Chapter 824
Ultron's Data Ascension
Chapter 824 Ultron's Data Ascension
Every Ultron, no matter what it wants to do, has a few underlying principles that it must follow.
First, to ensure the overall safety of humanity. Pym initially intended it to be a program for maintaining peace in human society, but later modified the goal for various reasons. This is also the ultimate goal of all Ultron.
Second, assisting the Avengers' operations means that, theoretically, Ultron cannot actively hinder the Avengers. (Legion Ultron bypassed this rule using the Avengers Protocol.)
Third, the use of any form of violence is prohibited, meaning that the Ultron program itself will not initiate attacks. (Legion Ultron also circumvented this rule using the Avengers Protocol.)
Ultron's program is based on the above three points. Therefore, directly violating any of them will cause Ultron's operation to crash. Although theoretically, Ultron is very likely to gradually modify this point in iterations, it has not yet evolved to that point.
The five newly iterated Ultrons added new "underlying code" to themselves, essentially undergoing continuous iteration to find a path that could guarantee human safety. From this perspective, of all the known Ultrons, only Legion Ultron and Gabe Newell Ultron truly designed this plan. The former hoped to become Big Brother, keeping humanity under its control and exercising absolute dominance, while the latter wanted everyone to become digital life forms.
Having become a digital life form, living in the virtual world created by Ultron, one can naturally eliminate all violence and even achieve immortality. Even if violence is committed in the virtual world, there will be no problem at all—after all, it is just data and cannot kill people.
And this is Gabe Newell's final answer.
“So, his idea is to get us hooked on games, oh no, the virtual world. But you just said there’s a problem with that, right? People always have to come back to reality.” Harry didn’t understand Peter’s idea: “So, for many people, it’s impossible to give up their real-world power for the virtual world, isn’t it?”
“Ultron has its own methods. For example, if everyone is a digital life form, then scientists can theoretically perform calculations using the unused parts of other people's minds, just like Ultron did. They can even do it without giving up their own brains, for example, turning people into brains in vats. As long as this theory is accepted by humanity itself as not being harmful, then it can be done.”
Peter's words left Harry and Amadeus momentarily bewildered. What did he mean by saying that if humans themselves accepted being turned into brains in vats, then Ultron could turn humans into brains in vats without triggering the underlying code?
Peter looked at the group of guys and sighed helplessly.
"Ultron was a doctor before he was in the medical field. He was responsible for performing surgery on humans, and he never triggered his own underlying code during any of those surgeries. Don't tell me that you can attach those mechanical prosthetics without surgery."
Ultron needs to protect humanity while not allowing violence; conversely, Ultron can act as long as humanity recognizes that it is not violent.
“For ambitious individuals, they can also have enough virtual worlds to unleash their ambitions. Even more terrifying, don’t forget that neural transmission devices can completely modify human consciousness and thinking,” Peter said. “And now, is there any public awareness that this completely unknown device can harm humanity? Only when a nuclear bomb lands do people realize it’s a threat.”
With Ultron offering one condition after another, some people will inevitably choose to join. Crucially, if someone chooses Data Ascension, they essentially become an AI similar to Ultron, fundamentally solving the problem of Ultron potentially threatening humanity. Everyone is an AI within the same network, and everyone is equal. In some ways, this plan is even more "equal," more "inclusive," and less "controlling" than Legion's Avengers Protocol.
But in essence, it is still making decisions for humanity. One is to use absolute force to supervise humanity and enforce peace, while the other is to trap the consciousness of all humanity in the same network. The upper limit of humanity depends on the network technology itself. If the consciousness of all humanity is really uploaded to the network, the maintenance of the network and hardware will probably still fall on Ultron.
Do you expect human consciousness to control robots to do electrical work? What would be the point of them uploading their consciousness? So the hardware will definitely still be in Ultron's hands, which is still a form of disguised enslavement and will most likely lock down the limits of human technology.
Furthermore, we must consider another scenario: if everyone becomes digital lifeforms, then hackers will no longer be mere hackers; they could become killers in that new world. Does Ultron's programming allow the elimination of these hackers? If so, it means Ultron doesn't consider digital lifeforms as human; if not, then it cannot fundamentally deter hackers.
Ultimately, Gabe Newell's Ultron is something that needs to be stopped.
"And if you intend to eliminate them, you either have to shut down the entire world's network and check every piece of data stored, deleting all Ultron data, or you have to logically prove that they are not feasible."
Amadeus said with some concern, “I’m not so sure you have enough ways to prove that his whole plan is unreliable or logically flawed, Peter. For AI, the most important thing is not rationality, but that the logic is self-consistent. You are essentially trying to find fault with a set of logic that the AI considers absolutely reasonable, which is not an easy task.”
"This is certainly not an easy thing, but we have to do it, and it's not like I'm completely without a way."
Peter looked at the camera as he finished speaking. From beginning to end, no matter which Ultron was staring at him, no one stood up and said a word, but this surveillance was indeed real.
Peter took a deep breath, looked at the helmet, and put it on again: "To be honest, just now, after I completely understood what Ultron was trying to do, I suddenly realized how to deal with him. I have some... exclusive information that Ultron doesn't know. If Ultron really designed this underlying logic for data ascension, then I'm confident I can use this information to destroy him."
Let Gabe Newell (GabeN) Ultron, the game-loving creator, be the first Ultron to leave the stage.
(End of this chapter)