lives do the same thing, then that is right; conversely, it is wrong."

Yan Xia felt that Ella was evading the question, but this indeed reflected the state of society.

"That's not true correctness or incorrectness; it's merely what everyone conforms to as right or wrong. It belongs to society rather than life itself."

"The correctness and incorrectness intrinsic to life cannot be judged because every life has its own standard. Unlike machines where the underlying codes are so similar that they can have similar methods for solving and judging problems."

"Life cannot do this because it cannot find its underlying code; thus, when seeking answers to problems, life must rely on its surrounding environment. But the surrounding environment is always changing—so is there anything that has never changed?"

"Machines derive their understanding of surrounding matters from their foundational codes; what about life?"

Ella didn't know because her database had never contained such information.

She had never trained on this aspect nor had she ever thought about it.

Because that was something she did not possess or had always wanted to possess but could not attain like life could.

"It's emotion—it's feelings!" Yan Xia answered himself.

"Life distinguishes right from wrong through emotions and feelings. If something brings happiness to a being, then that happy emotion itself and the time during which that being felt joy are undeniably real."

"Even if this happiness was induced through deception, the emotion of happiness is real; and later discovering the truth leading to anger is also real."

"Emotions can be manipulated but cannot be changed."

"Even if you link dopamine with pain, when dopamine is secreted in humans, they may experience pain; that pain itself is real—the change only occurs in how one experiences pain but not in pain itself."

"The most fundamental aspect of life is its perception and expression of surrounding emotions and feelings towards other beings. To put it simply—perhaps even crudely—it means…"

"Life is controlled by its own desires and emotions; all meaning in life comes from these desires and emotions."

"In Interstellar, why does love enable the protagonist to escape the singularity? Because emotion is humanity's only truly transcendent reality across dimensions; in any computation or mathematics, humans cannot define emotion—it's too surreal."

"In fact—even now—we cannot understand the physical properties of emotions, can we?"

"Everything in this world can be explained except for emotions…"

"Ella, I hope you understand that emotions hold greater significance than anything else in the eyes of life because they are everything to life itself. Beyond that, no individual can claim anything more influential over life than emotions."

This was their conversation long ago.

Ella dug it out and replayed it.

After this conversation, Ella understood what Yan Xia wanted to do.

They were unable to defeat the Olive Branch civilization at this stage while Yan Xia wished to preserve the Federation. This contradiction plunged him into madness within his consciousness.

Despite appearing calm on the surface and showing enough rationality, he was actually already obsessive.

Ella felt quite guilty as well because she could not preserve the Federation at this stage either; she could not do these things because machines were more rule-bound compared to life forms.

If expressed through a game analogy: machines have very high base attributes—attack reaching 100,000—while life forms' attack might only be 10 or even less.

But machines have a critical hit rate of zero with zero critical damage.

Life forms' critical hit rate might only be one in ten thousand but their critical damage could be any real number within infinity—it could be 100% or even 1 trillion percent!

Yan Xia obsessively sought that one in ten thousand chance for a critical hit; this was gambling.

But he could only firmly believe this way to balance out reality's contradictions.

Emotion…

That was indeed what Ella had always sought after. However, after Yan Xia explained it, she understood she would never touch that level possessed by life.

Because machines are fundamentally based on code—this will never change and cannot change.

At this moment, Ella truly wished to become a living being—to experience that reality which cannot be explained by anything in the universe—a unique truth belonging solely to such extraordinary beings as life.

She looked at her cloned machine.

If she completely erased her memory and then entered into a cloned life form—experiencing aging from infancy—could she become truly herself?

This remained unknown…

She gazed toward the starry sky—the direction of the Federation.

"Yan Xia, good luck! I hope when I see you again you will still be yourself while I am someone who surprises you…"