By the middle of the 25th Century, artificial intelligence has ceased being a mere tool for assistance and has since been deeply integrated into the daily lives of many citizens around the globe.
Countries across continents are locked in a race to reshape their societies, striving to be governed by this vast, ever-evolving force that seems to grow and redefine itself without end. In the heart of this rapid transformation stood China, whose goal is frowned upon with skepticism by the US.
China recently unveiled its ambitious competitor, "LowIE," aiming to challenge America's "AquariusAI." The launch surprised the tech community, not just because it requires far fewer semiconductors, but also because it rapidly closed the gap with American tech dominance. Behind this seemingly modest announcement, however, China has quietly stepped into its own golden era of technology:
The Age of Cognitive Sovereignty…
At the center of this new technological phase, a heavily-guarded laboartory situated within the outskirts of Shenzhen in China, housed less than 20 scientists. Scientists, who were meticuliously handpicked by the government to bring China's most ambitious mission to life, its goal to reconstruct the future.
To build a cognitive architecture that not only thinks but imagines, powered directly by human brainwaves and sensory patterns.
At the head of this secretive Neuro-AI project, a project that proceeded under strict silence with no publications, no press, and only primarily focused on success, was led by Li Xuan.
Li Xuan had dreams once. Not the dreams that one would expect of a seemingly tech genius. He had far grander ones. Ones that involved dusty books, fictional historical fiction, and Napoleon…
A proudly self-proclaimed history nerd, he once poured his soul in a comment section arguing that Napoleon was not a short structured man but instead he was badly drawn by his enemies. An argument which ended up in his account being put on a ban.
So, how exactly did a guy who write Napoleon fanfictions end up in one of the most redacted projects in over a century?
The turth was he never even intended to touch a science subject, let alone lead this black project. The only exception that had him go into this field was…
An offer with the triple pay, ten times his last salary, his housing covered, and his wallet filled to the brim with cash.
In the brochure, he only had to "supervise" the development of this small project and attend a few workshops every two weeks, and to make matters worse, the actual leader who was supposed to supervise this project fled the country. He defected to Canada…
Because the first test tried to predict his death…
Two years later, Li Xuan eventually found himself hailed as a tech genius and the head of this program called Neurax.
But hey, at least the paycheck cleared. Among his colleagues, he was the genius behind the most ethically questionable AI of his generation.
"HAHAHAAHHAHAH."
A hysterical chuckle echoed across the secluded lab, the other scientists slightly raised their heads in confusion at the sudden noise before continuing working. They were not surprised nor caught off guard, this laughter seemingly was a daily occurrence in the lab.
At 23, Li Xuan looked like the kind of man who had never lost an academic argument ever in his life. He sported round glasses that constantly slid down his nose, having to push them back every 5 minutes. His lab coat was slightly too big on his slim frame, and his hair was a tousled mess of having not encountered a comb in over 5 weeks.
His tired and hyper-caffeinated eyes spoke of his undergrad life, having spent them on neural systems and fighting keyboard warriors. His colleagues often spoke of his haunting eyes, that there was nothing scarier than Li Xuan's unchanging tiredness.
The lab was built underground to safeguard its location from foreign episonage in a facility with no natural light, no wind, only filtered air and the silent hums of overly advanced machines. Fluorescent lights cast pale reflections on the glass of the observation chamber.
Li Xuan stood in the observation chamber with his arms folded, his expression unreadable and his eyes dimmed before glancing into the enclosure.
Inside the enclosure, a rat sat motionless with a delicate neural ring embedded behind its ears, the wires pulsing faintly with every breath it took. Its expression was not that hard to read, eyes constantly blinking with curiosity.
The rat was surgically implanted with a micro-neural ring positioned around the somatosensory cortex and the visual association areas of the brain. The ring primarily serves as a neurobridge by transferring raw neural signals to Neurax, to observe and stimulate neural activity based on externally programmed "prompts".
Neurax converts these prompts into synthetic neural pulses before sending them into the rat's brain in layers. It then interprets these response signals before translating them into human-readable language.
Li Xuan's eyes darted towards his colleague, Xiao Chen, whose hands were occupied with the control system. From what he observed, the rat's vitals were steady and its brain activities remained stable with no abnormalty.
"It seems that the rat is very unresponsive and oblivious to what we are doing to it," Li Xuan chuckled softly, his deep voice caught Xiao Chen by surprise. Xiao Chen resumed his work without responding to his statement.
"Prompt is in," Xiao Chen said in a flat and professional voice, he pressed the sequence into the terminal after typing "Prompt: Visual – sunrise. Emotion – warmth. Context – solitude."
Xiao Chen pressed a couple of times before entering, "It is in."
Li Xuan glanced at the rat and thought internally, We should not be doing this but here we are…
The rat blinked, curious.
"Run the language structure overlay," Li Xuan said quickly. Xiao Chen nodded. Soon after, a second a stream of data appeared with the rat's sensory processing was adjusting rapidly to this prompt, translating its input into human-modeled emotional spectrum.
"Anything unusual?" Long Hao spoke from the opposite end of the chamber, Li Xuan glanced at Ai Wei, a scientist recruited from Shandong.
Ai Wei shook her head with a smile, "Let the system process first…"
After a few moment, the rat slowly turned its head and lifted its nose to the air with no sudden jerks nor startled flinching as its body completely stilled. The AI-translated signal eventually produced a clicking noise, it responded to the console in broken phrases:
[warm…orange…stretch…quiet…]
[safe? alone?]
Li Xuan frowned and leaned back, his voice almost inaudible, "Did it just describe a sunrise?"
Ai Wei shook her head once more and slowly replied, "No, we made it describe the feeling associated with our prompt."
She expanded on the subject, "We gave it a sensory memory that its never had before…it responded like it knew what it meant and what we wanted…"
"A rat lacks the consciousness that us humans possess. Therefore, it can see and respond akin to the limited consciousness of a rat but it does not understand the prompt thoroughly like how a human does."
"And don't mistake these for actual thoughts. What you're seeing are emulated emotional-symbolic patterns, a translation of what the rat feels under the influence of the prompt, not what it consciously understands. To put it plainly, it is not hallucinating but rather it is being convinced that the feelings we programmed are real."
Li Xuan: "…"
Li Xuan replied awkwardly, "I know. I am a part of this project too…"
Tsk, explaining as though I am a mere visitor. You forget I am the leading architect of this project…
As though she could sense what Li Xuan was thinking, her focused expression quickly turned deadpan. Li Xuan averted the topic and said quickly, "While the test was satisfactory, it is not enough."
"You think it is not enough?" Xiao Chen glanced up from his console.
The achievement should have been thrilling but instead, Li Xuan sighed and responded, "It is not enough. It only mimicks. It only played the part we gave it. It fed us back the shape of an emotion like a trained puppet."
Xiao Chen was taken aback, "But that's exactly what the system is designed for. Translation. Not consciousness."
Li Xuan rebutted confidently, "And that's the problem, we did not build a bridge. We built a screen and applauding its reflection. This isn't cognition, it is merely a programmed performance…"
His eyes squinted as he glanced at the rat, "It is not conscious enough…"
Ai Wei folded her arms defensively, "What do you suggest we do instead? We keep refining these prompts?"
"No…"
Li Xuan was quiet for a moment before looking at them, a decision made behind his gaze, "We change the input entirely."
Both of them blinked, "What do you mean?"
Li Xuan's lips pursed before speaking in a calm tone, "I'll do it myself."
A moment of silence engulfed the room before they realized what he meant.
"Absolutely not," Ai Wei snapped in exasperation, "We haven't even finalized its safety yet. You know immersion isn't stable beyond this stage. This is completely reckless!"
Xiao Chen stepped in, "A Xuan, this is ridiculous! This simulation has not even been checked if it is suitable for you, or even humans. If something misfires, it will be your consciou-"
Li Xuan, determined to prove them wrong, "I know exactly what is at risk. I'm telling you since we have reached the limits of animal response, we need a human subject, one that can reflect, create and respond independently to these prompts."
He moved to the chair at the center of the chamber, seating himself down and placing his hands onto the prompt, "We have completed this stage and built thus machine with tremendous effort."
"It won't be done until we try them for ourselves. In this case, I offer myself to receive this prompt."
His hands hovered over the keyboard before pausing for a moment, his eyes seem to dim with ongoing contemplation about what his prompt would be.
'Eh? If I could trick myself to appear elsewhere, where would I be?' Li Xuan contemplated deeply, 'My old dormitory? But it is already something I have experienced…'
The phantom foul scent , something like unwashed laundry and rotting socks, briefly assault his nose, prompting him to shake his head forcefully, 'It must be something unfamiliar, something I've never experienced before and would love to…'
His eyes flickered anxiously between his colleagues and the other side of the room, wavering indecisively as he struggled to reach a conclusion. Abruptly, his attention settled upon a book resting atop the desk.
His face lit up as though he had been enlightened.
[Prompt: Place me in the French Revolution]
Li Xuan jumped out of his seat in excitement, Xiao Chen raced to stop him, "You are completely mad!"
"If this works, it won't just be the breakthrough of a century. No, it will be the leap of a millennium…"
'R-17 could only respond word by word, that was expected because it is just a rat. It lacked the cognitive depth a human possesses. But a human, a human could respond with full sentences, ideas and comprehensible thought patterns…' Li Xuan mind raced, his eyes gleamed with barely contained excitement, 'I will be famous and can finally retire!"
Li Xuan entered the left experiment chamber, the opposite of the rat. Divided by a transparent wall while connected to the same system, its eyes followed Li Xuan expressionlessly with a few chirping noise every 5 seconds.
He sat on the chair situated in the middle of the chamber, lifting the neural ring and guiding it over his head with both hands. It adjusted automatically and tightened into place as it synced with his cortical signature.
The room fell quiet again.
Xiao Chen and Ai Wei hesitated, constantly sharing worried looks and glancig at Li Xuan. Li Xuan had a calm expression and his lips curled into a relaxed grin.
"Don't worry, guys. If its worked on an animal, I am sure it'll work on me too…"
Li Xuan nodded to Xiao Chen, "Xiao Chen, press the prompt."
"You sure?" Xiao Chen hesitated.
Li Xuan nodded assuredly, "Do it".
Click. Click. Click.
His hands moved with deliberate slowness as cold sweat slid down both of their foreheads, extreme worry written all over their faces. Li Xuan was the exception, he had a cheery expression on and smiled widely.
[Prompt accepted.]
[Sync Initializing…]
Li Xuan gradually felt light-headed as the world before him begin to dip. He blinked once before gently closing his eyes.
His body stilled.