Xie De stared at the Brain in a Vat before him, momentarily stunned into silence. He had wondered before why an immortal would be in the Laboratory.
At the time, he had guessed that the immortal's bodily functions had deteriorated and could no longer bear the burden of his brain, so the Laboratory was looking for a way to save his body.
Now it seemed he had truly underestimated the Laboratory.
The Laboratory was an organization that put science fiction into practice with extraordinary hands-on skill, though it was rather lacking in humanity.
455 said gravely in his ear, "The Laboratory is terrifying, Host. No. 142 is a Biological Computer, and No. 13 is a Brain in a Vat. What kind of shocking thing do you think the Laboratory's Number 1 is? I'm a little curious. Why don't we go take a look?"
"You just act on every whim, don't you? Have a death wish? Besides, Number 1 might not even be in this Research Center."
Xie De looked up at the countless surveillance cameras overhead, then at the enormous glass wall to his left. Behind it was a mass of cables connected to the glass vat.
After examining them, Xie De realized he could make no sense of them at all. He sighed. "Why do I feel a little reluctant to kill him?"
455 said, "Reluctant about what?"
"Reluctant to destroy such a perfect scientific experiment."
The "Brain in a Vat" was a famous thought experiment proposed by the philosopher Hilary Putnam in 1981.
Imagine that a person's brain was removed from their body and placed in a vat filled with nutrient solution to keep it alive.
The brain's nerve endings were connected to a supercomputer, which simulated various neural signals to transmit sensory information to the brain.
This