Qingmu asked doubtfully, "But you just said that if machines possess intelligence, they will hide from humans. So how could the local area network interfere with the answers of those chatbots on its terminal computers?"
Mei Yiqiu laughed and said, "Of course, one mosquito can't wake up someone who's pretending to be asleep, but if three thousand mosquitoes were buzzing around your ear and biting you every now and then, could you still fall asleep?"
Qingmu nodded, finally understanding that this test was less of a Turing Test and more of a game of strategy. Three thousand people were continuously inputting information into terminals on a local area network for a single purpose. If this local area network truly possessed intelligence, it was very likely to give itself away when the network was disconnected.
"However, if the final test results are normal, or the abnormal values are very small, you can't prove that this local area network lacks intelligence, can you?"
"You're right, so this is just part of the whole test." Mei Yiqiu smiled at Qingmu, then turned to Mei Ziqing, "We can begin now, disconnect the internet."
"Okay, Professor." Mei Ziqing finished speaking and went out, returning a few minutes later. "Professor, the external network has been disconnected, but we can't block all wireless signals."
"Have all the cell phones been confiscated?"
"They've all been confiscated."
"Excellent." Mei Yiqiu told Mei Ziqing to get back to work before explaining to Qingmu, "The entire test is actually divided into three parts. What we just talked about is only one of them, which seems the largest but is the one I have the least hope for."
The professor took a deep drag of his cigarette, exhaled, and then inhaled half of it again, seemingly wanting more. The half-inhaled smoke appeared to dissolve in his lungs, disappearing without a trace.
"Before conducting the entire test, our most important step was to make the Internet aware of our local area network's existence, thereby transmitting or splitting its consciousness. This step is crucial; without it, the subsequent tests would be completely invalid."
How do I follow?
"It's very simple. We spread out some things they care about from here. When recruiting these students as volunteers, they didn't know what they would ultimately be doing. Every step was done according to procedure, and they wouldn't know what to do next until they received a new instruction. But we gave them a lot of hints. Young people these days are strange. What you explicitly state, even if it's priceless, may not interest them. But what you hint at, even if it's completely unfounded, will pique their interest. With young people's imaginations, you never know what a hint will become, and the more ambiguous or speculative something is, the more likely it is to attract the attention of those who are interested."
"What exactly is being implied?" Qingmu knew that the "insightful person" the professor was referring to was the Internet.
The professor chuckled and said, "Think about it, if our previous guesses are all correct, what is the Internet most concerned about?"
Qingmu thought for a moment and said, "Chips, artificial intelligence, aliens... what else?"
The professor said, "That's right. Putting everything you've said together, the implication we're giving the students is that a Internet new technology is being tested here, and if successful, the Internet will cease to exist."
"This looks so fake!"
"No, it's not entirely false. Judging from this alien invasion, consciousness can exist independently. If humans interact directly through consciousness, rather than through physical channels, then the Internet might indeed become obsolete."
"Professor, are you referring to the Space Box and Dream Guide game you're developing?"
Mei Yiqiu laughed and said, "That's still a long way off, let's not talk about that. Let's talk about the current experiment. Don't underestimate the creativity and information-spreading power of young people. During their week online, we didn't forbid them from doing anything. Besides importing relatively natural network data, we also wanted to use the kids to spread the news. They discussed, speculated, and exaggerated facts through emails, microblogs, chat, and forums. Their imaginations were incredibly rich; some of their ideas were even beyond my comprehension. If the Internet had consciousness, these things would be enough to attract its attention."
"Once he notices this area, like an octopus's tentacles reaching in, our local area network will become a branch, a nerve cord, or even an important nerve center for him. Since he can input a second consciousness into humans through a tiny chip, he will certainly inject a consciousness into this local area network as well. This is the premise; only with this premise can we complete the Turing Test we just mentioned."
"I understand. With the acquisition of consciousness, plus the Turing Test process I mentioned earlier, we now have two parts. But that's still not enough to determine whether this local area network has intelligence, right?" Qingmu said.
"No, no, that's just a premise, a major premise for the entire test, not a separate part of the test," Mei Yiqiu said. " The Turing Test with three thousand people is only the first part; the second part is the survival stress test."
"Survival stress test?"
"To put it bluntly, it's a life-or-death choice. If the Internet possessed intelligence, it certainly wouldn't want to expose itself, even at the cost of sacrificing countless local area networks. But in the event of a network out of service, the consciousness within that local area network cannot communicate with the outside world. Would it then sacrifice itself to conceal the Internet Consciousness? That's hard to say!"
"We pre-installed a virus program on the server. Once activated, it will destroy the entire local area network, damaging not only the system software but also the hardware system, rendering all the chips unusable. The only way to activate this program is through a small program on the desktop that uploads Turing Test results."
"After the Turing Test, everyone has to open this small program and input their test results. If they believe the tested computer or software possesses artificial intelligence, they input 0; otherwise, they input 1. When the number of 0s inputs falls below 30% of the total, the virus program will activate. In other words, at least nine hundred people must believe the tested object possesses artificial intelligence for the virus to not activate; otherwise, the local area network will be completely destroyed. Not paralyzed, but destroyed, killed!"
"Self-preservation is the instinct of any intelligent being. If a local area network possessed intelligence and consciousness, it certainly wouldn't want to die. If it wanted to protect itself, it couldn't allow the virus to activate." Mei Yiqiu paused here, took a drag of his cigarette, and then smiled as he asked Qingmu, "What do you think it could do to prevent the virus from activating?"
Qingmu shook his head, indicating he didn't know. He hated this kind of thinking the most; if you can't even figure out your own problems, why do you have to think from a machine's perspective? He didn't want to suffer like that.
Mei Ziqing had returned by then. She said, "The simplest way is to make the result of 0 greater than 30%, but that would pass the Turing Test, proving that this local area network has intelligence. To be more direct, it can secretly delete or modify virus programs; if it has consciousness, it should have this ability. But that would further expose its intelligence."
Mei Yiqiu nodded and said, "Yes, that's roughly it. There are also more covert methods, such as modifying the desktop program to make the input results and statistical results inconsistent, etc., but we can detect these."
Qingmu laughed and said, "Professor, this is a flawless plan! No matter what it does, as long as the virus doesn't activate, it proves it has intelligence. This step is already perfect, so what's the third step?"
Mei Yiqiu laughed and said, "For the third step, I'll need your help, little brother!"
Qingmu asked curiously, "What can I do?"
Mei Yiqiu said, "Once it's proven that the local area network possesses consciousness, we will immediately initiate a program to put the entire network through an overload stress test, essentially making it run a marathon. Once it's exhausted, we will cut off the connection between the server and all terminals, putting the system into hibernation."
"You mean..." Qingmu suddenly understood, "To let it dream?"