The Mechanic [BL]

[3]

Chapter 3 - Lost Paradise (3)

The technological breakthrough of integrating organisms and machines occurred a hundred years ago, when women achieved absolute control of the world. However, human society had always rejected the mechanisation of the human brain, probably because of various ethical issues, such as whether a human being replaced with a mechanical brain could still be considered a human being and other such philosophical issues involving the definition of human beings. Eden also seemed to have no intention of promoting the mechanisation of human beings, so even if another hundred years had passed, there had been no breakthroughs with manufacturing this brain mechanisation technology.

Eden hadn't expected it, but this technology had developed by leaps and bounds in Eden's only blind spot - Lost Paradise.

Zhang Xun's teacher, Stanley Hogan, was the first to make a technological breakthrough. Unfortunately, he suffered a heart attack at the age of fifty-one and passed away before he could even be rescued. Zhang Xun, who was only in his early twenties at the time, took over all the research work of his teacher. He stayed at home and slept only three or four hours a day for eight years, and finally succeeded in producing the first mechanical brain that had autonomous consciousness. This brain wasn't composed of just silicon and metal, but used a modified chimpanzee brain as the foundation, retaining part of the middle and posterior frontal lobes, as well as the cerebellum and brainstem, which facilitated communication between the artificial brain and the original body and reduced the chances of rejection. The "soul-storing" prefrontal lobe was then completely replaced with a machine made of silicon and metal. The completed brain successfully survived in the body of that chimpanzee, which was now used as a mascot by soldiers in Lost Paradise to help carry heavy objects or deal with dangerous situations.

After Zhang Xun's success, they began to make a God Descent Plan. If they want to defeat the god, they must have their own god.

They wanted to imprison God in the body of a man who, like them, was defined as "dangerous" and "sinful."

Zhang Xun typed a series of instructions in the window and a door in the warehouse slowly opened, revealing a pure white laboratory. Countless cables stretched out in all directions like cobwebs and the centre of the cobwebs was connected to the brain of a "man".

It was the "corpse" of a young man who had been made brain-dead in a recent fight, but had been forcibly resuscitated using a pacemaker and a ventilator to keep blood flowing in his body. The male corpse was twenty-four years old, with a very handsome face and a tall and strong physique. Only his right arm had been replaced with a mechanical arm, and his heart has been replaced by a mechanical heart due to a congenital disease. All other parts were still intact.

Zhang Xun had worked with a surgeon to remove the corpse's prefrontal lobe and hippocampus and replace it with an artificial brain that carried Eden's core programs and a super storage hard drive made with nano-atomic technology that served as a database. Therefore, at this time, the "brain" was half exposed in the cranial cavity and the part that was the soul of a "human being" had been completely replaced by a machine. In this moment, the more primitive hindbrain lobe, part of the midbrain lobe and the cerebellum, were being preserved and soaked in a layer of cerebrospinal fluid, which meant that the instinctive behaviours and perception abilities of a human wouldn't be affected.

This meant the "greatest" AI of all time, the always rational and always perfect Eden, would be trapped in a man's body and feel the same hunger, cold, fear, and anger as ordinary men.

Zhang Xun started connecting data cables to different ports. At his request, there was no assistant by his side and he had to do everything himself, which was a little bit chaotic. Eden was quiet the whole time and didn't even try to stop him.