Forty Millenniums of Cultivation

“Well...”

Li Yao thought for a long time before he understood what Gu Wuxin meant.

It was true that, in the human civilization that Li Yao lived in, both the Star Glory Federation and the Imperium of True Human Beings had entered the era of informationization. Almost everybody was connected to the network by crystal processors. Work, studies, and daily life were inseparable from the network. There were even ‘spirits’ such as Lu Qingchen who tried to connect everybody to the virtual space through the network in order to create a new civilization.

It was needless to say that ‘Fuxi’, the main brain of the Holy Accord Alliance, was a crystal processor and a spirit of the Spiritual Nexus. Like Xiao Ming, Wen Wen, and the Fist King, it was a new life of information.

Then, was Gu Wuxin’s so-called ‘superbody’ the same as Lu Qingchen, Fuxi, Xiao Ming, Wen Wen, and the boxing champion?

Li Yao did not think so. Gu Wuxin and his super body had touched upon fields that were deeper than Lu Qingchen, Fuxi, Xiao Ming, Wen Wen, and the Fist King. Maybe, that was the essence of life.

“You have to admit that human beings—or rather, all the carbon-based intelligent creatures—are animals of information. Since our oldest ancestors, the bacteria and viruses born in the primeval ocean, appeared, they have existed for the purpose of replicating, transmitting, and weaving information. They devour information, devour more information, output information, and transmit information to larger groups of people and farther away. Those are our instincts and the significance of our existence.

Gu Wuxin continued. “In the ancient times when technology was underdeveloped, the individuals with carbon-based intelligence had to seal themselves and live a dull, boring, and lack-of-information life. But it did not mean that they liked it. Their natural instincts to absorb and transmit information were merely suppressed.

“When the technology is mature and the social environment allows, the carbon-based intelligent life will immediately be transformed into information. Later, in the super-information direction, they will transform themselves and the entire world. They will connect all the individuals together with a network of various forms.

“They craved for information and devoured information that was of no significance to them. From the changes of the universe and national affairs, to the gossip of celebrities and the social news of the neighboring towns, to the trivial affairs of the parents around them... In fact, what did the information have to do with their lives and how would it affect them? But they just wanted to know, even at the cost of their precious lives.

“In the same way, they uploaded their information to the network without stopping. They didn’t care what they ate, what they wore, how they felt, or what problems they encountered in their daily life. Nobody cared about that. They knew that nobody cared about that, but they just couldn’t control the urge carved in the deepest part of their genes. They were like a high-power radio station that was releasing information, information, and information to the outside world nonstop. With the information, they reconstructed a better, more brilliant, and more ‘real’ version of themselves in the network and the virtual world.

“This is what happened to every individual when the Pangu civilization entered the information society.

“Of course, since the Pangu Clan boasts the ability of large-scale telepathic thoughts and has passed it on to other species in the Pangu Civilization Alliance, the way we build a network and exchange information might be different from yours.

“But I believe that the essence is the same. There are bound to be more and more ‘net addicts’ and ‘informators’ in your civilization, and your society is slowly moving toward informationization, networking, and even virtualization, right?

“There’s no need to answer. I have already sensed the answer from your brainwaves.

“In fact, what is the difference between reality and illusion? What is the difference between me and other people?

“As I said just now, once I was connected to a super body, I could live in the brain of billions of people, and billions of people could flood into my brain to share their wisdom, emotions, and memories. You seemed to be very vigilant and disgusted, but on second thought, it was not as exaggerated as you thought.

“I don’t know whether or not there are similar things in your civilization... In the words of Earth, there are novels, games, and movies. Then, when you are intoxicated by a beautiful novel, a wonderful movie, and a thrilling game, aren’t you also substituting yourself into the characters of novels, movies, and games to experience another life? When technology is constantly upgraded, allowing the online world to gradually have all the beauty of the real world and to be improved by a hundredfold, who would refuse to live a more brilliant, beautiful, and rich life in the online world? After all, compared to our exponentially explosive wisdom and desires, how weak are our brains and bodies? How lonely and boring is the real world we live in?

“The tide of history is vast and mighty. Those who go with it prosper, and those who go against it perish. Do you understand? This is the inevitable trend of the evolution of a civilization. It does not shift according to the will of a certain ‘hero’ or ‘demon’. At first, a primary network of various large and fixed terminals was established. Then, the terminal became miniaturized. It could be moved and worn, allowing the network to cover the entire civilization. Following that, the terminal was further miniaturized and could be implanted under the skin. It became an artificial organ that everyone was born to wear. Gradually, the boundary between the body of flesh and the network of the terminal became more and more blurred. Along with the development of biotechnology and quantum technology, the brain cells would become a biological crystal processor. The crystal processor would also shrink to the level of mustard seeds and cells. It would be perfectly integrated into the body of flesh and blood. It would not be damaged or scrapped for life.

“In every development phase, the efficiency of information exchange, including the amount of information they can absorb and output every second, will be hundreds of times, thousands of times, or even tens of thousands of times higher than in the past! For an ordinary person living in the early years of the information era, the news information that they can read through the network terminal in a day might be as much as the news information that their ancestors, who lived in the villages of the dark and obscure era thousands of years ago, have access to in their entire life. And since he lived in the later years of the information era, which is the offspring of the ‘super information era’, the information that he can absorb in one second is billions of times more than what he can absorb in the past. If such a beautiful super information era does arrive, wouldn’t it be only natural and natural for their brains to be connected and share their wisdom, emotions, and memories so that they can form a ‘super body’?

“Of course, I believe that you will bring up the old-fashioned question of how to maintain the ‘free will’. It is not your fault. It is a question that the carbon-based intelligent creatures ask when they are limited by their rigid thinking. Years ago, when my ancestors decided to build a small super information network and connect it to our own super bodies, they had considered the question multiple times.

“Don’t worry. Even if you are connected to a super entity, you can still maintain your small, futile, and ridiculous independence. If you want to, you can turn off your super information interactive protocol, cut off your connection with other people, and drift to the edge of the super entity. There are no coercive commands that forbid you from doing so. It’s just that few people will do such a thing.

“Why?”

Li Yao could not help but ask.

“Why?”

Gu Wuxin raised his eyebrow, as if his brainwaves, which were full of mockery, were still not enough to express his surprise. “Isn’t it obvious and self-explanatory? Human beings—carbon-based intelligent creatures—are animals of information. Information is our mission and significance. Nobody can return to the low-level information interaction state of ‘100,000 orders of magnitude’ or even ‘10,000 orders of magnitude’ after they are used to the super-information exchange of ‘billion orders of magnitude’.

“Imagine this. A person who is used to immersing himself in the online world day and night, who carries several information terminals with him, who has countless accounts in countless forums, who has experienced countless kinds of lives in countless novels, games, and movies, is thrown back to the isolation and underdeveloped medieval era where there was no network, no newspapers, no books, and no 10,000 wonderful lives. What he is faced with is the monotonous sky and barren land, as well as the high mountains and lofty mountains that surround the village. The only entertainment he has all year around is to drink himself drunk with inferior narcotic drugs... Can he endure such a life? If it was you, how long can you endure a life without entertainment if you cut off the network?

“The logic is the same.

“For the people living in the ‘super body era’, they have to read 10,000 pieces of information every second, from the supernova explosion millions of lightyears away to the experts and scholars of another Sector who have developed a brand-new life form to the glitzy atmosphere that the explorers have just discovered on a certain planet... At the same time, they have to express their opinions about the 10,000 pieces of information, generate their own feelings, and upload the opinions and feelings to the super bodies, sharing them with everyone. Information is as essential as air and water for them. Not to mention going back to the ancient times when there was no information at all, even going back to the early years of the information era and processing three to five pieces of information every minute with various portable terminals would be unimaginable. If such a ‘tragedy’ does occur, they will either have a mental breakdown or suffocate to death.

“So, do you understand now? Severing yourself from the super body and maintaining your ridiculous independence is tantamount to committing mental suicide.

“Besides, communication and isolation work both ways. If you want to maintain the independence of your mind, it means that you cannot pry into and share other people’s wisdom, emotions, and memories. You will become a wandering ghost outside of the main civilization. After all, human beings live in groups. It is against their nature to do so. There are no benefits at all!”