Chapter 15 Chapter fifteen

Not meeting Handel's pessimistic expectations, the water supply in the huge workshop of the machine tool workshop was cut off soon.Each faucet exists safely, but no water flows out.The panic caused by the water cutoff can be imagined, and it will inevitably lead to such a direct consequence: migration.After all, people with flesh and blood will not lie down and wait to die, and a mother who is pregnant with Liujia will not despair.If they are surrounded by fire, they will find a place where the fire is weak and rush out, and they will rush out anyway.To stay is to be hungry, but to leave without beginning is not to be hungry.There is nothing more terrible than hunger.

However, in order to survive, human beings have never stopped the process of expanding their living space: they have come out from the hometown of their ancestors, from the Indus Valley, from the Euphrates River Basin, from the banks of the Congo River, and from the cradle of early civilization. Go down, eat the old continent, eat the new continent, and then cross the interstellar bridge until you eat the new planet. People escaped through the two exits of the factory building and embarked on the long road of the Great Migration.They trudged forward along the red-lighted cavern.Water can be found everywhere on symmetrical stars, because water is a common solvent used in many chemical reactions in the pyramids.When people are hungry and thirsty, they loosen the joints of the water pipes, drink it up, and then go on the road.Later, they smelled the aroma of food, and following the aroma, they drove another 100 miles, and finally came to the food production center of Symmetry.After this period of suffering, people have returned to their old skinny appearance: the ribs on the body are prominent and clearly countable; the thighs have shrunk, leaving only two long leg bones wrapped in a circle of skin.In the food production center, there are only intertwined pipelines, pumps and giant barrels everywhere, most of which are filled with sugar, starch, protein and fat.

A monument should be erected to Innesson in recognition of his heroism.There is a 100-foot-tall fermenter through which edible glucose juice is processed into inedible ethanol.Inison once climbed to the top of this fermenter and smashed open the glass input tube, causing glucose juice to pour down on people's heads like a torrential rain.The deeds of Muhandash Dutta are also worthy of special mention. He successfully destroyed the polyethylene reaction tower.The alluring aroma of food, together with the aroma of meat and yeast, came from not far behind the reaction tower. Now they get enough calories from glucose juice, but the body can't stand eating only that thing, and it's time to eat something else for a change.After all, humans cannot survive on calories alone.But the reaction tower and other huge machinery and equipment stood in front of them like a bastion.In the bastion, huge barrels were emitting acrid fumes of nitric acid, and the warehouse was filled with deadly poisonous gas.And apart from passing through this machine-built bastion, they have no way to approach the place that smells tempting.The wolves from Princeton carefully studied the conditions of the polyethylene reaction tower at all levels, and saw a dense stainless steel castle with some huge bubble-shaped transparent plastic covers protruding from the tower body, which was filled with a series of aggregates. There are strands of smoke wrapped in the plastic cover at the bottom of the tower; the upper plastic cover is filled with high pressure and high temperature, and it contains a light liquid; the higher plastic cover contains another viscous solution. ; the plastic cover at the top contains the agitator, which stirs a sticky paste like liquid wax, and sends it through the output pipeline to the storage tank or directly to the remote stamping shop, and is packaged by the extruder deal with.The paste turned out to be polyethylene, an insulating material, and the tower in front of me is a factory that produces polyethylene.The entire electrical system on the symmetrical star needs polyethylene as an insulating material everywhere.Sometimes a short circuit suddenly occurs somewhere, and the leakage of powerful current sparks blue sparks.At this time, the robot in charge of repairing the circuit will come with copper wire and insulating polyethylene pellets to troubleshoot.

[①The protruding part of the fortification usually has 5 sides, so as to block the intruder from as many angles as possible. ——Translator's Note. 】 After discussing with a group of people including Handel, Muhandash Dutta ordered all the people to retreat behind the high wall and climb up to the high ground along a slope, leaving Dutta alone and walking along the fermentation tank. Rough and uneven welds climbed up.That weld leads to the middle of the fermenter, where the ethanol produced by the fermenter is sent out through the output pipe.There are also wires here that connect to a smart component that controls the production and quality of ethanol.The wire is inserted into the inner wall of the output pipe through the sealing layer of the pipeline, and the sealing layer is hard and strong, which is very different from the sealing layer of other pipelines or jars.There is a seam where the sealing layer meets the pipe. Dutta pokes through the seam with a thin blade from the milling machine in one hand and pries it vigorously. One meter thick output tube to fix the body.He pried, pried, one hour passed, two hours passed, three hours passed.The person in charge of watching the sentry behind the high wall couldn't wait any longer, and walked around the wall to watch, but he yelled back.Everyone was hungry and thirsty, so they had to break open the water pipe to get some water to drink.When encountering a pipeline repair robot limping around, they hurriedly stepped aside, waited for the robot to walk away, and then gathered around to continue fetching water.

After three hours of torment, Dutta's hard work finally paid off, and beads of ethanol began to seep through the sides of the sealant.By the fifth hour, ethanol had gushed out like a stream, and the strong and pungent smell made Dutta dizzy, so he had to turn his head to one side and continue prying.At the sixth hour, only a "bang" sound was heard, and the output tube suddenly exploded.Like a fired bullet, Dutta was blasted into the air and torn to pieces.That scene was like a brutal scene in a shootout movie, it was shocking and horrible to watch. The leaked ethanol whizzed out of the output pipe like a transparent glass column, and shot directly at the tower base of the fuchsia polyethylene reaction tower.The moment the tower base was hit, a raging blue fire shot up from the ground.Ethanol burns.The body of the tower quickly changed from cherry red to orange, and finally to red-hot red-yellow.Immediately afterwards, there was a loud "boom" that shook the ground, and the reaction tower exploded.In an instant, the huge tower body disappeared, and peeling and burning flames were flying all over the sky, scattered for a long time.The overwhelmed maintenance robot rushed over, threw gravel into the fire, and scratched and dragged the hot broken metal plate, making a fuss.When the fire extinguishers stopped spraying and the fire was extinguished, people couldn't wait for the rubble to get cold, so they got out from behind the high wall, climbed up the still hissing rubble pile, stepped on the hot rubble, and passed through the strange-shaped The metal spiers, across the dark gravel hummocks, came at last to the top of the ruins.There, they saw the land of hope they dreamed of - a place where the smell of meat and yeast wafted.Under the arc lights, rows of yeast culture tanks work tirelessly to produce all kinds of long-chain molecules with magical functions and rich nutrients-proteins.

The food problem was finally solved for the time being.To this end, humans can wreak havoc on a symmetrical star in a few hours that is equivalent to a century of natural wear and tear.Amazing human beings! When the living entities of human beings are replaced by cold, inanimate machine entities, what standards of right and wrong, good and evil should this alienated person think and feel?After a period of hard thinking, struggling and trembling, the eight human bodies finally realized that this is a question that transcends human conventional rationality and cognition, and is unanswerable.This involves not only logical judgments, but also value judgments.As far as logical judgment is concerned, there is no difference between the two.If you only look at it from the surface, you will of course exclaim: God!What a difference between a lever and a poet!However, please note that the logical judgment does not stop at the superficial difference between the lever and the poet.Logic will be further examined: an intelligent computer that can program itself (roughly equivalent to a "lever") and an organism that can perform a series of bioelectrochemical reactions that can only be observed under a high-powered microscope (might as well be compared to a "poet") difference between.At this time, you will find that the difference between the two becomes smaller.The footsteps of logical judgment will not stop here, it will continue to go in depth: intelligent robots that can only be imagined but have not yet been manufactured, can choose, can reproduce themselves, have flexible limbs and sensitive sensors, and have not yet been born. The difference between the most sensitive genius "poet".Here, the intelligent robot and the "poet" are nothing more than carrying out intelligent activities through three steps of signal input, processing and result output, and there is no difference between the two.Therefore, it may be possible to engrave such a fair statement on the label of a machine and on the brow of a person: "You can't make something out of nothing" ① that is, you get what you put in.Whether you are a human or a machine, the environment you are in is always stimulating you with various perceptible signals, and you will respond accordingly.For example, a force of one pound applied to the long end of a lever with a fulcrum three to one produces a reaction force of three pounds at the short end.Another example, if you ask the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge about travel notes, he will answer you "Sanadu" ③.It's that simple!

[①Latin, the original text is "ExNihiloNihilFit".——Translator's Note. 】 [②British poet and critic (1772-1834), famous poems include "Kubla Khan", "Ode to the Ancient Boatman" and the critical work "Literary Biography", co-authored "Lyric Ballads" with Wordsworth, created A new period of romanticism in the history of English literature. ——Translator's Note. 】 [③ "Xanadu" is "Xanadu" in English, which is a place name. Coleridge once mentioned it in his poem "Kublai Khan".There is no definitive statement about the name of this place.Some people think it refers to Shangdu, which is about 20 kilometers east of Zhenglan Banner in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.After Kublai Khan made Beijing his capital, Shangdu was still the seat of his palace.Some people think it refers to Dadu, which is now Beijing, the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.It can be seen that the poet did not travel here.The so-called "Sanadu" was actually fabricated by the author of the book, and readers do not need to delve into it. ——Translator's Note. 】

However, things are not really that simple!Totally wrong!After a tremor in the curing tank, the eight people realized that this understanding was wrong.As for why it was wrong and how it was wrong, it couldn't tell.For this reason it has made a rare decision: the eight members are temporarily separated. After the separation, Troppel felt uncomfortable for a while, even more uncomfortable than when the eight were joined together.Life in the tank had twisted his organism.Although his own eyes could still make out the gloom in the lotion, his deformed toenails, and the tangle of wires and switches that adorned his pink, crumpled hands, he had the hallucination that he was completely blind.He thought that the concentration of salt in the curing solution must be readjusted.

Some ion-exchange equations flashed through his mind, explaining to him the wrinkling of his hands, which turned out to be the aftereffects of endless analytical thinking in the compound brain. Jaango Tembo naturally spoke first. "Children," he said, "I have not the last hesitation to feel any sympathy for the invaders of the pyramids. They are heinous servants and rebels, and we must fight a war against them, spell out It's up to you." He said this because the eight human bodies had considered a way to compromise with the pyramid in order to solve the problem at the least cost.

The crowd was furious, and there was a silent buzz, expressing their agreement. "Who came up with the bad idea of ​​separation?" Willie asked, and burst into tears. "Hey! Willy!" Mercedes van der Ren comforted him, "Well, don't be afraid, everything will be all right. We are all your friends." Willy put his thumb on his mouth, but still grasped Hold down the switch.Gradually, he calmed down and said over and over again in his heart: "It's warm here, it's good here." Surprisingly, it was Jin Song who spoke next: "We should talk about the one lying in the Arctic Crystal Palace. That green boy with tentacles. He is older than any of us." old."

"He's dead," said Troppel, wondering why Kim Song would bring up such an insignificant subject. "It's great to be so confident, but I'm afraid it's too confident." Jin Song said indifferently, "Now I'm already immortal, and I'm not a human being. Naturally, it's impossible to know whether people are dead or alive. What I know is that it is a wise move to prepare early so as not to fall into the same trick as the pyramid." Alla Narova said: "I think the pyramids must also feel guilty for killing their master. They stay in the Crystal Palace all day and do this and that. They must be trying their best to bring the master back to life. They must want to do it right. They were also sad, he said." "No, no! Absolutely not!" exclaimed Corso Navarron, "your woman's heart is too easy to forgive. They are demons. They are not saving him, but tormenting him. These sins Damn devils, I curse them forever!" He looked indifferent and unyielding.It's a pity that he can't move his hands, or he must fold his hands on his chest to show his disdain for the pyramid.But what can he do now, he can't move anything except the switch. Spiros Gulbenkian finally spoke up: "Let us, my friends, consider the whole situation before and after. We must fight them not only openly, but secretly. Our underground struggle It has been carried out successfully. Our fellow Earthlings have wreaked havoc on them on a massive scale. Their repair robots are currently incapable of repairing the damage. Dozens of women are about to give birth, the first for humanity. The second generation, my dear friends! In 13 or 14 years, when the new generation enters the reproductive period again, the pyramid will be finished. The fate of this planet is destined to be in the hands of human beings! Of course I am exaggerating But in any case, the number of Earth's villagers will increase rapidly, and the pyramids and their machines will not be able to control them. It is only a matter of time before humans will eventually defeat the pyramids. The half-dead old man! Misunderstanding or incomprehension, human beings will naturally multiply on this planet. They will remove the sediment in the container to build a new yeast culture medium. However, the result of doing so is unintentionally making the refining The coke grains used for steel contain sediment impurities, which will further lead to inferior steel smelted in the pyramid. Our compatriots will also find a room, the temperature and humidity are suitable for human habitation, but it is full of chlorine gas; they will naturally Plugging the blower that pumps in chlorine gas inadvertently cuts off the supply of chlorine gas; without chlorine gas, the production of neoprene on the entire planet stops; without neoprene, oil-resistant liners cannot be produced The weak flesh and blood of human beings, driven by hunger and the need to reproduce, will deal a devastating blow to the majestic and ruthless machine monsters!" "I can't wait a century!" growled Tropel. "Why?" Gulbenkian asked gently. "For—for—" Troppel didn't know how to answer for a while, and finally answered and asked, "to be human again, to walk on the earth. . . God! What are we doing?" Willy suddenly cried out in terror, and Mercedes van der Ren hurried to comfort him. "What are we doing?" Troppel asked again, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible. "We have brought our own people here from the earth for our own convenience, and reduced them to a horde of vicious vermin. We are not saving lives. He is not a fairy, but a devil who does all kinds of evil!" Troppel looked at his companions, and the past flashed before his eyes like a kaleidoscope.For a long time, the eight bodies only knew to accept and execute instructions with certainty. This unchanging certainty slowly changed and distorted the eight bodies, making them gradually lose their humanity and degenerate into a rigid and inflexible machine. "We are machines!" he cried. "Machines as cold as the pyramids, soulless and compassionless." "Yes," said Alla Narova, who too was suddenly frightened, "how could we have done such a thing? Your kind Jaango Tembo, why did you let us go so far without hindrance? " The man with the heart of a king—but an African king—was very disturbed, and he told them, "Look at my heart, and you will see why I don't understand your objections." Everyone looked at his heart, and they understood that he had been puzzled by the assertion that he was "not a god but a devil".In his opinion, this is the most paradoxical and illogical fallacy.For the people of the impoverished and desolate African continent, God and Satan are originally the same person.Only in Africa is it possible to eat human beings with peace of mind, and nowhere else.Siberian shamans would frantically tear off and eat the flesh of those who watched them dance their gods, but had to spit it out afterwards so that entire tribes would not be destroyed by killing each other.The islanders of the Polynesian and Melanesian archipelagoes eat human flesh in defiance of fate, but they also tremble.Only in starving Africa are people more or less meat.So when Troppel says "We are not gods but devils" At that time, Jaango Tembo interpreted it as "we are gods but not gods, we are demons but not demons", so naturally they don't understand what that is and what logic is used.In fact, if someone really said such stupid words, no one would be able to understand. 【①The archipelagoes in the Central Pacific and the Southwest Pacific respectively. ——Translator's Note. 】 Gulbenkian also felt caught in a dilemma and was speechless. Confused, Jaango Tembo spoke the truth: "My friends, it is better to be strong than to be weak. Together we are stronger. Is there anything you don't understand? Who can guarantee You have never made a mistake in your life, and if you go down with one foot, you won't trample to death a bunch of ants?" "You can't take me back any more," Tropel said. "Me too." Alla Narova agreed. "You can't do that," cried Corso Navarron, "Ara Narova, my love! Tropel, my trustworthy friend! Are you two going to be deserters? Are you going to leave everyone?" Absolutely impossible!" "I agree with Corso that separation is absolutely impossible," Spiros Gulbenkian enthuses, "I'm serious, I speak with reason, and there's no sexual interfering—I do no harm. What you mean, Corso, is not meant for you. Ask Troppel and Alla Narova, how will you get rid of us?If we will, the memories of all will be poured into the heads of you two, without drowning you (personality) entirely! " "Try it!" Troppel growled. "Try it!" Alla Narova roared too. "I hope it's not because of Willy," said Mercedes van der Ren apologetically, "without us he'd be lost and hopeless." Jin Song cheered up and said, "Okay, okay, I happened to watch the excitement. I like to watch fools fight. It's better to mess everything up." Troppel and Alla Narova first felt the attack from Jaango Tembo. The opponent tried to scramble their memories, slowly infiltrating false memory signals into their brains: the dazzling desert and Gobi engulfed the snow-capped prairie.Earth's last elephant, Tembo's fetish, the giant beast with tusks, finally slumped in the streets of Durban due to old age and infirm joints, lying on his side, indistinct Moaning, dying... Princeton and Galla faded in Tropel's memory, Ness and the blind old man faded in Ala Narova's memory.Then came Corso Navarone.His thoughts were acerbic, mixed, and flashy, and he advised them both to be as bold, tenacious, united, heroic, and self-respecting as he was.Then came Spiros Gulbenkian, who was never one to stir things up and keep things safe, but only to splash small memories of the past in both of their minds.One day six years ago in Paris, he won the franchise to collect tolls on the Ninth Pont.This move laid the economic foundation for his future development.Another night he blew up the walls of the Five Precepts Prison in Frankfurt and freed one of his accountants—who, of course, had been convicted of wolf behavior. Another afternoon, between the giant paws of the sphinx, he bartered French turnips for African grains with a merchant named Shalom. [①A city in central Germany, located on the banks of the Rhine. ——Translator's Note. 】 [②The giant sphinx statue near the pyramids of Giza, Egypt. ——Translator's Note. 】 The muddy waters of memory poured by Mercedes van der Ren are an internal monologue: Poor Willie, he really can't figure out anything, but he feels better when everyone is together because he forgets that he always No idea, maybe his condition is improving, do you believe it?Maybe next time when we're all together again, he'll understand a little bit, wouldn't that be nice?Glenn, Allah, can't you two let it go for poor Willie?Then, the unexpected happened: Willie spoke.He said: "You'd better take remedial measures as soon as possible. When you broke into the Antarctic library, you have already caused a big disaster. But you haven't been able to allow yourself to poke such a big hole. I don't understand the situation. May know." "Willie!" screamed Mercedes, delighted.The crowd became agitated, and the attack on Troppel and Alla Narova went unnoticed. Willie went on, "No, I'm not Willie. I've got to say, I've killed Willie, and I'm not going to come back to life. I'm sorry, but I murdered and replaced Willie in this trade-in. , but I had to. I'm what your friends call the 'green boy with tentacles'." "That's what I said." Jin Song said. "Yes, ma'am," said Willie, "we used to take you humans, run you as part of a machine, and then let the machine run itself for its own needs. Before that, the human world was a magical and Charming South Africa." "How can you speak our language?" Corso Navarone asked feebly. Willie said full of longing: "We used to have more than two hundred languages, some were good at expressing one thing, and some were good at expressing that thing. We want to master all these languages, so why is it difficult to master one more language? We are smart. , God, we're so smart! Well, listen to me, when it comes to the Antarctic library, you're in trouble." In this regard, it is still difficult for everyone to fully understand. "The Universal Cone - what the Earthlings call a 'pyramid' - has been waiting for the return of the companion who was placed on your planet. Now their companion has returned, and a party of eight is coming here to complete a Big deal: total destruction of this tank. I wish you all the best of luck. Regardless, you humans are a terrific and respectable species." "Save us." Gulbenkian begged in a panic. "I can't," he said, "I'm dead." When everyone heard this, it was as if they were in a fog for five miles, and they didn't know why.