1618 Sarcastic
“This is Researcher Obrien. He’s researching what he calls the ‘building blocks of life’, he describes them as the ‘fundamental units of all that exists’. He theorizes that by taking control of these elements, with enough energy, it’s possible to recreate any ore in existence, even long since extinct ones.”
Dyon almost chuckled at the sight of Obrien turning his eyes toward him. It was almost like a child asking for a toy. In the end, he decided to stop addressing Lyla, it seemed his little scheme had worked.
“In my world these building blocks were once known as atoms. It was later that we decided that even atoms had their own individual parts and that, even further than that, the protons, neutrons and electrons that made up atoms had an even more basic building block as well… called quarks.
“The issue is that their strengths are incredibly difficult to grasp. My world was only just beginning to grasp this ability before it was destroyed. In fact, I have access to miniaturization technology that was able to construct and deconstruct based on these blocks. Why don’t you just ask me what you want to know.”
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“I’ve been working all of my life to try and isolate these building blocks, but they never seem to act in the way I want. No… It seems as though the function completely differently depending on whether I’m observing them or not.”
Dyon smiled. “Your answer can be summed up in a single word…”
Obrien’s fists clenched tightly as he stared at Dyon more fervently than a man seeing a beautiful woman for the first time in centuries. Can all of his troubles really be solved with one word? It seemed hard to believe.
“Probability.”
Obrien nearly collapsed where he stood. The single word was so fierce that he began to weep just like Ton, Curie and Kline before him. By now, even Lyla, Zaire, Amphorae and Granny Celest were stunned. Was this really the same group of people? What was happening?
However, Obrien was lost in his own world. That was it, what he was looking for this whole time. The building blocks had a definite location when he wasn’t observing them, but when he was, their location was dependent on a certain probability correlated with the larger atom they were a part of and their energy signature. So many years of toil, boiled down to a single word.
[Author’s Note: Not really necessary to understand this, but atoms can act as particles and waves. When it acts as a wave, its location is dependent on a formula which coincides with a probability of it being in any given space. Obrien had trouble isolating them because he didn’t understand this principle. Don’t grapple with the idea too hard, I’m taking a bit of creative freedom here, lmao.]
“Your research will be very useful to me as well, Researcher Obrien. My world was limited in the chemicals we could create, but… You can break that limit.”
Dyon was right. His mortal world’s periodic table was incredibly limited. In addition, many of the later created or observed chemicals were unstable. Originally, they concluded that this was their limit, but Dyon suddenly understood different. The reason the martial world had so many ores and novel chemicals his mortal world didn’t was because it had additional stabilizers his world didn’t: qi.
If Obrien pushed his research forward, he really might reach a point where he could recreate any ore in existence. All that was limiting him was the key Dyon just gave him.
“This is Researcher Lei. She believes that the human mind and body, and even that of beast’s, have limits that can never be broken. Her research is tailored toward creating a hive mind capable of competing and replacing humans in various ways.”
“Artificial intelligence?” Dyon raised an eyebrow. There was quite a large school of thought in Dyon’s home world that warned of the dangers of AI. In the martial world, this potential danger was likely even more possible.
In truth, some forms of this pseudo intelligence were already seen. For example, Dyon had puppets that could fight without his input. But, their function was held to reading and reacting within battle, it was a much smaller scope than what Lei was proposing.
As for the “hive mind” portion of the dream, Dyon would likely have to disappoint Lei… The Mortal Network was one step ahead of her. However, Dyon decided to give her a chance.
“Researcher Lei, how would you feel if, in your absence, a hive mind was already created.”
Researcher Lei trembled, biting her lip.
“One of my wives has created a Network that has currently taken root throughout the whole of the tower quadrants. We call it the Mortal Network…” Dyon slowly explained the abilities of Clara’s invention. However, instead of becoming disappointed, Researcher Lei and her team grew more and more anxious and fervent.
“W-we… We can make it better!” She finally squeezed out.
Dyon smiled. He refrained from saying something sarcastic about how he thought they didn’t want to participate in his wars. He wasn’t the type of individual to stomp on the ideals of others, especially when those ideals were so noble and pure.
He had to admit, he was taking advantage of them. Their one weakness was their love for their research. Him giving them successive breakthroughs and helping them shatter walls that had stalled them for so long was akin to him luring children with candy.
But, Dyon knew that as a leader with the hopes and dreams of so many on his shoulders, he didn’t have the luxury of not being shameless.
“How will you make it better?”
“If what you’ve explained is accurate, the energy expenditure of the Mortal Network is excessive. What your world calls… ‘coding language’, I believe is what you said it was named, isn’t as efficient as an array-based approach. If you used formation theory as your ‘software’, the cost of upkeep would plummet to less than 10% of what it currently is, we can also make it faster as well.”
Dyon listened silently, nodding his head.