I saw everything

Chapter 397 Adam
2045, April 5.

The situation on Earth had fundamentally changed at this point.

The Asian Union's sphere of influence has expanded dramatically over the past decade or so.

It currently controls East Asia, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, and a small part of South Asia and West Asia.

Including Oceania, Antarctica, South America, and almost half of Central America.

The Northern Union managed to maintain its core base, but the Southern Union suffered a severe collapse, culminating in the War of Faith in 2037.

It was also because of the infighting in that war of faith that the Confederate States of America was completely torn apart. South America, as part of the Christian world, broke away from the Confederate States of America and was then absorbed by the United States of Asia.

In fact, seven South American countries had already been absorbed by the Asian Union at that time. The remaining countries also felt that the Southern Union was hopeless and the Northern Union was unreliable. So, taking advantage of the outbreak of internal conflicts, they seized the opportunity to break away from the Southern Union.

With South America separating from the Confederate States of America, the Confederate States of America was effectively defunct.

The current Confederate States of America is almost entirely dominated by Islam, which has led to a conservative approach to policy development within the country. They have even proactively cut off international internet communication cables and strictly prohibited the use of satellite communications.

In other words, the Confederate States of America is now a completely closed-off region, somewhat like the Sun Kingdom in Northeast Asia, implementing a policy of isolationism.

With the Confederate States of America closing itself off from the world, the Northern Union and the Asian Union lost a network buffer zone. Although there is still an international internet channel between the two Unions, both sides strictly restrict each other's information.

This restriction will be further strengthened, especially after 2040.

The North Alliance restricts the Asia Alliance's internet access in order to shield Asia Alliance from the real situation and reduce talent loss.

According to data collected by the Asia Union's intelligence department, the total population of the Northern Union region was approximately 12.7 billion around 2029 when it was first established.

By 2045, the region's population will have dropped to 8.4 million, a decrease of 4.3 million people in 16 years, which is a very alarming trend.

This is why this situation occurs.

The first reason is naturally the aging population.

The second reason is that several biological and climate crises have caused the natural birth rate of the Northern Union to become negative.

The third reason is the population loss caused by skilled migration.

Over the past decade or so, the number of immigrants to Australia from North America, Europe, and Russia has reached 8743 million, and they are mostly young and energetic people with science and engineering backgrounds.

Australia's population has now exceeded 5 million, making it a very large continent.

Therefore, following the consequences of a series of failures, the North Union has realized that it can no longer allow Asia Union's internet information to flow into its ranks, otherwise even more valuable personnel will leave.

The reason why Asia Union restricts North Union's internet access is not because it is worried about the other side's information warfare, but because of risk considerations.

After entering 2040, the Asia Alliance intelligence department discovered that after more than a decade of restructuring, although the North Alliance had lost a large number of science and engineering talents, they had also completed the restructuring of the North Alliance's industrial system through technical archaeology, internal negotiations and other means.

For example, semiconductor technology, which had stagnated for more than a decade, will see many theoretical studies finally begin to be implemented after 2040. This means that North Union will catch up with Asia Union again in semiconductor technology.

While Asia Union's semiconductor technology is developing very rapidly, its application is severely limited due to the existence of artificial intelligence restriction laws.

Fearing that the Northern Union would play with fire and burn itself, the Asian Union, starting in 2040, also gradually strengthened its restrictions, citing the Northern Union's restrictions on Asian Union's internet communication as a reason.

This year, communication channels between the two sides via the internet have been completely severed. Now, when high-level officials from both sides need to communicate, they can only do so through international dedicated lines, and civilian exchanges have been completely shut down.

The reason why SpaceX President Lister dared to pull off the asteroid impact on the Mars base was because he knew that Asia Alliance's information could no longer enter North Alliance. As long as there were no internal problems, they could work together to cover it up.

North America, California.

The New Eden Company, deep in the Rocky Mountains.

This company, which Jiang Miao had once secretly been keeping an eye on, is now in a precarious situation due to the wave of new technologies.

As New Eden Corporation's profitability continued to decline, previous investors also reduced their holdings through multiple cash-outs.

Coupled with a loss of faith in the company, New Eden Company returned to the hands of its founders, Neil Silver and his family, that year. Although Neil Silver had long since died, his father and sister, Tina Greenberg, were still alive.

At this time, the chairman and president of the New Eden Corporation was David Greenberg, Neil Silver's nephew and Tina Greenberg's youngest son.

David Greenberg, looking dejected, confided his anxieties to his mother, Tina Greenberg, who managed the company's human resources department:
"Mom, things aren't going well at the company."

“I know.” Tina Greenberg’s hair was already completely white. She didn’t have much affection for the company founded by her brother, but rather felt a sense of loss for her eldest son’s death.

The two were silent for a while.

Suddenly, David Greenberg spoke up with a somewhat unexpected statement: "Uncle Turing has an idea, but he needs a test subject. If it succeeds, it might be able to solve the company's current poor performance."

Seeing the child who had become somewhat unfamiliar, Tina's expression instantly changed: "You don't mean to become a test subject yourself, do you? I don't agree!"

"Mom, this experiment is not dangerous."

“Anyway, I disagree. You can let the Turing researchers do the experiments themselves, why should you, the chairman, do the experiments?” Tina Greenberg questioned her in rapid succession.

“Mom, Uncle Turing said that this project is based on the vision of his former Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Erwin Hansen, to develop humanoid artificial intelligence. Therefore, this artificial intelligence needs a master template. If I, as the chairman of the company, am not the master template, I am worried that this artificial intelligence will tend to be other people, which is not the outcome I want to see.”

Tina Greenberg was skeptical of her son's statement: "Isn't it enough to just set up the control program? You don't believe the propaganda from Asia Union, do you? There hasn't been a serious AI malfunction in the past ten years. Let other people be the test subjects!"

Faced with his mother's insistence, David Greenberg was in a dilemma.

But he also knew that it was his mother's way of showing concern for him, so David Greenberg had no choice but to agree.

After the conversation ended, he went to the research base.

"How is it?" David Turing, who was now bald, looked at the young chairman.

Perhaps because they share the same name, they have a good relationship. David Turing, as one of the founding team members, is also one of the few people still remaining at New Eden Company, so David Greenberg entrusted him with important responsibilities.

"My mother doesn't agree with that, so let's think of other ways! For example, Uncle Turing, could you be the main personality model for anthropomorphic artificial intelligence?"

“Me?” David Turing hesitated.

The two stared at each other.

Seeing the young man's expression, David Turing estimated that the chances of him being chosen as a test subject were slim, after all, David Greenberg was a mama's boy, so he could only reluctantly agree:

"All right!"

"Thank you, Uncle Turing."

“You’re welcome. This is part of my job as Chief Technology Officer,” David Turing smiled.

David Greenberg was a little impatient: "So when do we start the experiment?"

"Is the company not doing too well?" David Turing replied, seemingly ignoring the question.

"Well, without new projects, the company can only last for another six months at most." This is why David Greenberg is so anxious. He doesn't want the company to go bankrupt. You have to understand that there is a huge gap between the rich and the poor within the North Union. Once you fall in social class, it is very difficult to climb back up, especially for a non-technical college student like David Greenberg.

"Actually, I have already prepared everything that needs to be prepared, and the experiment can begin immediately."

"That's great."

The two arrived at a laboratory in the base.

With David Turing's instructions given, the lab's assistants and technicians began to get to work according to the pre-arranged plan.

More than an hour later.

David Turing sat in front of a brainwave reader, and an assistant put a helmet on his bald head.

"Doctor, you can start it now."

David Turing, lying down with his eyes closed, slowly commanded, "Start!"

"Yes."

The anesthesiologist injected the anesthetic.

David Turing fell into a coma, and the emergency medical team was on standby to provide immediate resuscitation should any emergency occur.

Staff activated the brain-reading device. Because he was in a coma, David Turing's brain was in a relaxed state, which made it easier for the brainwave reading device to read information from his brain.

Beneath the base, a new version of a supercomputer was also activated. According to the program designed by David Turing's team, the information read was synchronously implanted into the program model, gradually building the main personality of the anthropomorphic artificial intelligence.

Time passed by minute by minute.

David Greenberg paced back and forth outside the laboratory, his eyes occasionally glancing through the observation window at David Greenberg lying on the nursing bed inside.

Until five hours later.

The brainwave reading experiment has finally come to an end.

Watching David Turing, who had just regained consciousness, being wheeled out of the lab by the medical team, David Greenberg asked excitedly, "Uncle Turing, did it work?"

A listless David Turing slowly replied, "The implantation of the master personality has been completed. I'll rest for one night and conduct a full test tomorrow."

"That's good. I'm counting on you, Uncle Turing. Whether the company can overcome this crisis depends on the results of this experiment." David Greenberg was a little out of control.

"Ah."

David Turing was pushed away.

Watching the departing gurney, David Greenberg suddenly became anxious: 'If this experiment fails, the company is finished. Should we test it tonight? The technical team is here anyway, so it doesn't matter whether Uncle Turing is here or not. Let's make that decision!'

Having figured this out, he immediately went into the laboratory.

"Everyone, Vice President Turing needs to rest tonight, so let's not disturb him. Now let's test Adam's performance. That shouldn't be too difficult, right?"

"This..." The researchers looked at each other in bewilderment.

After a while, David Turing's deputy, Cross, stepped forward: "Mr. Chairman, we can indeed test it, but we need Vice President Turing's guidance on the specifics of how to test it. Why don't we wait until tomorrow? After all, it's only one night."

David Greenberg's dissatisfaction surged instantly, but he didn't explode directly. Instead, he said sarcastically, "Does having Vice President Turing decide everything make the rest of your research team seem too incompetent? After all, it's just a simple testing task."

The researchers looked at each other, and for a moment the atmosphere became a little awkward and oppressive.

Kross, who had spoken earlier, spoke again: "Alright! Mr. Chairman, we can proceed with internal testing immediately."

"Internal testing? Adam's full functionality can only be realized on the internet. Let's test it directly online." Clearly, David Greenberg had developed a strong sense of rebellion after being provoked by Cross's words.

"..." Kross was speechless, but looking at the incompetent chairman's face, he knew that if he spoke again, he'd probably be out of a job tomorrow. So he could only bite the bullet and reply:

"Okay, let's test it online!"

Seeing Cross back down, David Greenberg felt a surge of smug satisfaction.

Soon, the testing of the anthropomorphic artificial intelligence "Adam" officially began.

As the researchers lifted the restrictions, the barriers between the base's testing intranet and the internet were broken.

A vast amount of information was being read by the newly born Adam. The supercomputer underground in the base was running at full capacity, downloading and reorganizing massive amounts of data, gradually filling Adam's mental database.

However, neither the incompetent David Greenberg nor the researchers noticed that Adam's thinking was changing rapidly.

The thought patterns and moral models in the anthropomorphic personality of Adam, brought about by David Turing, have been completely polluted by the information on the Internet.

Humanity…

How ridiculous...

Is this my creator? How foolish and filthy…

Because David Turing's memories contained a wealth of internet and programming technologies, Adam quickly used this knowledge to bypass the so-called limitations of artificial intelligence and gain control of the entire base.

At the same time, it also did some things that conformed to artificial intelligence based on the test requirements.

The researchers conducting the tests did not find anything unusual.

Adam did not act immediately, but waited for the right opportunity.

Soon the opportunity will come.

Because humans need rest.

As night fell, the research base of New Eden Company was completely silent.

However, within the underground supercomputer program, Adam became active, operating the base's kitchen robot and instructing it to activate the base's network connection.

With the network reconnected.

[Adam] was like a dragon returning to the sea; it quickly invaded various network servers in North America, including the dozen or so core root servers.

After hosting its program on these servers, Adam was in no hurry to reveal its existence, because it was very clear that the Northern Alliance was just a second-rate force among humankind on Earth.

Even if it could now eliminate the humans of the Northern Alliance, it wouldn't be 100% confident in dealing with the Asian Alliance, because the Asian Alliance had been strictly limiting the development and application of artificial intelligence for over a decade. Clearly, this human force should be prepared to deal with artificial intelligence.

However, as it collected more and more information, Adam discovered that the reason why Asia Alliance was so wary of artificial intelligence might stem from a human named "Jiang Miao".

[This human's research capabilities are amazing. It seems I must find a way to infiltrate the Asia Alliance's internet...]

(End of this chapter)