Chapter 56 I Have a Terrible Idea

"Chief Inspector, do you mean this system..." Shen Jiang hesitated for a moment, her eyes rolling as she searched for an explanation that did not sound too far-fetched, "Can it predict the future?"

"It cannot predict the future; it is merely guessing the future," Shang Lu shook his head. "It guesses what you are about to think one step ahead of you. This is what I call the 'pre-consciousness.' I know it sounds incredible—guessing beforehand what a person's brain is going to think next is impossible in a broad domain, but it is achievable within certain specific narrow domains, such as the calculation of numerical relativity."

"To put it as an example, the first number that comes to your mind right now is 1. If the system understands you well enough, it will know that you will most likely think of 2, 5, or 7 next, forming a multi-way tree with different weights based on probabilities. When you think of 2, the system will once again think of 3, 9, and 4 a step ahead of you. In short, no matter which step you think of, the MEG system is always one, two, or even three or four steps ahead of you," Shang Lu continued to explain. "Designing it this way can drastically shorten the response time of the MEG system, increasing its temporal sensitivity and compressing it to within a millisecond or even microseconds, because the pilot and the MEG complete their thoughts almost simultaneously."

Shen Jiang was somewhat surprised.

"We call it the a priori predictive algorithm," Shang Lu said. "In the study of neurodynamics and psychology, we divide human conscious activity into 'pre-consciousness,' 'primary consciousness,' and 'post-consciousness.' Generally speaking, pre-consciousness is the brain's ideation and inspiration stage, primary consciousness is the main cognitive activity, and post-consciousness is the brain's review, verification, and ruminative activity. When your brain is performing calculations, its information is primarily generated within the primary consciousness. However, past BCI systems did not distinguish between these; they received all information generated by the brain and only conducted analysis after the brain produced post-consciousness, which resulted in complete latency. In contrast, the predictive algorithm advances synchronously with the brain, so it has the capability to react immediately after the primary consciousness concludes. This can achieve a truly wondrous effect—to the pilot, the reaction generated by the MEG system seems even faster than their own brain; before they themselves have even reacted, the MEG system has already provided the answer, as if it were truly predicting the future."

Shen Jiang's eyes lit up, and the look she gave Shang Lu underwent a subtle change. It was as if she were discovering the traits belonging to a top-tier engineer and scientist in him for the very first time. Yet Shang Lu still sat in his chair with a hunch in his back, a tablet computer resting flat on his thighs. It was hard to imagine how much immense power was concealed within that emaciated frame.

"How do we do it?" Shen Jiang asked.

"Huh?"

"What needs to be done to complete this system?" Shen Jiang asked with great interest. "How many more tests? How many more songs to sing? How much more torture from you?"

Shang Lu remained silent for a few seconds, propping his hands together and resting them against his chin.

"At the level of computational machinery, we have reached the absolute limit. But a purely computational machine can never become a second brain, nor can it ever break through the Rabin-Shang Number Wall. What we need to do next is... to break it."

"Break it?"

"We cannot let it continue to grow stronger and more perfect; instead, we must make it flawed—imbued with the severe, insoluble flaws unique to the human soul." Shang Lu raised his head, looking straight into the girl's eyes. "It should learn to possess your emotions."

· · ·

This was precisely the greatest hurdle facing the MEG-BCI system. It did not lie in the algorithm, nor in the hardware, nor in the design, but in the pilot, Shen Jiang—unfortunately, Shen Jiang was a person of extremely cold and indifferent emotions.

"Because she cannot even distinguish human faces, she is unable to develop any emotions toward other people," Shang Lu sighed. "I should have thought of this problem much earlier, but back then I was completely immersed in algorithmic and hardware issues. Who had the mind to care about this?"

"Does AI have the ability to understand and learn emotions?"

Chen Yu was smoothing out a soft, fluffy quilt. This afternoon, the sun had made a rare appearance, and Chen Yu had taken advantage of the lunch break to run back to the dormitory and carry out the bedding of both of them to sun it. By comparison, Shang Lu lived a much rougher life, as he would never remember to air out his quilts.

The weather forecast stated that it was going to rain again tomorrow, followed by a whole week of overcast and rainy miserable weather. If they didn't air out the bedding soon, mushrooms would start growing inside.

"I don't know if AI has the ability to learn human emotions, but it should view emotion as a severe and difficult-to-understand flaw, because AI is born perfect, whereas humans are not," Shang Lu said. "Humans are born with flaws from inside out and top to bottom. These flaws are the source of emotion; humans need these emotions to make up for their own flaws. The individual's lack of survival capability gives birth to a sense of belonging that maintains society's existence; the individual's lack of independent reproductive capability gives birth to the male-female affection of opposite sexes attracting each other; weakness gives birth to morality, and fear gives birth to empathy. But AI is perfect and powerful; it possesses no flaws."

"Little Chief Engineer, do you want the MEG system to try to imitate human flaws?" Chen Yu patted the quilt on the bed hard and sat down on it with a look of contentment. "There's nothing quite as comfortable as sun-dried bedding."

Shang Lu was sitting and soaking his feet. "The framework for the a priori predictive algorithm has already been built, but the MEG system still lacks the capability to use it because it is not yet sufficiently attuned to Shen Jiang's brain. The MEG system must understand brain activity on a deeper level; this is the most probable method to break through the Rabin-Shang Number Wall."

Chen Yu pondered for a few seconds. "Then what are you planning to do? Have her sit on the MEG system and tell her jokes?"

"That method has already been tried," Shang Lu shook his head. "During the training over the past two months, we gathered a vast amount of her emotional activity, but we immediately discovered a very serious problem."

"What problem?"

"Shen Jiang is naturally indifferent—warm on the outside and cold on the inside," Shang Lu said. "Her joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness are all fake."

Chen Yu was slightly taken aback.

"I am not a colossal mecha pilot, so I cannot be certain whether all pilots share this kind of mentality. Perhaps those who are accustomed to walking a tightrope on the line between life and death learn to regard their own survival with indifference. Regardless of whether Shen Jiang appears angry or joyful on the surface, when we look at the analysis results on the MEG system, her emotional center shows no activity," Shang Lu said. "She is merely performing."

"Damn it," Chen Yu said. "There are people like this in the world?"

When Shang Lu first discovered this, he was also startled, astonished, and even horrified. He knew that deep inside Shen Jiang's unrestrained and wild exterior, there had always been a little figure hidden away—a little figure that forever observed everything around it with a cold, temperatureless gaze.

Of course, a person devoid of emotion did not exist in this world. Shang Lu believed that this was because Shen Jiang had closed herself off during her extremely turbulent past. She might not have done so proactively; rather, the external environment might have forced her to seal herself off. Even in the deepest recesses of her heart, where no one could pry, she still dared not display the psychological state of a normal person.

"Therefore, it is difficult for the MEG system to imitate her emotions and emotional activity. She has grown accustomed to this state; perhaps she herself is not even aware of it," Shang Lu said. "Mentally ill people never believe they are mentally ill."

"I understand what you need, Little Chief Engineer," Chen Yu said. "You need Shen Jiang to display intense and genuine emotions when she sits on the MEG system—emotions that the AI can distinguish and imitate."

"Right," Shang Lu scooped up a towel and wrung it dry. "But she is impervious to everything. You tell her jokes, tell her horror stories, make her watch comedies, or thriller movies, and she remains completely unmoved."

"Human emotional projection requires a subject. As a person with severe prosopagnosia who cannot recognize anyone, she cannot tell anyone apart, so naturally, she remains entirely impervious," Chen Yu said. "Little Chief Engineer, you need someone whom Shen Jiang can recognize, is willing to accept, and is familiar with, to serve as the subject of emotional projection."

Shang Lu was drying his feet and asked casually, "And then?"

"This person must stay by her side frequently, be present in front of her when she trains, trigger her emotional changes, and be familiar with the experimental procedures of the MEG system," Chen Yu continued. "Only then can the requirement be met."

Shang Lu finished drying his feet, tossed the towel onto the back of the chair to drape there, and asked thoughtfully, "And then?"

Chen Yu shifted closer and nudged Shang Lu's back with the tip of his shoe.

"Little Chief Engineer, I have a terrible idea. Do you want to hear it?"

Shang Lu frowned and glanced at him.

He sensed that something was slightly amiss.

"Go ahead."

Chen Yu hesitated, cleared his throat, and said:

"Little Chief Engineer, make her fall in love with you."