THE FINAL EVOLUTION
Part Two
She smiled. "Gaps in the fossil record? You should understand that fossil formation is a random process—why would it selectively skip the intermediate stages?"
I was momentarily speechless, but then countered: "It's true that the sudden burst of organisms at the beginning of the Cambrian required massive amounts of information to be injected into the biosphere rapidly. But this doesn't refute evolution—the Paleozoic species explosion was simply a qualitative leap from quantitative accumulation."
Her: "I know that by itself, this isn't enough to make you question your convictions. Fine—can you answer a question for me? Where does the origin of our species—of humans, and every species that has evolved to the present day—lie?"
Me: "Simple. Life originated from DNA, which possesses self-replication and hereditary functions."
Her: "And that very first DNA?"
Me: "It arose naturally on the primordial Earth's surface."
Cody mocked: "A pile of inorganic matter producing organic matter—how is that thinking any different from 'rotting grass turns into fireflies'?"
I fell silent for a moment, then asked in return: "Then why don't you tell me how it was produced?"
Cody sighed, seeming to recall the past. "When I was in college, my professor taught this section like this: 'Not long after Earth formed, volcanoes were everywhere, the atmosphere was thin, the entire surface was exposed to intense ultraviolet radiation, and electric ions in the clouds constantly triggered storms. Under these conditions, molecules dispersed in the air interacted with one another, influenced each other in extremely subtle proportions, split apart, and then rearranged and combined to produce the very first DNA—the origin of all life on Earth.' And I will never forget the question my professor asked us at the end: 'Do you know what the probability of synthesizing a single DNA molecule in this way would be?'"
The question felt as if it were being posed to me directly. I couldn't help but ask, "What probability?"
Cody said flatly: "The probability of its synthesis is like a tornado sweeping up a pile of scrap iron and then dropping it to the ground assembled into a functional automobile."
I coughed twice. Her words left me somewhat at a loss. But I quickly reminded myself that I was here to conduct a psychiatric evaluation, not to engage in academic debate. I changed the subject: "Your college major was originally biology—how did you end up in the computer industry?"
Her: "Lu Xun started out studying medicine, and then gave it up for literature, didn't he?"
Me: "Lu Xun did that to awaken the ignorant masses."
She gave a radiant smile. "And how am I any different?"
I resisted the urge to slap her. "Then tell me—how exactly have you awakened the people?"
Her: "I designed a simulation program. You could call it the 'Genesis Program.' At the very beginning, there was nothing in this program except a single source code. This source code had self-replication capability. I gave it only one command: exist."
Me: "And then?"
Her: "Then I observed its response."
Me: "What response?"
Her: "At first there was no response at all—zero activity. So I minimized it to run in the background and didn't pay it any more attention. In fact, I'd more or less forgotten about it until over a month later, when I remembered and opened the program to check on it."
I was curious now. "What did you observe?"
Her: "I observed that over the past month, the source code had been performing slow and steady self-replication, producing large quantities of repetitive code. Until one day, a code experienced a BUG during self-replication."
Me: "A BUG? How can code make an error during self-replication? Your program must be flawed."
Her: "It wasn't the Genesis Program's fault. There is no such thing as a perfect program—just like there's no perfect world."
I had to concede that point. "Alright, continue."
Her: "The code with the BUG began combining with other codes, producing different types of code. These codes, during their self-replication, generated still other distinct codes, making the variety of code types increasingly numerous. But at this stage the entire replication and proliferation process was still slow and steady, until a specific period—perhaps because quantitative changes triggered a qualitative shift—the number of codes suddenly surged, and their variety became unprecedentedly rich."
I frowned. "Just like..."
Cody finished my sentence: "Just like a species explosion."
I swallowed hard.
Cody continued: "And at that point, I discovered an even more shocking phenomenon."
Based on evolutionary theory, I could already guess what this so-called "shocking phenomenon" was, and blurted out: "Could it be... consumption?"
She looked at me in surprise. "Exactly! To carry out the single command I'd input—'exist'—the codes began consuming one another, fighting for limited hard drive space. The monotonous, simple codes were quickly eliminated, which caused the code population to drop rapidly after the explosion, then continue replicating and proliferating at a relatively stable pace. Until the next critical period, when quantitative change triggered qualitative change, and another explosion occurred—the same scenario repeating over and over."
I was deeply shaken. "You're using digital code to simulate species evolution?"
Cody: "Not merely simulating. You have to understand, DNA is simply a long-chain molecule composed of four codes—A, T, C, and G—where each symbol represents a purine or pyrimidine chemical molecule, just as computer program code is composed of 0s and 1s. They are fundamentally no different—and that is the true significance of my Genesis Program."
Me: "But what you designed is still just a bunch of code."
She fixed her gaze on me. "In the program I designed, as the codes continued to replicate and proliferate, their variety became increasingly diverse. After several major explosions, the non-competitive code types were all eliminated, leaving behind only the highly adaptable and relatively complex codes. Some codes, after numerous rounds of selection and combination, even formed simple programs."
I was dumbfounded. Programs generating programs within themselves—just like... just like life nurturing life within itself. This woman named Cody had played the role of a creator deity over a colony of electronic life!
I steadied myself and asked, "And the final result—what was the end result?"
Her: "There was no final result, because I discovered that as the codes grew in complexity, their rate of evolution accelerated. Despite their consumption of one another, their numbers kept increasing in geometric progression. On the forty-fifth day of my observation, the Genesis Program crashed due to insufficient memory, and all data was reset to zero."
Me: "Suppose the memory were unlimited—what would happen if the program were allowed to run indefinitely?"
She glanced at me. "You should be able to figure that out yourself."
I froze for a moment, then gave a hollow laugh. "I understand what you're getting at. You're saying that all organisms on Earth, including humans, evolved from a source code within a program like that one."
She nodded. "That's right. We could call it the 'Genesis Program' as well."
Me: "Is that why you've been attacking servers across the internet, spreading the 'FE' virus?"
Her: "No, it's more than that."
"Enough! Comrade Cui!" I could no longer stomach her twisted theories. I slapped my own body. "Look—what is this? This is skin! It's real flesh and blood, not some so-called program code! Our brain's composition is incredibly complex—not only does it produce intelligence, but also emotions. That's something no program could ever simulate!"
"That's all just your own imagination and assumption! Just like those codes in the Genesis Program!" Cody also grew agitated, pounding the table as she shouted: "What determines that you are you, and I am me? Each individual's physical self is nothing but a differently structured neural network, that's all! Because the structure differs, the output and response to the same information differs. Human growth is simply the evolution of neural networks! These neural networks are no different from those electronic circuit boards—only vastly greater in number! The human brain has approximately 80 billion neurons—that enormous number is what deludes us! In truth, this is the perfect example of quantitative change producing qualitative change—vast quantities of simple units constitute complexity; vast numbers of neurons constitute different sensory carriers! The essence of human sensation is simply different neural networks producing different responses to external information, and we call this thing 'consciousness'!"
I was stunned by her sudden outburst, and she continued to fire away: "Let me tell you what your so-called emotions really are! All emotions, including love, originate from a hormone in your brain called 'dopamine'! It's this hormone that gets released at neural synapses, creating a sensation of pleasure. If you implant an electrode into a rat's brain and give it a button that triggers orgasm, it will press that button continuously until it dies! Humans are no different! And not just sexual desire—the allure of fine food, the pursuit of fame and fortune—every single desire stems from the brain's 'reward center.' The ultimate purpose of every person's life is to satisfy that reward center, to let it deliver pleasure, right up until death."