As a mage, I just want to pursue the truth

Chapter 227: New Mechanism

The earliest known polygraph test dates back to 1870, when Italian psychologist Angelo Mosseau discovered that a person's pulse rate changes when they are frightened or afraid.

People first used instruments based on this mechanism to interrogate criminals.

In 1885, Mosseau's student Cesare Lombroso invented an instrument to measure the blood pressure of suspects for use in interrogations to determine the truthfulness of their words.

About forty years later, Italian psychologist Vittorio Benussi discovered that the ratio of inhalation to exhalation time changes when people lie.

Once again, the mechanism of the polygraph has changed.

Although the polygraph has a history of about two hundred years, its accuracy is actually purely based on luck.

There is no sufficiently rigorous experiment to prove that polygraphs are real and reliable.

The polygraph mechanism based on human physiological reactions is not as accurate as the judgment of criminal psychology experts on what the suspects say.

From the above experience of lie detection mechanism, we can see that human beings have a strong need to judge the truth or falsehood of things.

However, the previous mechanism could not achieve sufficient reliability.

Just because polygraphs are unreliable doesn’t mean people don’t need them.

When Ke Chuang Bio's brain-computer interface mobile phone came into the market, a certain official department of China quickly realized that perhaps we could use EEG neural signal images to detect lies.

Whether it can be done is another matter.

It is basic ethics to see the possibility and take action to do it.

Later, a certain Chinese unit contacted Zheng Li, who, as the technical support provider, created a complete lie detection mechanism based on brain-computer connection technology.

This lie detection mechanism has passed rigorous blind selection experiments and has an accuracy rate of over 90 percent.

We have already started trying it out internally.

Later, based on this mechanism, Zheng Li developed the "Truth" system.

After listening to it, Li Miaomiao urged: "Hurry up and tell us what it is, don't keep us in suspense."

Zheng Li: "The newly developed system is internally named the Truth System."

“The main thing is to determine whether what you say or what you are about to send out is what you believe to be the truth.”

"And it's not a simple yes or no."

“Instead, the truthfulness of what they say is judged by the score.”

"For example, if your own personal experience is 100 points, then listening to someone else's oral account is 75 points, and listening to someone else's retelling is 50 points. If you speak out your own imagination, it may only be 20 points."

"This system will be used on social media such as Weibo, TikTok, and Toutiao."

The country that was most happy after Zheng Li's truth system was developed was the Chinese government.

The situation in China's public opinion field is too complicated, and all kinds of fake news emerge in an endless stream.

It is easy to fabricate news and cause a stir.

With the truth system in place, at least no fabricated news would require the authorities to spend a lot of manpower and resources to investigate.

Li Miaomiao quickly realized the intrinsic value of the truth system, which could fundamentally rebuild the trust mechanism.

She asked back: "This system means a lot."

"I still want to ask, its usage mechanism is based on the degree of one's inner belief in a thing."

"Will that person's inner fluctuations have an impact on it?"

“For example, I clearly don’t believe this is true, but I keep giving myself hints in my brain, telling myself that this is true.”

“Will this practice affect the final score of the truth system?”

Zheng Li said without hesitation: "Of course not, the truth mechanism needs to be confirmed repeatedly."

“It’s not as simple as a direct answer. It’s a whole complete system.”

"The truth system was first applied to Weibo. For example, if you want to send a Weibo post, you can use the truth system to authenticate the content of the Weibo post."

"As a blogger, the credibility of the facts in this microblog will be repeatedly confirmed, and your thoughts will be interrupted through different questions."

The classic mechanism of traditional polygraph testing is to use carefully designed questions to distract the subject from focusing on key issues.

This mechanism is used in new technologies.

“Even experts who are specially trained in anti-censorship cannot fool the trust mechanism.”

"The best we can do is to increase the truth system's score appropriately. For example, if his belief in this matter is only 50 points, a specially trained person can increase the truth system's score by points at most."

“This still requires the expert to know the inner workings of the truth mechanism. If he does not understand the inner workings, even the most powerful expert can only increase the score by two or three points.”

“Subsequent social media will be connected to this system one after another.”

Li Miaomiao asked back: "Similar to our current electronic signature technology?"

"It is equivalent to Kechuang Biotechnology using brain-computer connection to judge the authenticity of the content sent by users, and its authenticity is judged by a series of mechanisms based on brain nerve signals?"

"So we are the issuer of the certificate and we are just the middleman?"

Zheng Li: “Yes, you will be able to see the system on major social media platforms later.”

"When it comes to current affairs news, there will be a Kechuang Biotechnology logo behind each piece of news, using color to distinguish the authenticity of the news."

"From now on, whether it is self-media or the media, no one will be able to make up news based on hearsay or rumors."

"Relevant people told me that if you don't investigate, you have no right to speak, and subsequent media work will be rectified based on the truth system."

Li Miaomiao knew that this was undoubtedly a good thing for China.

With the prevalence of self-media, traditional media has almost no way to survive.

A traditional media ranked in the top ten in China only made a profit of 100,000 yuan per month, which is not as good as any blogger with over a million fans.

This phenomenon is clearly a case of bad money driving out good money.

Just make up news and fabricate facts. The more exaggerated the facts are, the more traffic they can attract.

There is no perfect post-event accountability mechanism after being exposed, which makes self-media more rampant.

There are no more reporters who will go offline honestly. You can publish a steady stream of news just sitting at home. The more you dare to write, the more traffic you will get.

Conspiracy theories such as Freemasonry, the Rothschild family, and the Illuminati originated abroad, and then were chewed up by domestic self-media bloggers and spread in China.

The types of situations are countless.

Since it is not yet the statutory working hours, it is actually still the Spring Festival holiday period.

Therefore, Li Miaomiao did not have much work to do, and she came here this time thinking of staying with Zheng Li for a while longer.

After listening to this, Li Miaomiao kept thinking about the impact of the truth system.

She knew that once this thing came out, the impact would be drastic and would lead to huge changes in the public opinion field.

Even the chaos since the era of self-media will be cleared up.

But along with this comes the impact that the interests of many individuals are affected.

In the past, you could make money by editing "news" at home. You could just talk all day about what you heard from friends, fans, and colleagues.

If we don't investigate now and don't go to the scene, we will have no right to speak, which is equivalent to cutting off other people's financial resources.

This will inevitably bring about a serious public opinion offensive against scientific and technological innovation.

You should know that people who work in self-media are most skilled at setting the pace.

However, Li Miaomiao is not worried about this, because Kechuang Bio's products do not worry about the boycott of the outside world. She is worried about something else:
“Have you ever thought about, for example, what if the government itself issues an announcement and the people who issue the announcement and verify the truth system do not believe it?”

Zheng Li explained: "When building this system, the Chinese government officials considered this issue."

"It's the same for the government. They also need to conduct an actual investigation and have evidence before they can issue an announcement. The person who issues the announcement will follow the entire investigation process."

"Instead, it was one group of people who conducted the investigation and interviews, and another group of people who issued the announcement."

Li Miaomiao nodded: "In fact, there is another problem. When China's official media released overseas news in the past, they often directly reprinted reports from foreign media without checking the authenticity at all."

"After that, they have to conduct on-site investigations offline before they can make their own comments."

There are also a lot of fake news in foreign media, which are no less than those in China to some extent.

There are fewer media restrictions abroad.

The two words that someone said most often in front of the camera that year were fake news.

Although it may seem funny to a spectator, it is indeed true.

While RT is fighting on the front lines in the West, Chinese media are mostly reprinting the reports.

When Chinese media report on the other side's negative news, they just reprint it casually, without any ability to dig deeper, and their combat effectiveness is extremely weak.

"But it's the same as always. Without investigation, you have no right to speak."

Zheng Li knew what she was worried about. The impact of the truth system after it came out was too great.

There will definitely be a lot of discussion outside.

Zheng Li: "We are just a technology provider. The final implementation will be carried out by a subsidiary jointly established by a subordinate central enterprise and us."

"We will only have 30 percent of the shares."

"We won't even be directly involved in the operations of the company."

China is taking an experimental attitude towards this, wanting to see if new technologies can be used to solve long-standing problems.

The polygraph developed by Zheng Li has performed very well in the past two years.

The truth system performed perfectly in the test, and its mechanism was also verified and approved by relevant experts.

Therefore, China is willing to give it a try.

As for some individuals who are unwilling, they cannot stop the trend.

Just like truck drivers don't want to be replaced by autonomous driving.

With the rapid advancement of truck autonomous driving technology, American truck drivers have basically lost their jobs.

Compared with autonomous driving technology that operates 24/7, humans who need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate are too low in cost-effectiveness.

A small number of truck drivers who lost their jobs even led to extreme incidents.

Due to the complex territorial structure of China and the European Union, there are still a few areas that need truck drivers.

Individuals cannot reject technological trends.

China's desire to establish a sound trust mechanism is enough to overwhelm personal interests.

“In addition to the truth mechanism, are there any results of cooperation with the authorities that you can disclose?”

Li Miaomiao's face was full of curiosity.

Zheng Li took out this thing quietly. Before that, she didn't even know that the lie detectors that were being promoted in China were developed by Zheng Li.

China has gradually started using polygraphs, and some clues can be seen in official reports.

There was a lot of discussion about this among the public because the words "polygraph" had rarely been seen in official reports before.

Because there is nothing to prove its authenticity.

This move caused a lot of speculation from the outside world, and Li Miaomiao heard them talking about it when she was having dinner with external executives.

According to a well-connected person, China has achieved a major technological breakthrough in the field of lie detection and has reached the world's best level.

When its technology was being exchanged with the European Alliance, the other party directly proposed to introduce China's lie detector.

China’s response at the time was that this thing was not mature enough.

In fact, it is because the polygraph has a language barrier and can only recognize the Chinese language, just like the brain-computer connection.

The underlying mechanism of the polygraph is brain-computer connection technology.

Li Miaomiao did not think about Zheng Li at the time. To non-professionals, brain-computer connection and lie detection are two completely different fields.

Zheng Li nodded and said, "Of course there are, but they all involve confidentiality requirements and are not convenient to disclose."

"But I can tell you that it is related to magic."

"But I can show you what magic is like."

After Zheng Li finished speaking, the water in the cup on the desk in front of the two of them floated up.

The pure water danced in the air like a ribbon, flowing from the cup to Li Miaomiao.

Then it formed a necklace made of water around her neck, and then slowly returned to the cup.

Li Miaomiao blushed and pretended not to care: "Congratulations on mastering a magical skill to seduce girls."

"Did you learn this from the official magician of China?"

What Li Miaomiao didn't know was that no other magician on Blue Star knew this trick, only Zheng Li knew it.

Even a simple spell hand requires 10 magic coins to redeem.

Currently, no one on Blue Star is willing to spend so many magic coins to exchange for a magic hand.

Zheng Li smiled and said, "Magic is a secret. I have never shown it to anyone except you."

"I just thought about how hard you've worked these years, and how much harder it will be in the foreseeable future. I performed a little trick hoping that you can be happier during the holidays."

Li Miaomiao's eyes were slightly red: "It's rare for a straight man like you to be so thoughtful, thank you."

"It's a good performance. Just based on this, he can perform with Dong Qing on the Spring Festival Gala."

Zheng Li: "Haha, don't tell anyone after you read it, it's confidential."

"My performance for you has actually violated the confidentiality agreement."

"But I think it's a rare vacation, so I don't need to abide by those damn confidentiality regulations."

Li Miaomiao nodded and said, "Don't worry, God knows, the earth knows, you know, and I know."

"But they won't be discovered, right? China doesn't have a department like the Ministry of Magic, right?"

"They won't plant tracers on you like in Harry Potter, a device that can detect whether you use magic or not."

"You use magic and the Ministry of Magic sends someone to arrest you, right?"

Li Miaomiao was worried that Zheng Li would be punished for performing for her.

Zheng Li comforted him: "No, maybe in the future, but not now."

"We are all just beginners in magic now, and we are still at a very superficial stage."

"If there is a trace, then what I show you is not the flowing water necklace, but the flowing water phoenix."

There will be more detailed explanations about the truth system later.

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(End of this chapter)