Since it was called a "network," it had to look like a "net."
More precisely, "every node had to be fixed."
Yes, Earth's networks did indeed have mobile devices.
But every mobile device had to obtain an unchanging "address" through a link-layer component called a "network card"—that was, the thing known as an IP.
At the network layer, every IP was unique.
But Microbeast Mechanisms had no way to use such a thing.
Because with only a few bytes of space, there was no way to achieve the effect of a network card.
Before terminals this tiny, the "seven-layer protocol" was simply far too large, with nowhere to put its abilities to use.
Therefore, whether one treated a Beast Mechanism cluster as a single calculator or as a network, both were spectacular failures.
Even "blockchain" could not apply to this concept. A decentralized network was still a network.
Put simply, blockchain required a group of people following the same rules to process information together.
But the individual Microbeast Mechanisms were simply too small. They could not possibly contain such a complex "complete set of rules," much less "share" them.
The Celestial Favored Clan that had developed Puppet Gu had probably gotten stuck at this very step.
The emergence of the Beast Mechanism concept was merely the result of Feng Luoyi using mathematical thinking to construct a biological model.
Replenish energy, reproduce.
As long as it could do those two things, it could be considered a "living creature."
Feng Luoyi had explored long ago just how complex a structure was minimally required to accomplish those two things.
Wang Qi's Cellular Automaton explained this vividly.
Pixels capable of playing Tetris were about enough.
The Thousand Machines Pavilion had likewise begun researching, on that foundation, just how small mechanisms imitating life could become.