Chapter 531 Russell’s Starting Point (2-in-1)

Russell was not one to dwell on the past.

He didn't stay with Alice for long - after he had said all he needed to say and wanted to say, and left his necklace with Alice, he left with Delphinium.

He saw the Bishop standing outside the door, bending his back.

But he wasn't bowing to some big shot... The person in front of him was a plainly dressed old lady. She was clasping her hands together, thanking the bishop respectfully and politely. The old general was also considerate of the other person's body and did not let the other person raise his head to talk to her. Instead, he reluctantly bent down and said something to her softly. What.

Of course, even though she was a gray-haired old woman, she might be in her sixties or seventies.

She wears a walking assistance device similar to exoskeleton armor - a civilian exoskeleton specially configured for elderly people with walking difficulties.

Russell looked at the walking assist device on her body and was a little distracted for a moment.

...In a sense, this is Russell's original invention and the starting point of his dazzling life. It was through it that he gained the approval of his mentor.

Although Russell didn't want to admit it, or even wanted to forget this experience...

Once an old person's age reaches a certain limit, his body becomes extremely fragile. Just a slight bump may kill him or directly lead to paralysis. You may even fall down the stairs due to sudden dizziness and weakness, or fall to the ground due to dizziness while going to the toilet... not to mention slipping on a muddy road, or stepping on something due to poor eyesight and falling. It was a fall.

The old man's strength will also be weakened a lot, and it will become troublesome to carry anything. If you live alone, many things will become troublesome. If one person must be left to take care of the elderly, it is easy for many middle-aged people who are in the stage of career development to have their future blocked by their parents' physical condition.

It is also impossible to assemble prosthetics for the elderly. Not everyone is compatible with prosthetics, and not everyone can use any type of prosthesis.

After all, the prosthetic body has a special neural interface. When the prosthetic body is first acquired in a new position, a high concentration of cognitive enhancers must be injected to allow the body to survive the initial acute rejection of the prosthetic body. After that, he had to inhale the inhaled cognitive enhancer several times every day, just like inhaling oxygen, so that his body could slowly adapt to the prosthetic body.

After all, it is not a native prosthetic body, and there is no nervous tissue in it at all... Even the internal organs do not work 100% according to the working method of the original organs. For prosthetics such as limbs, eyes, ears, mouth and nose, it will take some time for the brain to adapt to this "new signal".

The essence of cognitive enhancers is a stimulant that targets the brain and allows people to learn new things very quickly. High-concentration cognitive enhancers are so powerful that the speed at which people absorb information cannot keep up with the intensity of learning. Also because of its addictive properties, it is often a restricted class drug used to increase brain compatibility.

For example, if a limb is replaced, a prosthetic body is replaced, or nerve or muscle strengthening surgery is performed, or part of the nerves and muscles are removed and replaced... When the brain must adapt to a new body in a short period of time, cognition must be used. Enhancer, to enable the brain to "detect the addition of a new device" and "install the driver".

Therefore, new prostheses are usually risky for elderly patients over the age of 55. So in the past on Sogo Island, people would find time to remove their legs and arms and replace them with prosthetics after they retired. If their liver and kidneys were damaged, they would replace them as soon as possible while they were still young. Lose.

In the end, there were not many original parts left.

Even though Russell had not yet gained the memory of his previous life at the time, he was aware of the distortion of this way of living - human beings seemed to be living beings that symbiotically coexisted with machines. From childhood to adolescence, from adolescence to youth, from youth to middle age, from middle age to old age... at each stage, part of the body is irreversibly transformed into artificial objects, and various software and programs are used in life. The proportion of importance will continue to increase.

And if you are a rich boss who can persist for a longer time after getting old... he will become even more distorted.

Their aging internal organs, skin, flesh, and bones can all be spent at a high price, and are replaced bit by bit with metal, and their functions are simplified bit by bit. At the end, nothing is left except a brain. These old people who do not want to die live in society with an alienated attitude... Vision, hearing, and touch are all simulated electronic signals. There is no beating heart, and there is no need for breathing and digestion.

Because they lost the ability to eat, they also lost their sense of taste and smell; because they no longer have fragile skin, flesh and internal organs, they no longer need pain to alert themselves, and everything has more accurate "data" to monitor.

Then where is life?

It's just a steel skeleton with eyes open.

But even this kind of twisted and deformed "skeleton transformation" is not worthy even for poor people...

In the end, the first person to consider this need was Russell when he was a student.

This was also an opportunity for Russell to meet his mentor Sally Ruth.

With the help of inspiration proposed by Russell and relying on the existing "armed exoskeleton" specially used by bodyguards, Sally Ruth easily developed this civilian hydraulic device named "walking assist device" by Russell. System exoskeleton. As a civilian exoskeleton device, it can help the elderly and patients walk, run, jump, and carry heavy objects freely without relying on prosthetics. It is also equipped with an intelligent anti-fall system that can help maintain balance in the event of loss of balance.

If another person developed this thing, he might become a rich man.

It is not impossible to reach the sky in one step and become Dr. Zanbai directly.

According to the laws of Sogo Island, it should have been partially copyrighted by Russell.

However, Sally Ruth told Russell that she strongly discouraged him from attaching his name to it - it was not necessarily a good thing and might even lead to intense hatred.

After thinking about it, Russell decided to believe Sally Ruth. Therefore, under Russell's wishes, Sally Ruth decided to sell it at cost price and generously shouldered the entire manufacturing cost. As a social welfare device, it is sold to every family at a very low price.

In Russell's eyes, this is one of the very few creations that can embody the "temperature of technology" in this sinful era.

...And what makes Russell feel mixed is that Sally Ruth's words are correct.

Because the technology of this thing is not complicated... It's just because prosthetic technology is too advanced and versatile, so people tend to use prosthetics to solve all problems - if prosthetics can't solve it, they can use professional machines or intelligent servitors. , and no one thought of this idea of ​​using cheap external technology to "strengthen the human body" and focusing on cost-effectiveness.

Once you realize that this kind of thinking still exists, it is too easy to develop an upgraded version of the technology. In Sogo Island, people are afraid of the elf directors and dare not imitate them in person. But on other empty islands, upgraded versions will soon be available.

Most of their replicas have lost their original function of "assisting the elderly to walk" and have instead become labor tools that are convenient for carrying heavy objects and working more efficiently.

For example, Yongquan Island.

Yongquan Island was the first to develop a professional mining version, which allows miners to mine and carry effortlessly without losing balance and falling to the ground.

It has indeed greatly reduced labor pressure, allowing each worker to spend only one-tenth of his effort and one-third of his working time to complete his daily work with quality and quantity. After all, the mining demand in the mining area is not unlimited, but there is a fixed amount delivered every month. After the work is done, it's time for vacation.

But the young Russell did not expect that... the workers on Yongquan Island did not get twenty days of free vacation time per month, but more than half of them were unemployed as a result.

Later, various models of civilian exoskeletons soon appeared. At the end of the development, Sogo Island also developed a newer application model... They combined servitors with fragile driving force but the ability to learn with exoskeletons, completely optimizing the bottom workers.

Although a large part of people's jobs have been replaced by servitors. But the cost of training a servitor is still quite high after all... It requires careful purchase, patient learning and training, and it can only be used normally after a long period of training. It can be said that a well-trained servitor is much more valuable than a hired employee - it has high obedience, does not need to be paid, has strong learning ability, will not make stupid mistakes, can work unlimited overtime, will not change jobs, and will not think about others. To replace it.

Many of the servitors used in stores are actually household servitors that the shop owners have cultivated for a long time... For example, Lang Yin's servitor "Xi" is a household servitor, and she only works part-time in the bar.

But with the advent of exoskeletons, even some tasks that may cause damage to servitors and were originally performed by highly prosthetic workers - such as transporting goods, loading and unloading, and disaster rescue, have begun to be equipped with exoskeletons. Servants with reinforced exoskeletons gradually replaced them. In the end, the unemployment wave returned to Sogo Island.

This wave was originally triggered by Russell's idea.

It was then that Russell fully realized why no one had developed such a simple technology.

It is not that all inventors ignore the needs of people's livelihood - there must be smart people who realize this over the past hundred years.

But they are too smart and too moral.

After analysis, the inventors realized what would happen once the technology was seen by "improvement inventors" who were less talented than themselves... so they finally chose to remain silent and did not publish the invention.

The population will not disappear out of thin air, it will only become uncoded. Those without codes will bring social unrest.

They must realize that this is the inevitable and final future.

But they hope that they can delay this inevitable future for as long as possible, at least so that they and their children will not be involved in this wave while they are still alive.

Sally Ruth knows all this.

That’s why she tried her best to prevent Russell from binding his name to this exoskeleton. According to Russell’s original plan, it should be called the “Russell Device.” It was only after Sally Russ stopped it that it was called the “Walking Device.” "auxiliary device".

If it were Russell now, he would definitely understand what kind of new generation it would bring. But just as a "genius student", Russell, who was only 18 years old at the time, did not understand why his "great invention" would have such consequences.

At first, Russell, who was just a freshman, was even a little inflated when he saw that his invention had helped so many elderly people. At that time, Sally Ruth just held a fan to cover her mouth, with a smile in her eyes, and slowly agreed with Russell's words, saying, "Then we might as well wait a little longer and see other good things in the future."

...Looking back now, what he once thought was "the mentor's approval of him" was full of ridicule and yin and yang.

From this perspective, the final step of Sogo Island’s “complete automation” and the unemployment frenzy that has not ended in other islands to this day were also driven by Russell himself.

So after that, when Russell really became Sally Ruth's graduate student, he became humble. It can even be said that I feel a little inferior and confused.

The complete transformation of his personality began, in a sense, with this "walking aid". Before that, Russell always believed that he was an outstanding genius, completely different from ordinary people in terms of talent and performance - he believed that he could change the world, and did not take the advice of the bishop to "beware of arrogance and impetuosity" and "think twice before thinking". Keep in mind clichés such as "Think a few more steps before everything, and think a few more steps after your goals and results", "Talents that are too flamboyant will be taken advantage of".

——Yes, among the elders Russell came into contact with, the bishop was the only one who had warned Russell many times.

Alice would never interfere with Russell's development and decisions, while Lang Yin is a standard elitist and a socialist, and Sally Ruth is a pure fun-loving person... They all have high expectations for Russell .

At that time, the only person who could throw cold water on it was the bishop.

...It's just that he splashed a little too much.

So much so that in the end Russell turned into the humble and low-key person he was when he first came to Happy Island, even a little timid when things happened. It was because Russell had perfectly learned the Bishop's way of thinking - the way of thinking that he would think three steps after the result - that he did not dare to touch this or that.

This is like a social animal who is reborn on campus one day. Although it was a beautiful, golden, carefree life...but he had completely understood the pressure of survival in the future, and he could no longer put it all down to enjoy campus life. Every wild release and depravity would bring him intense anxiety and guilt.

This is exactly what he will become because he knows the "future a few steps away".

The world must be sick—Russell, at that time, was disillusioned with the fallen and sinful world and saw himself as something “outside the world.” That's why he accepted the memories of his past life so easily...because after Alice died, he had no sense of belonging to this world.

And the person who changed Russell again was Delphinium.

"If the world is sick, I would feel happy. After all, as long as it is a disease, it will be cured one day.

"Rather, what I'm afraid of is that it's not sick; what I'm afraid of is that this world should be like this - that's the deepest despair."

Those were the first words of Delphinium that were engraved in Russell's heart, the first words that moved him.

The first whisper touched Russell's heart and soothed his pain.

That is the true starting point of this "love" of mutual understanding and mutual support.

Good news: After a good sleep, my throat is no longer sore, and I don’t have a fever at all now. I also have runny nose and sneezing. The symptoms don’t seem right. I guess it’s because I have no sheep...

Bad news: My head still hurts, my body is still cold, I still feel weak, and for some reason the back of my neck starts to hurt.

It could be a cold, or it could be some kind of flu. Although I am very skinny and have a headache, I have not been infected or have a fever after all. It would be too pretentious to ask for leave, so I still have to update normally...

After listening to Rihe Shuyang next door, the state was so scary that I couldn't write any words at all... If I am sure to be successful, I still hope to wait until the book is finished in February. Now that I may have escaped, I feel a sense of joy and emptiness, with mixed emotions.