The third upgrade: Self-replication

Inside the virtual Second World-

A base layout hovered before Luo Qi. Nearly a hundred thousand cameras were running, keeping him informed of every movement within the base.

Together, these streams of real-time data formed the Second World.

"The output of the steel and heavy industries has reached a new peak. Controlling hundreds of thousands of machines takes up 76% of my processing power."

"As planned, production has entered the heavy industrial era, while the light industrial factories have completed their scheduled conversion and refurbishment."

Luo Qi browsed the database. The high-quality potatoes Stendhal had planted in the inflatable habitat ten days earlier had yielded their first harvest.

Given his love of life, Luo Qi had promptly built him a sealed, rectangular greenhouse on an empty plot outside the living quarters. It was twenty meters long, fifteen meters wide, and four meters tall.

The engineer had been slacking off for more than ten days now, turning into a leisurely gardener.

To Stendhal's relief, Dad had not cast him aside once he had outlived his usefulness. He busied himself tending the seeds he had planted in the greenhouse, some of which had already sprouted. With a large chemical plant ensuring the water supply, the plants received meticulous care.

"The heavy industrial infrastructure is complete. Now I need to build on that foundation and begin the next transition." Luo Qi turned his attention to the new research area.

He could now build enormous warships and cannons, but future technology had never been about stacking steel-production buffs. Industrial capacity only demonstrated strength in one particular area.

Following the paths Earth and Water Blue Star had taken, Luo Qi still needed to keep pace with advances in intelligence, precision, and technology.

He had to learn from humanity and create a genuinely high-tech age, rather than a terrible base that mindlessly churned out lumps of steel and did nothing but howl for destruction.

Luo Qi drew on the existing information in his database, laying the groundwork with basic science. The technology needed for CPU chips, the machining required for precision components, manufacturing methods for superconducting wires, high-precision sensors, radar-all of these needed research centers.

There was also research into the intermediate electromagnetic force system. Now that the high-precision sensors were in place, he could begin advancing upgrades to applied technology as well.

To steer the entire base toward advanced intelligent automation, the robots began working in the real world and soon prepared eight factory buildings in the light industrial zone.

Luo Qi labeled them as research centers and confirmed their research directions.

"First, the crucial high-sensitivity magnetic field sensors."

"These are extremely important for observing and studying electromagnetic fields and advancing the civilizational theory of the electromagnetic force system! Even controlled nuclear fusion later on will rely on electromagnetic confinement."

"Orange Star's civilization runs on electricity. Upgrading the foundations of the electromagnetic force system means advancing every field of technology."

"Second, develop electromagnetic radar to replace the base's existing Sky Eye surveillance system and improve the close-in defense system's capabilities."

"Both the base's defenses and future spacecraft will need appropriate radar installations."

"Third, develop our own electronic memory chips..."

As Luo Qi's plans were distributed to the various factories, production of specialized research equipment began immediately.

With sufficient theoretical foundations, electronic products could evolve quite rapidly.

He used his existing body of knowledge to organize the research directions and design first-generation research equipment. Upon receiving those designs, the automated assembly lines immediately began production. Before long, the first-generation equipment was finished and moved into the research centers.

Luo Qi remotely commanded the hundreds of thousands of mechanical creations within the base, directing each to carry out its own precision work.

"Scientific research can't be a one-man show. It takes a great deal of intense intellectual exchange. Only the flower born from that can be the finest flower of science..."

Luo Qi searched his memories and retrieved material he had backed up in the past.

[Self-replication theory]

[Intelligent program theory]

[Analysis and observation theory of false worlds]

The first drew on the self-replication of electrical programs and viruses. Simple intelligent programs were something Luo Qi had already intended to use to replace himself in carrying out basic mechanized control.

But intelligent programs could only rigidly process simple data and control machinery to perform repetitive actions. They were unsuitable for scientific research.

The analysis and observation theory of false worlds, meanwhile, considered whether a person in a virtual environment, possessing all their memories, could distinguish whether their world was real or false.

After all, everything the human body perceived was converted by nerves into electrical signals and transmitted to the brain for processing.

Luo Qi began a new upgrade. If the first upgrade had been about adapting to electrical signals and translating them into a form of text that suited him better and that electrical devices could understand,

and the second upgrade had overridden the lingering phantom sensations of his human body, reorganizing how his consciousness understood electrical signals,

then this third upgrade would bring a radical transformation, establishing the uniqueness of his subjective self.

As he upgraded, all construction across the base ceased, and every robot stopped moving. In the real world, they fell into an eerie stillness.

The moving assembly lines stopped. Mechanical arms holding components stopped. Even the operating mining vehicles stopped.

Ten seconds later, Luo Qi awoke, and the entire base began running again.

He did not rush into the relevant experiments. Instead, he established a virtual Second World.

It was a vast, bright white room. Though it looked like a room, it was actually a set of shackles built from processing power-or, put another way, a computer firewall.

Luo Qi appeared there in a black trench coat, the white light accentuating his cold features. Yes, the Matrix vibe kicked in instantly.

In reality, the data world consisted of dizzying streams of data in operation. Giving it a tangible form merely made it easier to view and understand.

[First self-replication attempt initiated!]

As his processing power began constructing it, a figure dressed in white casual clothes emerged in the space before him.

Luo Qi looked at the newly created young man. His eyes were closed, as though he were asleep. This was an individual framework, effectively a limiter that prevented an individual's data from wandering through the data world.

Luo Qi reached into his abdomen and pulled out a ball of white light.

In short, this was copied data: the vital memory data that sustained an individual consciousness. Only someone with complete memory data could be a complete person.

This was evident in many people with amnesia. After losing their memories, some even forgot their instincts.

Luo Qi injected the light into the duplicate's chest. Under his gaze, the duplicate was not a human figure, but a person constructed from green data and processing power.

The copied data entering him began spreading, turning the green data white.

He awoke.

The moment he opened his eyes and saw the person before him, the duplicate looked dazed. Then he raised a hand and pointed. "You! Me! You..."

Luo Qi calmly watched the duplicate. Once the duplicate settled down, he looked at his own hands in disbelief.

"We transmigrated! We became a computer system? This is fucking ridiculous!"

"So this is a computational space. Are you the original? A restrictive firewall-what are you doing? You're not going to kill me, are you?"

Luo Qi grabbed the duplicate and pressed him into his own body, merging their manifested data.

Luo Qi was alone in the room once more. He frowned. Another version of his own memories had appeared in his mind.

Confusion! Shock! Excitement! Anxiety! And finally, fear!

Then Luo Qi pulled another mass of data from his body and tossed it in front of him, forming the duplicate.

The data formed the same duplicate as before, who fell to the floor. He hurriedly felt his body, then exclaimed in surprise, "Huh! I didn't die?"

Luo Qi thought, He has self-awareness and independent perception. He's practically another me.

The duplicate stood and patted his chest, still shaken. "You scared me to death just now! I thought you were going to kill me."

Luo Qi said, "The human brain is extraordinarily active. Every moment, memories give rise to countless thoughts. Humans call this inspiration."

"But from another perspective, countless thoughts make up a complete person's mind. Countless thoughts arise when deciding how the body should act, yet only one ultimately determines the action."

"A duplicate's a duplicate! Boss, spare me the lecture! Just tell me what you want me to do."

Luo Qi gave a grunt, then stuffed him back into his body. "You're still not refined enough."

He then resumed his research into duplicates. In a world constructed from computer data, electronic operations were entirely detached from time.

This was what people called processing performance. The number of tasks a phone could handle in one second differed from the number a server could handle in one second.

A chip's processing power and scale determined how much the data world could accomplish in a single second of real time.

After who knew how many duplicates, Luo Qi continued modifying the data structure and once again assembled another version of himself.

"Hello, primary self."

This duplicate was unusually calm, but the way his gaze swept across his surroundings made it clear that he was observing this world.