Chapter 1058 — Beiyila's Technical Roadmap

"Can you not see?" Beiyila wanted to roll her eyes, but her nervous system had forgotten how to make that human expression, so she could only spread her hands. Then she turned, her arm pointing at the culture pods fixed to the wall. "The improved second-generation synthetic brains are in a critical stage of development. I must ensure every one of them is healthy and thriving until all are mature."

As Beiyila's words fell, the culture pods gave off a faint sound of friction at the same time; then their tough, thick outer skins, drawn by muscle groups, slid away one after another, revealing the transparent inner shells within, like some kind of giant eggs. And the "brains," each in a dormant state, were immersed in the semi-transparent nutrient fluid inside the shells. Neural fibers and nutrient conduits of every size connected to these things, and between certain conduits one could see faint glimmers surging.

Pi Yun watched this scene, and his eyelid could not help twitching: "Sure enough, my quitting the order halfway back then was a wise move..."

"Do you not find them somewhat endearing?" Beiyila could not help glancing at Pi Yun. She knew this "Imperial Chief Druid" had in fact once been a member of the All Things Perish Society—had even been her subordinate in those days—but these former ties had long since faded with time, and those still alive today chose to treat one another with equanimity. "I have adjusted their size and form as much as possible, and anyone who has come into contact with them should know these 'brains' are very gentle and harmless; their favorite foods are even candy and shrub berries..."

Pi Yun could not help covering his forehead: "...That these 'synthetic brains' can forage about on their own is already strange enough—who cares about their diet?"

Beiyila seemed not to hear Pi Yun's muttering; she merely inspected the state of those immature "brains," recording in detail their every neural fluctuation at this moment. These complex neural engineering products, at the final stage of development, could not yet carry out complete thought; they slept like infants, only now and then giving rise to some hazy, chaotic "notion," producing a signal impulse lasting less than half a second among their interconnected neural nodes—no one could hear their "dream babble"; only Beiyila could hear these low, trivial "sounds," and these "sounds" were of great importance in judging the condition of the synthetic brains.

"Actually, there is one thing I have always been curious about," Pi Yun said, paying no mind to Beiyila's manner, observing the synthetic brains as he spoke. "I have looked at the structural diagrams of those wetware servers—you seem insistent on making the cockpit canopy transparent. Why not add an opaque cover? You know, many soldiers are startled the first time they encounter the thing, and your 'synthetic brains' should not need ordinary vision to observe their surroundings."

Having finished inspecting all the synthetic brains, Beiyila controlled the protective layers of the various culture pods to close, and answered very seriously: "Every brain should have the right to bathe in sunlight..."

"No, a normal brain does not bathe in sunlight at all!" Pi Yun nearly tore his beard out, staring at her wide-eyed. "You simply cannot control your photosynthetic urges!"

"Photo..." Beiyila suddenly froze, as though waking from a dream. She stood blankly for a few seconds before murmuring to break the silence: "Ah, so that is it... no wonder I always felt there was a cognitive error at the base of my nervous system that I could not eliminate... so that is it..."

She shook her head, her tone a little self-mocking: "I understand. I will follow the other technicians' advice and add a shielding shell to the containers of subsequent synthetic brains. My apologies—it seems I caused some trouble without realizing it."

"...We all understand. Take your time; one day you will adapt completely," Pi Yun sighed, and pulled the conversation, which had drifted rather far, back on course. "Back to technical matters. His Majesty has been paying close attention to these 'synthetic brains' you make, and now we have one major question... Can these brains only be 'produced' by the Soren Great Tree?"

Beiyila reacted at once: "You mean whether they can be reproduced by technical means, to achieve mass production and increased yield?"

"The synthetic brain is a good thing, but at this stage it is ultimately a laboratory product—though your laboratory is large, large enough even to manufacture synthetic brains in batches like a factory, there is still only one Soren Great Tree, and only one of you," Pi Yun shook his head. "You have studied long enough that you should by now understand what 'arcane industry' means as a concept. Before a true industrial system and its potential, anything that cannot be mass-produced has inherent flaws."

"...Of course I understand, which is why I have thought about this matter as well of late," Beiyila pondered for a moment, then gave a slight nod. "In theory, the production process of synthetic brains can indeed be carried out independently of the Soren Great Tree."

"It really can be done?" Pi Yun's eyes widened in astonishment. "You can have this thing manufactured in a factory?"

"Not a 'factory' in the conventional sense, but biological replication centers and... breeding farms," Beiyila said, thinking as she spoke. "I know this sounds strange, but you may already know where the genetic samples for the synthetic brains come from—the Nightmare Skulls of the Dark Forest, the spirit-devourers of Mingcen Peak, and other monsters or beasts. In essence, these 'synthetic brains' are simply a kind of monster cultivated through artificial synthesis. You should know how humans domesticated wolves into dogs, and how they bred griffins from a branch of the predatory giant owls; in a sense, my process of making these brains is much the same.

"Of course, that is a general way of putting it. In terms of actual technique and the difficulty of realization, the two matters are still very different.

"Returning to the question of mass production, I think the possibility does indeed exist—the brains could be cultivated by ordinary, artificially controlled biological factories independent of the Soren Great Tree. As far as I know, you and your druid team have already reconstructed from the technical archives left by the All Things Perish Society the methods for making or building the Enhell fusion chambers and the crossed biomass fission pools, and have used modern techniques to render them harmless. These two things are the key to cultivating 'synthetic brains.' The only remaining problem is how to transform the knowledge I 'understand' into something ordinary humans or elven druids can learn and master... Without a breakthrough there, even if I gave you the raw 'brain' matrix, you would have no way to guide and cultivate it into a complete 'synthetic brain.'"

As she spoke, Beiyila lightly tapped her own forehead—though her outward form was indistinguishable from a real person's, the gesture produced the sound of knocking on wood: "The change in my life form has altered the way I perceive the world and think about problems as well. Though I still retain a human heart, I can no longer think the way a human does. There are many things I know how to do—things I can even accomplish as if by instinct—yet it is very hard to explain them to you. Take this 'room' before your eyes: with a single thought I can make it grow, but I might need half a year of exchanges with the druids serving as my assistants before they understand how this plant-manipulation technique is actually achieved."

"That will take time, I understand," Pi Yun nodded. "But setting that aside, mass-producing synthetic brains really is feasible, and it can be achieved within an acceptable timeframe—correct?"