Soul of Burning Steel

At first, everything was silent.

All things are born in a world without miracles.

First life arose around hydrothermal vents as organic matter was born in thunderstorms caused by volcanic eruptions and spread by eruptions from undersea volcanoes.

In the rushing time like a river, countless strange and simple carbon-based organisms naturally appeared and then died out naturally... single-celled, multi-cellular, primitive organisms, primitive algae, all kinds of crustaceans, echinoderms and even Appears, evolves or becomes extinct in vertebrates.

In this process, there was no supernatural power, nor any miracles, and everything passed like this for an unknown number of years.

Until one day, a primitive marine arthropod landed on land together with mosses and ferns in the long evolutionary process.

This kind of creature that looks like a large isopod is plain in appearance, and there seems to be nothing unusual, but it is not the case-because there are many large predatory arthropods in the ocean, and small arthropods such as isopods are nothing but them In order to avoid being hunted, isopods have evolved a rather wonderful method of stacking arhats: they have a strong and sensitive carapace tentacles on each side of their bodies, which can be used to detect surroundings when they are in the ocean The water flow changes, and at a critical moment, it can connect with the tentacles of other isopods, and the two are tightly entwined.

Not only that, but the tentacles also have a well-developed nervous system. During the winding process, the nerves are connected, and the two isopods can temporarily merge into one, advancing and retreating together, looking like a Large creatures - the more isopods gathered together, the larger the size of the arhat. There have even been incidents where the isopods swarmed up, wrapped the predators in the group, and forcibly trapped them to death.

On land, the interconnected tentacles of isopods have not only not degenerated, but have further evolved: their tentacles have become more flexible and stronger, like two small joint whips, which can be used to carry, lift Many things are connected together, and the whole constitutes a lot of cooperation, such as forming a human ladder and a human bridge, so that the companions can climb higher and go further.

Even, there are some isopod groups that have been connected together since the beginning of birth, some of which have specialized nervous systems, degraded their carapaces and arthropods, and some of them have degenerated redundant nerves System, with specialized power, several isopods can be combined to become a bigger and stronger 'fit isopod', and isopods that have not evolved this point are basically killed by this kind of isopod. The same ecological niche, but more powerful ones of the same kind are eliminated.

It’s almost like a macroscopic cell differentiation happening on land—in the larval nest of the isopeda, a scene similar to the differentiation of human embryonic stem cells is emerging: one part becomes the brain, one part becomes the foot, and one part becomes the support, the digestive system , and then assembled by workers, so as to form a 'major isopod' larvae.

Every individual isopod is not an intelligent creature, not even a 'brain worm', at least three brain worms are required to produce intelligence, and three brain worms need more other components to form a large isopod that can survive independently Insects, at least dozens of components can be combined to give birth to the 'Great Isopod' with initial intelligence.

The original isopod is just a creature that lives on a two-dimensional plane. It only knows front, back, left, and right in its life. However, because of the developed nervous system, the large isopeda quickly understands the first "high" because of its highly developed nervous system. Three dimensions, the vast field of vision brought by this, is the source of crushing.

There is no need to repeat the next thing. In the era of primitive life, Isopods possessed wisdom, used tools and fire, and had three-dimensional thinking. They are simply cheating players. They have easily evolved neural language and created words. , using tools to defeat other arthropods, crustaceans and insects that grew larger due to excess oxygen.

[Foreword: The founders soon spread all over the world. It's been smooth sailing for them, isn't it? 】

The voice of the immortal lighthouse made Joshua, who was watching these memories, nod slightly.

Isopods, or another name, 'Juren', are species that can only be called intelligent creatures when they gather together. Their civilization has developed rapidly in thousands of years, from mud pits by the sea to caves in the woods, from caves in the mountains to greenhouses made of grass, wood and mud on the plains, from stone tools to iron tools, from primitive tribes to more modern civilizations. great civilization.

Juren has learned a way to communicate with each other and connect with each other without nerve connection, that is to rely on words and customs to connect everyone as one, even if they are not born in the same nest, Juren can also gather through acquired preferences Divided, they call this novel thing, which has no physical link, but can connect minds and minds, as 'culture', and the many gathering groups combined by this 'culture', a super large 'gathering' Poly people' call it 'country'.

The battle between countries is the battle between cultures. If cultures are defeated, they can only rely on force to eliminate and expel each other. Otherwise, some people will leave their original countries and join other countries. And with the cultural war, the knowledge and information mastered by different countries began to interact, which brought large-scale technological progress again and again, and the countries that were aware of this began to no longer aim at 'destroying' the country The purpose is to carry out a 'culture war', but deliberately control the interaction of knowledge within an acceptable range.

In this way, in the first million years of Juren's appearance, they began to no longer care about the disputes on the earth, but raised their heads and stared at the stars in the sky.

The field of vision is stretched, and Joshua can see that this is a medium-sized world with multiple solar systems forming a small-scale gravitational balance. The planet where people gather is the second planet in their galaxy—and what is amazing is , The moon of their planet is actually a habitable world.

Not only that, the third planet in this galaxy is also a habitable world, but it is colder.

When people look up at the starry sky and observe the moon with curiosity, they are shocked to find that the moon above their heads is actually almost the same world as the earth, where there are mountains, water, and even...the same people. .

This discovery greatly shocked the Juren civilization at that time, because at that time, the Juren already had a clear concept of biological history, and they were not far behind in astronomy. It is impossible for almost the same creatures to appear in different ecological circles-even a habitable world is definitely not something that ancient people could arrive by accident.

[Narrative: Unlike many civilizations today, the founders at that time had no contact with any supernatural power, and there were no superfluous fantasies in their minds. Things like 'imagination' were controlled by various conditions. bound. 】

Therefore, this point undoubtedly surprised all the gathered countries. They united together and became a huge United Nations, ready to work together and go to the moon to have a look no matter what method is used.

Strong mobility is the fine tradition of Juren, and in addition to vigorously developing aerospace technology, Juren also began to try to find all the possibilities on this planet-the "miracle" that can allow Juren to travel to other stars.

"They should have found it."

Joshua murmured in a low voice. He looked at the strange gathering society thoughtfully, and then laughed softly: "Even in a world without miracles, there are first miracles... born from the original fire. The world itself is a gigantic miracle."

"The question is, what exactly did they find."

[Admiration: Yes, what you said is indeed correct, and it is almost exactly the same as what the original founder said when looking back at history. 】

[Sentiment: They discovered God, Radcliffe. The founders found dead gods. 】

It is an extinct volcano, and it is also the largest mountain on the Juren planet. It is about 24,000 meters high. The former volcanic spine formed a huge plain, and the Juren space base was built here. However, due to the mountain It is too huge and too dangerous, so no one has tried to enter the upper mountain range of more than 10,000 meters so far.

While exploring the high-rises of this huge mountain complex later named "Sky God", the Juren exploration team discovered an extremely wonderful phenomenon in the center of the mountains: their nervous systems can sense each other without connecting. , some places even have no gravity, some small hills float in the sky, and even strange flashes of light can be seen. According to the report of the exploration team, an extremely special and unconventional phenomenon has appeared in this mountain range. The laws of physics seem to have lost their effect here, or in other words, another method has worked. Some members of the exploration team said that he seemed to be I saw a huge biological corpse buried in the volcanic mountain.

It was an extremely huge rock giant, or in other words, a rock giant worm. His back was the main body of the entire 'Sky God' mountain range, and his sixteen limbs were the cornerstones of the entire plateau. According to detection, he was born on an ancient planet. In the beginning, he was the founder of the entire astral volcanic phenomenon. The original life was born from the strong winds and thunderstorms produced by his breath, and the land was also uplifted by him.

But he died - died of a failure of strength. As a "divine life" that breathes with the world and was born with the power of the original fire, the volcanic worm was born in response to the changes in the planet's crust and died due to the stability of the geological changes. He is certainly the most powerful original being in the world. God, but it is not immortal, but will die naturally after completing its mission.

The remains of gods are rapidly assimilating with the planet. According to estimates, after millions of years, geological surveys will not be able to observe the existence of gods. They will only think that they are primitive rocks. If it is not for the wisdom of people and the rapid development of civilization It's a bit surprising, I'm afraid that any normal life will not be able to find the existence of the God's Skeleton at the corresponding time.

But the Juren found out—and they also discovered that it was the remnant power of the skeleton that sent the other Juren to other planets.

The divine power penetrates all the living worlds in this galaxy. In the center of the sky mountain range, they found a natural divine power door, which leads to the moon and another habitable world. There, there are other living worlds that are backward in technology but belong to the same family. Gather people tribe survival.

Then, about the extraordinary years, began.

[Praise: At that time, the founders did not think too much about the 'why', because to them, it was just a natural phenomenon similar to the rain cycle and ocean currents. But soon, one hundred and thirty-seven years later, someone finally carried out research on the 'primordial divine power', and successfully obtained some of the characteristics of the divine power. 】

Analyze the structure from the divine power, and then try to learn the 'why'. Using the huge bones of the gods, the Ju people have carried out the research on the divine power missed by the "Initial Fire". Many people obtained the divine power by separating a part of the divine bones , become extraordinary individuals, and even gather people in the country to study the divine power in depth, bless themselves with divine power, and accelerate the evolution of the entire country.

This is a thriving era - everything looks so wonderful, through the in-depth study of the sky gods, the colonization of the other two habitable worlds, the civilization of Juren began to advance rapidly.

Then, the disaster known as the "Great God's Punishment" came.

First of all, some individuals with divine power died suddenly and became vegetative, unable to wake up again. Then there are groups, associations, and even countries that study divine power. Large groups of individuals and groups that value divine power lose their self-awareness one by one, and become dead meat that knows nothing and has no instincts. The above-mentioned intelligent individuals all died overnight, which immediately caused all the remaining Juren kingdoms to be inexplicably terrified, and at the same time created a great fear of divine power.

This is known as the great divine punishment caused by the theft of divine power. Countless people gathered in panic and launched many sacrifices, hoping that the gods would not blame themselves for blasphemy.

Then came the era of meaningless panic...During these hundreds of years, the Juren gave up researching divine power, and they no longer used the portals in the sky mountain to colonize, but began to develop spaceships...but The time of severing contact was too long, the colonies of different planets rebelled one after another, and the chaotic war lasted for hundreds of years, until a certain party used divine power again to win the war.

[Confused: The founders didn't tell us about this history, they were vague and used it as a shame. But the triple curtain guessed it, and the triple curtain didn't tell them]

Joshua smiled slightly, he didn't care, the warrior's phantom stood in the virtual world universe, watching the entire galaxy, he knew that this was probably the beginning of the creation of psionic energy and soul by the founder.

Hundreds of years are enough for a race to forget its fear. With the reactivation of divine power, the research on divine power has also come to the fore again—similarly, there is also the phenomenon that individuals with divine power suddenly become vegetative, and even gathered in the Central Science Center. Through human experiments, Yuan artificially created such an individual. They carefully observed the whole process of the divine individual's will to lose himself, and finally discovered the truth of divine punishment.

As the original god of the quasar will, the divine power of the volcanic worm contains every detail of the planetary changes in that era. In other words, every bit of divine power is a huge information library. The talent of the will is outstanding, or the time of holding the divine power is too long. The leakage of countless information in the divine power is enough to completely submerge the self-will of any intelligent individual, or even the entire country, and turn it into unconscious dead flesh .

The more he thinks deeply, the more he finds out that the carbon-based brain and ganglia have limits, and if they want to go beyond this limit... they have to stop being human!

[Happiness: That is the reason why the predecessor of the triple curtain was born, thanks to the wisdom of the founder]

The emergence and birth of computers and artificial intelligence is not surprising, because this is nothing more than using mechanical parts to simulate the thinking process of gathering people. Soon, intelligent robots with high-performance processors and huge savings devices appeared. Although the first The sub-divine power decompression failed, but there is no doubt that the performance of the robot is much better than Juren itself, and the loss is very small, nothing more than burning out the processor.

By experimenting with the decompression power on intelligent robots, Juren has gradually become very advanced in the corresponding mechanical field, and their experiments have gradually become successful-finally, when the ninth generation of high-performance processors appeared, the first time a robot suffered Hold the decompressed power message - it became the first individual to hold the 'blank power'.

A processor that completely surpasses the brain, can replace the brain 100%, and can withstand divine power is undoubtedly sought after by Juren. They want to transform themselves and put their consciousness into the steel body and processor— — but a philosophical question stumps them.

Is the Juren who transferred his self-awareness into the machine still the original Juren? Is it a set of algorithms that are exactly the same but not my own, or is it Juren itself?

Is this suicide, which is called "death of new life" by the United States, or is it a "rebirth" without pain?

Juren's solution to this philosophical problem is simple.

Since there is no way to determine whether the 'self' is a collection of various impulse feedbacks generated by the micro-currents of the brain nerves, or the entire individual life itself, since there is no way to determine whether the self after bit by bit replacement is still the original self-then Create a 'thing' that is independent of the body and can carry consciousness!

"soul."

Joshua's humanoid projection let out a breath, and he smiled: "The original soul."

[Agreement: Yes. In order to ensure that the founders can confirm that they are themselves while entering the mechanical body and possessing controllable divine power, they began to prepare for the creation of the original soul]

If the natural mortal body is born mortal, then the artificial mechanical body and artificial soul are the first step in the evolution of life towards the acquired divinity.

Maybe it's not a mechanical body, but a specialized carbon-based body, but the cell itself is an extremely delicate carbon-based machine, and Juren is not so hypocritical. He thinks that carbon-based is better than steel, and that the body is better than machinery. , feel that the mechanical structure of flesh and blood born naturally must be more delicate than the man-made ones-they believe in their own wisdom and technology, and persevere in their actions.

So, how to make people transcend the natural mundane and become the acquired sacredness?

What is needed is 'imagination' and 'thinking'.

[Miracle Confirmation: After 3,400 years, the entire civilization has been researched with one mind, through several great scientists who voluntarily gave up their bodies, entered the mechanical body in a way that may be 'suicide', mastered divine power, personally experienced data collection, and passed a The unparalleled genius inherits the wisdom and technology of all the pioneers, breaks through the last "spiritual existence" difficulty, and the "miracle" is born]

It can be seen that with the silver-blue light shining, a silver-blue, almost physical projection emerges behind a gathering person. It is not divine power, but another strange, completely different artificial substance, or That is to say, man-made power, this projection can appear alone, and can also exist independently. It undoubtedly carries all the self-will of Juren, and it will not dissipate due to mechanical transfer at all!

He can maintain it with the physical body or with mechanical currents. These energy sources are not important at all. The soul is not such a delicate thing at all. What really supports the existence of the soul is 'imagination' and 'thinking'!

[Cheers: Congratulations, the existence that inherits all hope, can control divine power, has a mechanical intelligence body with a soul, knows all knowledge and information, and surpasses the common species. Its name is the 'founder', and this moment is the moment of birth ! 】

Please ask for a monthly ticket... I thought I could finish writing this paragraph today, but I'm so excited, I can only wait until tomorrow...

(It's really cool to play Kamen Rider and jojo stand-in at the same time)