Two days later. In a desert hundreds of miles away.

Sunset. Fire dances in the yellow sand.

Two figures, dragged by the setting sun, walked hesitantly on the high sand ridge, one after the other. Looking at the past from afar, it looks like a vast ancient painting.

"Haven't you found your destination yet?" Sha Bai, who was following behind, finally couldn't help but ask.

Sha Bai didn't know where Mr. Ding was going, and after escaping from Gu Xiu's interception, Mr. Ding had been leading the way in front.

In the past two days, they have gone back and forth in many circles and taken many unjust roads, but Mr. Dante seems to have never found his destination.

Mr. Ding did not answer Shabai.

He walked unhurriedly in front of him with his hands behind his back, pacing in small square steps, as if he were walking in the boulevard in his back garden, and he didn't seem to be in a hurry at all.

"Our supplies are only enough for one day. Sha Bai urged again.

The little compressed biscuits and water that were brought out were hastily collected before rushing out of the encirclement, and the quantity was not much. Of these provisions, Sha Bai used very little, and almost all of them were used to meet Mr. Ding's consumption.

Mr. Ding, who was in front of him, finally replied slowly, "Don't worry. How can a person's destination be so easy to find? I ask you, do you know where your destination is?"

"My destination?" Sha Bai was stunned, "I'll send you to the Black Moon Base, even if it's a business trip." And then, of course, it's back. ”

"Return, where to return, where are you going after returning, what are you looking for, what is your ultimate goal? Have you thought about this?" Mr. Ding asked mockingly.

Without waiting for Sha Bai to answer, Mr. Ding continued, "Don't sue me that you are just a small Black Moon member, running errands around to get a little cultivation resources. Your energy level dictates that you can't be so low-level. You should have a bigger end goal. ”

"The ultimate goal? I didn't think about it. Sha Bai thought for a moment and asked rhetorically, "Mr. Ding, what is your ultimate goal?"

The old man in front of him stopped: "My goal? I want to understand the world thoroughly." But I don't know if I can do it. ”

"Understand the world thoroughly?"

"Yes, if you can't understand the world, what's the point of survival? Ordinary people are a lifelong fool, but people like you and me are destined to have greater goals. Mr. Ding turned his head and looked at Shabai, "I write programs, and I think that I can understand the world by using guò0 and 1." ”

"0 and 1?"

"Yes. 0 and 1. In the world of digital programs, there are only these two numbers. These two numbers are enough to represent one qiē: simulating the most complex real world, simulating the most complex human intelligence, and simulating the most complex human emotions. ”

This time, Sha Bai understood Mr. Ding's answer. After all, Sabeth University's major is also programming.

Sha Bai frowned and said, "Mr. Ding, the program is just a tool invented by human beings, and you can't understand human beings themselves through a tool invented by human beings. ”

"Oh, just tools? You mean that programs are lower levels of existence than humans themselves?"

"Of course, is there any doubt about that?"

"High-level and low-level, that's something that needs to be compared. Mr. Ding's tone was rather disapproving. "IF YOU COMPARE ABILITY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT AS EARLY AS MORE THAN 100 YEARS AGO, IN GO, THE MOST COMPLEX INTELLECTUAL GAME PROJECT THAT MANKIND CONSIDERS, THE GOOGLE ALPHAGO PROGRAM AT THAT TIME DEFEATED THE STRONGEST HUMAN CHESS PLAYERS LI SEDOL AND KE JIE, AND SINCE THEN, HUMAN BEINGS HAVE GRADUALLY ACCEPTED THE FACT THAT THE THINKING ABILITY OF INTELLIGENT PROGRAMS IS STRONGER THAN THAT OF HUMANS. Today, this fact is even more widely accepted. Intelligent programs are already in various areas of society, helping humans deal with things that humans are unable to solve on their own.

If the thinking ability of the program is stronger than that of humans, what is the reason for thinking that humans are more advanced? Is it just because humans have a body and the program does not?

You see, a long time ago, a wise man said, "I have a great patient, because I have a body, and I have no body, what is my problem?"

The wisdom of ancient humans has realized that it is precisely because of the body that human beings have birth, old age, sickness and death, pampering, humiliation, joy and anger. And these factors are the main obstacles that prevent the evolution of human thinking.

Intelligent programs are invented by human beings, and programs absorb the most essential part of human beings, that is, human thinking patterns, and at the same time, programs do not have the greatest worry of human beings, the physical body. This species will evolve much faster than humans. Why do you think that humans are more advanced than intelligent programs?"

Species, evolution, and sand are frozen.

"Mr. Ding, the program is just a tool, not a species! As you said yourself, what the program does is just a simulation, a virtual thing! After all, it is not reality! Moreover, human beings only need to unplug the power supply, and this so-called species will disappear!" Sha Bai retorted.

"Unplug the power? You're wrong, energy is everywhere in the universe, and there are some energies that you can't unplug. Mr. Ding shook his head, "There is not as much of a boundary between the virtual and the real as you think. No one has ever known what reality is, and isn't the reality that humans call all kinds of experiences that come from their senses?"

Mr. Ding said, raised his wrist, and flicked his watch a few times, "You come to see this." Then tell me where the demarcation between the virtual and the real is. ”

Before he finished speaking, a bright blue light suddenly emitted from the dial on his wrist. This blue light continued to spread around the two of them, slowly forming a blue light curtain.

The blue curtain of light is full of numbers 0 and 1, constantly flickering and changing. The light curtain itself continued to expand, and gradually, a blue light curtain larger than a football field gradually formed above and around their heads, completely enveloping the two of them.

Mr. Ding's voice came from his ear, "Everything you want to see, you can achieve it here." You can think about it and give it a try. ”

"What do you think, what can you see?" Sha Bai had just asked, and a familiar world suddenly appeared in front of him.

Linhai City.

Early morning.

Sha Bai is standing on Qingmang Mountain opposite Linhai University, standing at the highest point on the top of the mountain.

He looked across the hill at the school, and the window of the girls' dormitory building could be seen from afar. Lin Fei was climbing on the windowsill of the dormitory, waving and smiling at him.

Sha Bai's heart was excited, and he almost immediately ran over.

This is a sudden change in the scene in front of me.

Well. It's a small courtyard? It's the one behind the antique market!

In a door in the small courtyard, a sleepy-eyed head was peeking out of the crack in the door, was Ye Ning?"I want to eat buns and wontons!Drive my car, go buy breakfast!" A bunch of car keys were thrown out of the door, and then the door closed with a "snap".

Sha Bai stood outside the door, staring at the girl in the door in a daze.

"Everything you see is a reflection of your own thinking. The program senses your mind and immediately makes a simulation. With Mr. Ding's words, the qiē in front of Sha Bai's eyes suddenly disappeared.

"You see that the program in my watch has created reality according to your mind, but if you don't see it, how can you tell whether it is virtual or real? How can you be sure that the so-called real world we live in is not a world created by a certain power in the void based on our mind?"

"Now, tell me, where is the dividing line between reality and virtuality, and what is the difference between reality and virtuality if they give you the same senses?"