Chapter 2 death of mad scientist

At a reception celebrating my award of the Goncourt in 2100, I accidentally saw my college sweetheart. After the congratulatory crowd ebbed, a rough reef was exposed.He was still so unkempt, with messy hair and rebellious, leaning on the counter with a tall wine glass, looking at everyone indifferently.When he met my eyes, he grinned and raised his glass to me. In an instant, thousands of thoughts came to my mind... I walked over and whispered, "It's you." He grinned again and drank the wine in his glass. I smiled and said, "Thank you for coming." I haven't seen him in ten years. Wrinkles have been engraved on his forehead, and his hair has begun to bald prematurely, but the sharpness in his eyes has not diminished in the slightest.He said: "I have expected this day. You have enough talent and enough vanity to escape the temptation of worldly fame."

This is his speech.I said coldly, "Thank you. That's the best message I've heard tonight." As if he hadn't heard of it, he glanced at everyone absent-mindedly.The guests at the reception were all social celebrities and elites from all walks of life, and they were staring indifferently at this stranger who obviously did not belong to their circle.He squinted his eyes and held a condescending sneer.It took him a long time to turn around, and smiled lightly: "I'm actually laughing at myself. You know why I'm here? It's not about your Goncourt. I've worked hard for ten years and I've finally come up with a little thing. I can't wait to show it off in front of my old lover." fan."

I glared at him.He smiled, calm and slouchy.This is exactly his habit, before every major discovery, his eyes will be dazzled, his soul will wander outside his body, and he will not return to calm until he makes a big breakthrough.I pondered for a while and asked, "Where is that thing?" "In my mountain house, three hours away by plane." I said decisively: "Okay, let's go now." I bid farewell to everyone hurriedly, and followed him out of the hotel, leaving everyone's surprise and dissatisfaction behind. His name is Jackal, a very strange name.Just like my name is Bai Wanglei, I don't have the slightest elegance of a lady.We almost became husband and wife in college, a marriage of biology and literature.In retrospect, maybe I couldn't distinguish between worship and love when I was a student.

He is a brilliant genius of the century, radiant enough to make even a self-proclaimed talented woman envious.But unfortunately, geniuses always have some quirks—he often throws out a few strange remarks about no king and no father, and the sharpness makes one's heart palpitate.For example, he said: "The difference between a beautiful woman and a handsome man and pus and blood and dry bones is only the external form of the atomic accumulation." From now on, whenever I admire my beautiful face in the mirror, I will think of his damn words.He added: "Human beings are humane to the disabled and the elderly only because there is excess social wealth to support some waste products. If human beings return to the era of ruthlessness and blood drinking, then the first batch of people who dare to abandon 'humanity' will survive."

I can hardly refute him.Perhaps his words represent a cruel natural law, but this cruelty makes my heart bleed. We ended up breaking up, for similar reasons. It seems to be one weekend night, I was in his doctoral dormitory, and after a while, I fell into passion.The two hugged and kissed, trembling all over, pitching up and down... Suddenly he pushed me away, lit a cigarette, and said coldly: ... "It's a whole bunch of ridiculous fuss, it's all fucking hormones." It took me a long time to cover the bleeding wound.I buttoned up my clothes, combed my hair, and retorted coldly: "Your profound thoughts are actually just electrochemical reactions of neuroactive substances, which are not fundamentally different from the process of a dog drooling at a plate. Jackal, I think We can say goodbye."

I left school after that, and the two never saw each other again.But I can't forget it.I gave my first love to such a geek. His talent is as violent as magma. Once it erupts, it is very likely to destroy himself and the world. For ten years, I have been alone, with a little fear, silently waiting for the thunder in the sky, until today. His residence in the mountains is very simple and does not seem to belong to the 21st century.The house is desolate and desolate, with traces of a bachelor everywhere.There are only two snow-white identical Persian cats playing around us, adding a sense of life to this monastery.I picked up the kitten from left to right and teased it, and asked calmly:

"Are you unmarried, or is your wife unwilling to live here and suffer?" "Marriage is a man's hell." He muttered casually, looking at me sharply, "I haven't gone to hell yet, so you still have a chance to capture a spoil." I retorted coldly: "According to your teaching, I have completely got rid of that nasty hormone. Besides, I am not here today to talk about marriage. Closer to home, where is your machine?" He led me into a cave behind the house.The cave is full of strange lights and silver lights, like entering a science fiction world.That "little thing" crouched in the depths, like an extraterrestrial behemoth, densely packed with various gas-hydraulic electrical pipelines and bionic components, making people dizzy.Only the control panel is very simple, a large high-definition screen, a button, and a row of red and green indicator lights.Next to the control panel is a sealed door similar to a space capsule.The jackal looked at it, and the enthusiasm gradually appeared in his eyes.

"It's this little thing. As for its principles and functions...you know I don't really believe in women's intelligence, even the best of them." He sneered disgustingly, "So, I still start with ABC's enlightenment education Bar." He took out a piece of rice paper and stuffed it into the computer's scanner. "This is a famous painting by Mr. Qi Baishi 200 years ago. You don't need to know its content for the time being. I scan it into the computer, project it into the grid coordinates, and then gradually enlarge it. You see." The screen was extremely clear, and rows of squares gradually flashed.Only when the grid was filled with black did the jackal pause the picture. He handed over a piece of tabletop-sized grid coordinate paper and a writing brush, and said, "Please follow the coordinates of the grid on the screen, and draw the coordinates on the paper. Corresponding squares are blackened."

Even though I didn't know why, I did as I was told.The job is easy because there is a one-to-one correspondence between the squares on the screen and on the paper.After each line, the jackal rolled up the paper so that I could not see the whole picture. After painting, he asked me: "Do you know what you painted?" I shake my head.The jackal said: "This is very important, please remember: you have drawn something, but you don't know what it is. Right?" "That's right." Then he scanned my work into the computer, shrank it to the size of a postcard, and displayed it on the screen.I was amazed to see that I drew a vivid shrimp with flexible and interesting shrimp, and it seemed that the ripples stirred up by the shrimp's whiskers could be seen in the water.

He laughed and said, "A masterpiece is no less than Qi Baishi's old man." He took out Qi Baishi's original work for me, and there was no difference between the two. "However, Qi Baishi is an artistic creation, and your paintings are just simple reproductions." His eyes sparkled, and he paused for a moment, "I think your intelligence can understand the following process. People can use one-dimensional scanning to reproduce two-dimensional Of course, two-dimensional scanning can be used to copy three-dimensional objects. If the following two points can be further achieved: first, there is an accurate particle-level scanner that can accurately detect which atoms and other particles are piled up by an object secondly, a device using nanotechnology that can reproduce the original exactly atom by atom according to the instructions of the former. Then we can replicate any object, any plant or animal—including man.”

He deliberately remained silent for a moment, observing my expression with satisfaction.I was indeed stunned, and instinctively felt a deep fear in my heart about this appalling invention. Jackal laughed and said, "It's very simple, isn't it? In fact, any laws and principles are simple. I'm just a craftsman who has found out a set of efficient techniques. The key to this technique is the synchronous stacking of nano Technology. You know, since the end of the 20th century, nanotechnology has already started. At that time, scientists have been able to use scanning tunneling microscopes to push atoms and pile them into English letters. Of course, those achievements are not worth compared to my machine. Mention. By 2100, the development of nanotechnology has made great progress, and I have taken another big step forward, one or two hundred years ahead of the times. Its level is sufficient for this work.” I recovered from the shock and asked, "Can it also replicate creatures?" The Jackal laughed and said, "Didn't you see the two kittens? Come Liz!" Two Persian cats came running at the sound, jumping up and down to have fun.Indeed, they look exactly alike! I asked repeatedly in confusion: "Can you copy people?" The jackal shook his head very much for my low energy: "Of course! Just walk into the airtight door of the machine, and two identical people will come out half an hour later." "Can you copy his mind? Have you learned all the mysteries of intellectual activity?" The Jackal laughed and said, "It seems that I have not underestimated your intelligence. Didn't I already tell you that I don't need to know what I'm drawing? I just need to ensure that my reproduction is not distorted. You know, any mental activity There are corresponding material changes. Scientists in the 20th century already knew that taking out the mushroom bodies from the brains of bees that know the way and injecting them into the brain hemolymph of bees that don’t know the way, the latter can also know the way. This shows that the memory in bees There is a corresponding physical embodiment in the nervous system. This is a very mysterious thing, and it may take a hundred thousand years for humans to master it. Fortunately, I don’t need to understand the detailed process, I just need to copy it accurately, that’s all. Once the copying is completed, the copying person It naturally has all the thought and knowledge of the original at that moment." I was dizzy with these new concepts that came to me, and the jackal continued as patiently as possible: "There is a completely different way, you know that human beings have already copied many creatures through genetic engineering, and it is only a matter of time before cloning humans. This is a biological method, which is naturally much more convenient and easier. The one I use can be said to be a mechanical method, which is naturally much clumsier. But the former can only repeat a life process, for example, the Einstein it replicates has to Repeat the growth process from childhood to adulthood. Due to acquired differences, when Einstein became the second adult, he was already very different from the first Einstein. But I can copy a mature genius who is completely undistorted. You can imagine What would the world look like if there were a thousand Einsteins or jackals?!" His expression was wild.And I stared at the entrance of the machine in horror, as if it were the bloody teeth of an extraterrestrial monster.I sadly asked: "Do you know what you are doing? You are destroying human beings. You have turned holy human beings into artifacts. You will completely destroy human ethics and morality, destroy the mystery of first love, and the fear of death." , destroy all good feelings." He said impatiently: "The sentimentality of literati! Even without me, sooner or later someone will come up with this thing, at most it will be postponed for a hundred or two hundred years. If it will destroy mankind, it can only be deduced from this-human In the process of development, it is destined to die." I can't refute him, I can't do anything in front of his sharp thinking.I said bitterly: "Can you bother to think about a trivial matter? Suppose a stupid woman can't get rid of the control of hormones and is still obsessed with a madman for ten years, but suddenly a thousand jackals appear in front of her, What should she do?" Jackal was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, "It's easy to solve, just copy another 999 Bai Wanglei, and even their love will be exactly the same." I sighed in despair, knowing that this madman was unreasonable.I turned back out of the hole and walked straight to my helicopter, determined to get out of here.When I return to the capital, I will make an emergency appointment with the president. I cannot let this madman destroy mankind and the masterpiece of the Creator for hundreds of millions of years.I have no doubt that I can persuade the President to take urgent action.The president has been in power for eight years. He is shrewd, capable and well-respected. Some newspapers have already called him "a genius who meets once in a century."I don't think he would have liked such a rare talent hatching a bunch in 30 minutes. The president met me in his study and greeted me with a smile: "I remember a philosopher who said that beauty and genius cannot coexist. Only after seeing you did I realize the absurdity of this sentence." I said wearily: "I will talk about my beauty in my spare time. Now I want to talk about a major issue concerning the survival of human beings." I briefly described what happened.While this is nothing short of fantasy, the president is acutely aware of the danger.Without hesitation, he immediately called the Secretary of State and ordered: "Immediately ask the House of Representatives to convene an extraordinary meeting. The topic is to add a legal clause: Any activity of replicating human beings is a felony, and the death penalty has to be restored for criminals." I begged in a low voice: "Give me a day, please? I want to try my best to convince him." The president looked at me sympathetically: "Well, the law will take effect in a day anyway." "Please don't disturb him for a day, okay?" The president readily agreed: "Well, no action for a day, but you have to get out of there in a day." When I arrived in a hurry, the place was already empty, and there was a letter on the table: And so the jackal disappeared, like a drop of water on a stove. The president asked me to meet again, and I yelled at him angrily: "Why did you break your promise? Why did you send someone to watch him before I arrived? Maybe he wouldn't have escaped if you hadn't alarmed him!" The president said coldly: "Such a major event that concerns the survival of mankind, do you think I will take risks for the love of a silly woman?" I retorted: "You don't want to take risks, but he slipped away from your noses and disappeared from the surveillance of more than a dozen instruments!" The president was silent for a while, and he admitted sincerely: "I don't know how he escaped, what a ghost. We have searched thoroughly all over the world, but there is no clue. You are probably the only link between him and human society , I think he is likely to reconnect with you. For the sake of humanity, I beg you to notify me in time." I murmured: "Notify you to arrest him and hang him?" Without flinching, the President replied, "Yes." I put my hand on my forehead, and after a long while wearily agreed: "Okay, I know my responsibility." Two years have passed, and jackals are nowhere near as yellow cranes. The two Persian cats have grown up and play around their knees every day. They are still very similar, but I can already distinguish "Lise A" from "Lise B". I think it is the acquired environment of two years that makes them different. . In the dead of night, I would stroke my satin-smooth skin and still-tight breasts, meditating obsessively.Where is that man now?Will he go to the point where he becomes an enemy of mankind? He was almost a madman in my mind, but strangely enough, the madman still had such a powerful magnetic force that I never got out of my mind.Until one day I got a call—— Hearing the familiar voice on the phone, I immediately held my breath.It's him!His tone remains languid, sarcastic, and masculine. "Ms. Bai, do you hear my voice? I'm the one who taught you how to draw a shrimp show. Right now I'm..." At this moment, I completely forgot my promise to the president, and interrupted him hastily: "Don't tell me your address, there is monitoring!" The other party actually laughed: "Thank you, Ms. Bai, for your concern. But I said that I will not fight against the law, and I don't have to be afraid of anyone. Come on, please, and I will show you something new, something that does not violate the law at all. .” He gave the address in detail, and I stepped into my private plane without delay. The jackal greeted him at the door with a bouquet of white jasmine flowers, and he was quite a gentleman.Behind him, still crouched the behemoth, the traffic light blinking slyly.My joy was immediately replaced by resentment. Does this paranoid really want to destroy himself and the world before he is willing? The jackal looked at me with a grin: "I said I would not admit defeat." He showed off proudly, "I also said I would not break the law, please look at this new gadget." He introduced to me: "This machine is almost exactly the same as the original one, except that there is an extra exit. Here, it is next door. Of course, the exit can also be placed thousands of miles away, or even in space. Any object, of course including people , as long as you walk into the entrance, after a few minutes of scanning, the original will vaporize and disappear. At the exit, at the same moment, a completely identical replica will come out." He laughed, "Look, this is not a human replica It is a physical facsimile machine, which is extremely important to the development of space. I think the president will reward me with a one-ton medal for this invention." The stone in my heart fell to the ground, but then I asked worriedly: "Is it reliable? Is it foolproof?" Jackal smiled slightly, as if he didn't bother to argue. "Experiment on the spot." He said, then opened the entrance and walked in calmly, turned around and said, "Wait for me at the exit in ten minutes." Then he gently closed the door. A door separated us into two worlds, and I hurried to the next door, where the same sealed door was located.I watched the traffic lights next to the screen flashing non-stop, and I was so nervous that I couldn't breathe. Those ten minutes were the longest torture in the world for me.Will he disappear during the teleportation and never come back?Will it be distorted during the fax process, turning into a monster with four heads and eight hooves... The blinking of the traffic lights gradually slowed down, became orderly, and finally all went out.The airtight door opened slowly, and the familiar jackal came out with a smile. I rushed over and fell into his arms sobbing.He gently stroked my soft hair with his hands.I looked up at each other with tears in my eyes, and (rarely) there was no sneer on his face, and he even lowered his head and gave me a gentle kiss.I go limp and close my eyes. Suddenly there was a door opening behind me, I opened my eyes and saw a person coming from the next door. Another jackal! I was dumbfounded.From that moment on, I was engulfed in sorrow and fear, and I also foresaw the tragedy of me and the jackal.The first jackal (let's call him Jackal B) smiled at me: "I forgot to tell you, there is a secret button at the entrance, as long as you activate it, the original will no longer be vaporized, which is especially precious for preservation. I only used it when it was the original, and my fault was that, like other philistines, I was not exempt from being vulgar, and loved my own body too much—after all, I was a rare genius. Therefore, when I was faxed, the original copy was also Not willing to destroy it." The second jackal (Jackal A) also smiled and said: "He is right. When I was sent by fax, I was reluctant to destroy myself, so I pressed the button by accident. In fact, when I designed this function, I am afraid that it was subconsciously I have this plan, but it’s just not clear.” The two stood side by side, exactly the same, even the wrinkles on the forehead, the corners of the clothes, and the length of the hair were exactly the same.There was the same cynical, heartless smile on both faces.I stared at them painfully, trying to scold, but my throat was choked. Before I could react, a microphone shouted from outside: "Ms. Bai, we have surrounded this room, please persuade Mr. Jackal to surrender quickly, or we will attack immediately!" It turned out to be the voice of the president!I ran out like crazy and shouted, "Your Excellency, please give me 30 minutes! I will definitely persuade him to surrender!" The president was silent for a moment, and said coldly: "Okay, only 30 minutes. Please advise him not to try to escape. I have completely sealed the place with the most advanced equipment and weapons. Please leave the room after 30 minutes. I don't want to feel guilty about killing one more woman." The two jackals still looked at me calmly and slightly mockingly, and they seemed to regard death as home.Looking at them, I suddenly burst into tears! "Jackal, didn't you say you wouldn't break the law? Now that you're a criminal, you've copied yourself, and what's waiting for you is the gallows. You, or what do you want to do?" The two jackals smiled wryly, and said regretfully, "It's only my fault that I (we) didn't design an escape exit on the moon or Mars, otherwise no instrument would be able to do anything to me." I suddenly thought of an idea, and hurriedly said: "There is a way, one of you is a criminal, and the other is a victim. I will be your lawyer, and I will rescue one no matter what." Jackal A smiled and said, "Of course I am the criminal. I pressed the button to save the original." Jackal B said: "I am a criminal. According to the agreement before the fax, the jackal came out of the exit. I just kept the original copy at the entrance." I was stunned by a blow to the head.Their words are true, and I am afraid that the judge will also find it difficult to judge who is the criminal and who is the victim.The only sure solution: hang them all. I looked around with tears in my eyes, and in desperation I tore off my shirt, exposing my shoulders.I pushed so hard that even my breasts were showing.I gritted my teeth and said, "Look, this skin is still smooth and delicate, and the breasts are still firm. I never want to know what elements, what DNA structure, and what hormones it is composed of. Since the Creator created me, I will follow the Creator's will." To live and to love. I long for the caress of a man, long for a few cute little babies to hang on my nipples and suck. But all of this has been destroyed by you! Your scientific madness has destroyed all good things! ’ I sat down, heartbroken, ‘Okay, let’s die together.’ Both jackals suddenly came towards me, and even wanted to reach out and touch my bare shoulders.But the two looked at each other again, and retracted their hands in embarrassment, probably they didn't want to do those "ridiculous frantic movements" in front of outsiders. Jackal A hesitated and said, "Actually, there are ways." Jackal B said almost at the same time: "There is a way out of this dilemma." I looked at them with teary eyes, without much hope. Jackal A smiled and said, "The method is very simple, and it can be realized in ten minutes." Jackal B also laughed and said, "Just make a small change to the machine, ten minutes is enough." I hurriedly asked: "What method?" Jackal A and Jackal B have already started to work, and they said while doing it: "Just a little adjustment to the program, two people can be scanned simultaneously at the entrance, and two identical people can be scanned simultaneously. After scanning, they can still fax at the exit." When one person emerges, it means that we have merged into one." I jumped up and asked anxiously: "Is the method reliable? What if you two are not exactly the same?" The two jackals proudly said: "You can trust my (our) technology. At the moment when the fax was just completed, the two must be exactly the same. Now at most, some atoms have some dynamic changes. These subtle The difference machine will handle it automatically." The adjustment work was quickly completed, and suddenly the two of them stared at the bouquet of frangipani flowers at the same time. They must have wanted to walk out of the exit with a bouquet of flowers in their hands, but it was a pity that there was only one bouquet.The two also figured out a way at the same time. They first sent the bouquet to the entrance, started the fax machine, and a few minutes later, a bouquet of duplicated flowers was sent out from the exit.At this juncture, they have the leisure to do these unurgent tasks. I was so anxious that I kept urging them to go in quickly.The two bid me farewell with a bouquet of flowers in their hands, and I firmly said: "Go in and remove that damn button first. I don't want to see three jackals." The two jackals laughed and said, "It's been dismantled just now. But you have to promise that when a jackal walks out of the exit, you have to agree to his marriage proposal—it seems that I (we) can't get rid of the nasty hormones after all." they said mockingly. I smiled tearfully: "I promise, even marriage is hell for a woman." The airtight door closed silently, isolating the two inside the door. I walked to the exit and waited, feeling both the anxiety of a girl in first love and the unresolved fear in my heart. I hope my true feelings can influence this scientific madman. I was immersed in meditation, forgetting the time, and subconsciously felt that the flashing traffic lights were a little mysterious and sinister.I looked intently, and the traffic lights were flashing faster and faster, becoming more and more crazy.Suddenly a flash of lightning hit my consciousness, I yelled, ran to the next door like crazy, and pulled open the sealed door at the entrance.There was nothing but the man's familiar smell. Overwhelmed by fear, I frantically ran back to the exit and opened the sealed door, which was also empty, except for a bouquet of frangipani flowers on the floor. Then there was a loud bang, a white light flashed inside the machine, and I lost consciousness. It was three days later when I woke up, and I was lying on the bed with a bouquet of bright roses from the President on the table. My heart is ashamed.I realized the cause of the tragedy before the explosion, but why didn't I think of it sooner? The fax machine was fine, and neither was the 2-in-1 fax feature - evidenced by the fact that two bouquets were sent in one.The reason for the failure of the fax machine is that the two jackals are no longer the same person.From the few words they said, I can infer that their personalities have been alienated. Jackal B said: "I was sent by fax..." He recognized the exported jackal as himself and orthodox.Jackal A said: "I was sent by fax..." He recognized the preserved jackal at the entrance as himself and orthodox. Since their personalities are alienated, they naturally have to be reflected in the material form, although I don't know what the difference in the material structure is.The fax machine's computer was unable to combine such profound differences into one, triggering the machine's self-destruction. A generation of talents, a generation of madmen and his inventions just disappeared.He was devoid of humanity by science, and his death was not a loss, but why did such a tragedy happen when he was just awakened by love and humanity. I was tormented by guilt, and I couldn't bear to live.It was I who killed him, and if I hadn't forced him to dismantle the secret button, the two original copies at the entrance could have been preserved—but who can tell whether that is a blessing or a curse. The body of the jackal is gone, and I buried the withered bouquet of frangipani in the cairn.Every Qingming, I will put a bouquet of bright frangipani flowers in front of his tombstone.The inscription on the back of the tombstone was written by me: A genius ahead of his time is the director and protagonist of tragedy. May the Jackal and his invention be resurrected when man is mature enough.