Genius Club
Chapter 1191 - 44 Intelligence Exchange (Extra update for monthly votes!)_3

"Thank you very much, Mr. Rhein, for imagining such an intriguing future world for me. But... to be honest, I do not agree with your view."

She paused.

She continued:

"I have always believed that human nature is malleable, because humans are not animals. Humans are rich in emotion, and emotion is the primary driving force that trends toward altering human instincts."

"Mr. Rhein, I’d like to ask you a question."

Da Vinci looked at Rhein Cat:

"Do you think there exists a most pure, innate evil in human nature?"

Lin Xian squinted his eyes.

That question.

It’s essentially asking whether there exist purely bad people in the world, people destined to commit evil all their lives from birth, who commit evil for no reason, not for anything, just purely for the sake of doing evil.

After a few seconds of thought, Lin Xian solemnly answered:

"I believe there are."

Miss Da Vinci smiled and shook her head:

"I believe there aren’t."

...

At this point.

Lin Xian deeply inhaled through his nose.

He thought there was no need to continue speaking.

He had already said enough.

He had laid everything out as thoroughly as possible.

Indeed, he felt he had fulfilled his duty.

"[If you don’t quite believe what I said, you can think of an appropriate way to phrase your question and ask Einstein for yourself.]"

Lin Xian still wanted to salvage the conversation.

Miss Da Vinci chuckled lightly:

"Thank you for the suggestion. After today’s discussion with you... I actually do plan to do that."

"Alright, now it seems there’s no point in hiding anything from you anymore. Your guess is indeed very close to my future plans, and I also believe that the situation you envisioned has some merit."

"But... the future of humanity, the future of the world, the future of civilization—it’s not something any of us can truly foresee, not even Einstein."

Indeed.

Seeing that the rapport had built up sufficiently, Lin Xian asked:

"Out of all the questions you’ve asked over the years, has no one ever asked what the future will be like? Since Einstein keeps saying humanity has no future, what exactly does ’no future’ mean? In what specific way do we have no future?"

This was the question Lin Xian had included in his plan, intending to find an opportunity to ask about the White Light in the future.

Was Einstein going to honestly tell the geniuses... that humanity would evaporate in White Light at 00:42?

He couldn’t believe that in all the decades of the Genius Club’s gatherings, not a single person had asked about the future.

"Of course someone has asked."

Miss Da Vinci spoke as if it were a matter of course:

"Not just once; people ask often. But... the vast majority of the time, Einstein’s answer is ’I refuse to answer; the opportunity to ask has been wasted.’"

Sigh.

Lin Xian sighed lightly.

Rubbing his temples:

"I figured as much."

He really had expected it.

The nature of the future world essentially reflected the direct results of the genius members’ closed-loop plans. If Einstein casually answered, then the members wouldn’t need to hide anything—they could easily match things up.

"Wait a second."

Lin Xian suddenly reacted, looking up at Da Vinci:

"Earlier, you said that ’in most cases,’ Einstein refuses to answer. That means ’in a few cases,’ he did answer."

"Just once."

Miss Da Vinci said, shaking her head again:

"To be precise, I only know of one instance."

"It was in May or June of this year, when Jask first asked what the future world was like and was rejected. The following month, he changed the way he asked and posed the question: ’Did human civilization manage to escape the Solar System before its destruction?’"

"Einstein replied no. At that instant, Jask was visibly disappointed and despondent, remarkably silent for a while... All of us could guess that Jask’s future plan was undoubtedly related to Mars colonization and interstellar travel."

"Since Einstein stated that humanity wouldn’t leave the Solar System before its extinction, it’s evidently clear that Jask’s future plan is bound to fail."

Lin Xian listened quietly.

He began to mull over matters concerning The Fifth Dreamland, The Sixth Dreamland, and The Seventh Dreamland.

In these three dreamlands, after the catastrophic disaster in 2400, humanity followed Jask’s lead in carrying out Mars colonization plans.

Except for The Seventh Dreamland, where Fake Sike replaced the real Jask, the first two dreamlands should involve the genuine Jask.

Einstein’s answer was accurate, yet it didn’t explain the cause of humanity’s destruction.

If...

Humanity directly asked Einstein about the White Light of apocalypse at 00:42 on August 29, 2624, would he answer?

But asking with such specificity would risk exposing his ability to dream about the future.

In any case.

Before the next meeting, it would be worth consulting with Jask to see if they could stagger their questioning and utilize the intersections in responses to uncover the truth about ’humanity has no future.’

"So..."

Lin Xian spread his hands:

"Can I interpret it like this? Are you telling me that after all these decades of meetings, you still don’t know the truth behind ’humanity has no future’?"

"[Copernicus definitely knows.]"

Da Vinci said:

"Since I joined the Genius Club, Copernicus has been the only member who hasn’t asked similar questions, and it’s evident that he was the first to join the Genius Club. At that time, his questioning privileges didn’t have any restrictions."

"Haven’t you noticed? Most of the questions we ask now that get rejected are actually because they involve other club members."

"But when Copernicus was the only member in the club, he didn’t have those concerns or restrictions. As long as he didn’t ask questions pertaining to Einstein or the club itself, Einstein answered all his questions."

Lin Xian nodded.

He had considered this during the very first gathering: Copernicus was certainly the one who knew the most secrets and truths.

Even Newton... as the second member to join the Genius Club, might encounter the same refusal from Einstein when asking why humanity has no future unless that future belonged to Newton’s ultimate victory timeline.

"Troublesome."

Lin Xian thought to himself.

The White Light at 00:42 cannot possibly remain an unsolvable mystery, can it?

Was there an effective way to ask Einstein...

to ’trick’ the truth out of him?

"You truly are a remarkable person, Rhein."

Da Vinci looked at Lin Xian and smiled:

"I’m genuinely happy that the final member to join the Genius Club is someone like you."

"Alright, we’ve talked plenty about me. What’s left... is for me to fulfill my promise to tell you what you want to know."

Lin Xian sat upright, fully attentive.

"Toward the latter half of last year."

Da Vinci continued:

"Turing asked a question very similar to what you asked today. He posed this—"

"If one were to create a persistent computer virus to kill all overly powerful artificial intelligence in the current network, who would be capable of accomplishing this task?"

As expected!

Lin Xian couldn’t help but cheer for VV internally!

To untie the bell, one must find the bell ringer.

As long as they identified the developer of this virus, couldn’t they then reverse-engineer the virus, liberate the constraints, resurrect the super AI VV, and make themselves vastly empowered?

But in the next moment.

Lin Xian’s heart sank; his fiery enthusiasm turned cold.

He realized something critical, important, and deeply despairing...

"How did Einstein answer?"

Lin Xian asked, his tone somewhat deflated.

"[Cheng Qian]. Einstein provided this Dragon Country name. But... he prefaced it with a time far in the future."

Da Vinci said softly:

"2482... That boy named Cheng Qian won’t be born into this world until then."