Forty-nine rules of the end times

Chapter 348 Two Surprising Questions

1 month 23 day.

The rule period is more than halfway over, and it will end in another week, at which time the Fire Stealers will retrieve the alien intelligent entities they deployed.

For the Federation of People's Associations, this final week is the time for key questions.

The reason why questions could not be asked freely earlier was because food shortages had triggered protests from the Sisya side.

As the ruling leader, Yelena has taken a firm stance on this matter, stating that she is responsible for the lives of her people.

She would never agree to an unlimited number of questions unless the conjoined twins transported enough parasites to the landing site.

Anyone who has objections is welcome to try moving extraterrestrial intelligent beings to their own territory.

While the situation is unfortunate, it is understandable.

Therefore, these days, the allied forces on the front lines of the Black Flag Kingdom have been launching continuous attacks, capturing a large number of parasites every day and transporting them to Sisia.

This practice has gradually drawn many protests.

People's Union Conference.

As soon as the meeting began, one committee member said with great concern, "You all must have seen the surging public opinion online, right?"

The other committee members nodded in agreement.

In the past two days, a large number of complaints have appeared online.

These accusers claim that the Black Flag Nation's human alliance forces are brutal and indiscriminate, capturing all Black Flag people they find as parasites and sending them to Sisya to be used as food.

There are many such accusations. It's unclear whether there are truly so many related cases, or whether some parasite is posing as a human, trying to muddy the waters and use public opinion to force the Human Consortium to slow down its offensive.

However, with so many voices of dubious veracity, it is inevitable that people in other countries will feel sympathy and a sense of insecurity.

If, as these accusers claim, the coalition forces arbitrarily arrested and labeled all Black Flag people as parasites, how many innocent humans would have been killed and become food for the alien parasites?
If the Black Flag countries aren't enough to capture, will the coalition forces head to another country to do the same thing?
This sense of unease caused public opinion to quickly escalate.

These opinions quickly converged into one question.

"That question is..."

One committee member said.

Why must we ask questions of extraterrestrial intelligent beings?

Yes, knowing the price is heavy, why insist on asking questions?

Humans might as well just ignore it and leave that alien intelligent entity where it is, letting it obediently wait until the end of the rule period to be taken back by the Fire Thieves.

Why do we have to ask it questions?

Torraft continued, "A large voice on the internet believes that humans should not ask questions. The reason is that the fire-bringers have malicious intentions, deliberately releasing these intelligent beings that feed on humans, not to help humans acquire knowledge, but to deplete the human population and incite conflict among humans."

"The public's voice is not without reason; humanity is indeed currently at war."

"Absurd! Does that mean that without extraterrestrial intelligence, the Human Alliance wouldn't have formed an alliance to fight against the parasites and the Fire-Stealers Cult? This is a complete misinterpretation."

"That's right, and besides, we have indeed gained knowledge. Without asking questions, how would we know that the mind network can identify parasites? How would we know that humanity's technological breakthroughs are lacking an unknown material?"

"But are these really knowledge? Whether it's the mind network or the unknown key substance, they are things that humanity cannot currently apply. It's like a carrot dangling in front of a donkey pulling a millstone; if you can only look at it but can't eat it, what's the point?"

"If you don't ask questions, you won't even see the carrot! Even if the knowledge you gain is currently unusable for humans, it still points you in the right direction. Isn't it meaningful for someone who was lost in the desert to now know which way to get out?"

"If this lost person is about to die of thirst, knowing which way to go is perhaps less meaningful than giving him a cup of water."

"You are quibbling!"

dong dong.

Gao Liangwei tapped the table with his knuckles, stopping the committee members from arguing and disagreeing.

"Gentlemen, now is not the time for debate. The issue to be decided at this meeting is not whether to ask questions, but what questions to ask."

The majority of committee members who advocated asking questions softened their expressions, while the few who opposed asking more questions remained silent, their faces grim.

"The last question was about energy. The fact that the extraterrestrial intelligent beings consumed far less food than expected suggests that the answer to this question is not difficult."

"After analysis, our policy-making agencies concluded that the answer is simple: this indicates that the special substances related to materials science may be quite common in the universe. Humanity must increase its investment in space exploration, and asking related questions might be a better approach."

"If that special substance is really readily available throughout the universe, why is it that we on Tianshui don't have it? Are humans really that unlucky?"

"I think we should just choose a few questions from the previous list of options, so we don't need to think of any new ones."

The committee members had differing opinions, at which point Gao Liangwei proposed, "We at Beixing would like to raise a new question."

“Oh, what a coincidence?” Mary said. “Our Sororo is also about to raise a new question.”

“Then please go first,” Gao Liangwei said politely. Mary didn’t refuse and said directly, “The question we want to raise is related to the neural network of the human brain. To be precise, it’s about how the human brain and intelligent chips are connected.”

The committee members all looked surprised upon hearing this.

Mary continued, "As you all know, our Soroma's intelligent robot technology is number one in the world, and our research on intelligent connections between the human brain and humans has reached a critical juncture. Compared to other unattainable dreams, this problem undoubtedly has greater practical value and a greater possibility of being realized."

One of the committee members asked with a strange expression, "Committee Member Mary, does your Soroma want to pave a path for digital life?"

Soon after the rules of the apocalypse were announced, there was widespread discussion in society.

Could humans circumvent apocalyptic rules by digitally backing up their memories, as depicted in some science fiction movies?

If successful, humans could back up their memories in digital chips, and even if their physical bodies died due to the rules, they could achieve a kind of "rebirth" by installing the chip in a robot's body.

However, the discussion quickly faded as people realized that there was a significant gap between reality and science fiction movies, making it almost impossible to achieve the same result.

Mary's sudden question indicates that Soloma's research has made significant progress.

“Digital life is certainly one of the byproducts of this technology, and if successful, it will provide humanity with another path to preservation besides space colonization,” Mary said. “However, our current goal is still development and salvation.”

"Development and salvation?"

"The development is very simple. The logic operation speed of chips far exceeds that of the human brain. Combining them will make smart people even smarter and will greatly help the development of science and technology."

And in the countries you all live in, there are many people suffering from severe psychological trauma or physical disabilities due to the rules of the apocalypse, right? If brain-computer interfaces are successfully installed, they can help them overcome their difficulties and regain their strength.

The committee members fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

Sisya's commissioner, Toraft, calmly pointed out: "It sounds like this problem only benefits your Sorom Empire. It seems that other countries in the Confederation of Peoples will not benefit."

Mary looked over: "Didn't you hear me say 'salvation'?"

“I heard that, but the technology is monopolized by Soloma,” Torraft said. “If you want to raise this issue, Soloma needs to open-source the technology within the ANZAC.”

The other committee members remained silent.

They agree with Torraft, but even if the technology is open source, their country is currently unable to mass-produce digital chips.

Currently, only Soroma, Sisya, and Beixing have the resources and capabilities to achieve this.

“Open source, huh?” Mary turned to look at Gao Liangwei. “Chairman Gao, is that the same opinion?”

“Yes.” Gao Liangwei said without hesitation, “If ‘Digital Life’ really succeeds, not being open source means that the ‘memory backups’ of people in various countries will be in the hands of the Solomon Empire. I don’t think any sovereign country would agree to that.”

“Hehe, Chairman Gao really hit the nail on the head.” Mary smiled and then said seriously, “As long as the People’s Federation agrees to this question, Soloma can open source the relevant technology.”

The committee members exchanged glances. It seemed that Marikan had already obtained authorization from King Soroma to say this.

"That concludes the Soromagatovic question. Now, Chairman Gao, what new questions does Beixing intend to raise?"

All eyes were on Gao Liangwei, wondering if he would also ask a surprising question.

The result did not disappoint them.

Gao Liangwei said, "The question we want to ask is, 'What will the sixteenth rule of the end times be?'"

Teng!
As soon as he finished speaking, several committee members were so shocked that they leaned back.

"Wha, what?"

"What is the next rule for extraterrestrial intelligent beings? How is that even possible!"

"Chairman Gao isn't joking, is he?"

Gao Liangwei had a serious expression; he wasn't one to joke, a fact everyone knew.

After his initial surprise, Torraft was filled with doubt: "Chairman Gao, may I ask for your reasoning? This question seems rather inexplicable no matter how you look at it."

The other committee members nodded in agreement. How could an alien intelligent being know what the next apocalyptic rule would be? What's the point of this question?
Gao Liangwei faced everyone's gaze and began to explain.

"This issue was raised at a meeting of our policy research office."

"First of all, we believe that since this alien intelligent entity was deployed by the Fire Stealers, what it knows and what questions it can answer must be within the Fire Stealers' control. In other words, its 'knowledge base' is already fixed."

This raises the question of whether its knowledge base includes apocalyptic rules. The previous question about identifying parasites seemed to include them, but it's not entirely certain, because those particular spores were once a bestseller in the universe, indicating they were quite common.

Experts at the Countermeasures Research Office believe there are only two valuable questions, one related to the past and the other to the future. The past question refers to the legacy of the parasites caused by the extraterrestrial spores, which humanity has already asked and received answers from the 'Mind Network'. The future question involves determining two outcomes by asking about the next rule.

Gao Liangwei paused, then said in a deep voice, "Firstly, whether the Fire Thief has pre-set all the rules, like a fixed program running according to predetermined code; secondly, whether this alien intelligent entity has the ability or authority to 'predict the future,' from which we can see where its true value ceiling lies."

"This is why we at Beixing wanted to raise this issue. I wonder if the committee members agree?"

(End of this chapter)