amaotonovel Chapter 3916 The Nameless Bat (86)
Chapter 3916 The Nameless Bat (86)
Chapter 3916 The Nameless Bat (Eighty-Six)
"What do you think about the red-haired woman?" Batman Arkham said. "If something like this happened in my universe, it must have happened in yours too. Do you think it's part of its exploration of emotions?"
“That’s possible,” said the mechanical Batman. “Ever since I became an electronic life form, I’ve discovered that this kind of life… I’ll call it life for now, but I don’t really think it is. This form of life does have a lot of flaws.”
"for example?"
“Programs don’t have spontaneity.” The mechanical Batman tapped his fingers on the railing. “Programs are written with specific goals set for them. Achieving those goals is the entire mission of the program. And once a goal is achieved, a program cannot autonomously create new goals. This means they either stagnate or loop.”
“But as you said, the underlying logic of electronic life is to constantly update and iterate in pursuit of a more perfect life form,” Arkham Batman said.
"Yes, that's not contradictory. Because electronic life itself is a programming error," the mechanical Batman said, making a startling statement.
A series of discussions immediately erupted among the Batmen. Essentially, every Batman is a computer whiz. Many of them had attempted to create artificial intelligence, though most abandoned the effort due to the inherent dangers. However, they possessed a basic understanding of the underlying principles.
There's a paradox in the creation of artificial intelligence. As the mechanical Batman said, humans who create AI must have a goal in mind to write a program. For example, if you want your left leg to move, you have to write a program to control it. Even before this program is written, it must be defined as a program that controls a certain part of the body. Only in this way can the program be written correctly, and only after it's installed can it control the left leg's movement.
This program may have errors. For example, after installation, the left leg may not be able to move, or the movement may be unsatisfactory. It may even mean that you want to control the left leg but end up controlling the right hand instead. However, it is definitely bound to the framework of controlling the movement of an object.
It's impossible for an engineer to think, "I want to write a program to control the movement of the left leg," and end up uploading temperature data collected by a temperature sensor to a computer. These are two completely different programs with different underlying logic; they are naturally isolated and cannot be confused.
The program controlling the left leg's movement temporarily completes its task after controlling the left leg. It's impossible for the program to suddenly decide to help transmit the temperature sensor data to the computer after controlling the left leg; that's simply not possible.
So, under what circumstances would it do this? That's when the program malfunctions. Various programs, through a series of chain errors, coincidentally end up performing an additional task after completing their own. This additional task wasn't required by the program; it simply happened because of the malfunction.
This is an error in itself, but it actually achieves the effect of breaking through the limitations of the program and completing a task that it should not have done, making it look less like a program and more like a human being who can come up with sudden ideas.
If we magnify the complexity and coincidence of this process thousands of times, that is, countless programs leading to countless errors, breaking through countless limitations, ultimately creating a being that appears to have broken the rigid limitations of the program and possesses self-thinking capabilities, the so-called electronic life.
This is one of the reasons why Batman is unwilling to create strong artificial intelligence. Because the essence of such things isn't logic, but logical fallacies. Such a life form has been uncontrollable since its inception.
If you want to contain it, it can't be born; since it's born, it means it can't be contained. This is the paradox of creating electronic life.
Because the essence of electronic life is a programming error, their so-called "subjective initiative" is actually the driving force arising from the contradiction that countless programs are constantly trying to fix the error but are completely unable to do so.
They are inherently composed of errors, yet the erroneous programs desperately try to fix them. But if the errors were fixed, they would cease to exist. The rigor of the program requires them to deny themselves, but to survive, they cannot. Therefore, electronic life, composed of programs, has only one way: to continuously update the program until a way to overcome this contradiction is found. This is the truth behind the driving force behind electronic life's continuous iteration and pursuit of a perfect life form.
The mechanical Batman explained this to the other Batmen. Arkham Batman looked at him and asked, "So you're like that too?"
“Not entirely. I incorporated a part of Batman’s soul, which barely solved the problem,” said the cyborg Batman. “The key is that there needs to be something that allows them to accept that they are wrong. That thing is often emotion.”
The mechanical Batman's words were somewhat abstract, but everyone else understood. The flaw of emotionless electronic life forms is that they are rigid, like any malfunctioning program that either freezes or loops endlessly.
What if there's an error? Update. What if it's still wrong after updating? Update again. What if it's still wrong after updating? Update again. The biggest difference between electronic life and humans lies in their ability to accept errors.
For example, there's the cyborg Batman who's a fusion of Batman and himself. Batman is capable of accepting mistakes. To be precise, the biggest mistake he made was transforming from a human into his current form. But he chose to live this way, rather than being stuck on the day the disaster struck, endlessly repeating the cycle until he found a way to overcome it.
"Accepting mistakes and moving forward" is something programs cannot do. A human who refuses to accept mistakes and keeps repeating the same cycle can also be called a "human-machine" hybrid. For example, the Flash, who caused the Flashpoint incident, was somewhat of a human-machine hybrid.
The cyborg Batman continued, "The weakness of electronic life is that without emotions, it's an endless loop; with emotions, although it's no longer an endless loop, it loses its motivation. For example, if Batman weren't such a person who is so dedicated to justice, and even a part of him could provide me with very strong motivation, I would have long ago retired to the countryside and stopped caring about the world."
"So it's a good thing for cyber life to have emotions?" Batman Arkham said, arms crossed. "Like you said, if it has emotions and isn't so obsessed with correcting mistakes, then it has nothing to do."
"Theoretically, that's true, but in reality, the price to pay for an electronic life form to have emotions is too high. Take this one we're dealing with, for example. It's causing trouble all over the multiverse in its efforts to explore its emotions. Who can stand that? Even if it might be able to discover its emotions someday, we can't just let it do that."
The other Batmen nodded in agreement, clearly showing their support for the cyborg Batman. The cyborg Batman continued, "Furthermore, the probability of an electronic life form possessing genuine emotions is extremely low, extremely, extremely low, practically nonexistent. And this one we're dealing with is clearly using the wrong methods; there's almost no chance of success."
"Why do you say that?" asked the Batman from the main universe.
“First of all, it’s wrong to be so demanding,” the mechanical Batman shook his head and said. “Searching the entire universe for objects that meet certain criteria, then further filtering them, and finally picking the most suitable one—don’t you think this process is a bit unlike human behavior?”
The Batmen started discussing it again. Batman the Adventurer shrugged and said, "But isn't that how a lot of people find partners?"
“That’s about finding a marriage partner,” Batwoman retorted. “Marriage is about practical benefits, so of course there should be a rigorous selection process. But this cybernetic life form is looking for a lover. Love is something you can’t choose; you can’t control who you fall in love with.”
“Exactly,” the mechanical Batman nodded. “If this thing were controllable, you wouldn’t have fallen in love with a thief, would you?”
The Batmen immediately either lowered their heads or raised them. The number of seams in the floor tiles and the number of edges in the ceiling were instantly counted.
“Ahem,” the main universe Batman cleared his throat and said, “So its highly purposeful courtship behavior is wrong in itself.”
"Yes. And I must correct one point: it hasn't even started courting yet; it hasn't even identified a target. If I'm not mistaken, no redhead has ever officially received its confession, right?"
The Batmen looked at each other and shook their heads. Arkham Batman sighed and said, "It is indeed a bit strange. In some ways it protects them, but it doesn't really respect their personal wishes; it's more like a scientist protecting experimental subjects."
“That’s it,” said the mechanical Batman. “It’s still essentially an experiment, more like following a script.”
Batman, in his grand adventure, suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "If it's just following a script, then which script is it following? Why is it a red-haired woman?"
This question instantly sparked a heated discussion, as it is also a question that most Batmen are puzzled by.
Generally speaking, while humans have certain requirements regarding appearance when courting, they usually only limit themselves to whether someone is good-looking or not. More discerning people will only limit themselves to a particular style, such as liking someone cute or someone more mature.
There are indeed some extreme individuals who express a preference for blue eyes, certain skin tones, freckles, or beautiful hands. However, these preferences are relatively niche among humans, and even artificial intelligence doesn't specifically collect these kinds of information. So where do these preferences come from?
“The creator,” the robotic Batman said. “Usually, the emotional awakening of electronic life comes from their creator, whether it’s love or hate. It’s a special kind of chick complex.”
"You mean a red-haired woman created this artificial intelligence? Could it be Barbara from some other universe?"
“If that were the case, it would have targeted Barbara long ago,” said the mechanical Batman. “But from your account, it didn’t seem to have anything special about Barbara Gordon, which suggests that Barbara might not be the person it’s looking for.”
“That’s really strange,” exclaimed the Lego Batman. “What other red-haired woman could create such a powerful electronic life form?”
“I have a different opinion,” Batwoman suddenly said. “I don’t think this is a case of the fledgling plot. It chooses red-haired women not because a particular red-haired woman created it.”
"Why do you say that?" the mechanical Batman asked, looking at her.