Chapter 1070 - Fragments of the World
Chapter 1070 Fragments of the World
Distributed computing?
When Lu Zhou heard this word, he frowned.
He was inspired by this concept, and he already had some ideas in his head.
“Can you elaborate?”
“Sure…”
There was no reason for Lumiere to hide his thoughts. It was better for him to reveal his ideas since it could give him a chance at collaborating with Lu Zhou.
Lumiere hesitated for a second before he elaborated on his ideas.
“Basically, we output the same electrical signal through a neural demodulator. When information is received by the brain, individuals may interpret the information differently. It’s similar to two sets of puzzles with the same pieces and shapes. If the images on the pieces are different, the final puzzles are different… Am I correct?”
Lu Zhou nodded and spoke.
“Roughly speaking.”
“Then, this problem is actually very easy to solve.” Professor Lumiere snapped his fingers and continued, “The brain is a black box, and we have almost no way of knowing how it transforms information. But we can build a statistical model by recording the inputs and outputs to the brain.
“I think this is a thing in physics? It seems to be called indirect observation? Something like that. Basically, using this statistical model, we can find the difference between puzzle pieces and establish a one-to-one correspondence model between electrical signals and brain signals.
“If there’s a vague picture that looks like a cow, sheep, and horse at the same time, everyone will obviously see different images. But if we strictly start with the three primary colors, then the 44 basic sounds, and slowly use these puzzle pieces to build an image…
“Other than people who are colorblind or tone-deaf, we can build a world that resonances with everyone.”
After hearing Professor Lumiere, Lu Zhou looked interested.
However, he didn’t give an immediate answer. After he weighed the pros and cons, he spoke.
“Interesting idea… Finding a set of instructions that can be correctly interpreted by the brain through a statistical model, having a one-to-one correspondence with the neural demodulator. This is a good idea, but in physics, there’s an idea called ‘more is less’. We treat the brain as a black box. With our current technology, we cannot understand how it processes information. Unless we can download a copy of every user’s neural makeup, but that is practically impossible.”
Lumiere immediately said, “Yes, the brain is a black box, I said that from the beginning. Every individual has the ability to think independently, they are unique in their own ways. But we can find correlations.
“This is why I think distributed computing can solve this problem!
“We just need a large enough sample size!
“If 1,000 people see a puzzle the same way, we can use that puzzle to build a part of a world! The more puzzles we have, the more detailed the world can be!”
Lumiere gave a detailed explanation of his ideas.
Basically, he wanted to find inputs produced by specific neural signals in human brains and establish a one-to-one correspondence between the neural signals and machine language, using programming to build an entire world.
For example, red could be 01, blue was 10, and yellow was 00. By combining the colors, these character codes could produce completely new colors in the human brain.
This was because everyone knew what red, blue, and yellow looked like.
Of course, this was just the foundation. It could be derived even without using distributed computing methods. In fact, this was how Lu Zhou built the blue grass-world that Chen Yushan saw.
The ultimate goal of the distributed computing research methods on virtual reality systems was to extract elements that the brain interpreted as ground truth, similar to the three primary colors. This way, everyone’s brain could reach an undisputed consensus on the VR world.
Lu Zhou contemplated for a while and excitedly rubbed his chin.
“… The method of building a system through distributed computing methods is quite interesting, I will do some research on it.”
Seeing how Lu Zhou had no plans to work with Lumiere, he began to get anxious. He quickly spoke.
“Wait a minute, do you not plan on adding me to your project? Do you really plan on doing such a huge project by yourself? It is impossible… Even if you tried, it would take ten lifetimes. If you can provide all of the research funding, I am willing to give you all of the patents. Please, let me collaborate with you! I promise I’ll be of use.”
Lumiere was willing to make any sacrifice.
After all, he didn’t care about the patents.
Any scholar that helped a company conduct research had to sign a contract that would forfeit their ownership of any generated patents. Only the big-name scholars could negotiate with the industry. Average professors were lucky just to receive funding.
In fact, Lumiere didn’t care about those things.
Not because he didn’t like money, but because he knew that the most important quality of a scholar was their reputation.
A scholar’s reputation was a manifestation of their academic qualifications.
If he had enough reputation and was regarded as a top expert by the academic community, he would never have to worry about scientific research funding.
If he became one of the founders of the virtual reality system, people would beg to hire him.
When Lu Zhou heard Professor Lumiere’s desperate and eager tone, he smiled and shook his head.
How naive.
But he’s quite sincere.
Even though Lu Zhou wasn’t fond of Professor Lumiere’s personality, there was one thing that resonated with him.
If a scholar in the field of biological neural networks joined his research, it would make things a lot easier.
After all, Lumiere was the one that came up with the distributed computing idea, so he must also know how to implement the algorithm.
After a few seconds, Lu Zhou spoke.
“It depends on how sincere you are.”
Lumiere paused for a second.
He didn’t know what Dr. Z meant.
He frowned as he spoke nervously.
“What do you need? Money? I’m not wealthy by any means—”
Lu Zhou interrupted him and said, “20th this month, there’s a Global Artificial Intelligence Application Innovation Summit happening in Shanghai. If you can come, we can talk face to face about research.”
Without hesitating, Lumiere said, “How do I find you after I arrive in Shanghai? Which email?”
Lu Zhou casually smiled and replied, “You don’t have to find me.
“You’ll see me when you arrive.”