Spark

On the first day of 2018, the world has entered a new stage.

Cuba and the United States formally ceased war. This became the first war in the United States to end in "peace talks" since the 21st century.

At the same time, several nuclear fusion power plant projects in Europe have been fully completed, including not only the large-scale 2013CNF project in Russia, but also several small and medium-sized projects in many places in Europe.

With the completion of these power stations, it also marks that Europe as a whole has entered a new energy era.

The consumption of natural gas for fuel has been greatly reduced, but the gas pipelines that have been built long ago cannot be wasted. Therefore, all parties began negotiations in an attempt to establish a metallic hydrogen processing plant in Europe. Such demands have brought about a new round of deeper The exchange of interests at different levels has alleviated economic tensions to a certain extent.

On the other side, under internal and external troubles, the world's largest "United States" is on the verge of splitting. Just as expected by the new North American alliance, many organizations have begun to try to copy their development trajectories, and the United States has lost absolute control over the military. The federal government can only be exhausted and "suppress" everywhere.

The media did not describe this situation as a "process of pursuing freedom", but used an extremely dark expression:

"Eating the flesh and blood from the skeleton before the corpse completely decomposes."

In a sense, this expression does objectively describe the psychological motivations of those "insurrectionists" and the final result of this "corpse".

A giant has fallen, but what kind of new life will its flesh and blood nourish?

Nobody knows.

In Chengdu, in the office, Chen Nian was sitting in front of the computer. While looking at the so-called "planning plan" on the screen, he frowned and said to Wang Jiancheng beside him:

"So it took you so long to come up with something like this?"

"How can this be called a plot? If you hadn't told me, I would have thought you copied pornographic content from some illegal website."

"Goblin tribe, adventurer girl, magic continent. Really, it tastes too strong, so please give it a try."

After hearing his words, Wang Jiancheng scratched his head in embarrassment, and then replied:

"Then I don't have time. I have been following the quantum computing project to make various adaptation programs for them. Although this thing is simple, it takes a lot of effort when the number is large."

"Especially, we need to make special optimizations for various functions. Even working 12 hours a day is too little for me."

"So, can't we just write casually?"

"Anyway, the core of what we want to do is not the so-called plot, gameplay, etc., but the interaction between people."

Chen Nian rolled his eyes and retorted mercilessly:

"If some people really regard interaction as the first source of fun, then what we want to do is not a large-scale interactive game, but a large-scale public chat room."

“Under this approach, what can be cultivated is not a general-purpose AI that can achieve rapid growth, but a single language model.”

"Interaction is the core, but the various tasks involved in interaction are the base."

"There must be a background, and then the players involved can simulate, develop and interact based on this background."

"Otherwise, what they create is just a castle in the air, and it will not be of any benefit to the training of AI."

"All right."

Wang Jiancheng sighed, lay down on the sofa, and thought for a moment before saying:

"If that's the case, the only background we can choose is probably 'Creation', which is similar to games like Spore and Evolution."

"How about simply setting up various cosmological constants and letting the participants start from scratch?"

"no."

Chen Nian continued to shake his head.

"The directivity is too poor. If they create a dinosaur world, our AI's decision tree will be completely biased."

"It's okay to open up, but at least it must be open under the premise that humans are dominant. Let's make history."

"It is divided into several parts to open up, ancient times, feudal times, and modern times after the industrial revolution."

"Create different worldviews, and set a development limit for each worldview, allowing participants to interact within a certain range - giving them limited freedom."

After hearing Chen Nian's words, Wang Jiancheng thought for a moment and then replied:

"This idea is okay. I can find a team to create the framework and fill in the basic settings."

"However, the development cycle of the entire main program, art, etc. is quite long. It is conservatively estimated to take three to five years."

"It doesn't need to be so complicated, just make it a text adventure game."

"Text adventure? Huh? Is it really just a group running game?"

"Well, how about maximizing the cost-effectiveness ratio?"

Although Chen Nian doesn't play games very much, it doesn't mean that he doesn't understand. In fact, the text adventure category is not only to reduce costs and shorten the development cycle, but also the most important reason is that it can greatly improve the efficiency of AI training. Speed ​​and accuracy.

"Okay, it won't be long. I'll go to Professor Chen to get the budget, and then I'll prepare for development."

After talking about this, Wang Jiancheng couldn't help but get a little excited.

He sat up and quickly typed on the keyboard to record the key points, and then said:

"This thing is really interesting. Not to mention the main function of AI training, even if it is viewed simply as a game, it is highly playable."

"I'm really curious about what kind of tricks those players called the 'Fourth Natural Disaster' can do. Maybe they can develop into the cosmic age faster than us in reality?"

Chen Nian was a little funny. It was obvious that Wang Jiancheng's understanding of game players was not as good as his own.

He shook his head and replied:

"But pull it down. If there is no reward and punishment mechanism, there is a high probability that they will destroy the world within a few days. After restarting, they will change to another way to continue destroying the world. However, this is also part of the training."

"Let them do whatever they want. If one day, the world we created evolves its own reward and punishment mechanism, it means that our training goals have basically been achieved."

Evolve your own reward and punishment mechanism?

Wang Jiancheng nodded thoughtfully but did not answer.

This statement sounds a bit scary, but...

It’s also a bit exciting.

What kind of final form will such a game evolve into?

Skynet?

Or a mirror?

In short, this is definitely not some fast-food game created just to kill time.

On the other side, in the Imperial Capital, a discussion about Spark, or Chen Nian's latest proposal, was ongoing.

The title of this proposal is "Imagination of Using Redundant Energy to Implement Large-Scale Environmental Transformation." Just from the name, you can intuitively feel what the proposer wants to do.

Drill holes in the Himalayas, dig wells in the Tarim Basin, build canals to Lake Baikal, and build dams on the South China Sea.

Only a project of this size can be called a "large-scale environmental transformation."

But of course, as a professional proposal, it does not directly throw out these ideas, but demonstrates the future development of mankind in the energy field, the growth rate of available energy, and the relationship between social development and energy consumption from various angles. dynamic balance.

Through such theoretical inference, the proposer came to a conclusion, that is:

Humanity will inevitably break through the dynamic balance between energy production and energy consumption in the period of rapid development at a certain point in time. By that time, the rate of human energy production will be much higher than the rate of energy consumption. However, fundamental science has not been Under the premise of innovation, this energy will be usedlessly dissipated before it takes effect, and will be turned into heat energy again and dissipated in the vast and infinite space of the universe.

In order to avoid this situation, China, or the entire human race, must be prepared in advance, especially to guide changes in ideological cognition in advance.

The "cost-effectiveness" and "cost-effectiveness" of the project are still important, but the priority must be moved later, and the "net benefit" will become the highest standard for whether a project can and should be implemented.

Against this background, the proposer proposed a so-called large-scale environmental transformation project, aiming to improve the global environment as much as possible, increase the upper limit of population carrying capacity, and lay a more solid foundation for mankind to move into the future.

Although the entire report is not long, it can be said to be impeccable in terms of data, models and inferences. After reading the report, everyone in the office nodded repeatedly.

The old man sitting in the middle put down the thin report in his hand, and then said:

"Comrade Chen Nian's proposal is still very valuable. In terms of strategic thinking, it can be said that it coincides with our previous discussions."

"What's even more rare is that he uses a higher level of 'long-term vision' to look at our future, instead of focusing on the five-year goals and ten-year goals like us old antiques."

"There is a sentence in the proposal that really reminds us: we need to be prepared for a change in ideology."

"This is a very typical example - in the future, do we really still have to look at the existence of the human race on a scale of decades or hundreds of years?"

"Using the analogy of a person's life, when we are young, we always feel that time passes very slowly, and one year is considered an extremely long time."

"But after entering middle age, time becomes faster and faster. Even five or ten years will pass by in a blink of an eye."

"Now, with the breakthroughs in various basic technologies, human beings can be said to have officially entered adolescence from infancy. Our grasp of 'time' also needs to be adjusted."

Hearing his words, other people in the conference room echoed one after another. After a brief free exchange, someone said:

"I still agree with the leader's statement - the vision should be broadened and the mentality should be enlarged."

"Comrade Chen Nian's idea is very good, and the best thing is that his first-phase plan does not require additional resources, and is completely supported by resource savings in the early stages of multiple projects."

"It's good to do this. Save more, use more, do more, use more, make the most of the resources available at hand, and get the most results."

"On behalf of the economy, I made my first statement. I support Comrade Chen Nian's proposal."

As soon as he finished speaking, most people in the conference room laughed.

"This is how you budget. As long as it doesn't cost you money, everything is negotiable. But the leader is right, we should really take a longer view."

"The first-order experimental plan involved in this proposal is still very imaginative - of course, what I mean by imaginative is that it is a little short of implementability."

"Increase air humidity and slow down the evaporation of surface water by laying out large-scale condensation systems?"

"To be honest, if it was not Comrade Chen Nian who proposed this plan, but other technical staff, I would have thrown the proposal in his face."

"If we want to do this, we might as well just get a Dyson ball. That thing would be more worth a try."

"It's not worth it. What Comrade Chen Nian wants to solve is the problem of energy redundancy. Without breakthroughs in basic science, there is no point in building a Dyson sphere."

".I'm just giving you an example!"

The man shook his head helplessly and continued:

"I mean, this idea is certainly good, but Comrade Chen Nian was obviously misled by the case of the man-made oasis in the northwest base."

"Such a plan is actually only applicable to glacier meltwater areas that already have green conditions. For the vast desert, it is just a drop in the ocean."

"Even if a small-scale water circulation can be formed, evaporation will not be enough to affect the surrounding environment. The idea of ​​'step by step and staged greening' envisioned by him will not work."

"In intuitive terms, at a certain moment, vegetation growth and death will reach a balance, forming a dead line that cannot be crossed in the desert."

"At that time, no matter how much resources we invest and how much energy we consume, we will not be able to move forward one step further."

"Because this is the most basic law of nature."

"So, my suggestion is that on the basis of passing the proposal, we should discuss and optimize the specific implementation plan accordingly. We cannot blindly implement it, let alone rush into it."

After he finished speaking, the conference room fell silent for a moment.

No one can refute his advice, because what he said is the real reality.

This is a scientific world and a scientific era.

Even if Chen Nian has brought countless scientific and technological wealth to this country in an "unscientific" way in the past, it cannot erase the basic laws that have always existed.

So, is it possible that the experimental plan really cannot be implemented?

"Then how do we modify it? How do we optimize it?"

"Abandon the condensation plan and change to the water diversion plan that was already considered?"

"The water diversion plan is actually very feasible. After all, we have rich experience in infrastructure construction."

Everyone started discussing again, and just as the discussion became more and more intense, a cough suddenly sounded.

The old man who spoke first had a smile on his face. He looked around and then said:

"Every comrade's suggestions are very good and very informative."

"Of course there are problems with this proposal, and as just said, it is even whimsical."

"However, Comrade Chen Nian actually proposed an 'advanced version' of the plan."

"What I have in my hand now is an additional proposal."

"And this proposal is about genetic optimization."

"Biological gene editing and optimization technology development plan."

"I suggest everyone also take a look at this proposal. After reading it, maybe we will have a new understanding of the environmental transformation plan."