novelraw Chapter 208 The Concept of Immortality
Chapter 208 The Concept of Immortality
Twenty-four hours after the video of the human consciousness uploading experiment was uploaded, it had been viewed over 200 million times.
This figure surpassed any previous product launch by 402. But instead of orders and cooperation intentions, it sparked a global debate.
The core of the debate boils down to one word: immortality.
The next morning, three trending topics appeared simultaneously on China's largest social media platform. The first was "Professor Gu Feng stands up," the second was "Digital immortality," and the third was "Should we do this?" The comment sections under these three topics were in complete chaos.
Supporters were vocal. Some called it the most important technological breakthrough in human history, bar none. Others said their father suffered from ALS, and if he could live digitally, at least his family could still talk to "him." Some directly compared 402 to the Copernicus of life sciences, saying they had opened the door to immortality. The tech investment community reacted even faster; five investment institutions contacted Han Lu that same day, all with the same question: how to enter the digital life sciences field?
Opponents were equally vehement. Some argued that if you copy a person's consciousness into a computer, is the thing in the computer still a person? Others said this wasn't immortality, but the creation of a digital imposter. Still others questioned whether uploading the real Gu Feng's consciousness was a liberation or a desecration, given that he was still lying in a hospital bed. A philosopher even wrote a lengthy article with a simple, direct title, "The Digital Cage," whose core argument was that consciousness without substance is not a complete life.
The voices from religious circles arrived faster than expected. That afternoon, several international religious organizations issued a joint statement, restrained in wording but clear in its stance: the soul does not belong to the material world, cannot be digitized, cannot be stored on servers, and cannot be simulated by algorithms. This statement was shared more than six million times on social media.
Zuo Cheng didn't respond immediately. He stayed in his office until very late, reading through all the comments, all the reports, and all the opposing viewpoints. Then he told Ying, "Help me arrange an interview with CCTV tomorrow."
Yu Ying said, "What do you want to say?"
Zuo Cheng said, "Make it clear what we can and cannot do."
The interview was scheduled for the morning of the third day. The studio wasn't large, and the host, surnamed Duan, was in his fifties and had worked in technology news for over twenty years. He didn't engage in pleasantries in his opening remarks, going straight to the point: "Mr. Zuo, the whole world is discussing one term right now: digital immortality. What are your thoughts on that?"
Zuo Cheng said, "I think that word is used incorrectly."
The host said, "Something's not right."
Zuo Cheng said, "The term 'immortality' implies infinite continuation. But what we can do now is only to allow a person's consciousness to continue existing in a digital environment. How long this existence can last, we don't know. Whether it will change, whether it will decay, whether it will disappear under certain conditions, we also don't know. So talking about immortality today is too early."
The host asked, "So what are you doing?"
Zuo Cheng said, "What we do is called consciousness transfer. It's about preserving a person's existing thought patterns, memories, and emotional responses as completely as possible and placing them on a new medium to continue operating. Professor Gu Feng can think, learn, and have emotional responses in the digital world, but this is a continuation after transfer, not immortality."
The host said, "But the public has already linked you with immortality."
Zuo Cheng said, "We can't control how the public interprets it. What we can control is clarifying the boundaries of the technology. First, this is not a copy. Professor Gu Feng's digital existence is reconstructed based on his own neural activity data, not a rewritten program. Second, this is not immortality. Digital Gu Feng may stop operating one day, perhaps due to system failure, data decay, or some kind of technological bottleneck we haven't yet discovered. Third, once this door is opened, it won't be closed, but who can walk in, and how, must be regulated."
The host asked a question everyone wanted to ask: "Mr. Zuo, if one day the technology matures, would you upload your consciousness?"
Zuo Cheng was silent for about three seconds. Then he said, "I don't know. It's not because the technology can't do it, but because I haven't figured it out yet: is the digital version of me still me? This is a question that everyone who walks through this door needs to figure out for themselves."
The host asked, "You mentioned rules. What does 402 plan to do?"
Zuo Cheng said, "We have established a Digital Life Ethics Committee, and the next step is to develop a comprehensive set of digital life ethics guidelines."
Three days after the interview aired, 402 released this guideline.
The document, titled "Ethical Guidelines for Digital Life," contains 12,000 words and is divided into five parts. The first part outlines fundamental principles, clarifying that digital life is an extension of human consciousness, not a new, independent species. The second part defines rights, stating that digital life possesses the right to know, the right to express opinions, and the right to opt out, but not property rights or inheritance rights. The third part addresses technological boundaries, prohibiting any form of consciousness replication without the volunteer's consent, prohibiting the use of digital consciousness for military purposes, and prohibiting the modification of the core memories and personality traits of digital consciousness. The fourth part outlines the exit mechanism, stating that digital life has the right to terminate its operation at any time, and no one has the right to prevent this. The fifth part addresses social responsibility, requiring all companies and research institutions involved in digital life technology to accept oversight from an independent ethics committee.
On the day the guidelines were released, relevant officials from the China Health Commission publicly expressed their support for the 402 ethical framework and announced that the right to digital life would be included in the next stage of bioethics legislation discussions.
A month and a half later, China took the lead in incorporating the fundamental rights of digital life into a draft law. Although the draft still has a long way to go before it is finally passed, the significance of this step is clear to the entire industry.
When the news reached the international community, some media outlets used the headline: "China has secured the right to set the rules in the field of digital life."
When Zuo Cheng saw this headline, he forwarded it to Han Lu, adding the comment: "It's not about taking over, it's about us doing it first."
Han Lu replied, "Others could do it too. We just started earliest and did it right."
Zuo Cheng said, "That's right, so the rules weren't something we stole; we created them when others couldn't."
That evening, a new entry appeared in the technical center's duty log. The NX-40 chip's bidirectional write function had completed its second round of safety verification, with a maximum write current of 0.4 microamps, less than one-tenth of the tissue's tolerance threshold. After one more round of safety verification, the write function could be officially activated.
Shen Yiming printed out this diary entry and tucked it into his work notebook.
He wrote a line in the blank space of this page, only for himself to see. The next step: will Digital Gu Feng be able to "feel" this world?
Meanwhile, Zuo Cheng opened the system panel in his office.
The seventh leaf on the eighth branch of the technology tree has taken shape. Unlike all the previous leaves, this one has a faint glow at the edge, as if it is breathing.