Mu Continent

65 million years ago, on Earth's New Tethys Ocean, Tower Island.

Brahma and Vinu followed Maria and her group to Tower Island on Earth. Two years prior, the Tower Island power station had been completed, its massive supports soaring into the clouds, disappearing into the distance.

The 180,000-kilometer-high structure received immense Superluminal wave energy, transmitted through underground metal conductors that pierced the Earth's crust.

The Indo-Australian Plate plunged deep beneath the Eurasian Plate on the seabed of the New Tethys Ocean. In just two years, Tower Island had "grown" dozens of meters taller, and its area had expanded to over five times its original size.

The moment Vinu saw her daughter Cynthia, she rushed to embrace her without hesitation. Cynthia had grown into a graceful young maiden, her cheeks slightly flushed, her eyes, tinged with shyness, reflecting surprise and joy.

Vinu fussed over her, chattering incessantly, while Cynthia responded with chirps and calls, sometimes high, sometimes low, like singing. The two different communication modes seemed to pose no barrier for the mother and daughter, though Tesla and Maria beside them were utterly bewildered, unable to understand a word.

Brahma had last seen Cynthia when she was an infant. As his wife and daughter embraced, Brahma, as a father, stood a few meters away, feeling somewhat at a loss. He took a step forward, then stopped, wanting to speak but unsure how to begin.

As if by telepathy, Cynthia pulled away from her mother's embrace, her large eyes scanning Brahma from head to toe. Vinu realized this and, while pulling Cynthia towards Brahma, couldn't hide her excitement as she introduced them:

"Cynthia, this is your father."

At once, a smile bloomed on Brahma's weathered face, while his eyes welled up with unshed tears. Cynthia, like a soprano, let out a clear, joyful song and ran towards Brahma.

The family of three held each other tightly.

A few wisps of thin clouds drifted across the sky of Tower Island. The setting sun hung over the western sea, its gentle waves rippling with layers of light. Everyone sat around a large outdoor table, and everything was so tranquil and beautiful.

Nikola Tesla felt a sense of detachment. Could life truly be this beautiful? After all, the end of the world was fast approaching, and the planets of the Solar System were about to be baptized by fire.

Tesla gripped Maria's hand, his grip tightening. How wonderful it would be if time could freeze at this very moment!

Abbott emerged from a massive factory building. After greeting everyone, he said to Maria:

"The last batch of experimental equipment you need has been installed. The debugging work will still need to be handled by your lab personnel. When can you start working?"

Maria looked at Brahma and Vinu and the large group of volunteers in the distance before replying, "We'll adjust the equipment as quickly as possible and begin the experiments. After all, the research has been interrupted for over a decade, so we can't rush too much."

"You're right, Maria. Your experiment is our primary solution, but we know that large-scale cloning of Venusians is an extremely complex and arduous task. We all support you and wish you the best," Tesla said, stroking Maria's arm with understanding.

"Primary solution? Do you have other backup plans? I thought the cloning mission could only succeed, not fail. If I fail, are there other ways?" Maria asked, confused.

Abbott shot Tesla a glare. "Maria, please don't fail. The so-called alternative method is a last resort, essentially a no-win situation. Don't worry about it for now."

Maria grew more confused the more she heard. She asked Tesla curiously, "What exactly is this method? I need to have some idea. The pressure these days has been immense; I can barely sleep."

Nikola Tesla and Abbott exchanged glances and stopped playing coy. He explained the backup plan, the one Abbott had referred to as a no-win situation.

Over billions of years, the planets within the habitable zone of the Solar System had nurtured tens of thousands of species, both plant and animal. They absorbed and metabolized energy, reproducing generation after generation, collectively forming a rich and diverse biosphere.

Each individual organism could be said to be composed of organic matter. What is organic is inseparable from a certain chemical element: carbon. Therefore, the beings referred to by Venusians are all carbon-based.

After the rise of electronic computers, the internet and artificial intelligence greatly advanced the technological level and production efficiency of Venusians. At the same time, it brought to light a question: must so-called life forms be carbon-based? Is it possible for them to "live" within silicon-based chips?

Silicon-based life had long been a research hotspot for Venusian scientists, with various intriguing experimental proposals, represented by "Cellular Automata," emerging one after another.

In a computer, given a 2D plane filled with cells, or even a 3D space built from stacked cubes, simple rules like moving up, down, turning left, or turning right are determined. Virtual spheres, line segments, or even virtual "ants" then move continuously within the space.

Magical events then occur. After repeated iterations, the trajectories traced by the spheres or ants can be either unpredictable chaotic states or exhibit regular cyclical structures.

The movement trajectories of the spheres resemble cell division, and the virtual ants seem to possess life. Thus, people call these types of experiments Cellular Automata.

The Brain-Computer Fusion Project, spearheaded by Nikola Tesla, demonstrated the possibility of silicon-based survival, not just for cells, but for the consciousness within Venusian brains.

The underlying architecture of Venusian computers uses an advanced mixed radix system, offering large storage capacity and high computational efficiency.

Astonishingly, the recipient of Venus's highest physics prize proposed breaking the ironclad rule of standardized industrial production hardware, blurring the boundaries between hardware and software, allowing hardware to "grow" on its own, possessing the ability to learn and "think."

This feat shook and even overturned the dominant position of mathematical determinism, enabling computers to self-learn in scenario simulations, more closely mirroring human brain thought patterns.

With continuous advancements in brain science, Brain-Computer Fusion is no longer a novelty on Venus.

If they wish, or if there is truly no other way, Venusians have the capability to upload their consciousness to the cloud, achieving silicon-based survival.

The reason for saying "if they wish" is that the vast majority do not wish to! Those who upload their entire consciousness to the cloud will lose their vital signs. To put it bluntly, those who upload their entire consciousness will physiologically die.

If Maria's team succeeds in cloning human bodies, and Venusian consciousness is stored in the cloud after uploading, once their respective cloned bodies mature, the original consciousness will be downloaded into the bodies, a process known as "resurrection."

If this process can be perfectly realized, it would undoubtedly be the best-case scenario. The resurrection site for cloned Venusians would be Earth.

Abbott's "no-win situation" refers to the failure of the cloning plan. If the consciousness stored in the cloud has nowhere to be downloaded, Venusian consciousness will be trapped within silicon-based chips, surviving endlessly in a silicon-based existence like virtual ants. Of course, this would also require immense electrical power supply.

Maria listened to the explanation, shook her head, and sighed, "I thought there was some novel method. Compared to breathing fresh air freely, who would want to be confined to a silicon-based chip, becoming mere lines of digital code?"

As Maria spoke, she suddenly thought of another method and asked, "Haven't the bionic robots made significant progress? If cloning human bodies fails, can consciousness be downloaded into robot bodies? They have sight, touch, and can move freely."

Tesla and Abbott had already considered Maria's proposal. The problem was that producing billions of robots was a massive undertaking, unsupported by time or cost. Even more critical was that intelligent robots consume tens of thousands of times more electricity than ordinary people!

This would lead to a thorny issue: a shortage of intelligent "bodies" and limited "slots." The consciousness of nearly 6 billion Venusians would have to be decided by lottery to determine who could be "resurrected."

Even so, there was another major problem. Cloned humans could be self-sufficient, obtaining energy through food, but robots could not; they required vast amounts of electricity. After the Mars explosion, Earth, short-term, would be unable to build power stations large enough.

Human brains are power-efficient! Therefore, cloning human bodies and downloading consciousness is the best-case scenario.

"I will do my utmost to complete the work of cloning human bodies," Maria said, rubbing her hands and clenching her fists. Her voice was not loud but firm. "However, even if my experiment succeeds, the cloning work can only begin after the Mars explosion. At that time, a large number of devices will be needed. Where do you plan to store them?"

"We will use spaceships to transport the extracted genes and the hard drives storing consciousness to Titan. After safely surviving the Mars explosion, they will be transported back to Earth," Tesla said.

"A large number of the devices you will use for cloning, as well as the necessary batteries, cannot all be transported. Nikola has found a suitable place on Earth to store them," Abbott added.

Nikola Tesla unfurled a holographic projection map of Earth and pointed to a vast blue ocean that the Venusians called the Pacific Ocean.

"The landmass within this ocean is called Atlantis. It is only a few meters above sea level and is rapidly sinking due to tectonic movement. I will store your equipment in sealed structures built from large battery arrays."

This continent Tesla referred to is also called the Mu Continent, and it will soon be completely submerged by the Pacific Ocean. The structure, built with batteries resembling giant bricks, is very stable. With the ocean blocking it, it will safely avoid the shockwaves caused by the Mars explosion that will impact Earth.

As soon as Maria saw Tesla's schematic of the structure built with batteries, she was reminded of the ruins of an ancient civilization on Venus. She exclaimed:

"Pyramids! The batteries will be stacked into pyramids on the Mu Continent at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean!"

&

Poem Collection:

Where does the final night rest? Ming, Li Shimian

My body is like a dream. Song, Shi Zhiyuan

Parasitic like a passing electric current, Ming, Qian Zizheng

It illuminates the traveler's lost heart. Tang, Meng Haoran