Chapter 965: The Tech Tree That Changes the World
[Virtual Reality Technology] VR Brain and Neural Connection Technology: Through non-invasive technology, connects the player's consciousness and nerves to the virtual world, allowing the player's consciousness to be fully transferred into the virtual world without requiring any surgery.
Unlock requirement: 1 lottery chance.
[Artificial Intelligence Technology] Intermediate Artificial Intelligence: Unlocks artificial intelligence that can pass the Turing Test, awaken self-awareness, and completely deceive humans.
Unlock requirement: Unlock VR brain and neural connection technology, develop a related themed game, and collect 10,000 player emotional responses.
[Hardware Technology] Storage Capacity Expansion (Level 1): Initiate a technological breakthrough, doubling the storage capacity and read speed of all smart devices.
Unlock requirement: 3 lottery chances.
Chen Mo was stunned. One lottery chance? Are you kidding me? Might as well just rob me.
Well, this probably is robbery.
Chen Mo checked. He currently had over 97 lottery chances. By this time the day after tomorrow, he should be able to gather enough.
Thanks to the big earners like *The Legend of Zelda* and *Monster Hunter*, the happiness and resentment values were growing at a decent rate. But then again...
Even if the growth was decent, that didn't mean he could just squander it like this!
That was all earned through his hard work, damn it!
Chen Mo calmed his emotions and thought it over. He realized he didn't really have a better choice.
The artificial intelligence technology had prerequisites. He had to first develop the VR brain and neural connection technology, and he also needed to develop a game, which would take time to prepare.
As for storage capacity expansion, it could improve the storage capacity and read/write speed of all smart devices. That meant... the VR game pods could hold more games, and loading speeds would be faster. He could afford this right now, but after some consideration, Chen Mo decided it was better to unlock the VR neural connection technology first.
After all, storage capacity wasn't an urgent issue yet. The current VR game pods had enough space for now.
There were still some tech points further down, and Chen Mo himself didn't know what the world would become if he unlocked the entire tech tree. But all those tech points were locked, and he couldn't see their details. He would have to unlock them one by one.
He had to admit, the tech points here shocked Chen Mo.
Artificial intelligence technology could develop AI that passed the Turing Test, awakened self-awareness, and completely deceived humans. This kind of technology had appeared as a fantasy in many literary and artistic works, and exploring the relationship between humans and intelligent life had become an eternal theme.
People had mixed reactions to this level of artificial intelligence. Some looked forward to it, others feared it. But regardless, once this level of AI appeared, it would mean... that humans might no longer be the most advanced species on Earth. At the very least, humans would have to acknowledge that this level of AI possessed thinking abilities comparable to, or even superior to, humans.
For humanity itself, researching such a thing might be an act of "self-destruction" or "courting death." Many literary and artistic works had expressed similar concerns. But no matter what... humanity's nature of courting death was simply innate.
As for VR neural connection technology, it was a leap forward for VR games.
The current VR technology was implemented through VR game pods. The specific method involved using consciousness-reading technology to capture the player's conscious signals; using head-mounted devices to block the player's visual and auditory perception of the outside world, displaying left and right eye images on separate screens to create a three-dimensional effect in the player's mind, and using surround sound to convey auditory information; then, through a full set of haptic devices, transmitting sensations like touch, vibration, and pain to the player's entire body.
Existing VR technology offered an "immersive experience," but this was essentially similar to a special form of hypnosis, allowing players to become more deeply absorbed in the game and feel as if they were really there.
But regardless, the current technology was still a bit short of "full-body transmigration" or "plugging into the back of the head." The main gap was in the experience.
These gaps might determine the realism of a virtual reality game and define the boundary between the virtual and the real.
The system's VR neural connection technology even skipped the "plugging into the back of the head" stage entirely. Through non-invasive technology, it could connect the player's consciousness and nerves to the virtual world, allowing players to experience the sensation of "soul transmigration" into the virtual world without any surgery.
It could be said that this was a qualitative leap.
Chen Mo didn't yet know the specific price of this technology. If it was relatively cheap, then... it would likely spark a revolution in the entire VR gaming field, or even in many other areas (such as VR movies).
Existing VR game pods would probably all be discontinued, shelved as relics of the past, and slowly forgotten.
A brand-new VR gaming device (maybe a VR game pod, or something else) would open up a terrifyingly huge global market, completely changing people's way of life.
Chen Mo thought it over. It was actually quite reasonable that the artificial intelligence technology required unlocking the VR neural connection technology first. The biggest limitation of current AI technology was the analysis of human consciousness.
Although the parallel world had already developed animal-level artificial intelligence with a certain degree of self-awareness... animals and humans were fundamentally different. Animals could only live within the confines of nature, eating raw food, while humans could understand the laws of nature and even explore the boundless cosmos.
Unlocking VR neural connection technology meant that technology could now freely read and write human consciousness and thoughts. So it wasn't surprising that a higher level of AI could be developed based on the characteristics of human consciousness.
For Chen Mo, the next task was to wait.
Wait until he had saved up one lottery chance, then directly unlock the VR neural connection technology.
But after that, he still needed to plan things carefully.
Another leap in artificial intelligence technology could bring even more complex changes to the world, and might even threaten the stability of this world.
Chen Mo certainly didn't want Judgment Day from *The Terminator* to arrive one day, with everyone eating nuclear radiation and burrowing underground, happily fighting cold-blooded Terminators.
Giving this level of artificial intelligence a physical body, or allowing them to interfere with the real world, was in itself an extremely foolish act.
If they awakened self-awareness, and in their self-perception, they considered themselves no different from humans, or even more advanced, while humans tried to enslave them... then there was no need to elaborate on how the script would develop.
So, Chen Mo intended to confine this level of artificial intelligence to the virtual world.
He needed to give enough hints first, to cut off people's ideas of giving AI a physical form.