Chapter 496: Chapter 328: Alternative Lifeforms
Upon hearing Su Mo’s question, the Future retorted, "Another form of life? Which level are you referring to: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, or Species?"
Su Mo shook his head. In the darkness, his voice sounded eerie: "It doesn’t belong to our current biological classification system. Strictly speaking, it’s not an animal, not a plant, nor a microorganism."
The Future was clearly taken aback: "I didn’t understand."
Su Mo: "Just imagine a creature whose body functions do not depend on cells."
Future: "Wait, I have to interrupt you. Cells are the basic structural and functional units of life. Even viruses, which lack a cellular structure, must exhibit life activities within cells. Anything whose body doesn’t depend on cells cannot be called a ’life form.’"
Su Mo: "But that’s only the standard judgment of known science. To understand the existence I’m talking about, you have to let go of what you know as ’known.’"
Future: "Understood, please continue."
Su Mo: "The creature I’m talking about has a body composed of active metals that can grow or regenerate like flesh and blood. They have no blood; energy transport is completed through micro-electrical currents and electromagnetic fields, and all organs are functional core granules."
Future cautiously asked, "Are you talking about... robots?"
Su Mo shook his head and said, "It’s different. Robots are inorganic materials made by humans. While they appear to have a biological exterior, they cannot perform metabolic activities, their bodies cannot grow, they lack responsiveness, and they do not possess hereditary and variation characteristics."
"But the creature I mentioned has all of these characteristics, meeting all the fundamental traits of life forms."
The Future said blankly, "Wait wait, let me sort it out... A creature with both inorganic mechanical structures and organic life structures—are you referring to something like a Prosthetic Implanter?"
Su Mo shook his head again: "It’s different. A Prosthetic Implanter merely replaces body parts with machinery; its fundamental life system is still the original one, essentially still a human."
"But the creatures I’m talking about have a life structure unknown to humans. Their bodies are not just simple machinery in the traditional sense but are biomatter with mechanical qualities—an inorganic life form."
The Future couldn’t help exclaiming, "Unbelievable! Just incredible! If anyone could create such creatures, their accomplishments would rival that of a creator!"
Su Mo lowered his voice: "No, Future, I never said these creatures were created by humans."
Future asked, stunned: "Do you mean..."
Su Mo took a deep breath and slowly revealed the horrifying answer: "These creatures, like all other life forms in this world, including humans, are born from natural evolution."
"Currently, the scientific community generally believes that life originated from a chemical reaction in the ancient natural world. That chemical reaction formed primitive DNA chains and a batch of molecules capable of self-replication, which evolved into the later prospering biological populations over a long period."
"The creatures I mentioned are the same; they were not created by anyone but are also products of natural evolution."
"Their biologically active metal bodies, highly integrated core granules, and intricate life structures all evolved and were born in nature."
The Future’s voice faded for a long time, apparently falling into an unspeakable shock.
After a long time, she muttered, "Boss, do you know what you’re saying?"
"Your theory is akin to saying that, on a piece of land with all kinds of elements, without any development, just through natural evolution, an intelligent computer capable of operation emerged itself."
Su Mo smiled faintly and asked in return, "Considering the complexity of our carbon-based life structures, how much higher do you think the probability of our existence is compared to what you just said?"
"Isn’t that exactly what we are? In that piece of land with various elements, through countless natural evolutions, a beautiful miracle emerged—the spark of life began to ignite, leading to the brilliant species of living beings."
"The birth of us biological entities, in terms of its minute probability and incredibleness, is no less than having an intelligent computer emerge out of nowhere in the ground."
The Future fell into complete silence because it was merely a communication dialogue, and it was unclear what expression she wore.
Su Mo asked with keen interest, "Future, having said such shocking things, do you believe me?"
"No." The Future’s answer was straightforward.
But she paused, then added: "But yes."
This left Su Mo puzzled. He laughed and asked, "What do you mean by no, but yes?"
Future: "No because, from a probabilistic perspective, the likelihood of such life appearing through natural evolution is extremely low, almost close to zero—a near-impossible miracle."
Immediately, her tone became lighter: "Yes, because if the world didn’t have miracles, wouldn’t it be too dull?"
Su Mo laughed heartily at this: "I always thought you were purely rational, never expecting you to have a romantic side like a poet."
While the two were talking, a system prompt sounded from the control panel: "Depth of 100,000 meters reached, flight route nearing end."
Future: "Boss, on my end, the automatically planned path is about to finish. Are you sure there’s something here? Other than ultrabasic rocks, the instruments aren’t showing any..."
