Shirakawa has thought about a very serious question, that is, after the body has been changed from a human to a dragon, he is still not himself.

The conclusion is that he is still himself, and his memories, the experiences he has collected since he was a child, and the way he thinks about problems have not changed too much.

But another clear conclusion is that:

Although he is still himself, he is no longer human from a biological point of view.

This led to a few questions that followed:

That is, does the philosophical concept of 'me' refer to 'me' body, or 'me' consciousness, especially when thinking about this question in the light of changing bodies.

The second question is whether the life form of 'human' is indispensable to the concept of 'me'.

The answer is obvious.

Shirakawa had to admit that as long as consciousness could continue to exist, it was not very important to him whether the physical body was human or not.

Perhaps he would have thought differently when it came to spider ants, but from another point of view: if a wise ant was faced with the choice of crossing over to a dragon or a human, what would he choose?

Think further: For human civilization as a whole, the human body, a life form, is probably far less important than human beings themselves think.

In other words, most human beings do not realize that the most important function of the human body is to support the existence of consciousness, not the other way around.

Primitive human beings increased their wisdom in order to live better and meet the instinctive needs of survival and development, and their mode was that consciousness served the body.

However, when civilization has developed to the stage of modern man, the master-slave relationship between consciousness and body has long been invisibly transformed.

Even the ancients realized this, the ancient West had alchemy and elixir, and the Taoism of the East even put forward the concept of autopsy into immortals, and as a common denominator, the East and the West both put forward a seemingly impossible wish: that is, the soul is immortal!

Bai He still remembers that a certain song company once released a message before the crossing, they believe that human beings have stood at the door of the gate of eternal life, and that future human beings can channel the content of their brains into mechanical containers to achieve immortality in a certain sense, although it is generally considered to be the grandstanding of a certain song company, but what can be seen is: in addition to thinking that it is technically impossible, many opponents think, 'If you lose your body, are you still human?'

Undoubtedly, these opponents unconsciously see the fact that if a certain song company's claim is true, the future 'human' is likely to evolve into a semi-mechanical or even fully mechanical 'creature'.

In 1958, the American Earl Buck invented the portable pacemaker, and in a sense, the human species is no longer a purely biological existence.

The deep rejection and fear of this possible future by the naysayers is that this 'evolution' will destroy all the moral orders that human societies are accustomed to live in today:

Machinery does not reproduce, does not need family affection, does not need all kinds of social relations that depend on feelings, does not need sensuality, does not need sensuality, does not need sensual beauty, is a kind of destruction for society and civilization.

However, Bai He believes that this fear is essentially no different from the fear of the change of social order during the great development of the productive forces in the past dynasties, from the disintegration of the primitive blood clan to the collapse of the township party clan in modern times, and the collapse of the social structure based on kinship relations I don't know how many times in history, do you know that after this collapse, there will be no new order reorganization?

As for the question of sensibility and desire, Shirakawa thinks that this is unfounded, if technology develops to the point where even the mind can be perfectly simulated, what is the difficulty of creating some stimuli to satisfy the perceptual mind? And human desires are based on human survival needs, such as eating and reproduction, so what is the value of their existence when intelligence does not need these? Is it just to satisfy mental stimulation? Who knows that after this transformation is completed, there will be no higher sensibility?

At the expense of this switched mechanical form, the advantages are obvious:

Theoretically unlimited lifespan.

Higher survivability, no need for fussy food, no need for harsh natural environments.

More productivity.

With such a foundation, humanity can completely abandon the lower needs of survival, which Maslow saw as low, and turn to something higher: enjoying and participating in the development of civilization, and exploring the mysteries of the universe more deeply.

Cosmic travel, which is often calculated in light years, is like a moat for human beings with a lifespan of only a few decades, and the complex cosmic environment will cause severe tests to the fragile human body, but it is a smooth road for mechanical civilization.

The deeper ethical or philosophical questions raised by this theory are not something that Shirakawa can imagine, but he believes that if one day human beings are faced with such a choice, it will not be all of them who choose to maintain the biological attribute of 'human', nor will it be the so-called 'vast majority'.

......

So throw this choice in front of the Trisolarans, what will be their reaction when their technology can meet the conditions of mechanization?

Unless there are some mandatory rules in this universe that prevent the mechanization of civilization, this technology is definitely feasible, and the reaction of the Trisolarans undoubtedly confirms this to Shirakawa.

In the face of an existential crisis that is much harsher than that of human beings, the biological body must be a greater burden to the three-body civilization!

With the mood of watching the play, Bai He hid in the cultivation tank with peace of mind, but he didn't expect that the foreplay of this play was surprisingly long, and the opening was even more weird.

In Bai He's estimate, for about seven or eight days, he found that no Trisolarans had entered the laboratory, and even the only remaining guard suddenly left the room one day, and the constant noise outside the laboratory was faintly wafting, and even the ground occasionally shook.

Chaos Era??

Shirakawa began to feel that something was wrong, and at the same time confusion came to him.

Judging from the performance of the Trisolarans, the underground facilities they built are enough for them to withstand the chaos when the disaster is not so serious, many times the dehydration is just to save resources, if the important people can move in the chaos era, they will not ignore the white dragon, an important experimental subject, before the dehydration.

What kind of chaotic era will this be?

Feeling the vibration of the cultivation tank, Bai He secretly worried, could he really let this crow's mouth be right, it was a chaotic era of extinction civilization level such as a three-day volley and a four-star alignment?

He glanced down at the nutrient solution in the culture tank and began to worry a little, the three-body man didn't care about him, wouldn't he want to make him hungry again?

Crackling......

As Bai He pondered, the energy supply system of the cultivation tank emitted a screeching sound, in which the lights went out with a 'snap', all the running instruments stopped, and the whole room suddenly fell into darkness.

The energy supply was interrupted.