Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 421 If Life Were Just Like First Meeting

After Ma Boyong sent his selection to Zhang Chao, everyone began to look forward to Zhang Chao's new email.

After just waiting for two or three days, Ma Boyong still hadn't received the novel manuscript sent by Zhang Chao in his mailbox, which made everyone a little upset.

After all, next month’s issue of “Youth·Daguan” has reserved space for this article “The Man in the Shell”, and even the cover has been designed.

A city full of high-rise buildings, all of which are made up of lines of codes; a young man stands with empty eyes on an empty street, and the road surface is also made up of lines of codes.

If something happens to Zhang Chao, the editors will have to find new works to fill in the gaps.

On the morning of the last Monday in September, Ma Boyong had just sat down at his desk when Lan Ting hurried over and asked expectantly, "Is it ready?"

Ma Boyong smiled and said, "Fortunately I am a man, otherwise your words would have caused a big misunderstanding."

Lan Ting blushed, but she still insisted: "I just want to see it earlier!"

Ma Boyong's computer was just turned on at this time. He immediately opened his mailbox and looked through it, then shook his head and said, "No."

Lan Ting left with a pout in disappointment, looking dejected.

When others saw her like that, they knew that Zhang Chao had not "updated" yet, so they stopped joining in the fun in front of Ma Boyong.

However, at this time, Li Wandong, who was in charge of IT business, came to the editorial office of "Youth". He walked straight to Ma Boyong with a confused look on his face. Ma Boyong was also puzzled and asked hurriedly: "Teacher Li, what happened?"

——Li Wandong used to be a university teacher, so he is still used to people calling him teacher.

Li Wandong said: "Zhang Chao... just sent an email to my mailbox. I opened it and found it was a novel. I thought he sent it to the wrong person, but the email asked me to read it as well, and then asked the editorial department to go to the conference room to watch the next mobile phone conference.

After watching the press conference, let me explain the future development trend of mobile phones and mobile Internet, and then print out the novel for everyone to read. "

Ma Boyong and other editors were also confused - why did Zhang Chao send the novel to Li Wandong? And there was a mobile phone launch conference, the IT department could just take a look, why did they have to let the editors watch it too?
But since it was Zhang Chao who said it, naturally no one would have any objection, so they packed up their work and followed Li Wandong to the meeting room.

In the conference room, the IT department had already set up a projector connected to a computer, and a young programmer was fiddling with something.

After everyone was seated, Li Wandong signaled that they could begin. The young programmer pressed a button, and the projector projected a picture - a middle-aged East Asian woman, holding a white mobile phone in her hand, giving an introduction in English.

Most of the people present spoke good English, and even those who didn't could still follow the translation by the people next to them, so we soon learned that this was a launch conference for the world's first Android phone, HTC G1, jointly organized by the US operator T-Mobile, Google and HTC.

The person speaking on the stage was HTC's female president, Cher Wang.

This phone has been in the IT department of "Chaotide Culture" for a long time, so many people in the company have seen it, because people in the IT department often take it to the yard to test functions such as taking pictures and making calls.

People like Ma Boyong have also played with it.

However, everyone soon saw Wang Xuehong starting to introduce that this phone will be natively equipped with "WeChat" and "Tide Reading", as well as a game called "Fly Bird" developed specifically for it by "Tide Culture", which lifted everyone's spirits a lot.

After all, this is a sign of the company's prosperity. It is said that the boss is planning to buy the courtyard house next door...

The most surprising thing at the press conference was the price of the G1 phone. After signing a package contract with T-Mobile, it can be purchased for only US$129, which is much cheaper than the contract price of iPhone 3G of US$199.

Soon, a young male editor familiar with digital technology calculated the price of the parallel-imported product in China: "No more than 4000 yuan!"

This price is much lower than the parallel import price of iPhone 3G, and can even be said to be somewhat "affordable" - after all, the starting price of Nokia's high-end phones is easily six or seven thousand.

The press conference was quickly over. Li Wandong signaled the programmer to turn off the projection, then turned to Ma Boyong and the editors and said, "Everyone has finished watching it. What do you think?"

Lan Ting was the first to answer: "Will these large-screen smartphones become cheaper and cheaper in the future?"

Li Wandong nodded and continued what Lan Ting had said: "That's true. You know, the Android system installed on this G1 phone is an open source system - what does open source mean?

Its source code is public. In other words, as long as you gather a few people who know the technology, you can develop a customized mobile phone operating system based on its source code..."

Li Wandong is usually quiet, but when talking about his technical field, he is eloquent and confuses the group of "liberal arts students" in front of him.

When he stopped to drink water, Ma Boyong spoke first: "What you mean is that smartphones will be popularized in the hands of most people in a short period of time? In the future, everyone will have a smartphone?"

Li Wandong nodded and said, "I estimate that it will be basically popularized in no more than 8 years - of course Zhang Chao is more radical, he thinks it will only take 5 or 6 years. But I think that with the current manufacturing cost, the price may not drop that quickly.

A smartphone costs at least 3000 yuan, which is still a bit expensive for most people."

Ma Boyong sighed and said, "I think Zhang Chao's prediction may not be radical..."

The editors looked at each other, and suddenly understood why Zhang Chao asked them to come and see the HTC G1 and listen to Li Wandong's explanation of future trends - they always felt that the future picture described by Zhang Chao was a little far away, but Zhang Chao bluntly told them through this press conference and Li Wandong's explanation that the stories he told were very close.

At this time, many people felt a little regretful: "Did we make a hasty decision before?"

Li Wandong was unaware that the editors were worried, but instead said excitedly: "I find the 'recommendation algorithm' described in Zhang Chao's novel very interesting.

In fact, he still didn't know much about computer programming. From a technical point of view, the 'all-seeing eye' was not difficult to realize; the difficulty lay in obtaining data. The data barriers of each company were very high, and the country would not allow it...

No wonder he called me a few nights ago and asked me so many questions..."

As Li Wandong was talking, he realized that there was no sound in the room. When he opened his eyes, he found that the editors were looking at him with very strange eyes, which made him feel a little creepy.

Shuang Xuetao asked hesitantly, "When you read that novel, didn't you have any... other feelings?"

Li Wandong was puzzled by the question and replied: "What's the feeling? Aren't novels written by you writers? Can you take it seriously?"

Shuang Xuetao was left speechless and could only sit back in dismay.

At this time, Ma Boyong said, "We've watched the press conference and listened to the explanation. Now it's time to read the novel to us, right?"

Li Wandong slapped his forehead and said, "Yes, I almost forgot about the important matter. - Look, it's already printed." As he spoke, he took out more than ten printed manuscripts from his file bag and distributed them to the editors present.

After the division, Li Wandong said, "If everything is ok, I'll leave first?" Then he left the meeting room with the young programmer.

The only people left in the conference room were the "literati" he mentioned. They looked at each other, smiled inexplicably and helplessly, and then started reading novels.

Sure enough, Zhang Chao followed their wishes and wrote that "Zhou Yingying" accepted "Luo Zhi's" confession and became his girlfriend, and they even soon began to live together without shame.

【Luo Zhi stood in front of Room 1703, holding the key in his hand and not moving. There was a Tibetan silver prayer wheel pendant on the keychain, the same bell bracelet on Zhou Yingying's wrist. Since the official establishment of the relationship last week, this door is no longer a cold data fortress - two pairs of couple slippers are crookedly placed in the entrance, folk paper-cuts bought from the market are pressed under the refrigerator magnet, and even the air is soaked in the sweetness of peach scented fragrance.

"You're back?" Zhou Yingying ran out of the kitchen barefoot, her hair stained with flour, "Come and try the new brown sugar rice cake I learned to make!"

Luo Zhi was pushed to sit in front of the bar, watching her fumbling in front of the pan. The 37-degree spring sun shone through the shell wind chimes, casting tiny spots of light on her smooth back, where he still left a kiss mark from his loss of control this morning. When the smell of burnt rice mixed with the smell of glutinous rice wafted over, he suddenly held down her hand holding the spatula: "The rent is due next month, do you want to..."

"Move to your 50-square-meter two-bedroom, one-living-room apartment?" Zhou Yingying winked slyly, her fingertips tracing the lines on his palm, "But you have to bring my paper crane wind chimes, the caisson tapestry I bought in Dunhuang, and..."

Luo Zhi used a kiss to stop her chattering mouth, and the brown sugar melted between her lips and teeth, leaving a sticky sweetness. When their foreheads touched, he saw that the screen of his mobile phone placed next to the stove lit up. It was a push notification, but he was no longer in a hurry to open it to check.

……

On the day of moving, Luo Zhi's data fortress completely fell. The originally gray and white minimalist living room now looked like an overturned paint can - the indigo tie-dyed curtains reflected the colorful glass lamps, the old guitar leaned against the gaming chair, and the crystal stones were piled up next to his collection of mechanical keyboards. When working overtime late at night, agate-studded feet would often swing onto his knees, and then he would fall into an embrace with the scent of grapefruit.

"Look at this conch," Zhou Yingying suddenly put her phone in front of him one day, "It's said that it can enhance the magnetic field of lovers!" Luo Zhi frowned and was about to say something, but finally fell silent. His throat seemed to be burned by the stars dancing in her eyes...】

"Alas..." Someone in the conference room sighed softly, and it was unclear whether he was lamenting Luo Zhi's luck or sneering at the unfairness of fate.

While Luo Zhi was finding love, his work was also going very smoothly.

After several BETA versions, the "All-Seeing Eye" was finally successfully developed. The whole company was celebrating the arrival of this moment, and "Luo Zhi" also became a senior figure in the company. However, "Luo Zhi", who had a successful career and love life, had his life fall apart on an ordinary weekend night.

[The soup pot on the induction cooker was bubbling. Luo Zhi stared at the squid balls bubbling in the boiling soup, and suddenly remembered the pop-up notification he had just seen on Zhou Yingying's phone. She was taking a shower at the time, and when the phone screen lit up in the misty bathroom, he thought it was an illusion.

Now those characters are floating out of the soup pot, and every time a bubble bursts, translucent words burst out - "Programmers have three good things: lots of money, little work, and early death."

hum-

The roar of the microwave oven sounded like a warning that the code had failed to compile, and Luo Zhi's fingers began to twitch...

A series of push notifications shone into his eyes like glaring neon lights:

"A guide for girls from the lower classes to fight back: finding a stable boyfriend is the first step" "The hidden advantages of programmers: being down-to-earth, dedicated, and making money" "Why IT men are the most suitable candidates for marriage" "From a monthly income of 3000 to a monthly income of 30000, I only used one trick: getting married"...

Luo Zhi's hands began to tremble. All of these contents appeared in Zhou Yingying's browsing history in the past three months without exception, and the time point was just after they met and before they officially started dating.

Luo Zhi clutched his phone, took two steps back, and kicked the coffee table unexpectedly. The pain sobered him up a little, but his heart began to collapse like a domino.

……

He mechanically turned on the computer, entered his administrator password, and entered the backend of "The Eye of All-Seeing". He entered the IMEI code of Zhou Yingying's phone that he had just recorded, and quickly called up a detailed behavior analysis report.

Data streamed down the screen like a waterfall, cold and precise:
User YY-89757
Behavior pattern: Active social interaction, moderate economic independence, strong emotional needs

Geographic track intersection user: LZ-12458
Spatial overlap: 78% (mainly concentrated in residential areas)

Push strategy: Enhanced association perception based on geographic trajectory intersection

Content preference change curve:
-
2019/2/1：独立自主型内容 87%，依赖型内容 13%-
2019/3/1：独立自主型内容 64%，依赖型内容 36%-
2019/4/1：独立自主型内容 43%，依赖型内容 57%
……

Evaluation of push effects: User behavior patterns were successfully reshaped, and emotional tendency adjustments were in line with expectations.

……

He turned off the computer and sat in the dark for a long time. Through the gaps in the curtains, the lights of the city were like a huge net, covering everyone. Everyone thought they were making free choices, but they didn't know that these choices had already been carefully designed.

……

Late at night, Luo Zhi returned to the bedroom and looked at Zhou Yingying who was sleeping soundly. The moonlight shone through the curtains and sprinkled on her peaceful face. She looked so real and alive - every breath she took, every tiny change in her expression, seemed to be silently telling him: I am real, my feelings are real.

But the voice of reason echoed in his mind: All this may be designed. The "all-seeing eye" only needs to constantly strengthen specific information tendencies to reshape a person's values ​​and behavior patterns. You thought you found true love, but in fact you just fell into a trap designed by yourself.

Luo Zhi felt a severe headache. He didn't know what to believe - should he believe the feelings of the girl in front of him, or the cold data and algorithms?

If our meeting was arranged by an algorithm, can the relationship between us still be called love?
If our every step is guided by data, can we still say we are free?

Luo Zhi lay on the bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling like the little wooden figure hanging on the wind chime.

……

The whole city is collapsing into a huge synapse, every street lamp is a flashing neuron, and every street is a flowing gradient descent curve. They are just two parameters corrected by the new algorithm, and they are destined to collapse in the gentle cage of overfitting. 】

This time, everyone did not get into an argument, but put down their manuscripts and remained silent for a long time. Especially when thinking about the "class" that Li Wandong had just taught, their hearts felt like they had been stabbed with a needle -

Will I be unable to escape the control of algorithms in the future?

"Is this... the ending?" Lan Ting squeezed out her question from her throat.

The relationship with "Zhou Yingying" made "Luo Zhi" think that he had escaped from the "information cocoon"; but the recommendation algorithm "Omniscient Eye" he wrote put "Zhou Yingying" into a cage.

The reason why "Zhou Yingying" agreed to him was because the mobile phone content recommended by the "Omniscient Eye" subtly changed her thinking...?

Zhang Chao did not give a definite answer.

After learning the truth, what will "Luo Zhi" choose - choose to stay with "Zhou Yingying" or break up; choose to continue to be the person in charge of "The All-Seeing Eye" or choose to leave...

Zhang Chao also did not give any answers to these questions.

Or maybe this doesn't need an answer.

The purpose of the novel "The Man in the Case" has been achieved and it perfectly echoes the title - and this is just within the novel.

Outside of the novel, it can be said that Zhang Chao used a few simple choices to put everyone in the editorial office of "Youth" into a shell, but at the end of the novel, he gently let everyone out.

"Will there really be such a recommendation algorithm in the future?" an editor asked quietly. Of course, she was not looking for an answer.

Xu Feng suddenly laughed and said self-deprecatingly: "Do you know how I feel about reading this? I actually think that it looks pretty good under the wrapping of the life recommendation algorithm.

'Zhou Yingying' is lively and cheerful, which actually forms a good complement to 'Luo Zhi's' dullness and introversion. In fact, there is nothing wrong with them living like this.

And isn’t his life also well-organized under the guidance of the articles and videos recommended by the algorithm? "

Xu Feng's words silenced everyone.

At this time, Shuang Xuetao spoke up: "You only saw 'Luo Zhi' - he is a person with high IQ and strong self-control and execution. What if he does not have these conditions?
For example, what kind of recommended content would be in the mobile phone of Xiao Yang in "A Letter from an Unknown Woman"? "

These words were so frightening that even Xu Feng's eyes widened as if he had just woken up from a dream.

Lan Ting murmured, "So in fact, these novels of Zhang Chao are actually closely related in nature - we can actually put the characters in different novels and imagine their experiences..."

Shuang Xuetao nodded and said, "Yes, this might have been his intention..."

At this time, there was a knock on the door. Li Wandong walked in with two stacks of papers in his hands and asked, "I just received another email. He said he wanted you to choose again..."

Everyone was stunned. The novel was already over, so what else was there to choose?
Li Wandong waved the two stacks of papers in his hand and said, "He said that this novel has a 'beginning' and an 'end'. Which one do you want to read?
He asked you to choose immediately, don’t hesitate.”

The meeting room immediately fell into discussion. After a while, Ma Boyong said, "Let's vote by raising hands. Those who want to see the 'beginning', raise your right hand; those who want to see the 'end', raise your left hand."

After saying that, he raised his right hand first.

Everyone in the conference room looked at each other, then hesitantly raised their hands.

Li Wandong counted the people and found that more people chose "Start", so he put down a stack of papers, turned around and left.

Everyone rushed forward to share the paper. This "beginning" was very short, with only a few lines of words:

[On the last subway at 11pm, 23-year-old Luo Zhi leaned on the armrest of the seat at the end and fell into a deep sleep. He was exhausted from a whole day of submitting resumes and interviewing.

He couldn't even remember where he was going back to today, let alone where he was going tomorrow.

All dreams, ambitions and aspirations, like stones thrown into a lake, sank silently into the mud.

His hand was tightly gripping the phone, but the screen was still on, with the content remaining on the screen where he had last inadvertently swiped it - a woman with long black hair, wearing a white dress, intellectual, elegant, and generous, was muttering something.

again and again.

Over and over again...】

(End of this chapter)