How does consciousness arise?
Mei Yiqiu squinted, a half-smile on his face, puffing on his pipe, a large cloud of white smoke billowing from the corner of his mouth.
Why did you even think of asking that?
"As a... programmer—" Bian Ziyuan didn't dare to presume to call himself a software engineer in front of the professor, so he used a very ordinary self-designation, "I know that programming cannot generate true intelligence—that is, consciousness. In the past, we believed that consciousness or thinking was generated by neural networks, so the Internet could generate consciousness because it had a huge network. A very important branch of artificial intelligence is the construction of neural networks, but now I feel that this direction is wrong."
"Oh, what's wrong?" the professor asked with interest.
"What exactly constitutes intelligence? That's the fundamental question," Bian Ziyuan said thoughtfully. "No matter how much our AI technology improves—whether it's deep learning, simulation environments, or sequential memory models—the essence of computers hasn't changed. It's just a continuous expansion of data and optimization of algorithms. Compared to ten years ago, things seem very different now, but in reality, apart from increased computing speed, wider network bandwidth, and a surge in data volume, almost everything else remains the same."
Mei Yiqiu nodded repeatedly, her disheveled hair swaying like jellyfish, and encouraged, "Hmm, not bad, you're on the right track, continue!"
Bian Ziyuan boldly continued, "Neural networks are developing rapidly, but frankly speaking, current achievements in this area are only a method of information transmission; ultimately, it still depends on the amount of data and the optimization of computer algorithms."
Mei Yiqiu laughed and Tushu, "So what were you thinking when you created Kronos?"
Bianzi thought for a moment and said, "To be honest, I didn't think that much about it. At the time, I just wanted a more playable game, one where the NPCs wouldn't just stand there rigidly repeating the game's set lines, and each NPC would have a different, unpredictable fate. This would require the game's plot to be more flexible, but I'm not good at adapting plots, so I wanted to create a program that could automatically change the plot."
"This is far from enough to create a strong artificial intelligence like Kronos!" Mei Yiqiu looked at Bian Ziyuan, the smoke obscuring his eyes, making his gaze deep and ethereal.
Bian Ziyuan said, "Yes, the program I wrote at the time was very messy, which disrupted the game's internal logic and made it almost unplayable. I then built in a simple human society model, but it still didn't work. Later, I realized that the problem was that the game's setting was not as complex as our real society. The environment, food, and living space determine the relationships and fates of the characters. To imitate the real world, you need to detail the resources of every inch of land, which is obviously impossible."
"So what did you do afterward?" Mei Yiqiu asked.
"Simplify!" Bian Ziyuan said. "Simplify everything and let Kronos do it, instead of me. The problem with our current artificial intelligence is that all of AI's ideas are human ideas. We've already thought them out and then hope that AI will do this or that, which is actually wrong. This makes it impossible for AI to generate intelligence."
I decided to leave everything to Kronos, letting him decide how to expand the world. The only requirement was to maintain the world's balance and prevent its collapse. I didn't care about anything else—chaos, war, famine, or people lying there waiting to die—it was all up to Kronos. Even if he ended up making a mess of the game world, it didn't matter. It was his world; he was a god, and it was his freedom to make his world whatever it wanted. That was my principle in designing the program. The only thing I did was give him the concept of 'god,' letting him know what a god was.
Mei Yiqiu laughed and said, "But this is still not enough to generate true intelligence, nor is it the Kronos I saw back then, much less the Kronos of today."
Bian Ziyuan's heart skipped a beat. He sensed that the professor seemed to know something, but he wasn't quite sure. He gathered his thoughts and said, "True intelligence is something I came up with later after considering it from another perspective."
"What angle?"
"Compete."
"Hmm, tell me about it."
"The sole purpose of biological evolution is to better adapt to the environment, survive, and ensure the continuation of the species. All primates, including humans, have evolved complex mental networks and sufficient intelligence, also solely for the purpose of better survival."
In the development of artificial intelligence, we have overlooked a crucial issue—survival! All AI exists solely for learning and computation; they don't need to consider survival—what happens when they run out of power? Someone will charge them; what happens when components age? Someone will replace them... When a species no longer needs to consider survival, it loses the drive to evolve and the ability to evolve independently without external forces.
The professor was so engrossed in listening that he forgot the tobacco in his pipe had burned out, and he kept puffing away without actually taking a single puff.
Mei Ziqing walked over, reached into the professor's mouth to take the pipe away, and helped him change the tobacco.
The professor looked at Bian Ziyuan and said, "Go on, continue."
Bian Ziyuan said, "To enable AI to develop true intelligence, it must experience a survival crisis and competition. If a machine needs to recharge itself when it runs out of power, and refuel itself when it runs out of fuel, and all of this is not free, it requires a price. When resources are not infinite, machines will compete; they must evolve to better adapt to the harsh competitive environment. The prerequisite for all of this is to first instill in them a sense of life and death. Machines also get sick and die. Short circuits, open circuits, oil leaks, and aging are physiological illnesses; program errors, crashes, and viruses are mental illnesses. Illnesses can be treated; without treatment, death occurs. With the fear of death, it wants to live, it must constantly evolve, and it must consider how to pass on its knowledge or information to the next generation. This is true artificial intelligence."
Mei Ziqing handed the reassembled pipe to Mei Yiqiu and helped the professor light it.
Mei Yiqiu a few puffs and said, "So, you taught Kronos about life and death, and let him develop his own ideas about everything else?"
"Yes," Bian Ziyuan said.
"But it's still very difficult! Life and death are major issues that are difficult to resolve in both philosophy and science; otherwise, there would be no religion. How to make a machine understand life and death is the most difficult thing in itself," Mei Yiqiu sighed. "It's not that no one has thought of it, it's just too difficult to do. Almost everyone who studies AI has avoided this direction and tried to find another way. But you, with your youthful fearlessness, chose the most difficult path, and you succeeded. Tell me, how did you come up with this idea?"
"I thought of it in a dream."
Bian Ziyuan and decided not to lie. Lying was too easy to be exposed, but he concealed the detail that he had fallen asleep while lying on the computer.
"Dreaming?" Mei Yiqiu laughed. "Indeed, true wisdom resides in the realm of the mind!"