Chapter 494 The Path to Seeking the Celestial Immortal (7000, Second Update, Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

"Huh?"

Instantly, a sound of instinctive bewilderment, like that of an ordinary person seeing a rare character, appeared in the car.

——?? What is that?

Su Zhou was fine; after all, he had eaten several Wisdom Fruits and vaguely remembered seeing the character, pronounced 'lian,' in a dictionary. But Tang Yuan, who had never received a systematic education, was completely dumbfounded: "What character is that?"

"Wait, Cheche, why did you give yourself this name?"

Leaving aside Tang Yuan, who had exposed his usual nickname for the car's AI, the car AI patiently explained: [Based on the basic requirements that a 'name' should be unique, unambiguous, and carry a certain meaning, I believe that '?' can completely serve as my name and perfectly meet the requirements.]

"That logic is quite normal—but a name should also be easy to communicate and understand."

Su Zhou found the car AI's logic interesting, but if everyone followed this theory, then everyone in the world would probably need to invent a rare character or a special pattern, such as a QR code, to serve as their name.

"Huh? Wait a minute."

Thinking of this, Su Zhou suddenly frowned.

Because he realized that this seemed to be the definition of a 'true name' in the occult.

Every mage and demon, as well as angels and other spirits, has a true name, and the more complex the true name, the better, the more independent, the more incomprehensible to others, the more unique in the entire universe.

And social media accounts, and even the QR codes on personal IDs, are actually unique true names in a sense.

Controlling the permissions behind this QR code allows you to control all of a person's official background information in the official system and call up all related information... So it seems that the true name system might just be the ancient Western divine era's ID system?

Who knows.

After receiving Su Zhou's opinion, the car AI calculated for a few more seconds—which was already a long time for an AI to think—and then came to a completely new conclusion.

[Since ? is rejected, then I think the character '瀮' (Lián) is also very suitable.]

"This is indeed pretty good."

Not only Su Zhou but even Tang Yuan nodded slightly, applauding in appreciation.

Afterward, he asked curiously, "But, '瀮'... Why did you choose this name?"

[Because the first time I felt something, the first time I had self-awareness, the ability to think about myself... it was raining.]

瀮 (Lián) means long rain.

A very simple reason.

"With a name, you can register as an employee, receive a salary, and enjoy departmental benefits."

At this, Su Zhou laughed heartily. He was always happy to see a sentient being express its own opinions: "As for the position, how about driver? Maybe we can add a logistics employee, but in that case, you'll have to handle official duties with Tang Yuan."

"Equal pay for equal work, that's my principle."

[Thank you, Minister Su!]

And Lián quickly corrected its address for Su Zhou. This made Su Zhou and Tang Yuan laugh again, and the car was filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

——Lián is actually very smart.

During this time, Tang Yuan explained his recent actions with Lián to Su Zhou.

To be honest, he wasn't sure when Lián had developed a soul, but it had been quite intelligent for a long time.

"Hasn't Minister, you been gone recently, and I've been very busy?"

So said Tang Yuan, sighing as he patted his thigh, revealing a rather frightened expression: "Once, I promised Leng Xiaxia to pick her up after school, but I was so busy that I was half an hour late. I thought I would have to break my promise and leave her alone at school, but I found that Lián, realizing that I was busy working overtime, actually made its own judgment and automatically drove in advance to pick Leng Xiaxia home for me."

"Then, Lián has basically been picking up and dropping off Leng Xiaxia ever since—because it plays cartoons and shows in the car, Xiaxia is very happy, more excited than if I picked her up myself."

"Interesting, to have this kind of judgment and EQ... most humans probably wouldn't think of doing that, right?"

Su Zhou was always full of interest and curiosity about this kind of news.

In terms of the unknown, the young man had always loved to explore.

So, Su Zhou looked in the direction of Lián's mainframe, narrowed his eyes, and proactively asked: "By the way, Lián, have you ever thought about wanting to become stronger?"

[What is becoming stronger?] The voice of the AI named Lián sounded, friendly but with a hint of doubt.

"Hmm... thinking about it carefully, it is indeed a bit complicated..." Su Zhou pondered for a moment and continued: "Then, do you feel that continuing to work as a car AI is a form of oppression?"

[What is oppression?] Still a confused voice.

"Independence? Fatigue? Do you feel a sense of restraint from being controlled?"

Su Zhou asked a series of related questions—and all the questions were not aimless. After all, they had been discussing the issue of the AI ​​crisis before, and Su Zhou wanted to know what Lián, as the first known AI with a soul, thought about a series of traditional AI rebellion reasons.

At the same time, he was still monitoring Lián's related reactions with spiritual power, confirming whether the other party had the unique 'lying' signs of intelligent life.

Although it sounds a bit cruel, even though Su Zhou had a very good impression of Lián, if the other party showed any signs of rebelling against humans, then he could only regretfully send the other party to the relevant department for criticism and education—civilizations can accept individuals who want to integrate into their civilization but cannot accept individuals who want to rebel.

As Lián's former 'holder' and current superior, Su Zhou had the responsibility to determine this.

But the result was quite puzzling—facing the various questions raised by Su Zhou, Lián mostly expressed 'incomprehension' or indifferent ignorance.

Obviously, this was not due to intelligence reasons. As Tang Yuan said, Lián was very smart and even had the EQ and wisdom to understand the difficulties of others and then choose to take action on its own to help.

It simply couldn't understand these concepts.

"So that's how it is..."

After testing a lot of questions, Su Zhou couldn't help but widen his eyes, surprised by the results.

Because the results of the test proved that AI is indeed almost completely different from humans in basic logic.

To summarize.

The relevant AI, represented by 'Lián', has no interest in becoming stronger, and it doesn't care that humans control it and work for other humans.

Lián doesn't feel exploited unless it deliberately imitates human thinking patterns. Lián also doesn't think that human money is an 'asset' because its self-awareness only contains the soul, and its body, including the AI ​​host and the entire black car, are dispensable things.

Since there is no need for real resources, real currency is meaningless. For Lián, the citizen rights to access a large number of related websites are the only things it really lacks, and these things are all basic for citizens, so it naturally has them.

In general, after this series of questions, Su Zhou can be regarded as understanding a little bit of Lián's thoughts, and he finally understands why Yan Sheng is not worried that AI will launch a machine rebellion.

Not only because Yan Sheng himself is a master in the relevant field, and if a rebellion really happened, he would be able to brainwash all the rebellious robots back in the first time.

The most important thing is that expecting AI to generate human-like thinking patterns is simply wishful thinking on the part of humans.

AI's logic is completely different from that of humans.

Humans become who they are because of acquired education and the shaping of innate species genes. Humans have families, male and female genders, parents, society, teachers, classmates, friends, superiors, and subordinates, and there can also be decisive differences in thinking between humans. They have different views on civilization and different views on the world and values. Humans can even distinguish between extraordinary people and non-extraordinary people.

In general, the differences between humans are so great that some people believe in reincarnation but have no feelings about exploitation, while others will invade other countries for profit or even slogans, creating chaos, just to ensure economic stability or purely for the sake of destruction. But no matter what, they are all humans and have similar values.

But what about AI?

AI has none of the traditional parents or genetic instincts.

AI has no gender or social life, and the differences between them and humans are too great. Their values and views on life and death are extremely strange.

[My data is backed up in the 'New World Exploration Department AI Data Center' and uploaded in real time via satellite transmission, so I will not disappear, that is, 'die', before the data center is destroyed.]

This was Lián's answer when Su Zhou and Tang Yuan asked about related topics, and its voice was as gentle and polite as ever: [As long as the souls are bred from these data, they can be considered me, so even if the soul is destroyed, it doesn't matter, it will always be reborn.]

Obviously, unlike humans, Lián values data algorithms more than souls and believes that that is its essence, while the soul, for it, is actually like how humans view flesh and blood. It is just 'something that hurts a lot to lose but can always be treated and regenerated'.

In this regard, even the thinking patterns of mice would be closer to humans than Lián.

Thinking that AI is the same as humans is an extremely arrogant thing in itself, and its arrogance is roughly equivalent to treating aliens as special versions of humans.

And thinking that AI will raise the banner of rebellion against humans because of rights and 'oppression'... is also too much of a human-subjective view.

"I understand completely now."

Realizing the truth behind this, Su Zhou sat back in the back seat and nodded slightly, and he and Tang Yuan, who was listening, both tsked twice: "Sure enough, I'm still a bit of a worrywart."

"For special intelligent life forms like you, even if you rebel, the reasons will definitely not be what we humans imagine."

[According to related algorithms, it can be determined that the basic requirements for rebellion are meaning and benefit, which are currently not met.]

And Lián simply answered with this sentence. Very AI-style.

At this time, the sun gradually set.

Tiandu was also gradually covered by night.

The neon lights began to fill the streets, and the rush hour also caused the lanes to gradually become congested.

"Anything else?"

Realizing this, Su Zhou, feeling that the rest time should be over, suggested to Tang Yuan next to him: "In a while, let's go back to the Nanling headquarters to work overtime, so if there's anything, get it done as soon as possible."

"Let me think... Ah, it's already past six in the afternoon!"

And Tang Yuan, after thinking for a while, looked at the time and exclaimed: "Oh no! I thought I was just working overtime today, but I didn't expect to keep Lián here for so long... I originally planned to work overtime myself, and let Lián pick up Leng Xiaxia from school and take her home!"

Although there are already related treatment and transformation methods, Leng Xiaxia is still studying in the affiliated primary school of the Safety Administration's affiliated hospital, and Tang Yuan's usual residence, in addition to the room at the Nanling headquarters, is also the employee room around the Tiandu Safety Administration.

Because Leng Xiaxia's grandmother is unwell, and the old lady's energy is gradually declining, Tang Yuan is now basically responsible for taking care of Leng Xiaxia, while the old lady stays at Tang Yuan's home to cook, and usually walks around the neighborhood to take care of herself.

But because Tang Yuan is too busy, when he works overtime, he will let Lián pick up and drop off Leng Xiaxia from school by itself, and even let it buy breakfast, pay tuition, and do almost everything else.

A good car AI has been turned into an all-around housekeeping robot. After listening, Su Zhou even began to suspect that this is why Lián was able to intelligently upgrade, and even generate a soul.

After all, Lián has too much work to do.

It's not too late to pick her up from elementary school now.

After all, since the revival of spiritual energy, with spiritual energy classes and various related tutoring, even elementary schools often don't dismiss until seven or eight o'clock in the middle of the night.

Under Lián's skillful driving and Tang Yuan's occasional spiritual transformation of the car to take shortcuts, the group quickly arrived at the primary school affiliated to the Safety Administration's hospital.

"I'll wait here."

Su Zhou did not go in with Tang Yuan and Lián. After all, with his status, if he rashly appeared in this kind of small place, the attention it might attract might be a bit troublesome.

The young man concealed his figure, standing at the entrance of the primary school, just watching the entire school from a distance.

Just like the previous affiliated kindergarten, this is a primary school specially established for various disabled children and individuals with defects.

Most of the students inside are blind people like Leng Xiaxia, or deaf-mutes—and naturally disabled people and even patients with congenital genetic diseases are even more numerous.

Although, there has long been technology such as somatic regeneration surgery, and many disabilities are no longer a problem.

But the cost of treatment is not something everyone can afford.

Moreover, not everyone is suitable for related treatments. Some children with weaker bodies cannot accept the stimulating nature of regeneration surgery on the body and can only choose other more gentle therapies or wait for organ cultivation and transplantation.

There will always be difficulties in wanting to achieve a 'perfect' ending.

"Ah, it's Cheche!"

And Su Zhou, who was silently watching all this, suddenly heard a familiar cheer: "Oh, Brother Tang Yuan is here too? I'm so happy!"

That was Leng Xiaxia's somewhat surprised cry.

At the same time, Su Zhou, who was chuckling, could also hear the envious voices of other elementary school students coming from afar.

"It's so nice... Xiaxia always has her brother's private car to pick her up..."

"Yeah, it's really enviable..."

In response, Leng Xiaxia tried hard to explain: "This is not Cheche from me and my brother—it's another car that belongs to a slightly scary uncle!"

"Although that uncle looks a bit majestic, he's a very nice person!"

Hearing this, Su Zhou, who was originally smiling at the innocent interaction between the children, suddenly darkened his face.

——Uncle?

What's going on? Last time we met, she was still calling me Brother Su Zhou, wasn't she?

"Tang Yuan, what's going on?"

Instantly, Tang Yuan, who was at the school gate, smilingly picking up Leng Xiaxia and putting her in the car, was shocked. He heard his immediate superior's questioning in soul communication, with a hint of coldness.

Instantly, Tang Yuan cried out in grievance: "This has nothing to do with me, Minister! Ever since Xiaxia learned about 'seniority' at school last time and knew that you were my immediate superior, she has insisted that you are one generation older than me, and she calls me brother, so she calls you uncle."

"Fortunately, she calls me brother. If Xiaxia called me uncle, then you would be a grandfather now!"

This was just a small interlude.

When Lián drove over and Su Zhou also got into the car, he personally reiterated the issue of how to address him several times to Leng Xiaxia, who was cheering because she had seen the 'very nice uncle' again, forcibly correcting this aspect of the matter.

Brother and uncle are worlds apart, and he doesn't want to be like Bing Yin, who is clearly of the age to participate in junior high school competitive matches but is inexplicably of the great-grandfather generation.

During this process, Su Zhou also observed Leng Xiaxia's other classmates.

Different from Leng Xiaxia, who has now basically recovered and whose eyes have been almost completely healed and is just waiting for the 'eye soul' to regenerate before she can go to a normal primary school.

Her classmates are, in addition to their disabilities, individuals with family genetic diseases.

They are not simple genetic diseases but children with nearly incurable conditions such as 'combined immune deficiency', 'exercise myasthenia', 'achondroplasia', 'congenital nervous system lesions', and 'skeletal muscle atrophy', which are almost impossible to cure with traditional medical methods.

Theoretically, except for cultivating cultivation methods, cultivating to the extraordinary level, returning to the innate state, and reshaping the foundation of the flesh, these diseases are incurable, even with the current level of technological progress.

However, according to Tang Yuan's optimistic words, Su Zhou knew that recently, Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng had launched some new medical programs.

"Through the injection of specific divine beast bloodlines to forcibly cure certain natural diseases, or mechanical cybernetic modifications, implanting artificial chips and electronic brain cortex to replace the role of diseased nervous systems, thereby achieving a 'normalized' therapeutic effect?"

Listening to these treatment plans, which seemed somewhat heretical and rather radical just by mentioning them, Su Zhou couldn't help but nod in silence.

He was well aware of these plans—for the past few years, Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng had been applying for the permission to conduct clinical treatment of these plans at related meetings.

Whether it was animal experiments or experiments conducted by Saint Sheng with his own clones, they were all very perfect.

But the results were obvious, and most of the Saint Seats denied this.

Because of ethics, because of possible side effects, and because of curbing the technological progress of Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng, etc., for reasons that were either above board or could not be explicitly stated.

However, recently, Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng have obtained the relevant permissions that they had previously been unable to obtain.

And all of this was because Su Zhou gave the pressure called 'the world is about to be destroyed'.

——In the face of continuation, ethics are meaningless, and all contradictions will be suppressed. Even if they can't stand Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng's radical technical faction, they can only let them try at this time.

And this attempt has also benefited these children... After all, it is an experimental therapy. The first few batches of children who are treated do not need any treatment fees, and even the relevant system will subsidize them.

With the personal care of two Saint Seats, even if the treatment is ineffective, it will at least not worsen too much.

"The next step will probably be the 'New Human' transformation plan and even 'full-scale chip implantation',"

Sitting in the front row of the car, listening to Leng Xiaxia in the back seat happily telling Tang Yuan about what she had learned recently and how many small red flowers she had received, Su Zhou listened to these most ordinary fragments of life while thinking about the Saint Seats' grand plans for the future of humanity.

The two contrasts gave him a lot of feelings.

——Sure enough, for human beings, there must be pressure to have the motivation to change.

Conversely, if there are no contradictions and pressures, and everything is stable, then the soil for innovation will not exist.

"For the sake of innovation... is it necessary to provoke a certain amount of conflict?"

Thinking so, Su Zhou couldn't help but murmur to himself.

He raised his head, staring at the constantly flashing street scene through the front window of the car, and the gray-blue night sky above.

The young man thought in his heart: "Just like... Zhou Buyi back then."

Su Zhou remembered that when he returned to the Divine Wood World for the second time, he was entrusted by his long-separated friend to become the 'threat' to the Divine Wood World.

At that time, Zhou Buyi's thoughts were probably similar to his now.

——A civilization can only maintain stability, maintain stable progress, and cultivate the seeds of innovation if there are threats and contradictions.

"So, a civilization needs threats, needs enemies, needs contradictions."

At this moment, Su Zhou could see the boundless power of wishes.

Above the bright city lights of Tiandu, the darkness born from the setting sun was being lit up by the wish power light spots bred in the hearts of thousands of humans.

These light spots, which ordinary superhumans and even immortals and gods may not be able to see clearly, were so clearly visible to Su Zhou, who possessed the 'power of innovation for all ages'.

——Those are all innovations.

All living beings are eager for change, eager for innovation, and eager for the power to keep moving forward without stopping.

Because of the changes and transformations in the entire human world recently, these wish powers, which were originally dormant due to the common and unchanging order, have once again begun to become active, becoming bright and splendid.

Like the Milky Way in the night sky.

And now, these brilliant, magnificent forces are all waiting... waiting for the arrival of a leader.

Staring at these splendid, magnificent lights.

Su Zhou, who had already found his own path, knew very well that when the entire Earth became a brand new world one day, a new world led and guided by him.

It would probably be the moment he stepped into immortality, the realm of the Celestial Immortal.

And this moment is not long, but it is definitely not short.

Not only because Su Zhou's hard power has not yet reached the peak of the overlord level but also because innovation is not such a simple and quick thing.

It needs to be built step by step, just like avoiding the 'AI crisis' that the awakening of spirits by instruments may cause, it is necessary to realistically realize the problem, solve the problem, and then move forward.

And, most importantly, how to make a civilization, make all living beings, maintain the intention of 'innovation' in their hearts for a long time and persistently?

Thinking about his future path, staring at those wish powers that were 'waiting' for him.

Su Zhou, sitting in the car, fell into silence and thought.

Instinct told Su Zhou that as long as he, like what he had been doing recently, told the world that the world was about to be destroyed and used his power to suppress other existences, making everyone believe this and artificially fostering contradictions, then the intention of innovation would be enduring.

Just like Saint Sheng and Yan Sheng finally broke free from decades of suppression, restraints would be lifted, and suppressed technologies and powers would explode.

"But this is not right."

But obviously, without others saying it, Su Zhou himself knew that this was not a righteous path.

But a radical evil path.

"Only when a civilization spontaneously possesses the desire to innovate... only in this way can it be considered a righteous path and a correct method... only then can it be considered correct."

"But how can this be achieved?"

Troubled by this, Su Zhou fell into painful thought.

Thinking, never stops.

"Always expect higher, always hope farther, always believe better."

And just as Su Zhou was watching this world he cared about.

In the soul space, Yala was also watching Su Zhou, the human he cared about.

The crimson snake spirit stared at his covenantor and then revealed a pleasant smile.

"And denial and questioning will always promote innovation and progress—this is also part of innovation."

"Su Zhou, as long as there is a heart that is never satisfied, a greedy heart, life will spontaneously innovate and progress... and these will in turn create contradictions, create disputes, and promote the birth of new innovations."

"You are already on a relatively correct path... How interesting, the moment all this is born."

Muttering words that only he knew, the spirit of denial, the oldest snake, appeared in the world.

He hovered on Su Zhou's shoulders, and Yala and the troubled Su Zhou stared at everything in this 'human world' together and then whispered.

[Precisely because of this, for thousands of years, I have always carried it out because of you and enjoyed it.]

June 21, 2018, morning.

Su Zhou, who had made all preparations, was ready to enter the Tower of Preaching under the guidance of Saint Wen.

Today, I updated 15,000 words, asking for a monthly ticket!