Chapter 101: The Theory of the Quantum Soul

Facing the camera, Jiang Zhe raised a finger with a serious expression.

"Scientists have only proposed the birth of consciousness, the composition of consciousness, and they have even found where memories are stored."

"However!"

"They have only described things on a very superficial level and have never delved into one particular question!"

"Has everyone considered this question?"

"In fact, these theories only describe the working mode and mechanism of the brain, much like a robot."

"A programmer injects instruction code into that robot."

"The programmer injects code for walking, and the robot begins to walk. They inject code for jumping, and the robot begins to jump; they inject code for logical operations, and the robot begins to think without a soul."

"Just like when a robot sees two small animals, Number Zero and Number One, it has no way to choose the animal it actually likes."

"It might even search the internet to see if humans prefer Kitten Number 0 or Puppy Number 1, and then pretend to make a choice between them."

"In the four theories introduced previously, scientists only explained the very superficial working mechanisms and modes of the human brain; they did not explain where our consciousness actually comes from!"

"So the question is: do you all still believe those four theories represent the entirety of us humans?"

As these words fell, they immediately caused countless people to frown in thought.

The audience had indeed understood the previous four theories.

The four existing theories can be summarized as—"

The transmission of bioelectric signals within the neural networks of the human brain.

To put it another way, collective activity. These electrical signals also exist within the mind of a robot.

In comparison, the human frontal lobe, temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and other organs that store memories, images, and movement correspond to a robot's various chips, [motherboards], [memory cards], and the like.

An advanced robot's brain is filled with complex computational code and various logical codes for rationality and emotion.

No matter how much they resemble humans, or humans who possess souls.

But!

Can one truly say a robot has a soul?

Absolutely not!

As for why not...

For a moment, the audience fell into deeper contemplation, unable to understand.

Gradually, the live stream's bullet chat exploded.

"That's right, the four theories Jiang Zhe mentioned study the brain's computational and storage mechanisms; those can't explain how the soul or consciousness is actually produced."

"Yes, it's very vague. Modern medicine and biology apply those theories, but if you transfer them to a robot, those theories no longer apply; yet robots are essentially not that different from humans."

"Since they aren't that different, why is one without wisdom while we humans have it? Why is it that robots have no soul while we do? Don't tell me it's because the technology isn't up to par; this doesn't have much to do with technology. I'm a biology student, I know this."

"To the expert above, maybe it's because our biological industry hasn't found the core origin of consciousness, only the mechanisms of consciousness and such?"

"Perhaps your view as a layman is correct, but that is precisely the core issue Teacher Jiang mentioned."

"..."

Before they knew it.

The number of people in the live broadcast room had soared to 4 million, and the number of TV viewers had also surpassed 5 million.

Old Wang and Little Li no longer paid attention to today's live broadcast ratings.

Both were immersed in the broadcast.

Old Wang looked seriously at Little Li, who was sitting on the sofa next to him. "Little Li, is what Jiang Zhe said correct? I mean: scientists have only proposed the brain's operating mechanisms and modes, rather than the true soul or consciousness, right?"

As a college student, Little Li's mind indeed worked faster than Old Wang's.

He thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah, he's right."

"If you compare humans to robots, then we humans are a very backward type of robot!"

Old Wang frowned and asked, "Backward? Aren't we humans powerful?"

Little Li shook his head repeatedly. "Very backward. Our computing power is poor; any random robot on the market now could completely crush our computing power."

"The backwardness I'm referring to is our human computational ability."

"But it is within this backward body that a powerful soul exists."

"The soul is something robots don't have... let me think... it's like... a... super intelligent core chip!"

"This chip..."

Little Li looked at Old Wang and became tongue-tied.

"Speak up, why are you looking at me?"

"You might not understand it well enough; better to ask Wang Lin. I don't know as much as he does."

Old Wang gave him a helpless glance and then picked up the walkie-talkie. As soon as he turned it on, he heard the voices of Wang Lin and Old Zhao speaking in the conference room.

Old Zhao's voice came through: "Little Wang, if our human bodies are so backward, why can they support such a unique consciousness?"

Soon, Wang Lin's voice followed: "Leader, let me give you an example."

"In the future world, there's a living person—let's call him Xiao Ming. Xiao Ming experiences birth, aging, sickness, and death; but he doesn't want to die of old age. What should he do?"

"That's right, he'll find a way to live on."

"So Xiao Ming will upload all the data from his brain to the [Cloud]."

"This [Cloud] is the [Transfer Station] Jiang Zhe mentioned before."

"Put Xiao Ming's brain data into the transfer station, and then turn it into an intelligence chip through the station."

"Then Xiao Ming's intelligence chip is injected into a robot body."

"In this way, Xiao Ming lives on in a robot body—we don't care if he's actually Xiao Ming or not; regardless, he lives in a robot body."

"So, the special thing about us humans is the [Intelligence Chip]. Our chips are unique, highly advanced, and difficult to replicate."

As soon as these words were spoken, sounds of sudden realization came from the conference room.

Hearing this, Old Wang in the monitoring department also had his eyes light up. "So that's it. If the level of a human intelligence chip is Lv99999, then a robot's intelligence chip is Lv99. Is that it, Little Li?"

Little Li nodded excitedly. "Exactly."

Beyond that, the audience in the live broadcast room also gradually came to understand the difference between humans and robots.

Just then, Jiang Zhe's voice came from the large screen.

"Therefore, we humans are special, and that specialness lies in the soul."

"As the old saying goes, our predecessors researched the operating mechanisms and modes of our brains, but they didn't find where [we] actually exist in the brain. You say in the [hippocampus]? No, that's completely incorrect!"

"Why is it incorrect?"

"Because the hippocampus is where memories are stored, not where memories originate!"

Hearing this, the audience pondered, and then their eyes lit up.

It was indeed true; the hippocampus is the storage area for information produced within the brain, like a computer's memory storage.

At this moment, Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and pointed to himself. "And I have found exactly where [we] are in the brain!!!"

"Please look at the whiteboard!"

Everyone was shocked by Jiang Zhe's words.

He found where [we] exist in the brain?

The first reaction for everyone was not belief, but rather a sense of curiosity and a critical mindset as they looked.

They saw some words written on the whiteboard Jiang Zhe was holding.

[Human high-level consciousness is at the quantum level, rather than superficial electrical signals transmitted by neurons finally covering the entire neural network!]

[Where does our consciousness, or rather our soul, actually reside?]

[Within the microtubule of the brain's neurons!]

["Quantum Soul Theory" — Jiang Zhe]

After reading it, the experts and audience in front of their screens were stunned and bewildered.