Sword Art Online - Volume 10 - Alicization Running

by Reki Kawahara

  Kikuoka continued to smile as he showed an expression of pure admiration.

  Rinko's heart suddenly ached the moment she unexpectedly heard Kayaba's name.

  After knowing Asuna for merely a few days, Rinko had a very good impression on her. Strictly put, Asuna had the right to lecture, curse and judge Rinko, and even after hiding a lot of things, Rinko still helped Kayaba Akihiko in his dreadful plot, causing Asuna to be trapped in that cruel death game for 2 years.

  However, neither Asuna nor Kirigaya Kazuto, who met her a long time ago, ever blamed Rinko. It was as if they were saying that it was bound to happen.

  In that case, did Asuna think that this «RATH incident» is definitely something that would occur? —Rinko continued to stare forward as she inadvertently thought that, and Asuna took a step towards Kikuoka again.

  “Do you think... the Self-Defense Force, the country can do whatever they want? Placing their goals as the priority?”

  “How can that be?”

  Kikuoka looked like he was greatly hurt as he shook his head hard.

  “It was really too much of us to abduct Kirito-kun, but at that moment, I could not tell all our secrets to Asuna-kun and Kirito-kun's family. We used our connections with the National Defense Medical College hospital to transport Kirito-kun to the Ocean Turtle, and even if we had to fight for every moment and we did have to use extreme means to quickly get him treated in the STL here. I do like him a lot.”

  The Lieutenant Colonel paused, showing what might be an innocent smile, pushed his black-framed glasses back and continued,

  “...On the other hand, I am trying my best to maintain law and order, compared to many research enterprises and countries in the world. It's all the same whether you agree with it right now or not. Of course, we obtained permission from the parents of the newborns to use the STL to scan their Fluctlight, and gave them ample thanks. The branch office in Roppongi was prepared for that... it is similar to an obstetric hospital.”

  “But you didn't explain everything to their parents, right? About what kind of machine the STL is.”

  “Ahh... it's true that we only said that we were obtaining brainwave samples... but that can't be considered a lie. Fluctlights are electric waves inside the brain.”

  “That's just making excuses. That's similar to extracting DNA from kids who don't know anything and cloning them.”

  At this moment, Higa, who had kept quiet, unexpectedly raised his arms to do a large timeout sign to Kikuoka.

  “That's really a little too much, Kiku-san. I feel that there's a question of morality in secretly cloning newborn Fluctlights. But...Yuuki-san? Your understanding is a little mistaken. The Fluctlights don't have any physical differences in them like genes, especially when they're born.”

  He nudged the edge of his silver-framed glasses in that supervisor-like manner, seemingly looking around for a choice of words.

  “Let's see...how about I explain this. For example, a manufacturer produces the same model of computer, and when it's produced, the specifications and appearances are all the same. However, once they end up in the users' hands, it can be said that they will be changed into something completely different in half a year, or one year. It's the same for human Fluctlights. In the end, we managed to clone Artificial Fluctlights out of 12 children, but after comparing them with each other, we found that the brain capacity was no different. About 99.98% of them were of completely identical constructs, and the 0.02% difference can be said to be the accumulated memories they have gained since they were born. In other words, the human thinking ability and personalities are all determined once they're born. The theory that abilities and personalities are inherited by genetics are completely repudiated. I really want to pierce holes all over this fatal flaw the eugenics believers believe in.”

  “You can poke holes in it once the plan is complete.”

  Kikuoka said with a seemingly tired expression.

  “Anyway, Higa-kun has already explained this. In conclusion, a newborn Fluctlight clone does not have a specified personality from the cloning. Thus, if we cautiously eliminate the 0.02% difference from the 12 samples, what we get is what we call,”

  His arms looked like they were bearing something very important—

  “«Spiritual Prototype»... «Soul Archetype».”

  “...You just thought of such an exaggerated term. In other words, that's the 'self' in Jung's Psychology, right?”

  Kikuoka could only give a wry smile in response to Rinko's question, and shrugged.

  “No no, I don't really want to explain it in details. That's just an explanation on the workings. Yes... the Spiritual Prototype all humans have can be considered as a CPU core, I suppose that is a way to explain it. When humans grow, the core will have all sorts of processes and memories installed until the structure of the core changes... it's not enough for us to put that «completed item» type of basic clone into the Light Cube when we're looking for a «Highly Adaptive Artificial Intelligence». We just showed an example to you before. Then, if we clone the Spiritual Prototype into the Light Cube right from the beginning... into the virtual world and let it grow, consider what would happen.”

  “But...”

  Asuna did not look like she understood. Rinko put her hand on Asuna's shoulder to get her to sit down, and interjected,

  “Let it grow. Even if you say that, it's different from plants and pets, right? It's the same with human children, that Spiritual Prototype. Then, I suppose there's a need for the virtual world to be extremely vast, an imitation that is of a level equal to current society... can you actually do such a thing?”

  “Impossible.”

  Sighing, Kikuoka admitted.

  “It's a virtual world created by the STL. It's different from the VR worlds we had in the past in that there's no need for 3D objects, but it's still difficult to use a complex and exotic modern society to produce it —do you remember a character in a movie before you were born, Asuna-kun? There was a given situation where a man's life was filmed as a movie and aired from his birth. The immaculate set that was built in the large domed city was populated with hundreds of temporary actors, all for a male protagonist who was unaware that he was one... in a situation that was created for this. However, that man grew up, learned from this world, found various peculiarities in this world and finally realized the truth...” [1]

  “I saw it. I liked the movie quite a bit.”

  Rinko said, and Asuna indicated her agreement. Kikuoka nodded and continued,

  “In other words...if we want complete processing of the world, there is necessary information we have to include... the world is a huge round body, and there might be many countries in it or something like that. We will try not to cause a misunderstanding in the humans growing up in the simulation that might cause them to feel out of place and get into trouble. Even the STL can't completely replicate the virtual world.”

  “Then, how about you bring the civilization level of the simulation back to a past era? During the time humans discovered science and philosophy, when they remained in that age from birth till death... if that happens, wouldn't your aim be to let the Spiritual Prototypes develop?”

  “Un, that might be a roundabout method, and would need a lot of time for that... in the STL, firstly, if it's like Professor Koujiro assumed, we would try to nurture the first generation of AI under certain conditions. To put it specifically, it would be a small Japanese village in the 16th century, however...”

  At this moment, Kikuoka paused and shrugged, Higa then spoke up,

  “This isn't as easy as you imagine it to be. We're complete amateurs to the culture and social norms during that era. We knew that a large amount of data would be necessary in order to build a home, and we had to huddle our heads together and think before we finally did. It was simple, there was no need to recreate the middle ages. We understood that a limited terrain and customs would bring about different settings that we can then adjust however we want, and all the tro
ublesome issues can be resolved by the term 'magic'. Such a world itself is like a range, in that familiar network world Asuna-kun and Kirigaya-kun are familiar with.”

  “A VRMMO world.”

  Higa stared at Asuna, who whispered in a hoarse voice, and snapped his fingers.

  “I actually went around playing them, though I can say that I keep hitting walls. However, even though I don't know who created it, I hear that they even have free packages to create new such games?”

  “...!”

  Higa was talking about «The Seed»... Kayaba Akihiko's work, the kernel version of the Cardinal System that Kirigaya Kazuto realized. Rinko took a gasp of cold air as she immediately comprehended this, but it seemed that Higa and Kikuoka did not realize where that program originated from.

  Immediately, Rinko realized that there was still something secretive about that incident, and pretended not to know anything as she touched Asuna's shoulders with her fingers. It seemed that Asuna received what she wanted to say as she wordlessly shook her head.

  Higa did not realize something was wrong with the duo as he continued with an open-minded tone,

  “If we create a virtual world within the STL main frame, we won't need any 3D data. But in that case, it would be too uninteresting to create the model data from the surveillance monitor. That's why we hurried and downloaded The Seed and used the editor that came with it to frantically create the village and surrounding landscape before using the visual mnemonics of the STL to transfer it.

  “Is that so... in other words, that world became a double construct, right? The lower priority server operates through the VR world with a common data exchange, while the upper priority STL main frame operates through a specially-designed VR world. So what happens if we swap both of them... how about that?”

  Yes, Higa nodded, and another question popped up before he could think.

  “...Then, what if we don't use the STL for the lower priority server but dive in with the AmuSphere, can it work?”

  “Erm... well, theoretically, it is possible, but the frequencies have to be lowered by twofold... the visual mnemonic and the polygon data aren't encompassed...”

  Higa started to stutter, and Kikuoka rubbed his hands as he took over,

  “Anyway, after many setbacks, we finally managed to complete our first milestone.”

  The Self-Defense Officer seemed to be reminiscing on his own past as his gaze wavered in the air.

  “The first village we made had 16 Spiritual Prototypes in two farming families... in other words, we let the AI children grow to the age of 18.”

  “Wa, wa, grow up... who were the parents who raised them? Don't tell me it's an existing AI?”

  “We discussed that before, and no matter how many capabilities the AI in The Seed has, it's impossible to raise the children using it. The first generation parents were humans, four male and female technicians acted as their parents and spent 18 years in the STL. Though the memories from within were eliminated -it couldn't be helped as part of the experiment, so we could only bear with that. The reward money we gave wasn't enough.”

  “No, but it seemed that they were unexpectedly enjoying it.”

  Rinko stared blankly at the faces of Kikuoka and Higa who were chatting away leisurely, and finally squeezed out words from her mouth.

  “18 years...? I heard that the Soul Translator has a subjective time acceleration function... how much would that be in the real world?”

  “About a week.”

  The immediate answer shocked her again. 18 years had approximately 940 weeks, which means that the STL time acceleration function was shockingly at approximately 1000 times.

  “Won't... there be problems if the human brain is accelerated to 1000 times the normal processing rate?”

  “The STL is not connected to the human brain, but the quantum particles that form the consciousness. We let the electric signals trigger the neurons in the neurotransmitters resulting in various biological phenomenon, allowing them to accelerate. In other words, theoretically, you can assume that the time required to think has more or less accelerated, and there won't be any damage to the brain.”

  “In other words, there's no upward limit...?”

  Rinko had some simple prior knowledge about the Soul Translator time acceleration function, but did not know the exact number, and could only try her best to understand, speechless.

  Up until now, she had always thought that the greatest function of the STL was to copy a human soul, but the shock that came with the time acceleration function was no less than before. That was because the possibility of theoretically increasing the work efficiency in virtual space was enough to shock her.

  “However... there are still problems we haven't confirmed yet, so the current maximum limit is around 1,500.”

  Rinko's mind was numb because of the shock, but was calmed down by Higa Takeru's depressed expression.

  “Problems?”

  “There were suggestions such as whether the soul has its own lifespan compared to the brain that is part of the body system...”

  Rinko could not understand immediately as she tilted her head to think. Higa stared at Kikuoka, giving a look that said 'can I continue from this?' The Self-Defense Officer immediately looked as if the milk sweet in his mouth suddenly became bitter, and promptly said,

  “Well, we still haven't gotten out of the hypothesis stage. Simply put, the quantum computer we call «Artificial FluctLights» have limited capacity, and if we pass the limit, the construct will degrade... We haven't tested it out, so we can't explain it definitively, but we set a FLA maximum limit for safety purposes.”

  “...In other words, the body has aged for many years while externally less than a week has passed on the outside? Won't the time acceleration function be useless now? Is there no other way to avoid such a phenomenon?”

  Rinko could not help but ask as she showed the inquisitive nature of a researcher, and this time, Higa showed a depressed expression.

  “Erm, well, theoretically... it's not like we've never had such fantasies ourselves. We have thought of making a portable STL device, and using that device to store the memories during the acceleration into an external device so that the capacity of the Fluctlight will not run out. However, it's definitely impossible to shrink the STL like that. Even if we could find a way for that, there's still a scary problem of losing memories of the acceleration after we remove the portable device.”

  “...It's basically a dream that surpasses fantasy. Overclocking the brain without using external memory... I would want to make that happen if I'm a test subject too.”

  Rinko shook her head about as she muttered, and redirected her thoughts that were off tangent back on topic,

  “Anyway, about that, there currently is no method to avoid the issue of capacity oppression... in that case... wa, wait a moment. Kikuoka-kun, didn't you just say that the technicians stayed inside the STL for 18 years to raise the Spiritual Prototypes? What happened to their Fluctlights? Has their intellectual ability been retarded by 18 years?”

  “No, no, it's not like that... probably.”

  Probably? Rinko stared at Kikuoka, but he nonchalantly ignored her stare as he continued to explain,

  “As for the overall capacity of the Fluctlights, if we estimate at the pace at which it runs out, our «Soul's Life» is about 150 years long. In other words, if we can remain completely healthy, and with luck our brain avoid all sorts of diseases, it could be said that our intellect can be maintained for a maximum of approximately 150 years. Of course, it's impossible as it's improbable for us to live that long. If we take ample safety precautions, we can assume that it's fine for us to spend 30 years inside the STL.”

  “And in a century from now, there won't be a groundbreaking technology developed that can extend our lifespans...”

  Rinko interjected with sarcasm, but Kikuoka did not mind as he answered,

  “Even if we develop such a technology, I suspect that we won't gain favors
that's any different from other civilians. Well, we've confirmed the lifespan of the souls, so we can now continue our topic. Thanks to the volunteer work the 4 technicians offered, the pride we have in creating the 16 young people who grew quickly... for simplicity sake, we'll call them «Artificial Fluctlights», should be somewhat satisfactory. They all obtained the ability of language —of course, we're talking about Japanese here —and basic calculation ability to maintain their other thought processes, and were living a rather exciting life in the virtual world we created. They were definitely good kids... very obedient to their parents, woke up early in the morning to get water, chopped wood, farmed... some of them were honest, some of them liked to show off their personalities, and were basically kind and friendly.

  Kikuoka, who smiled as he said that, showed a somewhat troubled expression on his lips, or perhaps that was just her imagination?

  “They grew up... both families had four boys and four girls, brothers and sisters to each other, and they all fell in love. Thus, once we determined that they were old enough to raise their own children, the first phase of the experiment ended, and the 16 young people became eight couples as they had their own families and went off living independently. The four technicians who were their parents all 'died' of an epidemic one after another and were released from the STL. The 18 years of memories they had were completely blocked, and their memories reverted to those they had a week ago just before they entered the STL. They started crying when they saw their children crying at their funerals from the external monitor.”

  “That was really a great scene...”

  Kikuoka and Higa nodded at each other calmly, and Rinko pretended to cough lightly to prompt them to continue,

  “...And then, after the human technicians logged out, there was no need to worry about the FLA rate, so we increased the time inside to 5,000 times the rate of current reality. The eight couples all had ten children each, Spiritual Prototypes, and they were all raised. These children then quickly grew into adults and formed into families, and soon gradually replacing the NPCs that acted as villagers, finally forming villages with only Artificial Fluctlights. As the era changed, their descendants continued to multiply... in the three weeks of reality, the inside world has spent 300 years of simulation, and we finally formed a large society of 80,000 people.”