Baihe thought about a very serious question, that is, after changing his body from human to dragon, is he still himself?

The conclusion is that he is still himself, because perhaps due to the structure of the brain and the secretion of hormones, his way of thinking may have changed, but one of the most basic things has not changed, that is, the conscious subject of "I" who inherited Baihe's past experiences and still thinks independently has not changed.

From this perspective, "I" is still "I".

But another very clear conclusion is:

Although I am still myself, from a biological perspective, I am no longer a human being.

This made Baihe start to think about several questions that followed:

That is, does the concept of "I" in philosophy refer to "my" body or "my" consciousness? Especially when thinking about this question based on the change of body.

The second question is whether the life form of "human" is indispensable to the concept of "I"?

The answer is obvious.

Baihe had to admit that as long as the consciousness can continue to exist, it is not very important to him whether the body is human or not.

Perhaps his thoughts would be different if he traveled to the body of a spider ant, but from another perspective: if an intelligent ant faces the choice of traveling to the body of a dragon or a human, what would it choose?

Think further: for human civilization as a whole, the human body as a life form is probably far less important than humans imagine.

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

Primitive humans grew wisdom in order to live better and meet the instinctive needs of survival and development, and their model was that consciousness served the body.

But when civilization developed to the stage of modern people, the master-slave relationship between consciousness and body had already changed invisibly.

Even the ancients realized this. The ancient West had alchemy and elixirs of immortality, and the Eastern Taoism even proposed the concept of corpse transformation into immortality. As a common point, both the East and the West proposed a beautiful wish that seems impossible to achieve: that is, the immortality of the soul!

Baihe still remembers that a certain music company had released a message before the time travel. They believed that humans were already standing at the door of immortality. In the future, humans could introduce the contents of their brains into mechanical containers to achieve immortality in a certain sense. Although it was generally considered to be a publicity stunt by a certain music company, it can be seen that in addition to believing that it was technically impossible, many opponents believed that "if the body was lost, would humans still be humans?"

There is no doubt that these opponents unconsciously saw a fact: if the statement of a certain music company was true, the future "humans" would likely evolve into a semi-mechanical or even fully mechanical "creature".

This semi-mechanization or mechanization of humans actually began a long time ago. In 1958, American Earl Buck invented a portable pacemaker. In a sense of middle school, from this moment on, the human species was no longer a purely biological existence.

Opponents’ deep rejection and fear of this possible future lies in the fact that this ‘evolution’ will destroy all the moral order that the current human society relies on for survival and is accustomed to:

Machines cannot reproduce, do not need family affection, do not need various social relationships that rely on emotions, do not need carnal desires, do not need sensuality, and do not need the beauty derived from sensuality, which is a destruction to society and civilization.

However, Baihe believes that this fear is essentially no different from the fear of changes in social order during the great development of productivity in previous dynasties. From the disintegration of primitive blood clans to the collapse of modern township clans, the collapse of social structures based on kinship has occurred countless times in history. How can we know that after this collapse, there will not be a new order reorganization?

As for the issue of sensibility and desire, Baihe believes that this is groundless worry. If technology develops to the point where even thinking can be perfectly simulated, what difficulty is there in creating some stimulation to satisfy sensual thinking? And various human desires are based on human survival needs, such as eating and reproduction. So when intelligence does not need these, what value do they have? Is it just to satisfy spiritual stimulation? Who knows if there will be no higher sensibility after this transformation is completed?

The mechanical form that sacrifices all this has obvious advantages:

Theoretically unlimited lifespan.

Higher survival ability, no need for picky food, no need for harsh natural environment.

More powerful productivity.

With such a foundation, humans can completely abandon survival, a low-level need in Maslow's eyes, and instead pursue higher-level things: enjoy and participate in the development of civilization, and explore the mysteries of the universe more deeply.

Space travel, which is often calculated in light years, is like a natural barrier for humans whose lifespan is only a few decades. 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 issues brought about by this theory are not what Baihe can imagine, but he believes that if one day humans face such a choice, those who choose to maintain the biological attribute of "human" must not be all, and certainly not the so-called "most".

…

Then, if this choice is put in front of the Trisolarans, how will they react when their technology can meet the conditions for mechanization?

Unless there are some mandatory rules in this universe that prevent the mechanization of civilization, this technology is absolutely feasible. The reaction of the Trisolarans undoubtedly confirmed this to Baihe.

Facing a survival crisis that is much more severe than that of humans, biological flesh must be a greater burden for Trisolaran civilization!

With the mood of watching the show, Baihe hid in the culture tank with peace of mind, but he did not expect the foreplay of this show to be surprisingly long, and the opening was even more bizarre.

In Baihe's estimation, there were about seven or eight days, and he found that no Trisolarans came into the laboratory. Even the only remaining guard suddenly left the room one day, and there was a constant noise outside the laboratory, and even the ground occasionally shook.

Chaotic Era? ?

Baihe began to feel that something was wrong, and at the same time, he was confused.

Judging from the performance of the Trisolarians, the underground facilities they built were enough for them to survive the chaotic era when the disasters were not so serious. In many cases, dehydration was just to save resources. If important people could move around in the chaotic era, they would not ignore Bai Long, an important experimental subject, before dehydration.

What kind of chaotic era would this be?

Feeling the vibration of the culture tank, Bai He was secretly uneasy. Could it be that his bad mouth was right, that it would be a chaotic era with extinction of civilizations such as three suns in the sky and four stars in a row? Could he be unscathed in such a disaster?

He looked down at the nutrient solution in the culture tank and began to worry. If the Trisolarians ignored him, wouldn't they let him starve again?

Crack...

While Bai He was thinking, the energy supply system of the culture tank made a harsh sound. In this sound, the lights went out with a "click", and all the running instruments stopped, and the whole room suddenly fell into darkness.

The energy supply was interrupted.