Although Huo Yaowen was reluctant in his heart, in the face of the encouragement of Anna, Teacher Zhang, Professor Luke and others, he thought about it and finally nodded and agreed, anyway, he just took the brain in a jar as the topic of this lecture, and when the time comes, it will be a big deal to continue to tell the story of the Matrix.

A few days later, on the eve of the conclusion of the 14th World Congress of Philosophy, the organizers invited Huo Yaowen to be the keynote speaker in a small auditorium at the University of Vienna, which could only accommodate 500 people.

Backstage, Anna helped Huo Yaowen sort out the tie on his chest, patted some messy dust on his shoulder, and said, "Don't be nervous Evan, this is the same as you usually attend classes in the classroom, if someone asks a question, you answer the question." ”

"Whew. ”

Huo Yaowen breathed a sigh of relief, smiled and said, "This is not a small symposium, didn't it say that there are only a few dozen people? Why did it suddenly become five hundred!"

"Who knows?" Anna shrugged, glanced at the busy organizer staff nearby, and muttered in a low voice: "Anyway, Evan, you have to work hard to speak well, this is your chance, you must know that Professor Luke is not qualified to give a lecture alone at the philosophical conference." ”

At this time, the staff walked over quickly and said to Huo Yaowen: "Mr. Evan, the people in front of you are already full, it's time for you to play." ”

"I see. Huo Yaowen nodded in response, then turned sideways towards her and said, "Thank you for your encouragement, Anna." ”

"If you want to thank me, give a good speech. Alright, it's time for you to play, I'll give you encouragement at the front!"

With that, Anna gestured encouragingly.

"Hmm. ”

Huo Yaowen nodded, took a deep breath, followed behind the staff, and went straight through the aisle to the front of the auditorium.

Huo Yaowen was a little dizzy when he found that there was a crowd of people sitting in front of him, but in just a few seconds, the whole person calmed down and strode towards the stage of the speech.

"Bang Bang Bang ......"

I don't know who took the lead in applauding, and all of a sudden, more than 500 people in the audience applauded in an instant, regardless of whether they were applauding in their hearts or not, at least Huo Yaowen was more calm after hearing the applause.

Huo Yaowen walked to the center of the stage, as usual in the classroom, raised his hand slightly to signal the scene to be quiet, and soon when the applause disappeared and the auditorium was quiet, he pursed his lips and said: "Good afternoon, everyone, I'm Evan Huo, I think everyone has heard about the topic of brains in a jar recently, and discussed it, although this was proposed by me, but when the organizer invited me to do this symposium, I refused, I don't think I can have the ability to complete this task......"

The opening remarks were relatively decent, and Huo Yaowen didn't want to use any special way to attract people's attention, and after finishing the speech, he started the theme of this speech, the brain in the jar.

“…… I don't know how many of you here know about computers, so I'll just briefly mention here that in 1889, the American scientist Herman Holley developed an electric tabulator based on electricity to store computing data......"

After briefly talking about the history of computers, Huo Yaowen said: "After talking about computers, let's talk about the doubts in the brain in the jar, as early as thousands of years ago, Zhuangzi of the Taoist school, a household name in China, once raised a similar doubt, that is, Zhuang Zhou Mengdie, I don't know how many people here have seen or understood."

One afternoon, when Zhuangzi was taking a nap, he dreamed that he was a butterfly, and everything in the dream was like a dream, as if Zhuangzi himself was a butterfly, but after waking up, Zhuangzi realized that it was just a dream, but through this dream, Zhuangzi had doubts, wondering whether he had become a butterfly or a butterfly. ”

There are many similar stories and ideas, such as the Hindu Maya, the world is created by "Brahma" through its magical power, so it is unreal and just an illusion, Plato's cave allegory, where a group of prisoners are trapped in the cave for countless years, and the prisoners think he is real in the face of an illusory shadow, and Descartes's demon theory, the world is created by demons, and all the physical chemistry and other things are designed to deceive us human beings. ”

"These stories can be said to be the prototype of the brain in a jar!"

"Having said that, let's return to the question itself, before I brought up this brain-in-a-jar, a friend asked me, if the brain-in-a-vat is real, and all of us now, including all of you, when listening to me say this, when you are sure that you are not a brain-in-a-jar, the question arises: How can you be sure that this is not the information that the "brain in a vat" has instilled in your brain to make you believe that you are in the real world? And the real truth is that your brain is still floating in the nutrient solution, and your body is already full of maggots. ”

As soon as these words came out, more than 500 people at the scene frowned, this remark is generally a kind of sophistry, but if you look at it from an objective point of view, no one can refute it, after all, no one can understand what the nature of the world is, you can't explain or you can't explain whether you are a brain in a vat, because you are not the mad scientist, so you are not an omniscient and all-powerful God.

"If you can't refute whether you are in the real world, after you are still not sure that you are a brain in a jar, the second terrifying question arises, why did the "brain in a jar" let you come to the scene to listen to me talk about the "brain in a jar"?

Huo Yaowen paused for a few seconds, watched the scene be quiet, and then continued: "There is only one answer!" The "brain in the jar" is comforting you, it tells you that you are only in the state of the brain in the jar, your body has existed in this world, you have experienced the joy of making friends, you have experienced the shyness and beauty of youth, and you have experienced falling in love with your lover! Although you have been cut off by a mad scientist and survived in an alternative way, you have indeed experienced these beautiful things. But ......"

Huo Yaowen made a big turn: "But if the truth is that you are indeed not in the state of a brain in a vat, but in a more unacceptable state! That is, you have never existed in the real world at all! You are just a string of similar words or computer programming code, used for their experiments, lower than ants, cheaper than air!" The world we know, the technology and civilization we have created are all just the product of the experiments of those mad scientists, and everything I am talking about and hearing is just a memory, a program, that the mad scientist has entered into our consciousness. ”

With Huo Yaowen's little bit of narration, the terrifying remarks of the brain in the jar made the five hundred people present have different doubts.

Soon, after the lecture was finished, when it was time for the Q&A, a slightly balding man stood up and asked, "Mr. Evan, the two questions you just said were raised by you personally, so if you think about it from a different angle, are you a loophole in this program?"

Huo Yaowen was stunned, he didn't expect this bald man to know the program vulnerability, you must know that the computer in the United States is only the third generation, and it will not be until the 70s that the word vulnerability is not a professional computer researcher, so it is unlikely to be proposed.

But he didn't dwell on this, but said: "Maybe it's not a loophole, but a setting that the mad scientist wants to re-enter, I just mentioned Zhuang Zhou Mengdie, Hindu Maya and other ideological issues, these are all predecessors, maybe I want to use me to re-propose this procedure in a modern way." ”

Huo Yaowen's words made the bald man frown.

Someone else stood up and asked, "Mr. Evan, can you answer if the brain in the jar really exists?"

Huo Yaowen shook his head and said: "I discussed this topic with my friends before, and the answer I gave was that whether the objective world we know exists, whether it is true or not, and whether it is true or not, are all wrong, they are two sides of the same error, we don't know whether we are in the real world, and we can't conclude that we are in the world of brains in a vat." ”

"Mr. Evan, may I ask ......?"

"Mr. Evan, I have a question......"

The speech lasted for an hour and a half, the first hour was the content of Huo Yaowen's speech, and the second half hour was all questions from the people present.

Although Huo Yaowen's answers were swaying from side to side, not affirming or negative, it still made the more than 500 people who came to listen to the speech at the scene have a deeper impression of the thought of the brain in the jar, after the publication of the previous paper, it made many people curious, but they just thought it was an ordinary ideological problem, but in the face of Huo Yaowen's almost irrefutable speech, it made hundreds of people present fall into it, and it was difficult to extricate themselves in a short time.

Huo Yaowen's speech was quickly disseminated by more than 500 people present, and was even transcribed by some reporters present and sent back to their respective companies.

The two questions he raised have attracted the attention of many philosophers, but compared with the topic of "saving his girlfriend or saving his mother", it is still a lot inferior, after all, ordinary people don't care whether they are real or a life like a brain in a jar, just eat and drink.

On the last day before the end of the World Congress of Philosophy, James Howard, professor of philosophy at the University of London, invited him to give a lecture at the University of London on the question of the brain in a jar for philosophy students.

In this regard, Huo Yaowen shook his head and refused, there are still many things to deal with in Hong Kong, and there is no time to pass for the time being.

On the eve of Fok Yaowen's flight back to Hong Kong, the idea of the brain in a jar has become a favorite topic of professors at Harvard University, Cambridge University, University of London, Oxford University, Yale University, and many other world-renowned universities.

The previous psychology expert Fromis once again published an article in the journal "Top 10 ways to test if you are real." ”

In addition, many world-renowned brain medicine experts and professors have written long papers in international medical journals on the hypothesis of brain wave transmission proposed in the brain in a vat, roughly believing that technology has a way to manipulate brain waves to make people's brains form various fantasies.

As the proposer of the brain in a jar, the name Evenhoo has gained a lot of fame in many countries around the world, but he still only knows his name.

On the contrary, it was Mark of Bantan Book Publishing Company, when he accidentally saw Evan Huo mentioned in the newspaper, he couldn't help but think of Huo Yaowen, after all, he knew that Huo Yaowen was a philosophy teacher, in order to verify the guess in his heart, Mark sent a telegram directly to Hong Kong, wanting to ask if Huo Yaowen was true.

Two days later.

Outside Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport, several directors of the school drove to pick up Huo Yaowen and others.

Originally, Huo Yaowen was going to go back behind the car arranged by the school, but he found that his uncle Zhang Zhide was waiting for him outside the airport in the car, and he also said goodbye to the principal and Teacher Zhang, and walked over quickly.

Huo Yaowen got into the car and asked his uncle in the driver's seat, "Uncle, why are you here?"

Zhang Zhide turned around and said, "I asked Director Huang before, and he said that if you go back to Hong Kong today, I will drive to pick you up." ”

Huo Yaowen nodded: "Oh, okay, I just want to go back to the publishing house, you take me over." ”

Zhang Zhide said while starting the engine: "It just so happens that Editor-in-Chief Wu has been talking about you in the past few days, and Manager Zhu has also begun to plan the promotion of the tutorial book, so you can take a look at it in the past." ”

......

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