Hearing Su Mo's question, Future asked rhetorically, "Another form of life?" What level of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species do you refer to? ”

Su Mo shook his head, and in the darkness, his voice was faint: "It doesn't belong to our current biological classification system, it's not strictly an animal, it's not a plant, it's not a microorganism. ”

Future was obviously stunned for a moment: "I didn't understand." ”

Sumer: "Imagine a creature whose activity does not depend on cells. ”

Future: "Wait, I have to interrupt you, cells are the basic structural and functional units of living things, and even viruses, which do not have a cellular structure, must have their life activities reflected in the cells. Something that does not depend on cells cannot be called a 'living being'. ”

Sumer: "But this is only the criterion of known science, to understand the existence I am talking about, you have to let go of the perception of the 'known'. ”

Future: "Got it, you go ahead." ”

Su Mo: "I'm talking about creatures, whose bodies are made up of reactive metals that can grow or regenerate like flesh and blood, they don't have blood in their bodies, they rely on microcurrents and electromagnetic fields to transport energy, and all organs are cores with specific functions. ”

Future tentatively asks, "You mean robots?" ”

Su Mo shook his head and said: "It's different, robots are inorganic things made by humans, they seem to have the appearance of living things, but in fact, they can't carry out metabolic activities, the body can't grow, they don't have stress, and they don't have genetic and mutation characteristics." ”

"But the creature I just talked about has all of the above, and meets the basic characteristics of all living things."

Future said blankly: "Wait a minute, you let me take care of it. A creature that has both an inorganic mechanical structure and an organic life structure, do you mean something similar to a prosthetic implanter? ”

Su Mo still shook his head: "It's different, the prosthetic implanter is just replacing the body parts with machinery, and its lowest life system is still the original one, and it is still a human in the final analysis." ”

"But the creatures I'm talking about, their life structure is unheard of by humans, and their bodies are not just as simple as machines in the traditional sense, but biomass with mechanical properties, a kind of inorganic life."

Future couldn't help but exclaim: "Incredible! It's incredible! If someone could create such a creature, then his attainments could truly rival that of the Creator! ”

Su Mo's voice deepened: "No, in the future, I never said that this creature was made by humans. ”

Future asked in astonishment: "Do you mean?"

Su Mo took a deep breath and slowly said the terrifying answer: "This creature, like all creatures in this world, including humans, was born from natural evolution. ”

"It is now generally accepted in the scientific community that life originated from a chemical reaction in nature in antiquity, which formed the original DNA strands and a group of self-replicating molecules, which evolved over a long period of time into the thriving populations of organisms."

"And the same is true of the creatures I'm talking about, they weren't created by anyone, they also came from natural evolution."

"Their biologically active metal bodies, highly integrated cores, and delicate life structures all evolved in nature."

The voice of the future disappeared for a long time, apparently in an unspeakable consternation.

She muttered after a long time, "Boss, do you know what you're talking about?" ”

"It's like saying that there is an empty space in the world where various elements exist, and no one has developed it, just relying on natural evolution, and an intelligent computer has grown out of that empty space."

Su Mo smiled slightly and asked rhetorically, "In terms of the complexity of our carbon-based life structures, do you think the probability will be much higher than what you said?" ”

"Aren't we like that? In that open space where there are various elements, in the course of billions of natural evolutions, a beautiful miracle has appeared, the flame of life has begun to ignite, and finally there are those splendid biological populations. ”

"The probability of the birth of our creatures is as slim and incredible as an intelligent computer growing out of thin air in the ground."

The future end was completely silent, because it was only a communication conversation at this time, and I didn't know what her expression was.

Su Mo asked with interest: "In the future, I said such a terrible thing, do you believe me?" ”

"I don't believe it." The answer for the future is crisp.

But she paused, and then said, "Yes." ”

This time, Su Mo was confused, and he asked with a smile: "What does it mean to not believe, but also to believe." ”

Future: "The unbelief lies in the fact that, probability-wise, the probability of the natural evolution of such life is too low, infinitely close to zero, and it is an almost impossible miracle to happen." ”

Immediately afterward, her tone became brisk again: "Believe because if there are no miracles in this world, it will be too boring." ”

Su Mo laughed out loud after hearing this: "I always thought you were a purely rational person, but I didn't expect that there was a poet-like romantic side." ”

The two chatted, and the system prompt sound came from the bridge: "The depth of the formation has been broken through 100,000 meters, and the route is about to reach the end." ”

Future: "Boss, I'm running out of auto-planned paths. Are you really sure there's something here? Except for the various ultramafic rocks, the instrument does not show any "

"Wait, what's that?!"

The sound of the future became stunned, and the detection image was also displayed on the bridge of the ground spacecraft.

The spacecraft's probe can parse the stratigraphy within a kilometer of the surrounding area, and its image is originally a uniform orange-red color, and the feedback is all conventional mantle material.

But at this moment, at the edge of the detection screen, an eerie black color appeared.

As the Earth spacecraft moved forward, the black area became larger and larger, occupying the detection screen little by little like a dark wave.

In the standard of probe analyzers, black represents only one thing.

Future's voice trembled slightly, full of incomprehension: "That's . . . Empty? ”

Su Mo squinted his eyes and said in a deep voice, "Yes, a huge empty space. ”

Future exclaimed: "This is impossible, with your location, the underground pressure has reached the gipascal level, millions of times the standard atmospheric pressure, and the rocks have been crushed into crystalline, how can there be such a huge cavity?!" ”

Su Mo chuckled lightly and said meaningfully, "Didn't you think just now that this world would be boring without miracles." Now the miracle is in front of you. ”

With that, he switched the driving mode of the Earth spacecraft to manual, opened all the observation windows, and headed straight for the hollow.

The process was silent, Su Mo was concentrating on driving, and the future was speechless because of excessive consternation.

I don't know how long it took, but the voice of the future sounded faintly again: "Boss, I thought carefully about the kind of life form you just told me. ”

"It doesn't really matter if it exists or not, there are countless wonderful creatures in this world that have not yet been discovered, and many of them can be called miracles."

"But no matter what other life is, humans are the masters of the world."

"No matter how wonderful life is, it is only a beautiful object of study for human beings, like an expensive gem."

"But if they had one thing, everything would be different."

It can be clearly heard that the breathing of the future is getting heavier, and the voice is also suppressed: "I want to ask the kind of life forms you are talking about, do they have higher intelligence?" ”

Hearing the future inquiry, a scene came to Su Mo's mind.

The flames of war are flying, the stars are raining down, the endless smoke of gunpowder envelops the whole world, and the powerful human civilization turns into clouds, which is the doomsday war 153 years ago.

Su Mo looked deep ahead, and the detection screen showed that the Earth Spacecraft had reached the edge of the hollow.

He replied

"Yes."

【Tianmen Patrol Station of Co-operative Company】

In late winter and early spring, the temperature is unpredictable, especially in the place where the Tianmen Patrol Station is located, because it is located between barren valleys, there is no vegetation nearby, and the ground insulation capacity is extremely poor.

During the day, the temperature is still more than 10 degrees, and at night it drops directly to more than 20 degrees below zero.

At the door of the commander-in-chief's office, the assistant straightened his collar, knocked on the door and walked in: "Leader, the results of the satellite reconnaissance have been sent back." ”

The heating in the office was already turned on to the maximum, and Xie Zongchang was wearing a thin woolen sweater, and he was holding the lid of the cup to filter the foam on the tea leaves in the cup.

While fiddling, he said in a weird manner: "These people really interpret people to the fullest." ”

"You see, when Xiao Yang used to work under me, he gave me the best tea, and now Gao Sheng has gone to the crisis disposal center to visit the old leader during the New Year's holidays, and the tea he brought is here, heh."

The assistant smiled and helped: "This kind of person, sooner or later, he will be killed. Ahem, what then, the satellite results are out, lead you to see? ”

Xie Zongchang glanced at him and said to the desk: "Put it there and talk about the situation." ”

The assistant spread out the documents one by one and reported: "The intelligence department has conducted satellite reconnaissance of the largest foreign armed forces in the vicinity, and according to the results, their movement pattern is the same as before, and there is no abnormality. ”

Xie Zongchang took a sip of tea and sneered: "I'll just say it, every year we are the only ones who use the Saiwai armed forces as sandbags, when will they dare to come to us for trouble?" ”

The assistant hesitated for a moment, and said cautiously: "Leader, I think it's better to strengthen the patrol, even if the armed forces outside the fortress do not move, it cannot be ruled out that it is a smoke bomb set by other forces, and they want to plot against the Tianmen patrol station." ”

Xie Zongchang spit out the tea leaves that he accidentally drank into his mouth back into the cup, and said quite seriously: "Xiao Zhang, I have told you many times, don't be frizzy when you encounter anything. ”

"Now it's just a nonsensical threat, and the satellite has also confirmed that there is no movement of the armed forces outside Cyprus, if we have to be nervous and make a big deal about this kind of thing every time, can we still do our daily work? Isn't it a joke to spread it? What will the leader think about at that time, have you thought about it? ”

The assistant said yes a few times in a row, and flattered the leader's words: "The leader is high, the subordinates are still too frizzy, and there is still a lot to learn from you in the future." ”

A satisfied smile appeared on Xie Zongchang's face, but it only lasted for a while, and his face darkened again: "Has the source of that threat been found, who sent it?" ”

The assistant's eyes looked a little erratic, and his voice became smaller: "I didn't find it, the hacker's technology is very high, and there is no traceable trace." ”

Xie Zongchang snorted coldly and tapped the table with his knuckles: "There are dozens of people in the information security department, and they can't even find out a hacker, I think these people should be rectified!" ”

"You go and tell the personnel that the information security department should improve empowerment, optimize reasonably, play a good combination of punches, consolidate layer by layer, establish a closed-loop matrix, and achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase."

The assistant nodded: "Understood." ”

He thought to himself: It means to punish them for taking a pay cut.

The assistant and Xie Zongchang completed the handover of materials and were just about to go out, when there was a dull "boom" outside, and the entire office was trembling slightly.

Xie Zongchang, who was drinking tea, choked and frowned and looked out the window: "What's the matter?!" ”

The assistant quickly took out his mobile phone and dialed the phone number in the duty room.

After some communication, he hung up the phone and said: "There is a wandering wild beast close to the patrol station, because it is relatively large, there may be potential safety hazards, and the defense post will directly fire the cannon." ”

The office is located at a high place, the angle of the window is just right, and while the assistant reports, Xie Zongchang also sees the situation directly.

On the wasteland outside the patrol station lies a huge beast, about 20 meters long, resembling a giant elephant, with a hard biological shell on the surface of the body, and a pair of long fangs that are curved and thick are extremely terrifying.

However, at this time, its huge head had been half shattered by the heavy artillery of the patrol station, and the flesh and blood splashed from the open cranial cavity to a distance of more than dozens of meters, only the narrow snout was still twitching, but it soon stopped moving.

According to the disposal procedure, the corpse of the beast that has been killed needs to be disposed of as soon as possible, especially this large beast, otherwise it will smell bad if it is left there to rot.

Soon, the gate of the patrol station opened, and an action team drove a working vehicle to the carcass of the beast.

The corpse was too large to be dragged away, so the team sliced it into pieces with laser saws, loaded it onto a truck, and sprayed disinfectant to wash away the blood of the beasts.

In the process, the sound of the previous cannon fire attracted the attention of other wild beasts in the vicinity, and occasionally a few agile beasts attacked the operation team from the darkness.

However, this kind of operation team is fully staffed, including people in charge of corpse disposal operations, as well as blood code carriers who are full-time combatants, and those sporadic beasts have been disposed of without danger.

Xie Zongchang looked at the action team that was busy working in the cold wind, and said seriously: "These people are really frizzy, and they don't know how to ask when they encounter emergencies." ”

"You go and tell the shift leader that you should focus on the vertical field in the future, achieve a rapid jump at the communication level, align the work content with granularity, and synchronize the information up and down to form a common cognition."

The assistant nodded: "Understood." ”

He thought to himself: That's what it means to tell me in advance the next time you meet.

The house is full of heat, and the cold wind is howling outside.

The night was getting deeper and darker. (End of chapter)