Dream Guide - #421 - Chapter 421 Möbius Strip

Mei Yiqiu held the enhanced version of the second-generation space box he had just received in his hand, with a satisfied smile on his face.

He gently tapped the alloy surface of the helmet with his pipe, making a crisp sound like a wind chime in the wind.

“The sound may make you think it is fragile, but in fact it is strong enough!” the professor said excitedly, “You can throw it from the roof of the laboratory and it won’t be damaged!”

“Professor, why do we use such high-end materials?” Mei Ziqing was very puzzled. “I saw the cost list. The most expensive part of the entire helmet is actually the shell and its supporting material! If we use ordinary alloy materials, we at least That’s a savings of thirty thousand dollars per helmet.”

Mei Yiqiu said: “Child, don’t worry about money. We have a large amount of funds, and they are still increasing.”

Mei Ziqing said stubbornly: “But we need to advance the game project as soon as possible. If each helmet costs 50,000 US dollars, and we need to invest 500 million US dollars to develop 10,000 players, our goal is one billion users!”

The professor laughed loudly, and his hard and fluffy hair exploded, trembling with his laughter: “Poor honest kid, who told you that we are going to give the helmet to the players for free?”

Mei Ziqing asked curiously: “When we first started promoting, didn’t we all occupy the market by free of charge?”

“No, no, only garbage will be free. Really good things will not be free!” said Bian Ziyuan on the side, “Many products are free to squeeze out the opponent’s living space. Once the market is occupied and a monopoly is formed, it will We will charge higher fees to make back all the early losses. Our helmets are unique in the world and have no competitors; our games are unique in the world and have no competitors. Why should things without competitors be free?”

“But it’s not a necessity! If it’s not a necessity, you have to spend money to cultivate the market. Even if you are unique, users can choose not to use it.” Mei Ziqing argued.

“Well, opium is not a necessity, and it has never been free. Users can choose not to use it, and all governments do not encourage people to use it. But opium sales have never worried traffickers.” Bian Ziyuan said.

“Opium is addictive, so it doesn’t count!”

“Games can also be addictive.”

“You’re talking about yourself, game geek!”

Bian Ziyuan admitted this, so he didn’t want to continue arguing. In fact, he also wanted to know why the professor used such expensive materials to make helmets. A pair cost 50,000 US dollars. This was not something ordinary people could afford. Such an expensive price did exclude most ordinary people.

Mei Yiqiu said cheerfully: “Do you know how complicated the structure of the space box is? Our first-generation product was faked for more than 20 million US dollars. The current second-generation product has shrunk so much in size but has little functionality. There are quite a few, and some have even been added. This places high demands on materials. You know, the space box is not just a VR helmet, nor is it just as simple as installing a few sensors inside. It has to carry a Human consciousness and all memories are used to create a new world. The consciousness of game players is the master of this world. They first create the world in this box, not on our server. Therefore, the amount of information carried by the box is incredible. Just like our human brain.”

The professor pointed to his head full of fluffy white hair, “Do you know how much information the human brain can store?”

Bian Ziyuan is not very familiar with biology, but because he studies artificial intelligence, he has a certain understanding of the brain and nerve centers. He said: “The information storage mechanism of the human brain is not very clear at present, and it should be different from the storage mechanism of a computer. Whether it is using the information that a single neuron can store multiplied by the number of neurons in the brain, or using the connections of neurons in the human brain We cannot estimate the information storage of the human brain using patterns to represent information. At least so far, we have not found anyone who says that his brain is full and he cannot remember things.”

Mei Yiqiu nodded: “You are right, this is only long-term memory information. There is also genetic information and genetic information. Although science cannot confirm it now, we never deny their existence, and even believe that their information content It is larger than our lifetime memory. Although there has always been controversy about where this information is stored, when our consciousness wants to obtain it, it always has to be retrieved through the brain, and it will eventually be converted into the brain’s long-term memory.”

“So, is the storage space of the human brain unlimited?” Mei Ziqing asked curiously.

“You can say that.” The professor replied affirmatively, “Because of this, our space box must match the human brain. For consciousness to create the world here, it must be able to carry everything that the human brain can carry.”

“Is the capacity of the space box also infinite? But how is this achieved?”

Bian Ziyuan is also very curious. If there is any gap in intelligence between his Cronus and humans, it is in the way of information storage and the scalability of thinking.

If an artificial intelligence cannot break away from the computer’s information processing model, its limitations will be obvious – no matter how advanced the storage device is or how small the hard disk becomes, there will always be a day when it is full, and at that time the only way to delete the old information is to Or add new hardware.

Mei Yiqiu smiled and said, “Do you know the Möbius strip?”

“Of course I know!” Bian Ziyuan said, “Twist a piece of paper 180°, and then glue the two ends together to form a closed loop. When we were young, the teacher did interesting experiments for us in class.”

Mei Yiqiu said: “The secret of unlimited information storage lies in this tape. The Möbius strip has only one side, and an insect can crawl over both sides of the paper without having to climb over the edge of the paper.”

“What does this have to do with information storage?” Mei Ziqing asked.

“I understand!” Bian Ziyuan snapped his fingers, “Originally, our information was recorded on one side of the note, but after being connected into a Mobius strip, the two sides of the note became one side. This doubles the amount of information stored.”

Mei Ziqing was still puzzled: “That’s only twice as much!”

Bian Ziyuan said excitedly: “No, you forgot, the Möbius strip can be cut! When we were children, we often played, twisting the paper strips and connecting the two ends, and then cut along the center line of the paper circle. It It will not become two paper circles, but will become a larger Möbius strip. Then cut along the center line, and it will become an even larger Möbius strip…”

Mei Ziqing corrected: “It won’t keep getting bigger. If you cut it once and then cut it a second time, it will become knotted because the big ring after cutting is one more twist than the original one.”

Bian Ziyuan thought for a while and it seemed that this was indeed the case, and then said: “Well, this is my oversight, but although it will not keep getting longer, the rings after cutting will fit together. From an informatics point of view, It is still a whole. The binary information of the computer is linear in space and does not occupy the width, so as long as the Möbius strip is infinitely divided, it will become a network-like information network with rings inside it. You can also store unlimited information!”

Mei Yiqiu was very happy and looked at his two students with encouraging eyes: “It is not easy to think of this step. Professor Hans surprised everyone when he proposed this! Don’t underestimate such a simple thing. The idea, because to realize it involves countless problems that need to be overcome, especially in materials science.”

“Is that why you need to use such expensive materials?”

“Yes! Imagine that you have to divide a centimeter-wide Möbius strip infinitely down to the nanometer level. What is its information length?”

“The difference between centimeters and nanometers is 10 million times. Even if 1 centimeter is divided into tens of nanometers, it will be divided at least 100,000 times. And every time it is divided, the information length of the Möbius strip will double. One hundred thousand times, which means that the belt is a full 2 ​​to the power of 100,000 longer than before. This…”

Bian Ziyuan was shocked by this number. He calculated it silently in his mind for a long time, but could not figure out how much it was.

Mei Yiqiu smiled and said: “Don’t forget it, this length can circle the entire Milky Way twice.”

Thanks to Wild TalK_s for the silver reward, I won’t say anything more, just code.