Reborn in Tokyo: From Heiress to Global Tycoon

Satsuki remained silent for a moment.

If it were just a single technology that appeared ahead of schedule, she might be able to attribute it to chance.

But what's in front of us is already a complete, functional system.

Her gaze shifted from the robotic arm that had just stopped and slowly swept over the other people in the laboratory.

Besides the Sichuanese, there were also Khalil Najfi, Philip Kennedy, and Miguel Nicolelis, who had just been recruited from the United States by Saionji.

The former, a graduate of the University of Michigan, is a leading researcher in microfabrication and multichannel neural probes; Kennedy, on the other hand, has been trying to solve the stability problem of long-term implantation of neural electrodes.

As for Nicolelis, he is currently just a young researcher with little fame.

In a few years, this person will become one of the most important figures in the field of multineuron recording and brain-computer interfaces.

Over the past year, Saionji Temple has recruited many people from different places for this project.

There are studies on animal neurophysiology.

Some companies do micromachining and electrode fabrication.

There are also people who originally only studied polymer materials and had no connection with neuroscience at all.

She even relied on information she had seen in her previous life to have her subordinates research the relevant information beforehand, and then traced the clues to find the names of many of them.

If things had continued as they were, they would probably have been scattered across different universities and laboratories, applying for different grants, and only occasionally discovering each other's work in papers or conferences several years later.

However, Saionji has now placed him in the same laboratory ahead of time.

There was also a jade box.

There are also animal experiments where you almost never have to wait in line for funding.

And the group's semiconductor and materials research division can provide engineering support at any time.

Saionji Temple directly used its "money power" to produce results from this technology.

"It seems that recruiting talented people who wouldn't normally gather together based on past life memories, coupled with money, really does produce a qualitative change..."

In the past, when she used her knowledge from her previous life, she mostly waited.

Wait for the stock market to fall.

Which company will go public?

Which industry will take off?

At most, they would just put the money over a few steps ahead and then rob a few people and leave it there.

But this thing in front of me is different.

It did not exist originally.

It shouldn't have existed so early.

For the first time, Satsuki realized very clearly that she had begun to transform her memories of the future from "answers" into a kind of catalyst.

"By the way, what's the current status of the write end?"

She suddenly asked.

Amy's smugness immediately diminished by half.

"Writing is much more difficult than reading, and current progress is much slower."

She led Satsuki to the other side.

"By using localized micro-electrical stimulation of the motor cortex, we have been able to induce relatively predictable muscle contractions in another group of experimental monkeys."

"The success rate of these simple movements, such as wrist flexion and extension, palm opening and closing, and elbow flexion, can reach 60% to 70%."

"By combining multiple electrodes in a preset sequence, we can also get some slightly more complex movements—such as extending the forearm first and then closing the palm."

"but--"

Amy paused for a moment.

"Applying stimulation to the brain and writing a complete motor instruction to the brain are two completely different things."

Satsuki looked at her.

"Let me give you an example." Amy walked to the whiteboard, drew a very rough circle, and placed a few black dots inside it. "Let's say these dots represent the groups of neurons that control the wrist, palm, and elbow."

She drew several lines connecting the points.

"If I want a monkey to make the action of 'reaching out to get a glass of water,' I don't need to stimulate these areas separately."

"Because the neural activity involved in planning this movement by the actual motor system is far more complex than the final execution stage."

"First, you need to determine where the cup is—this requires visual and spatial judgment. Then, you need to plan the trajectory of your arm—this involves calculating the premotor cortex and the auxiliary motor cortex. Next comes the actual execution of the commands, which are sent to the primary motor cortex and then transmitted from the spinal cord to the muscles."

She drew several more frames outside the circle on the whiteboard.

"What we can do right now is intervene at the very bottom of the execution level. It's like skipping all the planning and coordination steps beforehand and directly telling a few muscles whether to contract or relax."

"The result is that—with the same stimulus parameters, the monkey produces one effect when lying down and another when sitting. Its muscle tension is different when it is tense and different when it is relaxed."

Satsuki watched Amy's demonstration.

"So what I mean is, you can't control a machine like you would a machine, giving it a fixed instruction and making it do a fixed action."

"Um."

Amy clearly dislikes admitting this.

"There isn't a single circuit diagram in the brain that we can see."

"At most, we know what the likely reaction will be if we stimulate this area."

"But it's far from being able to write in a complete action..."

She gently put the pen down.

"We're still a long way off."

The laboratory fell silent.

The other researchers, seeing their lab heads subtly implying to their superiors that their work wasn't good enough, began to worry about whether their funding would be cut.

Satsuki didn't say anything, and slowly turned the two pages of documents in her hand.

"Then don't rush."

Amy looked up at her upon hearing this.

"Since reading is already faster, let's proceed along the reading path first."

"Prosthetics, assistive devices, and communication with paralyzed patients—these are things we can start with."

Satsuki handed the documents back.

"As for those things you originally thought of..."

She glanced at Amy.

Amy's expression immediately became very obedient.

"We'll talk about it later."

"Oh……"

Satsuki smiled helplessly.

She knew, of course, that when Amy first started researching this, her mind was definitely not on helping paralyzed patients regain their lives.

The ultimate goal is probably to create an invincible Satsuki-chan, or to have Satsuki-chan cosplay as Yuri or something.

However, now that the project has reached this stage, the area where it first showed real value has actually become healthcare.

That's quite interesting.

She took another look around the laboratory.

"How much money do we need for the next phase?"

The person in charge of the project budget was clearly taken aback, probably not expecting the question to come so directly.

He instinctively looked at Amy.

Amy thought for a moment.

"If we just maintain the current scale, actually—"

"I'm asking about the next phase."

Satsuki interrupted her.

"Materials, low-noise front-end, multi-channel array, number of animals, and the implantation assistance you just mentioned."

She raised her hand and pointed around.

"List out what you need."

"Buy the equipment if you can."

If you can't buy it, find someone to make it.

"If cooperation from other research institutes within the group is needed, go directly to the technical committee."

The lab fell silent for a moment.

Satsuki added another sentence:

"The same goes for personnel."

"As long as it's truly valuable, there's no need to save me money on my salary."

Even Amy's eyes lit up this time.

"real?"

Satsuki turned her head to the side.

"When have I ever lied to you about research funding?"

Amy thought about it seriously.

It seems there really isn't one.

Even when she secretly applied for some strange equipment, the final approved budget was often higher than what she had written down.

"Thank you, Miss Gao!"

This time, she remembered that there were other people around, and she swallowed back the "Satsuki-chan" that was about to come out of her mouth.

Satsuki pretended not to notice.

"However, there is one more thing."

Amy looked up.

"What?"

"Haven't you been looking for people in the US lately?"

Amy paused for a moment, then realized what was happening.

"Norman?"

"more than."

Satsuki walked to the table next to her. There was a stack of papers and correspondence on it. She flipped through a few pages at random and soon saw the Utah electrode array, which had appeared many times before, as well as research data on the Michigan probe.

Further on, there are several research abstracts from different university laboratories in the United States.

"There are people in Michigan working on integrated neural probes, people at the University of Washington researching closed-loop neural control, and several labs focusing on population coding in the motor cortex." Satsuki turned to the last page, looked up at Amy, and said, "You wrote six places on the list you gave me a couple of days ago?"

"Seven," Amy immediately corrected her. "Then Atlanta was added. Kennedy's long-term implantation approach is different from what we're doing now, so I think it's best to go and see for myself."

"Okay, seven."

Satsuki put the documents back on the table.

"That's perfect. I'm going to the US next week, why don't you pick a few people to come with you?"

Amy paused for a moment, clearly unaware of this beforehand.

"Are you going to America?"

"Let's go to New York first." Satsuki nodded. "Gutfred has formally invited me to come and discuss the upcoming collaboration between Salomon Brothers and Saionji Investment."

Several researchers around had heard of the name, but their attention quickly returned to the two men.

Satsuki continued, "Once you come with me, your schedule won't be tied to mine. Go to the university when you need to, and visit the labs when you need to."

"Joint research, equipment procurement, and personnel exchanges are all negotiable. If we find a particularly suitable person, we can also directly invite them to come to Tokyo for a visit."

Upon hearing this, Amy's initial surprise quickly turned into excitement.

"Ann Arbor is a must-go, and Salt Lake City can't be missed either. If we can find the time to go to Baltimore—"

She reached for the documents on the table halfway through her speech, probably preparing to rearrange the route on the spot.

Satsuki found her appearance somewhat amusing.

"We can plan the itinerary slowly when we get back; the US isn't going anywhere."

Amy stopped, but still took the list into her hands.

"Then I'll reorganize it tonight."

"Don't try to do everything yourself," Satsuki reminded her. "You're the project manager now; get your subordinates involved."

"understood."

Amy readily agreed, but her eyes were already back on the list, clearly still considering which option would be the most cost-effective.

Satsuki ignored her and turned to walk out of the laboratory.

She slowed her pace slightly as she passed the animal testing area.

A new round of testing has begun.

The white dot in the center of the display paused for a moment, then slowly moved to the upper left.

The trajectory was still not pretty, and it even deviated from the target once. The researcher in charge of the experiment quickly adjusted the reward program. The gromwell monkey sat quietly in its fixed seat, its hands never touching any controller.

A few seconds later, the white dot finally entered the target area.

A notification sound rang out.

Satsuki stood there and watched for a while.

In 1991, a monkey sitting in an underground laboratory on the platform was able to use its brain to move the light spots on the screen.

It still seems quite clumsy now.

But what if we let it continue like this?

Satsuki is looking forward to seeing its future.

The future she changed.