Time travel to become the guardian AI of a lost civilization

Chapter 257
Located in the center of this suspected "artificial intelligence control terminal" facility is a biological brain that has not yet died.

It was kept in a damaged nutrition cabin, relying on almost useless life cycle equipment to maintain its remaining life.

The surrounding lighting equipment emits faint light due to the reactivation of this brain. It is hard to imagine how it still maintains its vitality in this vacuum environment.

Li Wenyuan did not expect to find life here. Not only that, but this brain still seems to be able to perceive the external situation to a certain extent, and it can actually find that outsiders have come here under such circumstances.

But when the "Ascended" civilization built this place, they definitely didn't think that other people would come here, or they didn't have that deep research on "artificial intelligence" technology, and there was no means of communication with this brain here.

"...Is this a 'brain in a vat' in some sense? It's actually in a place like this..."

Seeing this brain in custody, Li Wenyuan immediately had this idea.

"Brain in a vat" is a hypothetical theoretical experiment. Its original meaning is "will a brain soaked in a vat, receiving artificially directed stimulation and instilling false memories realize that it is in a vat?"

It discusses the philosophical question of "what is real", which has been widely conjectured in the galaxy.

There are quite a few crazy scientists trying to perform the "brain in a vat" experiment in the real universe, and the former "observer" lost empire has experimented with a large number of indigenous civilizations.

But the "brain in a vat" in front of Li Wenyuan's eyes is not a "brain in a vat" in this sense, because it obviously knows what its state is like.

It's really just a literal "brain in a vat".

Undoubtedly, this must be left by the "Ascended" civilization. Combined with the appearance of the "artificial intelligence control terminal" here, a certain answer is ready to come out in Li Wenyuan's heart:

"... Straightforward 'artificial intelligence'... what artificial intelligence could be smarter than humans themselves?"

Weak psychic signals wandered in this space, as if they wanted to talk to Li Wenyuan.

It's hard to imagine a "life" with only a brain still able to borrow psionic energy, but it did.

It's a pity that maybe the consciousness in this brain is already on the verge of death, and the psychic signal it sends out has been so weak that it is difficult to read the content.

And Li Wenyuan is also convinced that the brain in this tank is so fragile that he can't even refill it with protective fluid. A slight physical stimulation may directly lead to the death of the brain.

However, seeing the state where it can still resonate with spiritual energy, Li Wenyuan slowly released the spiritual energy extracted in this universe along the way to this space, gradually increasing the concentration of spiritual energy here.

The effect of doing this is very extraordinary, I can see that the psionic signal generated by the brain in the vat increases visibly with the naked eye, and soon forms a wave that is clear enough to distinguish.

After reading it, the first sentence is a string of huge numbers:

【280361925153782】

At first Li Wenyuan thought it was a key, but when he saw that the number at the end changed to 3, then quickly changed to 4, 5..., then he understood that it was counting.

Judging from the frequency, the number is roughly maintained at the level of one change per second. If converted in units of time, this series of numbers is almost equivalent to 900 million years.

The loneliness of the soul rushed from the brain in a tank in an instant, and the number changed from zero to the current nearly [-] trillion. The time span in between can even make people feel suffocated.

Li Wenyuan knew that this was probably the method used by the mesencephalon to stabilize the "consciousness". Through the fixed frequency memory, it would not get lost in the long loneliness.

However, maintaining a consciousness of 900 million years in a world where there is no entertainment, no stimulation, no rest, and even a little movement is impossible, just thinking about it is terrifying.

It doesn't take a week for a person to be claustrophobic in a space without anything, let alone such a long time?

Even a psychic who focuses on exercising the spiritual world is no different from ordinary people on a scale of nearly tens of millions of years.

Li Wenyuan has even doubted whether the brain in the vat can still maintain the most basic communication ability?
The psychic energy fluctuations may be just its remaining spontaneous behavior. The current brain in the vat has long been driven crazy for a long time, and has been reduced to a machine that can only count.

However, after thinking about it for a while, he also began to tentatively induce spiritual energy fluctuations, trying to communicate with the brain in the vat with the same vibration frequency.

In order to wake up the stagnant consciousness in this brain again, Li Wenyuan began to use words related to "Ascension" as a stimulus, and after repeatedly mentioning "Ascension", finally caused a slight change in the brain in the tank.

The number that was still changing suddenly stopped, as if the consciousness in it began to gradually recover.

A long silence followed.

After countless days and nights, the brain in the vat finally broke away from the long silence, and the psionic signal was no longer a series of large numbers, but meaningful words:
【……Hello? 】

【Hello. 】

It seems that it has not talked with other beings for a long time. After Li Wenyuan responded with the psionic signal, it took a long time for the brain in the vat to organize the next language.

【...Can you... increase the concentration of psionic energy here? 】

Regarding the request of the brain in the vat, Li Wenyuan did not hesitate, allowing more psychic energy to fill this space.

Bathed in the psionic environment, the brain in the vat seemed to be more energetic, and the fluctuations of psionic signals were no longer so intermittent.

【...It must have failed. 】

The brain in the vat seemed to be both doubtful and affirmative, as if it had already realized what happened in this galaxy.But he went on to say:
[...My name, my history has long been forgotten by the long river of time, and now the only thing I remember is my duty]

[I am the initiator of the last program of this "Ascension Engine", and I am the "left behind" who is responsible for pressing the "Ascension" switch]

[This plan to soar the entire galaxy cannot tolerate any mistakes, there must be a trusted "psychic master" to carry out the last step]

[And I have already made up my mind, so I even embarked on this road that is hovering on the edge of taboo——I will use my brain to completely control this "Ascension Engine"]

【Now...can you please tell me how the outside world is doing? 】

In the psionic fluctuations of the brain in the vat, he could not feel any emotional fluctuations at all. This long period of time had already made him forget what it was like to be emotional.

And Li Wenyuan also found that the brain in the vat was shrinking, and it seemed that he planned to use this time of light to pass on their stories.

He can try to copy the thinking mode of the brain in the vat and let it continue to live with a "digital" consciousness.

But will this really be a good thing for such a "left behind" who has endured a long period of loneliness but still insists on staying here to witness the end of their civilization?

(End of this chapter)