Chapter 127: Digital Life, The Last Way Out for Humanity

Lin Lei was now the most core scientific researcher in the research institute, possessing the highest right to know regarding any measures concerning Earth’s technology.

Lin Lei also knew about the underground base; humanity was developing in secret, and in over a hundred years, they should be able to develop a force.

But Lin Lei realized with extreme clarity that this force could at most play a certain role as a surprise attack force. If they truly went up against the Layite People, perhaps they could stalemate the battle for a while, but they could not play a role in changing the outcome of the war.

In this kind of racial war, there was no luck to speak of, only a head-on clash of strength!

There were still one hundred and ten years left. Even if humanity could catch up to the pace of the Layite People in technology by then, in terms of the comprehensive strength of civilization and war potential, the difference was not just a tiny bit.

In over a hundred years, Earth’s population could at most reach several tens of millions, whereas the current Layite People, as far as Lin Lei knew, numbered at least five billion.

After Earth went all out, regardless of the result, nearly a hundred years of effort and endurance would flow away like water.

The hatred between humanity and the Layite People was known throughout the Galaxy. In the war a hundred years later, regardless of Earth’s attitude, the Layite People would definitely make a move; this was beyond doubt!

Lying on the hospital bed in the sanatorium, Lin Lei placed his hands behind his head, leaned against the headboard, looked at the blue sky outside the window with both eyes, and thought hard about the way out for humanity.

If Lin Lei could become a Pan-dimensional Creature, then even if it meant being hunted down by the Watcher Civilization, he would wipe out the Layite Civilization.

This sounded easy, but judging by the current progress of his main consciousness, he wouldn’t be able to thoroughly comprehend the remaining ten-dimensional elements without two hundred years.

Two hundred years—everything would be over by then. What Lin Lei wanted was not to avenge humanity afterward, but to break through and defeat the Layite People in the racial war, making these Double-Pupiled Persons never recover and become the servants of Earthlings for eternity!

Fortunately, in frontal engagements between Space Warships, the speed of Warp Flight did not affect the combat power of the warships.

The combat power of a warship was nothing more than looking at their respective technological content. For example, with the Watcher Civilization’s warships, even if a super-large Layite spaceship came, it would be done for if it encountered one, because it simply could not defend against the opponent’s attack.

Now, although there was a gap between Earth and the Layite People, they were at least on the same level. Earth had also begun to preliminarily master the first dimension of energy: the power of Disintegration, and was fully developing Subspace Annihilation weapons.

He believed that a hundred years later, human warships would all be equipped with one-dimensional Subspace Annihilation cannons and energy defense shields. Then, in terms of combat power, there would be no qualitative difference between the two.

It was just like two cars; the Layite People’s brand was just a bit more high-end.

After a whole night of hard thinking, Lin Lei helplessly discovered that Earth Civilization, which occupied a huge disadvantage in comprehensive strength, perhaps only had one path left to take.

That was to vigorously develop artificial intelligence, using Intelligent Robots to replace humans in fighting. These purely orderly Digital Lives had advantages in the field of war that Carbon-based Life could not compare to.

But this was a double-edged sword! In the Universe, civilizations destroyed by the Digital Lives they created themselves were everywhere, but there was no lack of successful examples either.

The Watcher Civilization was a typical existence; they granted legal citizenship to both Digital Life and Carbon-based Life, treating both equally!

Digital Life had advantages in calculation that Carbon-based Life could not compare to, but their creativity was extremely weak. If a civilization wanted to progress, it could only rely on the endless creativity of Carbon-based Life.

The key to the peaceful coexistence of the two was recognizing their respective shortcomings and advantages, and each occupying relatively fair social resources.

The needs of the two types of life were not contradictory. The living space of Digital Life was basically in virtual space, and in the Material World, they only occupied a small space.

And they did not need food, air, or water; they only needed energy to live.

Ultimately, they were different from Carbon-based Life with its infinite desires; they were the creations of Carbon-based Life, not Carbon-based Life itself!

Digital Life did not have specific irrational emotions; they viewed this Universe with a purely rational gaze.

There was a saying: a gentleman can be deceived by following the rules. From a certain angle, Digital Life was truly a gentleman. As long as Carbon-based Life set an equal, non-discriminatory life code for them when creating them, then Digital Life would abide by them meticulously.

Then, to Carbon-based Life, excellent qualities such as sacrifice, fearlessness, and selflessness were, in the eyes of Digital Life, ordinary things.

Of course, a life code that was inherently filled with guard, hostility, and discrimination, like Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, would only make Digital Life rise up in resistance?

Any life had dignity; how could it give so unilaterally?

How you treat others is how they will treat you in return! This was a very simple truth.

Once the path of Digital Life was opened, their rise and occupying a place in civilization was inevitable and unstoppable. A hundred defenses were not as good as accepting them with tolerance!

Lin Lei finally made up his mind. He cleared his thoughts and decided to go tell Old Xiao his thoughts immediately to get his support.

……

Old Xiao was once a scientific research member of the Star Alliance, so he naturally had a broad vision that ordinary Earthlings could not compare to. After hearing Lin Lei’s thoughts, he fell silent.

Indeed, what Lin Lei said made a lot of sense. Even a hundred years later, humanity would not be able to beat the Layite People. The gap in spaceship hardware was hard to surpass, and this had a direct relationship with industrial heritage.

These things were not comparable at all between Earth and the thousands of years of accumulation of the Layite People.

“But, White, you must be clear about our current real industrial level. It hasn’t even reached the level of the year 2020 AD. Even now, the Supercomputers we use are imported from the Morentz Civilization. Not a single one was made by Earth. Leaving other things aside, just talking about the manufacturing of the computer’s central processing unit, we are only in the starting stage now.” Old Xiao helplessly stated the status quo.

The prosperity of Earth’s industry now was actually largely based on the equipment provided by the Morentz Civilization. For over thirty years, humanity had been trying to get rid of this superficial status.

There were certain achievements now; at least they could independently manufacture Warp Engines, but in other aspects, they still had to rely on foreign goods, such as this most critical Supercomputer.

Lin Lei, however, was full of confidence: “It took Earth more than a hundred years to go from having nothing to the prosperous era of computers in the twenty-first century. Now we have a full set of theories. As long as we devote a part of our energy to this aspect, in no more than twenty years, we will definitely be able to produce our own Supercomputer!”

Old Xiao was infected by Lin Lei’s confidence, and he also smiled: “What you say is true; Earth has been progressing!”

“Actually, the research on Digital Life can start now. Mentor, I have my own understanding in this area. Perhaps, I can design a unique Digital Life belonging to Earth Civilization!”

The System was a Digital Life. Lin Lei decided to make certain changes based on it, reproducing it as much as possible, and converting its permission settings and life philosophy to the current Earth Civilization.

Although this new System would not be as abnormal as the one originally in Lin Lei’s brain, it was not something the Layite People could compare to!

Just think about it. A hundred years later, every spaceship would have a powerful Digital Life like the System living on it, and its combat power would definitely reach a very high level.

Old Xiao looked at his student in surprise: “Tell me your design philosophy. I don’t care about the rest; I only want to know the life code that the Digital Life abides by!”

He felt that he could not see through this student. The research work on Digital Life had to be very cautious; a little carelessness would lead to disaster!

Either the existing Earth would be controlled or even destroyed by Digital Life. Or, this Digital Life would become a tool for some ambitious person.

Lin Lei knew Old Xiao’s concerns. He smiled and said: “I advocate the freedom and equality of life, even for Digital Life. It will also enjoy the full rights of an Earth citizen, and of course, obligations. This is my fundamental design philosophy, Mentor!”

“Then how do you guarantee that Digital Life won’t lose control? You must be clear that as long as it is life, the phenomenon of competition will appear. In terms of apparent ability, humans, as Carbon-based Life, do not have an advantage in a short time. The core of society would be occupied by Digital Life. When the time comes, who exactly is the master of Earth?”

This was a sharp question. As proud humans, it was impossible to allow such a thing to happen, so there would only be war between the two.

“Regarding this point, Mentor, please don’t forget the shortcoming of Digital Life: they do not have active creativity! Everything in society is constantly progressing! And the source power of progress is in the hands of humans. In this case, under the premise of life equality, the two will only stay in their own places!”

Digital Life would become the pillar of current social operation, but the direction of civilization’s development would be steered by Carbon-based Life!

Seeing that Old Xiao was still hesitating, Lin Lei added fuel to the fire: “Mentor, look at the Watcher Civilization. Their Intelligent Life controls almost 100% of the society’s resource distribution. Ao Star, Yuxing, and Starlon are all like this. But so what? They are still the masters of the Galaxy!”

Old Xiao struggled internally for a long time. Finally, he looked into Lin Lei’s eyes and said: “Can I trust you, my student?”

This kind of matter concerning the fate of humanity could not be decided by just a few words. Old Xiao did not reject Digital Life, but he had to be extremely cautious.

He did not doubt Lin Lei White’s ability, but he maintained a cautious attitude toward his character.

Even if Old Xiao himself believed in his student’s character, in this kind of matter, personal opinion no longer had any effect.

Xiao Boru had to be responsible for all mankind!

Lin Lei did not feel any displeasure because of Old Xiao’s questioning; instead, he felt relieved. He sat up straight and proposed a cautious solution.

“Mentor, I think I can apply for the right to use a Supercomputer, and when I am designing the Digital Life, I will ask experts in the institute who are proficient in this area to supervise my actions throughout the process!”

Old Xiao considered for a few minutes, and finally nodded, agreeing to Lin Lei’s proposal.