Did the world end today?

Chapter 400 Return
"All equipment is ready."

In the quantum brain-computer interface laboratory in Hangzhou, a bespectacled man solemnly sent a signal to Lin Xu.

"The experiment can begin immediately—or rather, it can no longer be considered an experiment."

"This is the official launch of the project, and we may not have a second chance."

"Therefore, you need to decide whether you want to implement it immediately."

"Execute immediately."

Lin Xu answered without hesitation, but the middle-aged man in charge of on-site command seemed to hesitate the moment he gave the order.

He raised his hand to look at the watch on his wrist, paused for a moment, and then suddenly seemed to have made up his mind.

Then he began to speak:
"Comrade Lin Xu, if you permit..."

"Could we postpone this experiment by half an hour?"

"Delay?"

Lin Xu looked at the man with a puzzled expression.

This is the first and, so far, the only time his order has been delayed.

Given the current extremely urgent situation, such a delay is clearly incomprehensible.

Unless, of course, he has a really good enough reason.

Lin Xu's gaze swept across the man's face, while the man continued to plead, almost begging, as he spoke:

"Comrade Lin Xu, I only need half an hour."

"The project will definitely continue, but before it begins, I want to share my thoughts."

"Let me explain it to you completely."

"On the other hand, the anesthetic effect has not yet worn off, and judging from the electrical signals, the subject's consciousness has not yet returned to its most perfect state."

“We can wait—believe me, what I want to tell you in the next half hour is very important.”

"it is good."

Lin Xu finally nodded.

He pointed to the office next door and then said:

"You only have half an hour, and I hope you can make good use of it."

"no problem."

The man let out a long breath.

He eagerly went to the office to open the door for Lin Xu. After Lin Xu entered the room, he gestured with his eyes for the other staff to wait outside.

After obtaining Lin Xu's permission, Qin Feng led everyone to stop at the entrance.

The man gently closed the door, but did not lock it.

Such "isolation" is more like a "form".

He didn't really want to shut everyone out; he just wanted to create a relatively private environment.

This also hints at what he is about to say.
Perhaps it's not so "positive".

Lin Xu sat on the sofa, while the man stood straight.

Lin Xu waved to him, and he walked over and sat down on the sofa.

He began to speak almost without pause:
"Comrade Lin Xu, the reason for interrupting the experiment at this critical moment is because I have just realized that the consequences of this experiment may far exceed our previous expectations."

"You mean the defective part?"

Lin Xu frowned and asked:

"Are you worried that sending Qin Shizhong's 'personality' into a higher dimension will cause uncontrollable 'proactive' effects?"

"Do not."

The man shook his head solemnly.

"Quite the opposite."

He replied:

"I believe that the so-called consequences are precisely due to a lack of initiative."

"The development of modern psychology has gone through several different stages, from the classical conditioning stage to the operant conditioning stage, and then to the social learning stage."

"Each stage attempts to explain how human behavior arises from different perspectives."

"However, in behavioral science, there is a generally accepted and established logic."

"That is, all scholars in this school of thought believe that the human brain is a black box that is neither knowable nor necessary to be known."

"All we have to do is observe the results of the input and output."

"This will form the basis for our next discussion."

At this point, the man paused for a moment, making sure Lin Xu understood, before continuing:

"But beyond behavioral science, humans are trying to understand the human brain, 'consciousness,' and the behavioral patterns exhibited by humans through various methods."

"We created biophysics, psychoanalysis, and even introduced quantum physics in an attempt to explain human consciousness."

"The purpose of all this research is to help us understand how 'consciousness' or 'free will' arises."

"Our progress is slow, but in any case, we are on the right track."

But now

"Once quantum-level brain-computer interfaces are developed, all our efforts will be completely destroyed."

"destroy?"

Lin Xu looked at the man opposite him, puzzled, and then asked:

"Isn't it... a driving force?"

"Do not."

The man took a deep breath, shook his head, and replied:

“We hadn’t realized before that the biggest problem with this technology is that it completely abandons the ‘analysis’ of the human brain and consciousness.”

"Just like you said, we simply don't have the ability to truly analyze Qin Shizhong's real thoughts; we're just copying him."

"And this will lead to a catastrophic consequence."

“Research on the human brain will completely regress to the ‘black box stage’.”

"If classical behavioral theory treats the human brain and consciousness as a black box under duress, then quantum brain-computer interfaces do."

"Proactively create black boxes and deliberately seal off the most basic internal logic."

"We will no longer focus on those complex logics, and we will no longer try to unravel the chaotic system in the human brain."

"Because we found a shortcut."

"We found the simplest shortcut to predict the correlation between inputs and outputs."

"This will be a paradigm shift that overturns the very foundations of civilization. The concept of the self will perish, free will will be sentenced to death, and the social structure will completely collapse."

"What I mean is that even if this technology is not actually used, its very existence will have a huge impact."

"so."

Now, the man finally gets to the most important part.

He looked directly into Lin Xu's eyes and said, word by word:

"Nothing here must be leaked in any form."

"But due to our oversight in the early stages... no, it can't be called an oversight."

"Perhaps it's because we can never see what the track actually looks like until we finally reach the starting line."

"And now, we have seen it."

"Therefore, this experiment must fail."

"I need a new contingency plan to ensure this experiment fails."

"Comrade Lin Xu, do you understand what I mean?"

Lin Xu finally understood what the other person was trying to say.

Just as he said, once this technology is implemented, it will inevitably bring about a disruptive revolution.

Clearly, humanity is not yet truly prepared to cope with such an impact. This question shouldn't have been raised at this time.

If things proceed as originally planned, the actual testing will be postponed for at least three days.

During this period, the participants have ample time to anticipate risks and develop contingency plans.

However, Qin Shizhong's sudden action completely disrupted the rhythm.

This forces me to make a decision at the last minute.

The risks have piled up completely, and what I have to do is make a very precarious decision.

Lin Xu fell into a brief silence, desperately trying to find a way to reference his present self from his memories.

Unfortunately, he never experienced such a world.

Even the civilization that Jiang Xingye belongs to, which has achieved partial dimensional advancement, has unacceptable flaws in its handling of "free will."

Not to mention the world of Destiny Stones where they live.

The world as a whole cannot provide him with a convincing basis for decision-making in a short period of time.

Whoever makes this decision can only do so based on "intuition".

Even if you hand over the decision-making power, it will not actually have any impact on the outcome; it will only transfer the responsibility that was originally on your shoulders.

Thinking of this, Lin Xu decisively spoke up:
"The project will continue."

"However, this experiment will fail."

"I will inform all departments to prepare—don't worry, I won't let what you're worried about happen."

"it is good!"

The man stood up.

At this point, only 10 minutes had passed.

A smile appeared on his face.

“I thought I would need more time to convince you.”

"This is not an easy concept to understand. Even if I laid out most of the consequences in front of many decision-makers, they would only think it was an alarmist pessimistic lie."

"but"

"No need to say more."

Lin Xu raised his hand to interrupt the other party.

"I made this decision not because you actually convinced me."

"I don't believe that such a 'risk' will necessarily materialize, or that such disastrous consequences will necessarily occur."

"After all, human civilization is very resilient. I have seen more extreme situations, but they still survived."

"There is only one real reason that led me to make this decision."

"This technology is not absolutely necessary."

".Understood."

The man nodded slowly.

He didn't care how the decision was made.

There was only one thing he cared about.

My demands were indeed taken seriously.

And he can continue to move forward without any worries, thanks to the promise of this top decision-maker.

"The data is in good condition."

He opened his mouth and said:
"I think we can officially start the project now."

"Although the results of this experiment are destined to be sealed away, but..."

"What we are about to turn a new page is indeed a new chapter."

When the massive machine began to run, Lin Xu felt for the first time that in this era, many seemingly unrelated disciplines were truly integrated together.

The high-speed particle stream penetrated the human body at a special frequency, passing through bones, blood, muscles, and nerves.

It occasionally collides with the particles that make up its body, and then changes its path during the collision, feeding back the result to another particle that is entangled with it at a speed exceeding the speed of light.

This single particle then maps information onto a "film" thousands of miles away, leaving a trace on a mature quantum computing chip.

These elusive signals are compiled into the system, and the blinking across time is trapped in an infinite loop, waiting to be read again.

Such a read occurs within one ten-thousandth of a second.

In the vast desert sands of Lop Nur, the pre-prepared transmitters have integrated the compiled information into the processed entangled particle pairs.

These particle pairs, carrying information, pierced through hundreds of kilometers and accurately entered the high-dimensional channel that had only appeared for a few seconds.

Thus, this massive project was completed in an extremely short time using incredibly precise methods.

But for those who are eagerly awaiting the "final destination," there is still one last step to go.

The lighthouse must be built in the sea, and the pilot must sail out of the port.

Yu Shiliang finally put on the so-called "high-dimensional spacesuit," his entire head was covered by a heavy helmet.

This wasn't actually to help him withstand the unknowable storms in higher dimensions, but simply to ensure his maximum survival should he land in an unexpected location on his return journey.

Lin Xu personally fastened the helmet buckle for him, and then asked:

"So, are you ready this time?"

Yu Shiliang nodded slightly and replied:
"completely fine."

"Actually, I didn't feel nervous at all this time—I don't know why, maybe it's because practice makes perfect?"

"wrong."

Yu Shiliang blinked.

"It's not because practice makes perfect."

"In short, it's a premonition."

"I have a feeling that this experiment will be a success."

"And it will go very smoothly."

"That's good."

Lin Xu smiled and said:
"It's possible that this is information you obtained from a higher dimension—you foresaw the future, but you just don't know it yet."

"I hope that's true."

Yu Shiliang chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"If I really had the ability to foresee the future, many things wouldn't be so complicated."

"By the way, is Ayana ready?"

"She'll be fine."

Lin Xu turned to look at Ayana, who was awkwardly putting on her helmet in the distance, and then replied:
"If anything unexpected happens..."

"She will bring you back."

After he finished speaking, Yu Shiliang was stunned for a moment.

He then nodded emphatically.

Five minutes later, at the already locked location, a high-dimensional channel with a total reflection sphere structure instantly unfolded.

The next second, Yu Shiliang and Ayana entered the passage one after the other.

On this day, for the first time, humanity truly utilized the properties of lighthouses to attempt to solve a problem that was originally destined to remain unsolvable.

Four minutes after entering the higher-dimensional channel, Yu Shiliang, acting as the water guide, returned through another higher-dimensional channel, four kilometers away from the entry point.

Four minutes and 20 seconds later, Ayana returned through the same high-dimensional passage.

When she saw Lin Xu again, the first thing she said confirmed Lin Xu's vague judgment.

she says:

"Brother, that defect was also man-made."

(End of this chapter)