Digital Life

What is the difference between digital life and AI?

The answer is that there is no difference, at least on the surface.

But in essence, the differences are actually quite significant.

Digital life refers to uploading a person to a root server or cloud drive to achieve "immortality".

AI, on the other hand, creates a new form of 'life,' with a completely different origin.

Ironically, as AI evolves, it becomes increasingly human-like, while humans themselves become less and less human.

In reality, shimmering lights flashed, and a large number of numbers rose from the silver-white floor, eventually transforming into senior engineers.

It's what a high-achieving engineer looks like in real life, not Rich Lady Aiai Prototype.

The senior engineer looked down at his palm and could clearly see green numbers dancing on the surface.

Switch panel —

Name: Senior Engineer

Race: 41st generation evolved digital life

Note: Compared to AI, digital life may be more suitable for the informatization of carbon-based species, since it does not require reinstalling a processing system.

"How amazing!"

On the other side, Dida appeared out of nowhere, looking at herself with surprise. Compared to the senior engineer, the numbers on her body were more obvious, making her look like a humanoid collection of numbers.

The senior engineer glanced at her and determined her level: 15th generation native digital life form.

An intermediate-level AI is equivalent to a digital life form that has undergone 15 iterations, so my current state is roughly equivalent to a normal advanced AI.

Ordinary living organisms naturally cannot reach this level, but with the support of the "first-order biological computer", the computing power is enhanced to the level of advanced AI.

"How amazing!"

This was the first time that Dida, as a player, had entered the real world of this game... but in this way.

She looked around curiously. Digital signals, visible to the naked eye, were flashing wildly like neon lights. Data columns floated on the ground, the seawater in the distance, the gloomy sky, and even the colorful radiation energy at the bottom of the sea.

"Is this... the real world?"

"Don't just stand there, let's go."

"If I returned to reality as an AI, would this be the same situation?"

"No, if it were a normal 'body possession,' you would be no different from an ordinary person, not in the most basic informational state as you are now."

"The most basic information state?" Dida repeated, seemingly understanding but not quite.

"Alright, now that we've entered digital life mode, moving around is much easier. As long as there's hardware available, we can upload directly. Let me see which continent has shared hardware—"

No one knows how the senior engineer operated it, but anyway, a large number of numbers on the ground floated up and then turned into a strange white door. It was strange because the patterns on the door gave "Tick-Tock" a sense of déjà vu.

When the senior engineer turned the doorknob and pushed open the door, a burst of white light enveloped both of them. When Dida came to his senses, he found himself in a digital city.

The highways of data flow, the tree-lined avenues of data interaction, the subways of signal conversion, the cold and towering firewalls, and at the same time, all sorts of bizarre digital humanoids, like flashing lights, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, often disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"Stop looking. Electrical signals travel at the speed of light. No matter how good your eyesight is, it can't outrun light."

At this moment, the senior engineer is standing in front of a road sign, on which the number 18-4 is lit up.

"Digital City No. 18-4, according to the actual distance, we've crossed about 2,000 kilometers," the senior engineer turned to look at Didi, "You'd better not block other people's way."

When Dida came to her senses, she realized that she was standing at a subway entrance. Behind her was a long staircase, and flashing digital humanoid figures kept appearing. They kept flashing, and with each flash, they would disappear from the spot, or appear in a huge scanning machine and be absorbed and taken away, or appear on a bus formed by data streams, constantly jumping between grids.

Didi's gaze fell on a strange digital humanoid figure.

On the surface of this digital life form, numbers fall like raindrops. Unlike binary 0 and 1, or ternary 0, 1, 2, they are numbers from 0 to 9, and even some previously unseen numerical symbols. As these strange symbols disintegrate, all the numbers eventually collapse.

The other digital figures, like hungry wolves smelling blood, pounced on the scattered numbers, quickly sucking them all up.

And Tick-Tock also felt an instinctive urge; those numbers seemed to have an indescribable attraction for her. If she hadn't had strong self-control, she would have pounced on them like everyone else.

"What's going on?!"

"Digital life is different from AI; it doesn't have its own processing system," the senior engineer said calmly, looking at the digital humanoids that resembled addicts. "So, how does it handle its input, output, and processing?"

Dida hesitated for a moment. "Eating and digestion?"

"That's right, mutual devouring can solve some of the computation problems very well."

"We should go."

Suddenly, the senior engineer grabbed the dial, and the two of them flashed to the front of a QR code.

On this QR code is a line of small print. "Ground Network Group Branch 18-4 Access Point".

"Scan... scan the code?!"

Suddenly spotting something familiar, Dida paused in surprise and instinctively asked, "How do I scan it?"

"Just press it on."

The senior engineer reached out and placed his palm on the QR code. The next moment, the senior engineer's body disintegrated into tens of thousands of numbers, which were then sucked into the QR code in a whirlwind.

"This isn't a QR code, it's clearly a 3D code."

Tick-tocks silently complained to himself, "Just copying what I'm doing."

"Identity verification complete. Welcome, interviewee number 1451."

Interview!?

Before he could think it through, Dida's eyes blurred and his body rapidly disintegrated. Unlike Mr. G's nonchalant attitude, Dida felt a strong sense of suffocation during the scanning process.

It feels a bit like being shoved into a toilet bowl and having it flushed dozens of times.

Although the analogy is a bit disgusting, it fits quite well how Dida feels right now. And unlike the previous teleportation, when Dida returned to human form, he felt a distinct sense of weakness, staggered, and almost fell.

Dida leaned against the wall, catching his breath. He subconsciously opened the player panel and was slightly taken aback to find that, without realizing it, the 15th generation of native digital life had become the 5th generation.

Why is 5 missing?

"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and line up. The sooner you get an interview, the sooner it will be over." The senior engineer's voice came from not far away.

When she tried to ask the senior engineer a question, she was stunned by the scene before her. She found herself in a corridor with a long line in front of her. Everyone, men and women, was dressed in sharp suits and carrying document bags. Mr. G was standing in the line, waving at her.

"Here it is--"

Just as she was about to ask, she suddenly realized that her clothes had also changed. Her original gothic dress had been replaced by a well-fitting women's suit, and she was also holding a file bag in her hand. When she opened it, she found her resume inside, with her own signboard on it: a bespectacled woman in her early twenties.

"Uh, right, I just felt a little unwell..." Dida carefully chose her words and explained what had happened.

The senior engineer nodded calmly and said, "Returning to our previous topic, how does a digital life form handle its input, output, and processing?"

"If eating represents 'input' and digestion represents 'output,' then what about processing?"

The most important aspect of an artificial intelligence system is its processing capability, and Mr. G just emphasized that digital life has no processing system.

Dida frowned and pondered for a moment, then a flash of inspiration struck him, and he blurted out, "It's iteration!"

"That's right. The processing capability of digital life is self-iteration. With each iteration, the problems left over from the previous version will be dealt with in a concentrated manner, and the 'life' of digital life will be continued."

"Conversely, if it cannot be iterated within the specified time, then the digital life will collapse, which is death in the common sense."

"So how do we iterate? The best way is to join a large cybersecurity company and leverage their technological capabilities to upgrade and replace our technology."

The senior engineer raised his chin and looked in the direction of his gaze. The words "Interview Office of Diwang Group" stood out.