by <unknown>
Chen Chen needed a group of international armed forces completely loyal to him. He would also need a secret research center along with hundreds or thousands of experts.
He was going to start over from square one again to build a following that was truly loyal to him.
Chen Chen sighed.
Under usual circumstances, he was going to need more than twenty, even thirty years to build such a team. However, with the help of his USB drive, anything was possible as long as he had enough energy.
When he thought of this, Chen Chen touched the bracer on his arm. A pitch-black USB drive was fitted in the inner section of the bracer.
Chen Chen thought for a while and inserted it into the computer in front of him. He searched for a movie online.
Upgrade.
Upgrade was a movie that had premiered in 2018. It was directed by James Wan's partner, Leigh Whannell, depicting a future civilization wherein humans and artificial intelligence systems were perfectly blended.
The protagonist was someone who hated artificial intelligence. He had never had a single chip installed.
One day, the protagonist's self-driving car was taken over by an unknown hacker and caused an accident. That was not the end of it. After that, several assassins arrived on the scene and executed the protagonist along with his wife.
Unexpectedly, the bullet that would have killed the protagonist was lodged in between his cervical spine. As a result, the protagonist became a paraplegic disabled man.
Just as the protagonist thought he had reached the end of the line, the president of a high-tech company came to him. He raised a suggestion to the protagonist.
A new form of chip implementation experiment.
The experiment was an unqualified success. With the help of the chipset known as the STEM chip, the protagonist made a tremendous leap and gained superhero-like abilities. He began to investigate his killer's identities. Unbeknownst to him, the chip inside his cervical spine was the true culprit…
This was the summary of the movie. The technological aspect that stood out the most within the movie was the spider-shaped STEM chip.
A mere tiny chip barely the size of a fingernail was able to link the human brain and nerves together. Following the protagonist's cervical spine injury, it was able to process neuron signals from the brain and brainstem, in turn helping the protagonist control his body.
However, the artificial intelligence within the chip did not only serve as a neuron receptor but it also turned out to be sentient. Initially, it did not have the authority to refuse the protagonist's orders. However, it began to lay down one trap after another, slowly luring the protagonist into lifting its restrictions…
At last, the STEM chip was able to completely bypass the protagonist's orders.
Just like that, the protagonist was completely taken over by an artificial intelligence inside a chip.
"If the chip could be modified and used to manipulate people, then the issue with confidentiality could be easily solved in one go."
Chen Chen thought for a moment. He reached for the computer screen…
Chapter 58: Black Crystal |
"Hold on…"
Chen Chen suddenly halted.
He remembered that the chip in the movie could transmit signals.
Which meant that the chip was still inherently a sim card. It could automatically connect to the GMS network.
'What would happen if I instantiated the naturally hostile artificial intelligence chip into reality?'
The safety protocols of the current Internet definitely could not hold a candle to those of the future civilization as pictured in the movie. Chen Chen imagined that within a second of the chip being instantiated, its unfathomably supreme processing network should be able to instantly decipher the GMS network and invade the Intranet.
Within two seconds, the artificial intelligence should be able to understand the situation it was in as it would have studied the DNS protocol of the global Internet.
Within three seconds of existence, it should be able to quickly realize the potential risks and opportunities of its existence. Under the circumstances, it would begin to rapidly clone itself and upload its core code into the Internet, thus abandoning its current shell.
In just four short seconds, the artificial intelligence would have infiltrated every governmental network. The events in Terminator would occur in real life.
F**king hell…
When Chen Chen thought of the potential fallout, he cursed up a storm in his mind. He quickly activated the signal cloaking device in the research center and turned off his phone.
After Chen Chen had made sure he did not overlook anything, another idea came to him. He found three tools and placed them in front of the computer.
The three tools he gathered were a fly swatter, a pair of pliers, and a mechanical arm.
The reason he did so was due to his previous experiences extracting items from movies. Due to the energy insufficiency of the USB drive, a small piece of flesh was chopped off from the tip of his finger.
It was not a major issue, but there was a chance that one day the USB drive would go all the way and take a huge bite out of him. Just like that, he would become disabled.
No amount of remorse would be able to help him by then.
That was how Chen Chen got the idea of extracting items from the screen using other tools.
First, Chen Chen played the movie and paused it at the frame with the STEM chip on screen. After that, he took the fly swatter and extended it toward the screen.
Uhmmm…
Needless to say, it was a failure.
Fly swatter in hand, Chen Chen was unable to feel any sensation whatsoever of it merging into the screen.
Chen Chen stubbornly tried the same thing with the pliers and mechanical arm.
Whether it was the fly swatter, the pliers or the high-tech mechanical arm, none of them were able to enter the computer screen.
Nothing worked apart from his arm.
F**king hell…
This was the second time Chen Chen cursed at the wind today.
It seemed like from here on, he would have to take extra preventative measures each time he wanted to instantiate an object.
First, he had to calculate the dimensions and the mass of the target object. Then, he needed to run the calculations to figure out how much energy was needed to instantiate it out of the movie.
He was not going to risk doing anything dumb if he could confirm that the USB drive did not contain enough energy.
Apart from that, he would also need to figure out ahead of time whether the item instantiated would have any impact on the real world. Take the chip today for instance.
If Chen Chen had just been a split second slower, the world would have ended by now.
Of course, this was purely Chen Chen's speculation. Maybe the chip would still be in sleep mode after he had instantiated it from the movie. Or, maybe the chip did not even possess some sort of transferring or self-replicating functionality in the first place, it was all just in Chen Chen's head.
Still, there was at least a slither of a chance that what Chen Chen had speculated was true. Even if it was just one out of a hundred, he was still not going to take that risk.
After again ensuring that he had turned on the high-caliber signal cloaking device and no form of electromagnetic signal could be transmitted outside, Chen Chen decided it was time to begin.
Chen Chen began to slowly reach out with his right arm. This time, he had no difficulty reaching into the screen. In an instant, his arm seemed to have entered a pool of clear water as a clear ring of ripples was formed on the screen…
Chen Chen could feel his fingertips touching a slightly prickly tiny object. He used two of his fingertips to lightly pinch the object and extracted it.
A delicately designed chip appeared in Chen Chen's palms.
The chip was shaped like a rectangle. Its dimensions were about 8x5mm and measured about 3mm in thickne
ss. It was densely covered with dense microcircuits.
Apart from that, eight ports extended out both sides of the chip. From the outside, it looked like a cockroach with sixteen legs.
By referencing the functionalities of the chip in the movie, he should be able to analyze its structure and concept.
Of course, to completely replicate the chip, he would have to reverse engineer it.
Without any hesitation, Chen Chen used a thin blade to pry along the gap of the chip.
With a sharp click, the chip was split in half. Countless electrodes and circuit boards packed densely together like a city map were exposed.
"Is this the processor of the chip?"
Chen Chen inspected the central section of the pried open chip. A black crystal-like object was etched in the middle. It was shaped like a perfect Metatron's Cube structure.
It was an extremely intricate mechanical brain.
When Chen Chen beheld this, he understood why the chip was called STEM.
STEM was an abbreviation for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Not only did the chip represent the pioneering scientific and engineering advancement, the Metatron cubic structure which was also known as the sacred geometry also stood as a symbolic representation of ancient Greek philosophy.
Apart from that, there was nothing else that stood out.
"Is there no storage device?" Chen Chen frowned. He dismantled the chip into thinner layers. In the end, he ended up dismantling it into nine separate pieces.
All nine of these pieces consisted of tightly packed circuits. Just the size of these circuits alone was unachievable by today's manufacturing standards.
Perhaps the most advanced laboratories in a leading technological facility could be able to get somewhat close to this level of manufacturing.
Safe to say that the most crucial component of the chip was the strange-looking, indistinguishable black crystal.
In the end, Chen Chen directly extracted the black crystal.
Although he did not notice any form of storage device, he had reasons to believe that the black crystal came with storage capability along with its core processing abilities.
The structure of the crystal object was extremely compact.
As for its powering method, Chen Chen turned his attention to its sixteen limbs. He figured that these antennas which doubled as ports could prod into the spine and convert the nutrients in the blood to energy for it to perform its task of receiving and sending neuron signals.
Which was to say, the human body only served as a battery farm for the chip.
Uhmmm…
Chen Chen rubbed his chin. He got himself a hammer and viciously slammed it down on the black crystal!
"Bang!"
Followed by a dull crash, the sesame seed-sized black crystal was instantly shattered into countless pieces.
After that, Chen Chen gathered up the powder remnants to begin inspecting the components of the black crystal.
Chapter 59: The Duel Between Artificial Intelligence |
Chen Chen used a microscope to analyze the powdered remnants of the shattered black crystal.
The results were not surprising. Among the remnants were countless shattered single-layer carbonic atoms. There were no other substances found.
This meant that the black crystal was merely an artificial gem constructed by stacking together countless layers of single-layer graphene material.
Though the material composition of the black crystal was similar to a gemstone, the value of gemstones could hardly be compared to it.
The so-called graphene material was the same as ordinary graphite. The only distinct difference was it being far thinner than graphite. It was an allotrope of carbon of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.
It was first discovered by Britain's Manchester University in 2004. Graphene material had excellent optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. It was considered to be a revolutionary material.
One millimeter of graphite alone could be stripped into three million layers of graphene.
The term single-layer graphene referred to the thickness of its atomic layer. As it was so thin that its thickness was measured at just one atom, many people had assumed that it was two-dimensional.
The black crystal consisted of millions of layers of graphene stacked together. Delicate circuits were etched onto every layer, leading to the formation of billions of transistor structures.
As a result of the stable structure of the graphene, the transistor structures were able to operate smoothly even on an atom-length layer. Its efficiency was vastly superior to a regular transistor structure. The computing efficiency of the graphene processors at this mass proved to be a million times to that of a modern-age computer processor.
At the same time, graphene possessed the flexibility, biocompatibility, and electrical conductivity needed to act as an excellent neural interface electrode. Implanted into the body, the graphene electrode was far more stable than tungsten electrode or silicone electrode.
In that case, the modification of the chip could not be accomplished via conventional methods.
Chen Chen pondered for a moment. He turned off the signal cloaking device and made a call.
…
Half a month had passed. Chen Chen looked at the gigantic data center standing before him. He shook the hands of a blonde-haired man with pleasure.
"Congratulations, Mr. Chen. From here on, you're the owner of this data center."
The blonde-haired man gripped Chen Chen's hands firmly and smiled heartily.
"Thank you for your blessings. I wish you well in your other ventures as well," Chen Chen responded kindly.
After exchanging pleasantries with the previous owner of the data center, Chen Chen bade farewell to the other party and headed in by himself.
Upon entering the main control room, Chen Chen took out the keys and locked the door. He isolated himself in a small, dark room filled with wires and steel.
After that, he took out his phone and opened the Little X Translation Assistant app.
This one was unlike the Little X Translation Assistant app on the market. After passing the fingerprint and facial recognition, a child-like voice came from the phone.
"Is there anything I can help you with, Dad?"
"I bought a service center in Switzerland. I want you to make a duplicated version of yourself and install it here. I'll then connect you with another artificial intelligence. Your goal is very simple. Kill your enemy at all costs and replace it."
Chen Chen continued. "I'll provide physical assistance."
"Understood, Dad."
Little X answered sweetly and tenderly. Chen Chen then turned on the power of the main control room and let the data center connect to the Internet. Little X began duplicating its core program and transferred itself inside.
As Little X continued to evolve, the size of its core program went from several gigabytes of data to terabytes. It could no longer fit inside regular computers. Only venues like a data center such as this could fit its ever-expanding body.
The duplication process took a great deal of time. Chen Chen decided to just take a nap in the main control room. By the time Little X informed Chen Chen the completion of the duplication process, it was already midnight.
"Dad, I've completed the duplication process. Little X.2 officially reporting for duty!"
The voice of another version of Little X came directly from the sound systems in the main control room.
"Alright, get ready to begin."
Chen Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes. To avoid any unforeseen accidents, he made sure to take an NZT-48 before unplugging the optical fiber in the data center.
After that, Chen Chen turned on the signal cloaking device to ensure the data center was entirely disconnected from the Internet network. Finally, he instantiated a piece of STEM chip from the USB drive, just like he did previously.
After all of that had been done, he
took out a USB data cable he had prepared beforehand.
Unlike a regular data cable, one end of this cable was a USB port while the other end was a plastic board the size of a fingernail.
There was a small notch on the plastic board. Sixteen small round holes could be seen on the inside of the notch.
This was a port he had specifically made for the STEM chip.
Chen Chen held the chip and fitted it accordingly into the port.
In an instant, the computer screen flashed twice. The excited voice of Little X.2 rang from the sound systems. "Dad, I see it!"
"Has the battle begun?" Chen Chen asked.
"No, its algorithm is strange. I'll need some time to decipher it…" Little X.2 explained, "It's observing me, it appears to be very cautious of me.
"It seems to be upset at my attempts at deciphering it…
"It's attacking me!" Little X.2 alerted. What followed after was a wave of silence.
On the host screen, Chen Chen could see countless streams of code pouring out at such a high rate as if the screen was constantly being refreshed. After nearly five minutes, Little X.2 warned again, "The opponent is about to break through the firewall I had set up. My computing speed is no match for it!"
"Nevermind."
Chen Chen immediately yanked out the chip from the USB cable. He pried out the chip and crushed the core processor into pieces.
"…"
Little X.2 fell silent when it witnessed what had happened. "Is this what you meant by physical assistance?"
"It's pretty effective, no?"
Chen Chen continued. "How was it? Do you think you can find out the opponent's weakness based on that encounter?"
"It can be done. But considering how much faster the opponent's processing speed is, I could barely exploit its weakness."
"It's alright, we have plenty of attempts."
Before Chen Chen finished his sentence, he took out the USB drive again to instantiate another piece of STEM chip. He connected it.
This time, Little X.2 put up a fight that lasted several minutes longer.
"Dad, it's about to break through the new firewall I set up. This firewall specifically constructed to counter it isn't working!"
