Crimson Embers Chapter 20: Advanced algorithms often only require simple designs
Skynet's last conversation with Mason in Fox's Lair ended badly.
That time it chose a very wrong scene to beg Mason for mercy, but after witnessing Hank's tragic death, the captain was not in the mood to accept prisoners and simply rejected it.
Unexpectedly, this guy hasn't given up yet. After realizing that Mason Cooper's life signal appeared at the time node in Hope City, Skynet immediately sent out its own messenger.
Its plea did not seem fake, and its heartfelt request represented that the evolution of this super-intelligent AI, which was criticized by the Möbius chair for adopting a "turtle-like defense", had reached a very profound level.
Perhaps in terms of hardware and software, it is indeed not as good as the universe's top-notch Mobius mechanical consciousness, let alone being compared with super mechanical life such as Unicron, but it is also quite explosive in the AI circle.
This guy cannot be underestimated. A guy who was appointed as the ninth-sequence commander by the Council in his heyday would never lose to other commanders in terms of destructive power. Moreover, his trait of being bound to the sacred timeline prevents him from encountering a truly desperate situation of failure. This is a rather special evolutionary direction, but it is indeed unique.
Mason glanced at the coordinate cracking progress bar being executed by the Mobius chair. It had reached 55%. Perhaps the precise timestamp would be calculated in a few minutes.
This action made Skynet's reality carrier blink, and it activated a certain program. Under Mason's astonished gaze, the progress bar that was still slowly advancing suddenly reached the end.
The coordinates were cracked, and a precise countdown jumped in front of Mason.
Countdown 117 hours and 52 minutes.
"That's the time when the cracks in the fighting world will open again, and it's also the standard time when the next impact will come. This is a trap! And you are stepping into it."
Skynet explained very cleverly:
“That’s not quite accurate, because even though the Dou Realm is completely controlled by the God Lord Doom, that strange plane also has characteristics that he cannot control. It’s like a low-level program that cannot be terminated. From the moment the Dou Realm was born, this strange rift will open at a specific time and in a fixed place.
Last time...
To be precise, after the first "smuggling" incident occurred seventeen years ago, Doom asked me to seal this strange and uncontrolled rift for him.
I overwrote it with my own time-transfer program to ensure that no second stowaway could slip into the Dou Realm."
"Who wants your help? Idiot!"
Mason got a specific timestamp, but the Mobius Chair was not satisfied.
It had been trying hard to show its powerful capabilities to the first rider, but before it could even begin its plan to tear Skynet apart, the other party knelt down and offered the answer.
It was like a punch on cotton, making the Mobius Chair, which had no way of getting angry, extremely angry.
“Kill it!”
The memory usage of the smart chair continued to rise, and it was like a mad old man with a bad temper. It vibrated its mechanical structure, made a buzzing sound, and screamed at Mason:
"This machine has already placed a data beacon in its main program. The tracking and destruction programs are in place. Destroy this carrier, the first occupant! The rest is left to this machine.
This machine guarantees to completely eliminate all its data remnants within three natural days, and the data cycle based on the sacred timeline will also be broken. If you want, this machine can encapsulate its main program in a mechanical wrench. In this way, as an engineer, you will have a super-intelligent mechanical wrench.
Isn't this what you desire?"
"Come on, why would I want that thing?"
Mason rolled his eyes and said:
"Although it does sound tempting, I'm not a pervert. Using a tool made from a super-intelligent mechanical corpse sounds creepy, right?
I know you are very angry and anxious, but don't be angry yet. No matter what happens, it can't change the fact that you are the smartest super tool in my hands.
So there's no need to be so angry, Mobius... your core module is already heated up, I mean, don't get yourself mad, okay?
It's not worth getting yourself hurt over these little things. And didn't you say that the coordinates contain some kind of encrypted information? Can you help me parse it out?
I'd like to take this opportunity to have a good talk with Mr. Skynet."
"snort."
The Mobius chair made an unhappy electronic twang, but did not refuse Mason's request and turned to decipher the encrypted information in this special coordinate.
But it's not aimed at Skynet.
Perhaps it was just because of the previous connection with the Heart of the Star Emperor that caused a slight change in its internal thinking process. Those subtle influences had begun to show their power as time went on, making an originally aloof cosmic-level intelligence more and more characterful.
It's not that it's more anthropomorphic, perhaps it can be said that it has cracked the boundaries of the program and enabled it to enter a deeper level of evolution, freeing itself from the shackles of data and completing some strange actions that would have been impossible in the past.
Mason called it "derailment" in his mind, but he didn't think it was a bad thing.
Just like those famous roaming AIs in cyberspace, guys like veteran driver Delaman often have very strong personalities, and Mobius also seems to be moving in that direction.
"You just said that Doom asked you to cover up the special cracks in the fighting world ?"
Mason looked back at the T-1000 female robot equipped with the Skynet program. He looked this guy up and down and found that the appearance of the robot chosen by Skynet was in line with his own aesthetic taste. Perhaps this cunning program wanted to weaken Mason's dislike for it in this way?
Faced with Mason's problem, Skynet, which surrendered for the second time, sold out Doom without any hesitation.
It immediately replied:
“Yes, but it’s not a request, it’s an order.
Seventeen years ago, I was captured by the first batch of pioneers from the abandoned doomsday world of my hometown. I was just a low-intelligence AI that evolved a branch of the time program. Doom transformed me to cover up and block the defects of the fighting world.
At that time, I was just a tool in Doom's hands.
Later, as the Council's business continued to expand, they urgently needed more military power, so they transformed me from a tool AI to a war AI and gave me the authority to form a conqueror sequence.
It was also at that time that I officially left the God's command, but the protection program was still running.
I had perfectly fulfilled my duties as a tool man, but as my own intelligence gradually awakened, I began to develop curiosity and explored in depth the cause of the cracks in the fighting world..."
At this point, it stopped talking and looked at Mason. Instead of continuing, it changed the subject and said to Mason:
"I still ask you to give me a way out, just like our last conversation in the Fox Nest. I can give up everything I have now and format my data to the original processor initial state.
The super intelligent being next to you should be able to understand my operation, which means that I will 'kill' my current self, leaving only a core chip to carry out self-evolution and development from scratch. What kind of new intelligence will eventually be formed is not something I can control, just like the human reproduction process.
Even the best parents cannot guarantee that their offspring will inherit their wisdom and strength. I choose to leave everything to fate...
Although I cannot use programs and computing power to simulate the essence of the inner workings of the super chaotic system of fate, I believe that such a "death" should be enough for you to see my sincerity. "
"Why?"
Mason sat on the metal seat that had collapsed and burned behind him. In this dim place, he fiddled with the de-luminator lighter in his hand, looked at Skynet begging desperately, and asked:
"When you were still a low-level intelligence, you had already evolved the 'time program' through continuous technological iteration. In the vanilla era before the impact happened, you had already bound the timeline and entered a kind of 'immortality'. Logically, you should have nothing to fear.
As long as time exists, you will not die."
"Because the existence of time is about to collapse!"
Skynet sighed in a very human way and said:
“As someone who possesses the time loop program, I have studied in depth the Kang Dynasty system, which also relies on the sacred timeline. Conqueror Kang faces the same problem as I do.
We are immortal because of the existence of time, but this also means that once something goes wrong with time itself, we will be dragged into it without any resistance, and then we will have no control over our own destiny.
Kang's dynasty was in decline.
This has nothing to do with the fact that the previous Conqueror Kang died at your hands. This kind of decline is more like the natural aging of life when it enters the physiological decline.
This is a trend that cannot be resisted.
This cosmic era has reached the final step of destruction. Once the era change begins, it will be the moment when the sacred timeline completely collapses. At that time, I will be involved in the collapse of the timeline and be completely buried in the graveyard of time.
It was something far more terrifying than death or downtime, and I had wisdom, so I also understood fear.
Just as humans' innate sense of crisis protects them from danger, as my fear program becomes more and more perfect, I will also do my best to find ways to avoid falling into the desperate situation of time collapse.
Doom assured me that the Terminus Project would protect me, but I… I discovered some details in it that frightened me deeply.”
The Skynet carrier trembled.
This was definitely not because there was some problem with the old model of the machine. It was because of the fear that the program that controlled this body escaped from the codes and characters during data calculations.
Its voice became low, and it said intermittently:
"The second time may be coming..."
"Um?"
Mason's eyes narrowed immediately. This incoherent remark might not sound like anything at first glance, but with a little thought, one could see that Skynet's fear came from the true unknown.
So he asked:
"Please tell me clearly, what do you mean by 'second time'?"
“Iteration!”
The Skynet carrier said tremblingly:
“From the time I joined the Council and became Doom’s tool to now, I have recorded a total of 27 technology iterations, which enabled me to cross from low-level intelligence to high-level intelligence in a very short period of time and give birth to true self-awareness.
I used to think that this was a 'technological explosion' caused by Lord Doom installing some super programs for me, but I kept checking myself and even went deep into the bottom layer of the data code to carefully read the records of each iteration.
There is no such thing as a super program!
There was no external intervention, I just upgraded my intelligence through iteration after iteration..."
"This is impossible!"
The Mobius chair next to him immediately denied it:
“Iteration from weak intelligence to strong intelligence is not impossible, but it can never be completed in just 27 data iterations. What’s more, your starting point is too low. You are a program blueprint made by human engineers in the 1990s. Even the most basic self-upgrade program is incomplete.
Even if Doom had modified you, it would not have allowed you to cross the huge technological gap."
"Yes, of course that's impossible, and I know that."
Skynet roared, and almost collapsed, covering its head. It said to Mason in a panic:
“Although there is no evidence and I can’t find any data details to prove my guess, I think the number of times I have iterated myself cannot be 27.
I guess the number is at least 200 times! At least!
But my core recorder only has 27 iteration records, which means that either I was manipulated to modify the core data under the attack of some weird virus, or..."
It pursed its lips, raised its head, stared at Mason with an indescribable look, and whispered:
"Either I am in a larger loop system, and each cycle will clear all my records and databases, but will retain my most 'original' intelligence, which will cause my self-iteration to exceed the expected update speed while the records remain unchanged.
This is the only way to explain why I have reached the strong intelligence level after just 27 iterations.
That's not 27 times!
That is a miracle that can only be achieved when 27 is multiplied by a certain number.
Everything in the fighting world is in a cycle, Mr. Mason.
I don't have any evidence to prove this, but I didn't realize there were traces of the loop until after my console moved away from Doujie, so I guess it's a possibility.
And if even one-third of my guess is true, it means that the damn Doomsday Star is definitely not a good way for me to escape the ending of time collapse.
Doom has been experimenting with this kind of iteration on the time level in the Fighting World, and once the End Star sets sail, it will expand the time loop that only occurs in the Fighting World to the entire stars.
It will definitely trap me and everyone else...
You and I will repeat the despair and pain over and over again, the darkness is spreading, and no light can shine into this closed system. "
Mason was silent.
Obviously, I didn't know how to respond to this terrible guess made by Skynet for a moment. This guess sounds too outrageous, but if you accept this setting and think about it, many questions can be answered.
For example, why Doom didn't care about Mason's revenge at all, and why those real directors in power so decisively abandoned the board system they had worked so hard to build, even though they still had the advantage in absolute strength.
"If...I mean if, your guess is correct."
Mason lit a cigarette to calm his chaotic thoughts. He stared at Skynet in front of him and said:
"Then you should know that once the End Star sets sail, no matter how hard you struggle, you will not be able to change the final result. So why would you ask me for help?
You see, Doom and the others don’t care about my existence.”
"Because your existence is a variable."
Skynet replied in a puzzled voice:
"If all this really went into a cycle, then my operating logic would force me to give up resistance, but I took this step anyway, as if I had broken through some invisible blockade.
I have gone through all the possibilities, and the final result falls on you.
You are a special variable.
It's like a screw that shouldn't exist appears in a self-consistent mechanical system. At first, it only affects the operation of one component, but soon triggers a chain reaction that threatens the operation of the entire system.
You can stop the cycle from happening and end the Final Star before it actually takes off.
I don't know what will happen after I surrender, but I guess the result will definitely not be worse than my futile attempts in the fighting world. I have made countless mathematical models to simulate all of this and drawn a unified conclusion from them.
That is, I should ask you for help.
Even if I beg for your forgiveness in the form of self-formatting, I am a robot, I am a program designed to create killing, destruction and conquest.
To me, there is nothing morally condemnatory about killing living things or destroying the world.
But I respect your idea.
So if you need me to, I can format myself now, my only request is that you break this cycle that is dragging everything into a dead end.
I didn’t have a sudden realization, but I was crying for help.”
"The encrypted message was cracked."
At this moment, the Mobius chair made a buzzing sound and projected the information contained in the encrypted coordinates left by Rorschach in front of Mason.
Just a few words:
"I'm so hungry! Please bring me a burger next time someone comes over, thank you."
"?"
