Legend of the Cyber Heroes-Chapter 38 - Memory and Games

38: Chapter 38 Memory and Games

38 -38 Memory and Games

The development of brain neurons is not simply a matter of having more being better.

In fact, the “maturation” of the neural system is a process of “subtraction.”

The brain’s primitive state is an original network where all nodes have the same weight.

As people carry out their daily activities, some neural connection pathways are used frequently, while others are not.

As such, the “frequently used” pathways gain a higher weight.

The rarely used ones have a lower weight.

Then, the high-weight pathways are further reinforced and may even develop specialized “protective sheaths,” forming mature “circuits” that become fixed in place.

The less frequently used pathways regress.

The neural connection pathways are effectively “specialized.”

During this process, humans learn to walk, use their hands, talk…

This is also why people who don’t talk for a long time turn into “mutes”—the pathways responsible for “speaking” have withered away, and they forget how to speak.

It is generally believed that “learning” is a process of suppressing unnecessary channels of information input to enhance the perception of targeted information.

This suppression and reinforcement are naturally dynamic.

However, a certain enzyme can reverse the physiological cycle of neurons within a certain range, reverting the neural network to its original state, ready for a second development.

It doesn’t involve renewing cells, just reversing the physiological cycle of neurons.

Yuki even remembers, at the birth of this technology, it was considered “a groundbreaking technology to expand the brain’s potential” by humans, and was seen as the prelude to a Superman metamorphosis.

But later, this technology quickly fell out of favor, eventually being used only in areas like neurosurgery, psychology, and the reconstruction of congenital cognitive impairments.

The reason is simple, the enzyme causes too much to be forgotten, and the time cost of retraining is very high.

It is almost impossible for humans to create a being beyond human intelligence with this technology.

Not until the widespread use of metal-based proteins and prosthetic body technology.

With the aid of memory storage devices, you can store your own memory in a hard disk, expanding the brain’s capacity.

But it’s generally considered to be a very low cost-benefit ratio.

After all, for most people, storing memories in a hard disk is no different from storing them in a biological brain.

If you want to learn new technology, just use the hard disk storage.

What you need to give is just a little effort to “adapt the biological brain to the information in the hard disk.”

Just a little.

The biological brain and Turing Machine may not be the same, and so far, no connection has been found between them.

No matter how skilled an Internal Strength Master is, they cannot extract the information from the human biological brain.

But the information in a hard disk can be deleted and altered at will by a true master.

“Do you still remember what I told you to memorize with your biological brain?” Xiang Shan looked at Yuki, “Any information recorded on a hard disk can be taken away.

At least until humans truly decipher the mysteries of the brain, the biological brain is immune to hacking.”

Xiang Shan had prepared for this long ago.

But there’s a significant difficulty with this issue.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, after the advent of brain disk technology, neuroscientists measured and determined that the human brain capacity, when transcribed into a format storable on a hard disk, is about 2.5PB.

2.5PB, approximately 2560TB, or 2621440GB.

In theory, this should be enough to contain the entire textual content of several libraries.

Unfortunately, humans cannot store their knowledge in formats like TXT or PDF.

When humans perceive something from the outside world, a series of memories are generated.

Memories of “a specific thing” are broken down into “information received by the senses,” “emotional memories of the event,” “knowledge derived from it,” etc., stored separately and located in different parts of the brain.

Often, what takes up memory space is not always “knowledge.”

But with the help of the Reverse Growth Enzyme and neurosurgery, Xiang Shan was able to change this to some extent.

He transferred all memories that could be moved to the hard disk.

Then, he used that enzyme on his own brain, erasing everything it already contained, and retrained his biological brain to remember more knowledge.

What he now possessed was all the knowledge needed “to start from scratch.”

What kind of twists and turns did this involve?

How much effort did he expend in the process of “retraining”?

Xiang Shan didn’t remember any of it, nor was he able to recall.

Even this process was inferred based on his own “knowledge.” Without memories, he had long forgotten it.

If he doesn’t retrieve those memories, he’ll never remember on his own.

He also can’t remember the things he experienced.

He can only judge whether he empathizes with a memory and if it’s his own experience by “whether this segment of memory matches the emotional memory in his mind.”

Having said that…

Xiang Shan hadn’t anticipated that he would physically lose all his memories.

This should only be a means to prevent hacking.

Why?

He has fallen into such a state; if the enemy wishes, killing him would be as easy as flipping a hand.

But no matter what, he indeed found himself in the worst situation imaginable.

Within his biological brain, all that remained was pure technique and the “passion” that couldn’t be precisely converted due to technological limitations at the time.

He didn’t know how these techniques were to be used, nor did he know what kind of actions this passion should drive.

All of it was speculation on his part.

From these techniques, he inferred the things he had done in the past and guessed what the fire of this passion should burn.

“The past me was already prepared.

That me knew everything.

He is me, I just lack a little bit of his memory,” Xiang Shan crouched beside Yuki, looking into the distance, “That me knows a lot…

he understands more than the current me.

And our emotions are the same.

So, I trust the decisions made by the past me—how could I betray that me who knew everything?”

Yuki cried out, “But Master, you now also know things that the past you didn’t, right?

The past you didn’t know me, nor the people here…”

Xiang Shan placed his palm on top of Yuki’s head, “Alright, the things to be done, I had decided in the past.

This will absolutely not change.

In the remaining days, if you still want to learn the last bit from me, then…

come here around this time.

Of course, it’s fine if you don’t come, but remember to format the drive I gave you after I leave…”

Before Xiang Shan could speak, Yuki had already left in a huff.

Xiang Shan wanted to call after him and lecture him, but in the end, he shook his head and laughed out loud.

“This kid…”

He stood atop a mountain of trash, atop the debris of warships, gazing at the horizon.

An endless expanse of waste.

Twisted metal covered the earth.

Further away, a small town not much different from a garbage dump.

On the edge of sight, where the horizon lay, a swath of silver-gray vegetation rolled like waves in the wind.

Sometimes he wondered how old he was before losing consciousness.

Judging by his own feelings, he should still possess the heart of a young man.

But it seemed he had already experienced many similar “partings.”

“Tch, the me who didn’t lose memories would never believe that I could actually feel a trace of…

nostalgia and a sense of belonging for a place like a garbage dump.

What’s with the baby duck syndrome?”

However, for a hero, this is perhaps a common sentiment.

………………………

Over the next ten days, Xiang Shan did not see his disciple.

………………………

In a two-dimensional world, a little figure is carefully jumping, dodging turtles coming head-on and missiles falling from the sky.

A surge of chemical energy flowed from Appennine’s neurons.

Even his brain’s auxiliary reflex electrical system kicked into gear.

This was the hardest trap of the game.

There was only a single frame of reaction time.

And the tiny figure’s every movement took more than one frame.

You had to “anticipate” before the trap was set.

Within this “one frame,” the little figure you controlled had to reach the sole safe “point” in the entire field of vision…

—Some old martial masters say that this contains the secrets of external strength contests.

“Clang”!

Just then, a blinking icon suddenly appeared in the field of vision.

Because of the “reminder system’s” priority over the game, the computer experienced a delay that should not have occurred.

The tiny figure’s head brushed against the missile.

Collision determination…

failed.

The little figure fell into a bottomless abyss of despair.

Appennine then cut off the game process, calmly reflecting on what was gained and lost.

At this moment, he should not get angry, because such situations could also occur in martial arts duels.

He should not make excuses for any failure.

This was a type of martial arts training.

Modern martial artists always employ various methods in search of the origin of martial arts, trying to comprehend martial arts from the perspective of the history of techniques.

And there was a theory claiming that the earliest thoughts on the Path of Martial Arts came from the “games” of ancient humans.

Then, with a ding, a brain along with a spine exited a black box-shaped main unit and fell into a prosthetic body below whose skull was split open.

The spine wriggled like a snake for a moment, locating the interface.

Then the skull closed.

Ancient human games, for the modern martial artist, certainly could not be played with a prosthetic body.

Strategy games might be fine, but for action games, the built-in reaction mechanism of the driving chip would bypass the brain, operating the prosthetic body with something akin to a “script.”

For modern martial artists, the “hand’s” speed is simply too fast.

So quick that neural signals traveling a hundred meters per second couldn’t keep up.

To conduct this sort of training on the Path of Martial Arts, one must doff the prosthetic body and use the brain to experience the game’s “challenge.”

This prosthetic body was commonly used by Appennine.

It was a breeding prosthetic body; except for the brain, only the reproductive system was organic.

This particular prosthetic body was their Protector’s proof of fulfilling the “obligation to maintain genetic diversity.” Of course, the manufactured skin with adjustable sensitivity also meant that this prosthetic body could be used for leisure activities when free.

But Appennine had no fondness for that kind of duty-filled “leisure.” He was even more interested in this kind of martial arts training.

The Secretary Officer stood by the side.

Appennine naturally had the events of over half a month earlier come to mind.

He looked at the Secretary Officer and asked, “The ‘Mountain’ I told you to keep an eye on before, how is it now?”