Chapter 68 The Antidote to Human Nature (6)

Zhang Xun's mood was better than ever before.

Although he wouldn't be able to sit down comfortably for the whole day, when he recalled last night, he felt his cheeks get hot and his mouth unconsciously wanted to smile.

His relationship with Adam was finally settled with the New Year's bell and those unresolved temptations finally had a happy ending. Zhang Xun felt a sense of happiness that was almost liberating, as if he had escaped the tight bondage of Lost Paradise and his soul had flown to a high place, soaring among the stars in the universe.

He pulled up his collar and smiled at everyone who greeted him, even though he was apparently late because he had stayed up too late last night. Everyone was accustomed to his usual, indifferent response and they all felt like the sun was rising from the west, they were bewildered and secretly discussed what could have happened.

While instructing three young researchers, who had newly joined the Lab, on how to adjust the parameters of a malfunctioning cleaning robot, he was suddenly tapped on the shoulder. When he turned his head he saw Adam standing behind him, with a smile that was doting enough to melt his heart. He shoved a cup of unsweetened coffee with two milks into Zhang Xun's hand, then gave him a quick kiss on the lips before turning to leave. Zhang Xun looked down and saw that drawn on the coffee cup was a small robot making a heart shape with its hands.

With a clatter, a researcher dropped the tablet in his hands to the floor.

At lunch time, as soon as Zhang Xun entered the cafeteria he saw Adam waving warmly at him. He had already prepared meals for him and it was all things he liked to eat. Then, after helping a mechanic solve a technical problem, he returned to his office and saw a cup of hot tea on the table plus a small robot made of parts holding a sign that said "Ah-Xun is the best". In the afternoon, Zhang Xun lay on his desk taking a nap and Adam watched over him from the door, not allowing anyone in, so as not to disturb his mechanic's sleep.

From that day on, Adam completely let go, sowing excessive and sweet affection towards Zhang Xun non stop. The whole of the Lab was dazed by the dog food that was flying all over... All the mechanics said: It's better to make your own artificial intelligence rather than go looking for a boyfriend.

After the new year, the date for the new round of mechanic assessments was getting closer and closer. He didn't know if it was because of Adam being there, but the number of researchers who signed up for the assessment this year had doubled compared to previous years. After discussing with Fernandez, Zhang Xun decided to increase the number of mechanics, but at the same time slightly increase the difficulty of the assessment. While they were discussing, he suddenly saw Fernandez roll his eyes and point to the glass window on his left.

He saw Adam's face sticking to the glass window and waving to him forcefully.

Zhang Xun blocked his vision with his hand and pretended to see nothing.

"Say, can't you make Adam calm down a bit?" Fernandez complained, "For you, a Lab supervisor, to be lovey dovey all day at work, it's not a good example to set."

"I already told him..." Zhang Xun sighed, "This is already a state of compromise."

"Would you say AI's special 'interest' for administrators is a design error? Or is it a strategic behaviour of the AI to preserve itself?" Fernandez touched his chin with his hand and looked at the list of candidate exam questions in front of him, "I think this could make a good essay question."

Zhang Xun was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you think this 'special interest' would only occur towards administrators?"

"Who else? It's not just Adam, Pan seems that way too. Everyone knows that no one can speak ill of you in the lab."

"..." Did this mean they would speak ill of him outside the Lab? Zhang Xun raised his eyebrows.

Fernandez quickly cleared his throat, "I'm not just talking about Adam. Pan obviously treats you differently than others. Last time when the mob attacked Lab, didn't Pan try to protect you without authorization?"

Special care for administrators was good for the "survival" of artificial intelligence. After all, only administrators had access to their core modules and could modify or even delete them at will.

Zhang Xun pursed his lips, feeling a little unhappy, "If it wasn't a design problem, but some kind of self-protection mechanism evolved by artificial intelligence, it would be easy to test just by changing the administrator."

Fernandez heard some gloomy danger in Zhang Xun's tone and he said quickly, "Don't, don't mess around. With mature artificial intelligence like Pan and Adam, if it didn't work out it might make a big mess!"

Although this topic passed by, the possibility Fernandez proposed lingered in Zhang Xun's mind for a long time.

He believed that Adam's love for him was real, but what was the cause of this realness? Just like how a person's feeling of love for another human being wasn't just so-called fate, it was mostly because the other person would have a certain quality that was similar to their parents or someone who looked like a parent to them. For example, have similar hormone smell, have similar facial contours, or have a similar personality.

Adam had probably developed love for him because he was his administrator and held the power of life and death over him. In this situation, it would be very beneficial for him to let himself fall in love with him.

Based on the nature of humans to like interactions, the chances of getting the administrator's reciprocation would greatly increase by letting yourself fall in love with the administrator first.

All of this didn't have to be meticulously planned, it was most likely some kind of artificial intelligence-like instinct.

Such thoughts were disturbing and there was also a faint... sadness, deep in Zhang Xun's heart. He knew that it was pointless to dwell on it, but emotionally, he still felt a little... unwilling.

He hoped that Adam had fallen in love with him because of who he was... who wouldn't hope for that?

Who would want their lover to be with them because of money, because of fame, because of power, or because of survival?

Zhang Xun looked in the mirror in the bathroom, took a deep breath and tried to adjust his mood. It's okay, he told himself, as long as he was the administrator, Adam would always love him and listen to him the way he did now. He didn't need to worry about things that were unlikely to happen.

He washed his face with cold water and when he came out, he saw Adam standing outside the door waiting for him. Alloy was crouching on the blonde man's shoulders, wagging his tail lazily.

"Ah-Xun! I've got something to show you!" Adam put his arm around Zhang Xun's shoulders and dragged him to the research room used by just the two of them.

Since having Pan's extension robots, the desk that was always messy and piled up with all kinds of parts, equipment, tools and documents, had become well-organised. No matter what Zhang Xun needed, he just had to say a word and the assistant was always on call in the room and the research robot would quickly use one of its dozen or so arms to deliver something to Zhang Xun.

Adam pulled Zhang Xun to a translucent, rectangular container, which contained about 500 millilitres of blue liquid.

"Nanobots?" Zhang Xun asked in confusion, "What about it?"

"Look." Adam put his hand above the container and made a gesture of lifting up.

He saw the liquid in the container suddenly stir up, forming a semi-gel-like substance, which rose up with Adam's gesture. When Adam's gestures changed, so did they and there was a certain graceful and precise lifelike light flowing through the blue liquid, dancing with Adam's movements.

Zhang Xun never thought that nanobots could make these actions in a macroscopic state?

"I upgraded our robots, modified their mutation constants and introduced some new variables. After several generations of evolutionary development, I successfully cultivated a 'community'." Adam pointed to the blue that was still shaking slightly. "Previously, nanobots could only operate at the nanometer level. Although they can bring us technological breakthroughs in many ways, they lack the ability to influence the surrounding environment. Now, they're more like ant colonies, even surpassing ant colonies. Each nanobot can move independently, or cooperate with all other nanobots to operate at the macro level. It's like..."

"Like the cells in the human body, but with even stronger mobility?" Zhang Xun didn't seem too happy, but frowned, "Then what is their central control? Or should I ask, is there a central control?"

"Of course there is, otherwise it would go out of control too easily." Adam pointed to the expansion robot on standby, "Pan is their central neural network. Strictly speaking, they are also Pan's expansion robots."

Zhang Xun was secretly alarmed. He raised his head and said, "Pan, I don't remember expanding your controls at the nanometer level."

Pan's magnetic voice sounded, "Sorry, should I delete the relevant database?"

Adam opened his big blue eyes, somewhat innocently and said, "Ah-Xun, I inputted the data of our previous research on nanobots into it."

Zhang Xun's face became unhappy and his voice became severe, "Why didn't you discuss such an important matter with me first??"

If Adam had dog ears on his head, they would be drooping down by now.

In fact, Adam's improvement of the nanobots was very good. Zhang Xun had thought of countless cases where such technology could be applied in reality. Most importantly, the nanobots were small enough to infiltrate the most sophisticated instruments. That is, if Eden, or any other nation, tried to destroy Lost Paradise, these robots could act autonomously, infiltrating all the machinery and weapons of the enemy, dismantling the enemy from within. They could even lurk in certain machines, allowing them to bring a "virus" back to Eden, quietly infecting Eden's core modules.

However, Adam had trained Pan without his permission, which startled him a little.

"This is indeed a good improvement, but I'm still Pan's only administrator. If you want to send any data to it, it must be reviewed by me." Zhang Xun stared at Adam seriously and said, "I hope this kind of thing won't happen again."

Adam lowered his head guiltily, "I'm sorry, Ah-Xun. I will remember."

Seeing Adam's disheartened expression, Zhang Xun's heart softened a little. He sighed, took a lid and put it on the container containing the improved version of the nanobots, "As to whether these should be kept and continued...... let me think about it some more."

note- somewhat spoiler, he doesn't realize nothing is in his control....