Great Power Technology

The subtitles of the title gradually faded, and Ye Zhou looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but feel a little confused.

Before him was a court.

In other words, this is the scene of a hearing that is not too big.

The people attending the hearing were obviously divided into two groups. They were sitting on both sides of the hall, and Ye Zhou was in the center where the moderator was.

From the information provided by the simulator, he already knew the topic of this hearing - in fact, even without the information, he could clearly feel the meeting just from the "appearance" of the two parties participating in the hearing. Contradictions between the two sides.

On the left side of Ye Zhou, everyone is a normal person in the traditional sense, while on the right side, there are many "new people" who have been transformed, or "healed", and are a fusion of flesh, blood and machinery.

Some of these newcomers use artificial eyes, some are equipped with mechanical arms, some have their entire heads wrapped in helmets, and some can barely find a piece of normal flesh and blood on their bodies.

Ye Zhou still doesn't know what they went through from "people" to "new people", whether it was a helpless move for survival or an active choice to pursue evolution, but it is undeniable that when this group of people appeared in front of him , he indeed felt a great impact.

Is this the future of AES technology?

Before Ye Zhou could continue to think, the hearing examiner sitting in the main seat said:

"Well, I think the purpose of today's hearing is already clear to everyone here - the bill to restrict the abuse of AES and artificial organs. Just now, we have also introduced the main content of this bill to you. Now , we invite representatives from both sides to speak.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the indicator light on the "Newcomer" representative table on the right turned on instantly. Ye Zhou didn't see anyone making any movement. It was probably someone among them who connected to the conference room through Bluetooth. speaking system.

Following the hearing officer's instructions, one of the newcomers, who had a relatively low degree of transformation, stood up and said:

"Dear hearing examiner, hello to all friends here. My name is Li Xing. I am honored to be invited to participate in this hearing. Here, I will express my opinions on behalf of the opponents of the AES bill."

"First of all, I want to explain my own situation to everyone."

"As you can see, my right palm and eyes are made of artificial organs. In addition, in places that cannot be seen, my left leg bones are also made of metal bones - this is also considered in a sense. artificial organs."

"My purpose in using these organs is simple: to survive."

"In a car accident six years ago, I lost my eyesight and the rest of my body was severely damaged - I almost lost the ability to live a normal life."

"With the help of AES and artificial organs, I have basically restored the living abilities of a normal person, and I can even stand here and speak to everyone."

"Now, I want to continue to share a set of data with you."

As he spoke, Li Xing slid his finger on the screen in front of him, and a simple data comparison chart was presented in front of everyone.

After a pause, he continued:

"There are two data on this chart. One is the average cost of care and other economic losses caused within three years after I recovered from the injury. The other is the total cost of transplanting my AES artificial organ in terms of the average annual maintenance cost."

"As you can see, from the current perspective, the price of an AES system is extremely high, even more than the total cost of my three-year care."

"However, this is only the initial installation cost. After the transplantation, the annual maintenance cost of this system is less than one-tenth of my combined care costs and economic losses as a disabled person. This means that as long as I don't In five years, the cost of this system can be recovered."

"This can intuitively illustrate the fact that a set of AES artificial organs can allow a disabled person who cannot create any value and can only consume resources to return to work in just five years. and cover the initial cost of the system.”

"I think everyone is clear about the meaning of this fact, and I don't need to explain it too much."

"Now, we want to legislate to restrict the development of AES systems, so what will be the consequences?"

"Will our needs change? No, in fact, there are still a large number of disabled people who need the help of AES, but due to legislative restrictions, the price of AES has increased significantly, and they are likely to lose the opportunity to return to the workforce forever."

"This is a process of trade-offs - on the one hand, it allows the social labor force to be utilized to the greatest extent and creates new resources; on the other hand, it allows the weak to live in pain and consume resources that have been produced with great difficulty. How should we choose? , I think everyone is very clear."

After Li Xing finished speaking, Zhengfang's representative immediately pressed the speak button in front of him, and then said:

"Hello everyone, based on the previous speeches of the opposition representatives, we have the following points to emphasize."

"First, the content of this bill is to restrict the abuse of AES technology and artificial organs, not to ban their use."

"Second, from the social point of view, there has been abuse of these two technologies, and some people have even begun to falsely promote the two technologies, inducing some people who have insufficient understanding of the technology to actively replace healthy organs."

"Third, we believe that the misuse of the two technologies has extremely limited actual improvement in productivity - this is a very simple inference. Electronic prosthetic eyes can make blind people see again, but an artificial prosthetic eye that integrates infrared technology What good can it bring?”

"If we want to use infrared technology, a stand-alone infrared eyepiece is the best choice."

“So, in summary, AES technology is a technology with extremely high initial returns, but very fast diminishing marginal effects. If such technology is not restricted, it will likely lead to a misallocation of social resources and affect the healthy development of the entire society. "

"I'm done."

Ye Zhou, who was floating in the air, listened to the speeches of both sides word by word. After the speech of the negative side ended, he gently shook his head.

This guy is on the right track, but he's totally missing the point.

The so-called marginal effect of AES technology is not a valid argument against this technology at all, because the limit of AES technology is far from artificial senses, but... artificial brain.

When humans continue to develop AES technology and eventually push this technology to its limit, all human sensory signals can be replaced by electrical signals. This means that the human brain is no longer a simple biological brain, but a simple biological brain. It's an electronic brain.

Everyone can be connected to everyone else through wide-area neural networks, the gap between people begins to shrink infinitely, the speed of information transmission reaches the highest level, and the transmission of knowledge is completely mediated.

In this case, the existing economic network and social structure of mankind will all collapse, the mode of production will undergo fundamental changes, the distribution of resources will be completely disrupted, and ideologies will also begin to be reconstructed.

At that time, people are no longer alone.

It is a collection of unified thinking with independent carriers.

Just like...the insect swarm controlled by the Queen of Blades.

It's just that this insect swarm is mechanized.

A chill ran down Ye Zhou's back. In fact, he didn't think that far before entering the ending. He initially viewed the ending as an interesting exploration.

However, everything changed the moment the "newcomer" used Bluetooth network to control the smart system of the conference room.

There was only one thought in Ye Zhou's mind: They had crossed the line.

AES technology must be restricted, but how to limit it?

The discussion in the venue continued. Ye Zhou looked around and suddenly discovered an unusual detail.

Among the newcomers on the opposite side, there was a person who was quietly moving towards the front of the crowd.

The other companions nearby seemed to have noticed his movements. Someone pulled him curiously and asked, but he just shook his head and did not answer.

Then, in the midst of the verbal exchanges between representatives of both sides, the first rebel appeared.

He walked out of the crowd on the opposite side and walked towards the positive direction.

Seeing this scene, Zhengfang’s representative proudly said:

"Dear hearers, please note that now we have convinced an actual beneficiary of AES technology, which is enough to prove that even a person who has obtained huge benefits from this technology, as long as he has normal logical thinking, Would also favor restrictions on the technology..."

"Come, sir, could you please come closer and tell us why you changed your position?"

However, the smiling speaker received no response from the mutineer, who walked straight into the middle of the crowd as if he wanted to hide himself.

After realizing his predicament, everyone on the opposing side understood and stood in front of him, blocking his view from the positive side. This was originally a kind act, but Ye Zhou saw a huge crisis in it.

He now has a God's perspective, so from his perspective, he can completely see that the so-called "rebel"'s purpose is not to hide at all, but to... measure the position and angle.

What does he want to do?

Ye Zhou moved to his side, and his information appeared in the simulator:

Wang Lang, welder.

Welding...laser?

Ye Zhou saw a special device on his wrist, and that device was a portable laser welding gun that had gradually become common even in reality.

However, this welding gun has obviously been modified.

He suddenly realized what this man was trying to do, but there was nothing he could do to change it.

So, Ye Zhou retreated far away. The next second, the scorching light in the man's hand lit up. Everyone in the conference room subconsciously looked back at the position of the light source, but the next second, an even more dazzling light burst out.

The fractional laser containing tens of thousands of degrees of high temperature directly penetrated their eyes, and the retinas were instantly ablated. In just a few seconds, dozens of people lost their eyes.

Screams broke out one after another, and the opposition representatives on the other side were also shocked by this scene. After a brief hesitation, they swarmed up and pushed the worker named Wang Lang to the ground.

However, everything is irreversible.

At the last moment when the screen went dark, Ye Zhou heard him laughing crazily and shouting:

"Now, do you still want to stop us??"