CHAPTER 900: CHAPTER 145 THE LIVING BLUEPRINT

Xiang Shan was standing in front of a printer with his arms crossed, waiting for documents to print. His eyes were bloodshot, his hands folded across his chest, leaning slightly against the wall, appearing somewhat exhausted.

Yet his demeanor was full of courage.

When Yawgmoth and David found Xiang Shan, he was in this state. Despite his haggard look, as if suffering from prolonged overwork and on the verge of collapse, his aura could easily make people believe he was about to take over the world.

David handed the documents he had acquired to Xiang Shan: "Hey, Shan, here’s the material you asked for. Don’t spread it around for the next few days... it might be declassified in the park next week, but it’s still a bit sensitive for now."

Xiang Shan squinted his eyes and quickly glanced through them.

Soon, he was visibly invigorated: "As expected... So that’s how it is..."

"As expected?" David craned his neck to take a look. The document in Xiang Shan’s hand was from the most core components of that complete machine.

These components were divided into two types: one made of pure artificial diamond plates and the other a foam-like artificial diamond with numerous internal voids.

Scientists were still debating the uses of these components. Some speculated they might be some kind of optical component, but no one yet knew how they were supposed to work.

"I see... the ’cipherbook’ is the main body..."

Xiang Shan sighed.

"Cipherbook?" David was puzzled: "What are you talking about?"

"After chatting with Inga, I realized a problem, namely the two-dimensional symbol matrix used by the aliens, which is not excellent by ’encryption algorithm’ standards. A symbol is constrained by four directions: up, down, left, right. This imposes great limitations on expression..." Xiang Shan pressed his forehead: "But the aliens still adopted this algorithm."

Yawgmoth was curious: "So why is that?"

"Either those aliens are really dumb, or they have over 200 megabytes of information that must be transmitted... Regardless, it’s a bottom line. This 200 megabytes has to be transmitted at any cost. But the permanent storage devices they can make can only record less than 300 megabytes of information, leaving only a few tens of megabytes. So what to do?"

Yawgmoth and David were stunned: "What to do..."

"Treat that 200 megabytes of information as the ’cipherbook,’ and then write an algorithm with the remaining tens of megabytes to transform that 200 megabytes into the information necessary for the little robots to replicate themselves..."

The ’Xuanji Map’ is not something that compresses ’arbitrary eight thousand poems’ together; it’s not even made to compress any other person’s verses. Instead, it was originally like this.

The two-dimensional word game is very different from human’s everyday one-dimensional language, and the language is influenced by an "extra dimension," so those nearly eight thousand poems, when dissected individually, are just ordinary works. But the existence of this word game itself is an achievement. Its power lies more in its form than in its specific content.

It doesn’t compress poems; it was created this way itself.

David waved his hand: "Wait, wait, this is ridiculous! Are you saying the aliens actually have only a few tens of megabytes left for symbols, so they simply left a set of rules to derive specific data from the ’200 megabytes of information that must be transmitted’?"

Xiang Shan nodded: "That’s probably it."

"This is fucking ridiculous!" David shouted: "The problem we’re facing now is how those aliens compressed such a complex industrial process into 300 megabytes of text, and then you tell me, the usable space for aliens is even less, because this 300 megabytes must also include a fixed ’cipherbook’..."

"As long as their algorithm is excellent enough, with a good enough compression rate, this cipherbook can still hold a lot of content," Xiang Shan said.

"No, 300 megabytes, no matter how high the compression rate is, it can’t losslessly compress such complex industrial data! Design drawings, assembly processes, metal smelting..."

"Those are all non-essential content, David." Xiang Shan laughed: "Non-essential content..."

"Huh?"

"A cell doesn’t pack ’all the data about a cell’ into the chromosomes." Xiang Shan laughed loudly: "That’s the conclusion! You are absolutely right! Argon is a big cell!"

"Huh?" This time David was at a loss: "That’s just a metaphor... a metaphor..."

"You’ve grasped the core concept." Xiang Shan said: "Although I only understand a little, it wasn’t until yesterday when I consulted with experts that I learned—’cell’ information includes more than just what’s in the nucleus. For instance, the structure of ’cell’ itself is not included in the nuclear information."

Yawgmoth was taken aback: "Do you mean..."

"Those robots themselves can serve as blueprints." Xiang Shan laughed loudly: "Those robots themselves are the best blueprints... no need to store the most detailed industrial drawings, most parts of these little things are interchangeable! Interchangeable! By measuring themselves, they can read a lot of information!"

A lightning bolt seemed to pass through David’s mind: "But... but... what if there’s error?"

"Can’t be pieced together? Or mechanical lifespan is reduced?" Xiang Shan twisted his neck, relaxing his cervical vertebra: "Or accumulated errors lead to the whole machinery being one size larger? Or one size smaller?"

"It’s all possible..."

"Then it can’t be pieced together! Then the lifespan is reduced! As long as the mechanical size doesn’t match the fixed equipment including the tracks, then simply discard it!" Xiang Shan said: "Then recycle them! You mentioned it, these robots have no shortage of time. As long as their commands don’t include ’forcing fit of mismatched size fixed equipment,’ this operation can be maintained for a long time!"

"Is this what you mean by defense... defense..."

"’Defensive design.’"

"Yes, ’defensive design’!"

David was dumbfounded: "Are you guys speaking in Chinese? What’s ’defensive design’ as a term?"

Yawgmoth explained: "The industrial design theory that structurally prevents idiots from installing components incorrectly."

"As they say, ’defensive design protects against idiots, miracles happen through force’... No matter how good the design is, it can’t stop fools from forcing installations. But as long as those robots don’t have enough power during installation or test runs to exceed the material strength, or if there’s a programmatic output limit, then there’s no problem." Xiang Shan’s eyes seemed to shine: "It’s just that efficiency is lower, which doesn’t matter at all..."

Cells don’t need to construct themselves from scratch, and the robots inside Argon don’t need to create their replicas from scratch either.

They themselves are the blueprint.