Chapter 29.1
When Qi Yan woke up, his head was a little heavy. He rubbed his temples, knowing that this was a problem he had caused by staying up all night.
When he went to the wardrobe to find clothes he would wear today, his personal terminal beeped with a notification. He glanced at it and allowed the connection.
Without preamble, the person on the other end chattered excitedly, “Qi Yan, I saw the work report you uploaded yesterday. You actually restarted Project E763? When did you have this idea? Not only me, but Jamie and Elisa were also surprised! You—”
Qi Yan’s hand, buttoning his shirt, paused. He interrupted, “August, I have a headache.”
“Understood, understood, I’ll speak softer.” August reluctantly calmed down. “Are you really planning to restart Project E763?”
Qi Yan’s face was a little pale, and his voice was two pitches lower than usual. “Yes, I’m studying artificial intelligence at Turan.”
“But you had already fully mastered the things taught at Turan before you were ten years old, right? What was there to learn? Don’t tell me you found inspiration at Turan!”
“There was some influence. I’ve been meeting many different people. They all have their own ways of thinking. Comparatively, artificial intelligence seems too monotonous.” Qi Yan stopped halfway through buttoning his shirt, too lazy to continue. Instead, he discussed his thoughts with August.
“The existing artificial intelligence in the Alliance is essentially data-driven. By utilizing vast databases and data mining processing speeds, artificial intelligence provides the correct responses.
“Because there is enough data and it can be mined quickly, it will create the misconception that ‘this is machine intelligence’. In reality, most people simplify the intelligence issue to a data problem. In the final analysis, artificial intelligence at this stage is just a miracle created by stacking data.”
August grasped the meaning conveyed by Qi Yan.
Present-day artificial intelligence was still at the stage where humans give it pre-set instructions, such as “go to sleep at 1:00 AM”. Once it received the same instruction from a human, the AI would follow it, but it did not actually understand the meaning of the instruction itself.
He pointed out, “Are you aiming to completely change this direction?”
“No.” Qi Yan’s gaze resembled a pool of water under a canopy of trees. When discussing his favorite field, he became very focused. “Not completely. I just want to explore what it would be like to push current artificial intelligence further.”
Reflecting on Qi Yan’s description of “too monotonous,” August attempted to comprehend. “Are you suggesting imbuing artificial intelligence with ’emotions’ and ‘thoughts’ to make them different?”
Qi Yan didn’t particularly concern himself with the result. “Perhaps? I can’t foresee the ultimate outcome for now.”
August was quite intrigued. “If you achieve a satisfactory result in the end, which field would you prioritize for its application?”
“Military,” Qi Yan didn’t hesitate this time, “on the front lines. It might be used initially on starships.”
“Military starships? Do you want to integrate it with the starship’s central control system and make it the ‘brain’ of the entire starship?”
August speculated further than Qi Yan, “I saw a report on the intranet that humanoid combat mechs are also in the research stage. However, due to the collapse of spatial source superposition, there is currently no alternative energy source. But if such a source is found, embedding your technology into the core of humanoid combat mechs might yield remarkable results, like creating a formidable weapon.”
“Hmm.” Qi Yan drifted off for a few seconds, unsure if he was speaking to himself or addressing August. “I’m just worried we’re running out of time.”
“Qi Yan.” August, aware of Qi Yan’s reality distortion, struggled to find the right words or how to console him.
As a bystander, he couldn’t feel the pain of the person involved.
Qi Yan didn’t allow himself to be consumed by this emotion. “Don’t worry, this project was left by my mother. I’ll do my best to complete it.”
Descending the stairs, Qi Yan received a text from August: “You forgot to register again. Your mother didn’t name this project when it was established. Now that you’ve restarted it, you have to name it.”
Name?
Just as he was about to reply, another text from August came through: “You’re not allowed to call it E763! That’s just a project number. You can’t be lazy!”
Qi Yan reluctantly deleted the “E7” characters he had entered.
Naming was too difficult.
Lu Fenghan placed the slices of bread on the table and noticed Qi Yan walking absentmindedly, seemingly lost in thought. His clothes were haphazardly buttoned, revealing large patches of pale skin. The bowknot near his wrist still dangled loosely.
He walked over and reached out to undo the misplaced buttons on Qi Yan’s clothes, rebuttoning them in the correct order. He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Qi Yan was indeed Little Scatterbrain, with life skills approaching close to zero.
Qi Yan stood quietly as Lu Fenghan patiently buttoned his shirt, then suddenly asked, “Do you have any favorite nouns?”
“Nouns?”
“Yes, nouns that can be used to name systems or models.”
Thinking Qi Yan was working on another model and unsure of what name to choose, Lu Fenghan pondered for a few seconds. “Pojun [wrecker]. In the Earth era, it’s the seventh star of the Big Dipper constellation, representing warfare and slaughter. When I was in school, I once thought that if I could design a starship, I would name it ‘Pojun.’ But later, the complexities of starship materials science sobered me up. I’m not cut out for starship design.”
Qi Yan replied to August’s message: “The name is ‘Pojun’.”
August’s response was filled with surprise: “You chose the name yourself?”
Qi Yan: “Can’t it be my own choice?”
“Impossible, you don’t have that capability.”
Qi Yan decided to ignore him.
Seeing Qi Yan’s pale face and his lack of appetite, Lu Fenghan reluctantly fetched a bag of peach-flavored nutritional supplement. He handed it over halfway but then withdrew it, tearing open a small opening in the packaging before offering it again. “Want this?”
Qi Yan took it and drank it in two gulps, considering it his breakfast.
After finishing classes in the afternoon, Qi Yan went to the laboratory where the holographic projector was lit up. Professor Fu stood in the middle, speaking to Ye Pei. When he saw Qi Yan arrive, he smiled and said, “We were just waiting for you. Now that everyone is here, let’s start.”
Qi Yan sat at his own seat, propping his chin with his hand, feeling drowsy. He found the tabletop too hard, causing his elbows to ache when he rested them on it.
Seeing his frown, Lu Fenghan knew that Qi Yan was bothered by a minor inconvenience again. Helplessly, he took off his own jacket, neatly folded it, and placed it between Qi Yan’s elbows and the tabletop.
Qi Yan tried it out, finding it quite soft. He then rested his chin on his hand and continued listening to Professor Fu.
“Since the start of the semester, you’ve all completed your tasks. New assignments will be arranged in a week. I’ve compiled a list detailing the processing models you need to understand and master, as well as the knowledge you need to familiarize yourself with. I believe none of this will be an issue for you.”
As he spoke, Professor Fu’s side displayed a long page list, containing numerous research papers and reference books. Qi Yan glanced at it. They were mostly content from Turan’s third and fourth-year courses.
Everyone present was among the top students in the entire year. None of them complained about the lengthy list. Most of them had progressed beyond Turan’s curriculum pace, as evidenced by Mondrian’s patent application in the first year.
Professor Fu continued, “Of course, I understand that the content on this list may seem too easy for you, so I’ve also included a small task for you!”
Ye Pei whispered, “I knew you wouldn’t let us off so easily.”
“Ye Pei is very insightful,” Professor Fu praised with a smile. “I’ll send you the specifics through your personal terminals. Remember to check.”
After the holographic projection disappeared, Qi Yan opened his personal terminal and saw the schedule sent by Professor Fu.
Ye Pei sat down, running her hand through her hair, looking troubled. “Qi Yan, Mondrian, and I are a team! Did Professor Fu make a mistake? The scale of this data is too much for our school’s large optical computer to handle. It exceeds the limit of computation power!”
Lu Fenghan listened nearby, thinking— even the Alliance’s Strongest Spendthrift could face equipment limitations.
Each group had different tasks. After reviewing, Mondrian said, “Ye Pei is right. To support this level of data, we need to borrow the ‘SkyLight III’ super-optical computer from ISOC.”
ISOC was the center for super-optical computer equipment, headquartered in Leto.
Qi Yan nodded in agreement. “Yes, the peak speed of ‘SkyLight III’ is 925,432 TFlop/ms, nearly a million calculations per millisecond. It should suffice.”
Ye Pei raised her hand. “Do you know how to use ‘SkyLight III’? I’ve only seen holographic images, never actually worked with it.”
Mondrian: “That’s not the main concern now. We need to figure out how to obtain the right to use ‘SkyLight III.’ From what I remember, the procedures are complex. This is probably one of the challenges Professor Fu set for us.”
Qi Yan: “I can secure the usage rights.”
Ye Pei and Mondrian both looked at Qi Yan.
ISOC’s headquarters occupied a vast area, yet the buildings on the surface were not tall, averaging only three to four floors. Mondrian had researched beforehand. “The above-ground structures are just for show. The ‘SkyLight III’ we need is underground. It’s said that it was designed this way to protect against the day when a particle cannon might hit Leto.”
Ye Pei nodded, indicating understanding, but harbored doubts about Mondrian’s last statement. “If Leto were really hit, the entire Alliance would probably be done for.”
“Not necessarily,” Lu Fenghan chatted casually beside Qi Yan. “If the rebels wanted to overthrow the Alliance’s rule, starting at the fringes of the Southern Cross Region wouldn’t work for the rebels. Battling their way from the Southern Cross to Kepler Region then Messier or even the Central Region would be a slow and arduous process. If I were leading the rebellion, I’d seize Leto first, then expand control to the Central Region. After all, the defenses in the other three regions are mediocre at best. We could mop them up strategically over a few years.”
Ye Pei hadn’t exchanged many words with Lu Fenghan. Although Lu Fenghan accompanied Qi Yan to the laboratory, he usually kept a low profile, almost like an invisible person. After all this time, Ye Pei only knew his surname was Lu.
But because they saw each other every day, they weren’t complete strangers. Ye Pei felt Lu Fenghan’s words made some sense. “So, according to you, there’s a chance a particle cannon might actually hit Leto one day?”
Lu Fenghan’s tone remained casual. “It’s possible. If the Alliance frontlines don’t shape up, it might happen sooner than we think.”
Ye Pei, being purely scientific-minded, only thought about how to upgrade the processing model and how to process data. She rarely read the Leto Daily. Just as she was about to continue chatting, she suddenly noticed that the big screen of the ISOC headquarters building had switched to a news broadcast.
On the screen, the anchor spoke in clear Alliance standard language: “…According to the latest news from the front line of the Southern Cross Region, on October third, the base of Expeditionary Force has suffered a sudden attack by rebels, resulting in heavy casualties. This marks the second time the Expeditionary Force has faced such a defeat since…”
Ye Pei paused, looking up at the screen. After a while, she commented, “They really aren’t doing well, are they?”
Lu Fenghan’s eyes flickered slightly, a hint of amusement playing on his lips. “Indeed, they’re not doing well.”
Ye Pei couldn’t explain it, but when Lu Fenghan said those words, though his tone seemed fine, she couldn’t shake off the chill creeping down her spine.
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