Incredible Insight: Toy Factory Discovers Swarm Drones

Chapter 52 This is the same principle as an eagle catching chicks.”Impossible... Absolutely impossible...”

The Expert who nearly fell was now staring blankly at that ”Frankenstein-style” production line, his mouth repeatedly muttering those few words like a sleepwalker. His lifelong belief in those rigorous, almost rigid industrial protocols and design standards originating from Germany was, at this moment, torn to shreds in the most violent and unreasonable way by a young man who got inspiration from watching cookie-making videos.

He wasn’t the only one breaking down.

The other Experts around him, every single one of them, stood there in a daze. Some didn’t even notice their glasses sliding to the tips of their noses, some had corners of their mouths twitching uncontrollably, and others were like wooden carvings with their souls sucked out, motionless.

They couldn’t understand for the life of them how these nonsensical combinations, which completely violated modern industrial logic, actually operated, and how they could produce drones with such insanely high precision.

...

Li Jiajun looked at this group of Experts he had ”driven mad” and felt speechless.

’Their mental fortitude is this poor and they’re still Experts?’ The thought surfaced in his mind. ’It’s just a modified production line, isn’t it? Is there a need to be this excited? It seems I still overestimated them.’

In this suffocating atmosphere, Sun Danian, the technical head who had been on the front lines of being shocked from start to finish, painfully moved his stiff neck. He took a deep breath, as if using all his strength.

He walked up to Li Jiajun. The original look of scrutiny and questioning had vanished without a trace, replaced by a complex expression of near-consultative reverence.

He deliberated for a long time, and finally used a title he never thought he would use for someone so young.

”Pre... President Li.”

Sun Danian’s voice was dry and hoarse.

”Forgive my presumption... We... we want to know, what exactly is the core principle behind your autonomous AI collaborative algorithm and this... this production system?”

As soon as this question was asked, all the Experts pricked up their ears. They knew this might be their only chance today to save their crumbling worldview.

Li Jiajun looked at their eyes, which were filled with a thirst for knowledge, and sighed.

’Sigh, these scientists have studied themselves into stupidity; they can’t even figure out such a simple principle. Forget it, for the sake of their old age, I’ll give them a little popular science lesson.’

He cleared his throat and pointed to a whiteboard that had been temporarily moved nearby. With an air of ”come follow me for a class,” he said, ”Leaders, this way please. I’ll give you a brief explanation.”

Everyone followed immediately, sitting upright one by one like a group of elementary school students.

Li Jiajun picked up a whiteboard marker, scratched his head, and with an expression of ”what’s so hard about this,” he began explaining the AI algorithm first.

”Oh, you mean that AI algorithm? Actually, the principle is very simple. It’s about the same as the ’Eagle Catching Chicks’ game we played as kids.”

...

Eagle Catching Chicks?

The Experts were collectively stunned, looking at each other, their brains failing to process it for a moment.

Li Jiajun ignored their reaction completely, drawing a circle on the whiteboard to represent the eagle and a bunch of small circles to represent the chicks.

”Think about it, when playing this game, the chicks want to dodge the eagle. What’s the most effective way? Huddling together! Everyone holds onto each other’s clothes to form a whole. But at the same time, you can’t crash into each other; you have to maintain a flexible distance. This is ’Distributed Collaboration’ and ’Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance.’ Each chick is an independent computing unit, yet they share the same goal—don’t get caught.”

”Then, the eagle comes. Who does it catch first?” Li Jiajun tapped the circle representing the eagle with the tip of his pen. ”It certainly won’t be foolish enough to charge at the mother hen, right? It will definitely catch those who run slowly, fall behind, or look the weakest first. This is ’Autonomous Target Value Judgment’ and ’Threat Level Prioritization.’ Without human command, it can find the most efficient attack plan on its own.”

”A couple of days ago, I was strolling through the factory and happened to see some workers’ children playing this in the yard. I took a look and, whoa, isn’t this a ready-made algorithmic model? Just optimize it a bit, swap the chicks for drones and the eagle for the attack target, and you’re all set.”

Li Jiajun spoke with ease and casualness, as if sharing a life hack.

Meanwhile, the Experts in front of the whiteboard had their mouths wide open, their expressions frozen, feeling as if the tops of their skulls had been pried open.

...

Seeing that they hadn’t quite recovered yet, Li Jiajun pointed to the production line in the workshop again.

”As for this production line, it’s even simpler. It’s like playing with building blocks.”

Even... even simpler?

The Automation Academician slumped on the floor heard this, and the corner of his mouth twitched violently, feeling like he was about to foam at the mouth.

Li Jiajun continued his explanation: ”Look, this pile of machines, though they have different brands and systems, are like building blocks speaking different national dialects. What I had to do was write a unified ’Translation Software’ for them, so that the German machine tools could understand instructions from the Eastern Country’s SMT Machines, and the Ugly Country’s 3D Printers could have seamless dialogues with the Swiss Cutting Machines. This way, no matter how complex their individual protocols are, for me, there is only one unified standard. I tell them what to do, and they do it.”

On the other side of the whiteboard, he casually drew a few exceptionally concise mathematical formulas that were full of symmetrical beauty, but which none of the Experts present could understand.

”Here, the core logic is right here. It’s just a simple Polymorphic Interface and Bus Adaptation.”

He put down the pen, patted the chalk dust off his hands, and looked at the group of completely petrified Experts. Finally, he added a soul-piercing question—one that the Netizens in the livestream had heard before:

”Isn’t this easier to understand than Ampere’s Law in high school physics?”

This one sentence became the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

The scene fell into a silence more profound and absolute than any before.

The Experts’ worldview, at this moment, completely collapsed, shattered, and was swept into the trash heap of history.

The scientific edifice they had built throughout their lives and taken pride in was leveled by a toy factory director using ”Eagle Catching Chicks” and ”building blocks.”

However, in this desperate silence, a discordant voice rang out.

Liu Jianguo suddenly slapped his thigh, his face flushing red with excitement, and laughed loudly: ”Yes! Yes! That’s the logic! I knew it was like this! I knew it!”

He looked at the group of despondent ”academics” and then at the innocent-looking Li Jiajun, his eyes filled with the ecstasy of finding a kindred spirit.

The Old General didn’t speak. He just quietly watched Li Jiajun. The last trace of scrutiny and doubt in his eyes had vanished, replaced by an incredibly profound light, as if he wanted to see right through this young man.