Chapter 550: When the Flame is Ignited (Part 1)_2

Shiller didn't say a thing, he only offered his glass of wine to Stark. Just as he lifted the glass to drink, the liquid inside suddenly became blood with an eyeball floating in it. Startled, Stark threw the glass away.

The glass flew in the air, tracing an elegant arc before it crashed on the floor. The sound of shattered glass echoed in the room as the scenery of Stark's Laboratory crumbled like a piece of broken glass.

In its place was a simple and modest bedroom. Dr. Pym, startled at first, responded after a while, "What? Isn't this my bedroom? What's going on? What did you guys do?!"

Shiller clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention and said, "Now, we are in Pym's dream, here we can find evidence of him being hypnotized."

Stark raised an eyebrow and asked, "Was there something in the wine?"

Shiller explained, "We could have also visited the Luminous Alliance's headquarters, but that would be a bit tedious. Since the concerned person is already here, why not directly dive into his dream? It's faster this way."

Having said that, Shiller waved his hand and the bedroom scene started to shrink. It became a tiny orb hovering over his hand. Then, more orbs appeared. Pym noticed that each orb contained different scenes from his life - his apartment bedroom, the barn of his family's farm, the West Coast lab...

Shiller arranged the orbs into rows forming a wall. Before Pym could say anything, Shiller stated, "No, I'm not interested in prying into people's private affairs. I'm just looking for possible… oh, here it is. See that? The keyword, artificial intelligence."

Shiller tapped on that orb, but instead of revealing a lab, a field appeared. Pym explained, "This is where I first thought about researching artificial intelligence, but that was a very long time ago."

"Alright. For the sake of your privacy, could you tell me the last time you conducted such an experiment?"

"About six months ago."

Shiller started rummaging through the orbs again. Stark watched him, a frown on his face, "You can do this now? Casually sift through someone's memories and find potential leads?"

"Actually, I've always been capable of it. Or rather, many psychologists can do it. They just use a method you guys can comprehend. For example, they let you lie down on a chair, play some music and guide you to recall."

"And this…" Shiller gestured with his hand, holding up an orb, "is just a more direct method. But the principle is the same."

"Many people don't care about their own memories. When they can't find something in their memory, they simply assume they've forgotten. But often, it's really just because they lack a suitable method or habit to organize their memories. Certain things might be stored in the brain but get lost among redundant information."

"Memory is patterned. Thus, a professionally trained psychologist can help you organize your memories. As long as no actual physiological diseases are present, this type of treatment can help keep your brain alert, improving your cognitive efficiency."

"That sounds like something a scam artist would say." Stark summarized, "Much like what those vendors promoting drugs that supposedly enhance human IQ and memory would sprout…"

"This can't actually increase IQ or memory." Shiller continued to search through the orbs while saying, "I remember addressing this issue in last September's issue of my publication. You've been showing quite an interest in psychology recently, didn't you read it?"

"Uh…" Stark choked a bit, coughing awkwardly twice. But Shiller didn't seem to be conducting a pop quiz, he only casually mentioned it. He quickly found another orb, saying, "Oh, over here."

"Do you see?" Shiller pointed at the orb saying, "It appears rather dim, and the scene inside isn't clear."

"What does that mean?" Pym walked over, crossed his arms, and stared at the orb. Shiller explained, "It means your memories from this period are unstable, likely due to external interference."

Shiller crushed the orb, and they found themselves in a lab. Another Pym was operating a computer. After a while, he suddenly stood up, then sat back down. Stark walked over and asked Pym, "What were you doing?"

"I think, the memories after he stood up were erased. The memories of him sitting down and continuing to operate the computer were fabricated. Look, the information in the computer has turned vague, you can't tell what he's doing,"

Pym frowned, trying hard to remember, but Shiller continued, "Everything we're seeing here are things you remember. Dr. Pym, I believe that with your memory, you're able to remember what you were doing on the computer, even if it was some complex programming, at least the rough idea."

"No, I can remember everything." Pym countered, frowning, "Every single line of code is stored in my brain."

"Then it's clear we have a problem here. One second, you remember everything in the computer, and the next second, the information in the computer becomes vague. The only explanation is that someone altered your memory, creating false memories of you working non-stop before the computer."

"But perhaps he wasn't skilled enough, didn't add any details, only a rough outline that 'Dr. Pym was working in front of the computer the whole time.'

"For your average person, this would be enough. As long as they're told during the hypnosis 'you were working the whole time and did nothing else', they'd believe it. After all, they usually don't remember the specifics of their work."

"But for you, or for smart people like Tony, if you scrutinize it carefully, you'd easily find discrepancies because you remember all the details of your work. Your remarkable memory makes memory replacement very difficult."

"Could you hypnotize us then?" Stark asked.

"A newly born AI lifeform could hypnotize Pym and even prevent him from realizing it himself. What do you think, could I hypnotize you?"

"But…" Shiller changed his approach, saying, "Whether hypnosis succeeds and whether it can escape such detailed checks are two matters. There are loads of ways for the human brain to deceive itself, and many people won't check their own memory without reason. As long as they don't check, it'll be hard to notice."

Pym and Stark exchanged glances. Shiller said, "So, what happened today is a wake up call. Regularly check your recent memories for anything abnormal to prevent being hypnotized by some weird thing."

"Now, let's return to reality and see if indeed, whether your research achievements have hypnotized you."