April 2030, Rocket City, Liang Nation
Daphne Braun had been pregnant for several months, and the discomfort she'd experienced earlier had gradually eased. Her belly had begun to round slightly, and like most first-time mothers, she looked forward to the happiness of holding her own child.
Michael was busy with work and often flew all over the world, but whenever he had time, he returned to Daphne's side to talk with her. He also carefully selected soft music for her to listen to. Michael said prenatal education should start early, and that listening to music would benefit the baby.
Of the pieces Michael recommended, Daphne liked violin concertos best, especially the works of composer Kreisler: Love's Joy and Love's Sorrow.
This year was a solar minimum, and April in Sazhou was colder than usual. In the afternoon, the sun still shone high in the sky, and the temperature was mild.
The two of them sat on a bench outdoors. Warm, moist air drifted through the dappled shadows of the palm trees. Cornflowers, native to Sazhou, dotted the grass and gave off a faint fragrance.
Daphne leaned into Michael's arm, stroked her belly, and softly asked him, "Would you like me to have a boy or a girl?"
"Either would be lovely. If it's a boy, he'll be as smart as me. If it's a girl, she'll be as beautiful as you," Michael said.
Daphne pretended to be annoyed. "Are you saying I'm not smart enough?"
"Oh, my dear princess, are you going to make it impossible to have a conversation? I was only offering our child my blessing. Who would dare say you weren't smart?" Michael hurriedly explained.
Daphne clearly wasn't really angry. As if speaking to herself, she said, "Smart? Where does human intelligence come from? Why do humans have a soul and more intelligence than other animals?"
"It really is amazing. I can't figure it out either. How can the human brain perform and store incredibly complex calculations so efficiently using just a dozen or so watts of biological electricity?" Michael continued, "One of my main priorities right now is replicating the human brain."
Michael Max had been researching Artificial Intelligence for more than a decade. While others piled up mathematical formulas and built layer upon layer of logical judgments, he had chosen a different path.
Michael firmly believed that the most powerful Artificial Intelligence would be a replica of the human brain. The network formed by the brain's hundreds of millions of neurons didn't rely on mathematical logic. In many cases, the brain made judgments by drawing on its experience of different situations.
Connecting and fusing computers with the human brain was the primary focus and ultimate goal of Michael's Artificial Intelligence research.
At the same time, he planned to use Superluminal waves to transform Mars, warm its core, restart its magnetic field, and create new oceans and an atmosphere with a moderate oxygen content, turning Mars into a second Earth.
Not only that, Michael also hoped to use Artificial Intelligence to fully unravel the secrets of the human brain, allowing people's consciousness to escape the limits of the body and be freely copied and stored on silicon-based hard drives and networks.
Michael's imagination and courage were second to none. He had implanted chips in the skulls of volunteer patients by "opening their minds," successfully treating their conditions. Later, he upgraded from contact-based implants to a safer and more widely applicable form of noncontact Brain-Computer Fusion.
The VESSEL Michael designed for himself was the most successful example. He was already able to upload some of his memories and experiential imagery to a supercomputer through VESSEL. When he thought using Brain-Computer Fusion, his external brain provided him with faster, more precise "thinking power."
What troubled Michael was that human consciousness was like a vast ocean, while his technology seemed able to extract and access only a few drops of water. Could the consciousness in the human brain be completely—or almost completely—replicated and uploaded to the cloud?
Michael's team included experts in computers and Artificial Intelligence, as well as specialists in life sciences and neuroscience. The latter told him that the human brain's extraordinary efficiency and low power consumption came from the way each of its modules could switch instantly between a dormant state and high-speed operation.
Biologists told Michael that uploading all of the human brain's memory, computational processing, and input-output signal conversion functions to the cloud was practically impossible—unless every functional module in the brain could be activated and excited at the same time.
There were drugs that could stimulate the brain and put it in an excited state, but most were hallucinogens and classified as narcotics. Giving them to volunteers would not only be a serious crime, but would also directly harm their bodies. Clearly, that was not an option.
Was there a substance that could stimulate the brain and put it in an excited state without being a narcotic or directly harming the volunteers?
Sugar! The body's energy cycle through metabolism could be described as the metabolism and circulation of various sugars. Michael shared this simple yet fascinating conclusion with Daphne, sparking her curiosity.
Daphne asked, "If you gave the volunteers a large amount of sugar, their brains would be more easily stimulated. But could that cause lasting effects? Diabetes, for example?"
"See? Who would dare say you weren't smart? That's exactly what's been troubling me, which is why my Brain-Computer Fusion experiments have practically ground to a halt," Michael replied.
"You could ask Irene. She's both a molecular biologist and one of the world's top diabetes experts. There's gossip that the media tycoon Andek married Irene, the diabetes expert, because he has severe diabetes himself."
They didn't waste any time. The two arranged to meet Irene the following day to discuss it.
Irene really was one of the world's top diabetes experts. Diabetes was a disease in which glucose gradually accumulated in the blood because the body couldn't metabolize it properly.
The disease developed when levels of a natural hormone in the body dropped. This hormone was the only one that could prompt glucose to be converted and metabolized. It was the hormone everyone knew as insulin.
After learning what the couple was concerned about, Irene said to Michael, "What a coincidence. Since retiring, I haven't continued researching synthetic insulin. Instead, I've been exploring some interesting new avenues."
"Interesting research? That's just the kind of thing I like doing." Michael spoke excitedly, watching Irene expectantly for an explanation.
"One interesting avenue is to start with the sugars people consume—to find healthy sugars, such as the wild corn I told you about in the Mayan village," Irene said.
Michael suddenly understood. A few days earlier, when he had run into Irene in the Mayan village, he'd wondered why a molecular biologist would travel to southern Mexico to study ancient wild corn that grew ten meters tall.
"Your research on corn is exactly what I'm looking for. I hope you'll join our Brain-Computer Fusion Project and share your findings," Michael said. "If we can extract healthy sugar from wild corn, we could give the test subjects plenty of sugar to stimulate their brains without harming their bodies. That would be wonderful."
Irene was very interested in Brain-Computer Fusion. She both admired and trusted Michael, so she happily accepted his invitation.
Daphne asked curiously, "Besides wild corn, are there any other interesting avenues for diabetes research?"
"Insulin's function is to metabolize glucose, and glucose in the blood provides the body with nutrients. The more sugar, the more nutrients. When there's too much sugar, insulin can't metabolize it all, and diabetes develops," Irene continued. "Besides the type and amount of sugar consumed, and the level of insulin, there's another factor that affects diabetes."
Clever Daphne counted on her fingers as she tried to guess. "There's glucose in the blood, and insulin metabolizes it. If we're not talking about sugar or insulin, then the other factor affecting diabetes is the blood itself, right?"
Irene and Michael exchanged a glance. The latter gave a mischievous smile and shrugged, as if showing off his girlfriend's cleverness.
The image of the Indian boy Bharat and his grandmother Vanita came to Irene's mind. She had once analyzed blood samples from the villagers of that indigenous community.
Because their customs forbade them from using modern, artificially synthesized chemical drugs, the blood flowing through their veins was both unique and extraordinary.
The red blood cells in their blood could carry more glucose and had a higher-than-average metabolic efficiency, giving the community an extremely low rate of diabetes.
Michael greatly admired Irene's work. He felt that her research approach had something in common with his own freewheeling ideas, and remarked, "Ancient wild corn, villagers from an ancient community, extraordinary blood—you've given this blood a name, haven't you?"
"Primal Blood," Irene replied.
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