The death of Associate Researcher Linda leaves many questions. The police did not believe it was suicide from the beginning, but after several months of investigation, there was still no evidence of homicide, so they had to classify the file as “unsolved suspicious cases”. The main clue to suspicion is a line he (?) left on the computer screen (he overdosed on sleeping pills in a computer chair in a bachelor’s apartment), but the meaning of the line is confusing and obscure.
The beekeeper’s decree. Do not wake the bees.
Many people think that this line of words does not explain much. It is typed on the screen, and there is no “handwriting identification” problem. Therefore, it may be typed by an outsider, or may even be transmitted through the Internet. But the skeptics also have their reasoning basis: the time when this line of words was stored in memory was 3:15 am on the 13th, and the forensic doctor determined that his death time was about 3:30 am to 4:30 am on the 13th, the time is too consistent . In the middle of the night like this, no good person will come here to type a line. The police checked the fingerprints on the keyboard and found only those of Linda and his girlfriend, Miss Su. But it was later learned that Miss Su had very strong alibi – she had been in another man’s house that night.
There are only two possibilities: either, Linda typed the line of obscure words herself, perhaps to warn someone or the police; or, it was entered by an outsider, but he would never be. Rather, the game acts with a certain motive. No matter what kind of possibility, they are inclined to support the conclusion of “homicide”.
The first person asked by the investigator was Professor Gongsun of the Academy of Sciences, because he was Lin Da’s doctoral supervisor, and after Lin Da’s death, he spread speculation that Lin was “suicide” among his colleagues. Investigators feel that it is more prudent to first investigate people whose opinions differ from their own, which can avoid the drawbacks of preconceived ideas. Of course, this is only one of the reasons, and it is the kind of reason that is more articulate. In fact… people all know a principle of the police: the possibility of the person reporting the crime must be ruled out first.
Professor Gongsun’s house is very beautiful. He wears white home clothes, has white hair, and has clear eyes. He regretted Linda’s death, saying that Linda was the person he valued the most, a sensitive and enthusiastic young man; he was not the best scientist (because he was too young), but he had the best scientist mind , belongs to the kind of genius who can only meet one in decades, and his death is a great misfortune for the scientific community. As for Linda’s research field, he said that it is relatively imaginary, and it is to study the intelligence and “bed stone” of computers. His research is of course important to humanity, but that is in the long term, with no near-term or military effect, and “there will never be a hostile country that will kill him for his research.”
During the conversation, his expression was very sad, but he still admitted that “Linda is likely to commit suicide”. Because geniuses are often fragile, they can see through the nature of the universe and life better than ordinary people, which often leads to psychological imbalances. Afterwards, he fluently listed many scientific geniuses who committed suicide. All of them had strange names. The investigators failed to record them (the recordings were kept), but he only remembered that one person was a friend of Fermi, the father of the American hydrogen bomb. He did not use mathematics for calculations. Table (there were no computers at that time), because he could calculate all the data on the mathematical table in an instant (this detail impressed the investigators a lot). But the man committed suicide at the age of 30 due to a mental breakdown.
Professor Gongsun said: “To take a vulgar example, you are all men, and you are born to chase women and have children, but you will never go to the bottom of your head and ask where this motive comes from. But only genius can see through life. He knows that sexual desire comes from hormones, and maternal love comes from the corpus luteum. Love is just a trap set by the ‘genes’ to continue itself. When his rational power is too strong and overcomes the instinct of the body, it may cause spiritual damage. Crash.”
Investigators politely listened to him and asked him whether the words implied that Linda’s death was “related to a relationship between a man and a woman.” It is very strange that Professor Gongsun’s mood has a sudden change at this time, he said impatiently, I’m sorry, he still has class, excuse me. When he was done, he got up to see the guest. The investigator did not get angry at his rudeness, and before leaving, he carefully asked what the computer “rock” he just mentioned was: “It must be a very difficult game, we can’t understand it. , just please use the simplest language to draw a rough outline.”
Professor Gongsun said coldly: I will have time later.
The second investigator was Linda’s girlfriend, Miss Su. She was quite beautiful and could be said to be sexy. The weather was still cold at that time, but she was already wearing a navel-baring outfit, a miniskirt, and a pair of beautiful white legs dangling in front of the investigator’s eyes. Two investigators did not rate her highly, saying she was definitely one of those “heartless” women. Linda’s body was not yet cold, she was already chatting and laughing, and she didn’t even want to pretend to be a little sad. Even in the presence of the investigator, she was still chatting with a certain man on the phone.
Miss Su is very candid, admitting that she and Linda have a “deep relationship”, but she has long wanted to say goodbye to him because he is “nerdy and boring”. Yes, he has a high social status, a good income, and he is quite handsome, but nothing else. During the tryst, Linda often frowned and lost his mind. His mind was trapped in the optical cable tunnel, unable to extricate himself. It was a narrow, long and dark path. He believes that at the end of the tunnel is a gorgeous cloud of light and electricity, and God is floating in the cloud. Linda is very infatuated with his girlfriend, her high breasts, slender limbs, round buttocks and other wonderful features. Even when he is tracking God, he cannot give up the charm of this flesh. Professor Gongsun’s analysis does not It suits him perfectly, but he can’t avoid being distracted during the tryst. “I think his nerves are not normal recently, he must be trying to kill himself!”
For the second time that Linda died of a “nervous disorder,” investigators asked her to give specific examples. Miss Su said that Linda has been talking about termites, ants and slime molds recently. For example, he often talks about the “overall intelligence” of bees, saying that a bee is nothing more than a nerve cord with several ganglia strung together. It is almost impossible to talk about intelligence, but as long as their population reaches a critical number, they can cooperate closely with each other. Build a hive that even humans can admire. Their hexagonal honeycombs are built at optimal angles to save material, with mathematical precision. By the way, recently he often goes to the suburbs to see a beekeeper…
Investigators immediately thought of the strange message on the computer screen. Needless to say, this bee releaser must be the key to the case. They asked her to recall as much as she could about the person. Miss Su said I really don’t know. He went there on a motorcycle alone. He had been there about three times, and he returned on the same day, so the person must be near the capital. After Linda came back, her expression was rather strange, sometimes excited, sometimes melancholy, and said some nonsense, “intellectual level” and so on, I can’t remember, and I’m not interested in listening to it.
Of course, the investigators also questioned her activities on the night of the crime. They were sure that she was not at the scene, so they were ready to leave. At this moment, Miss Su said casually, “Oh right, Linda left a windbreaker in my house, and there seems to be a photo of a bee man in it. Hearing this sentence, the investigator’s mood can really be described as overjoyed. Sure enough, there was a thick stack of photos in the pocket, mostly of beehives and bee colonies, but only one of the beekeeper, who was collecting honey, wearing a mask to prevent bee stings, his appearance was not very clear. But there is valuable information on the beehive, with the address written in red: Ninghai Bridge, Zhejiang.
It can be said that the investigation has turned a corner here. Old criminal investigators often have the experience that a clue that seems easy to verify is suddenly interrupted, and a clue suddenly pops up when it seems that the mountains and rivers are exhausted. Three days later, the investigator came to the Jizhong Plain and sat in the tent of the beekeeper, surrounded by endless rape blossoms, gleaming with dazzling gold. As for how to find this person, it is quite simple to put it bluntly. They know that these beekeepers who are chasing the flowering season generally do not bring their own cars, but hand over the beehives to trains or cars for transportation. Therefore, they found the freight documents filled in by Zhang Shulin at Qiaotou, Ninghai, Zhejiang, 15 days ago at the city’s intermodal transportation office. , followed the trail. But after meeting I was disappointed. At least, according to the selection criteria of Chinese film directors, this Zhang Shulin is definitely not a villain. He was a short, fat man, with a black and red complexion, and he spoke with great energy, and was very forthright and talkative. It may be because the life of the bee is too lonely, he is very enthusiastic about the two uninvited guests, forcing the guests to drink his bee candy water one by one, making it easier for the investigator to go out. The tent is very simple, like a 21st century Chinese gypsy. Unfolded blankets were piled on a camp bed, a rice cooker was propped on the ground with three stones, and a tea jar with shattered marks was left with the words “Agriculture Learning from Dazhai” in red. His only companion was his youngest son, a very shy child, who said hello to the investigators and hid outside.
The bee-free person has an excellent memory, and the past events 20 days ago seem to be recorded, and the memory is not bad. As soon as he saw the stack of photos, he said yes, there is someone who has approached me several times. His surname is Lin, he is 31 or 22 years old, he looks like a scholar, he wears a light blue windbreaker and a silver sweater, and he rides a Jialing motorcycle with a license plate. The last three digits of the number are 248. “We have a good temper, we can talk together, and we have a good time!”
When asked what he was talking about, he said it was all about the habits of bees, and he went on and on. The investigator received this crash education and left half a bee expert. Lao Zhang said: Bees dance the figure-of-eight to indicate the source of nectar, and the direction of the central axis of the figure-eight represents the angle of the nectar source relative to the sun; the drones among the bees are very poor, and after mating, they are expelled from the hive and starved to death because there is no breeding in the colony. “Waste people”; beekeepers should not overdo their honey, otherwise when they add honey to the hive in winter, they know that it is not from them, and they will spoil it at will; when the bee colony is large, the worker bees will automatically use beeswax to build a beeswax under the hive. Three or four new Wangtai. Here comes the weirdness! The diligent and docile worker bees suddenly became very restless, they stopped feeding the queen bee, and surrounded her in groups, forcing her to lay eggs in Wangtaizhong, and the larvae in Wangtaizhong would be the new queen bee in the future. When the new king was about to be born, almost half of the worker bees followed the old king and flew out of the hive and hugged into a group on a nearby tree. At this time, the beekeeper had to set up a lure box, otherwise they would fly away and become wild bees. The bees entering the new box have completely forgotten the old nest, and even if they cannot find the new nest for some reason, they would rather freeze to death and starve to death outside the old nest than return to the old nest, just like their memory circuit is broken when they leave the old nest. The son was cut off! At this time, the old nest was busy. After the new king climbed out of the king’s platform, the first thing to do was to find other king’s platforms and bite them apart. The worker bees would help it kill the larvae inside. However, if two queens are born at the same time, the worker bees will adopt an absolutely neutral attitude and quietly watch the duel until one of them is stabbed to death, then they will swarm and drag the loser’s body outside the hive. “Think that these little creatures are really aura. If you don’t say anything else, who is responsible for the points when you divide into groups? It’s not good for such a large number, and they don’t have ten fingers.”
Linda and the beekeeper stood side by side in the cloud-like apricot blossoms, white beehives lined up on the ground, and yellow-brown creatures fluttered lightly around them. They have their own society, their own mathematics and chemistry, their own morals, laws and beliefs, their own language and social etiquette. A solitary bee cannot be considered a life, it can never survive in nature. But when the colony reaches a certain number, there is a kind of overall intelligence. So, calling them a “swarm” is not an appropriate description, it should be said that they are a creature called a “big bee”, and a single bee can only be counted as one of its cells. Intelligence takes a leap here, and the whole is greater than the sum of the individuals. Linda prayed to the beekeeper, Linda muttered to the bee colony, and said that these little creatures can enlighten us on the way of the universe. He earnestly asked Lao Zhang what the critical number of “swarms” of a bee colony was, but he said in turn that the exact number is meaningless, as long as you have a rough understanding of such an “order of magnitude”. The old man who released the bee couldn’t understand these words.
Investigators heard the word “critical mass” for the second time. The word sounds a bit mysterious and somewhat dangerous (they all know that a nuclear bomb has a critical mass). But their inquiries about this word could not get a response from the bee releaser, and Lao Zhang just made some digressions. He pointed to the photo with the mask and said that Mr. Lin specially took this photo for me. Mr. Lin said that it would be sent to my house. I don’t know if it was sent. “It was not the honey collection period, so he insisted that I put on a bee-proof cover to perform for him. He said that I wore it like a crown, and said that I was the god of bees, the god of bees. This Mr. Lin is not childish, Say something stupid.”
The investigator was very keen, and from this common sentence, he thought of the “nervous disorder” that Miss Su said, so he turned around and chased after him. Lao Zhang regretted saying this – he didn’t want to tell outsiders about Mr. Lin’s “shortcomings”, so he reluctantly said after repeated questioning, yes, Mr. Lin did say some stupid things. He said, Lao Zhang, you “interfered” with the life of bees – you moved them around to find nectar sources, you deprived them of a large part of the fruits of their labor for human enjoyment, you helped them breed in groups, and so on. But can the bees detect this “God’s interference”? Of course this is certainly beyond their intelligence, but can they “feel” some sort of sign based on their only lower intelligence? For example, do they feel a certain freedom less than that of wild bees? For example, do beekeepers realize there is a benevolent “hand of God” when they replenish their food-starved colonies with honey during the winter? Is it a childish prank for them to spoil foreign honey? “Mr. Lin made me laugh. I said that no matter how smart it is, it is a worm. How can they know this? I think they are living happily. However,” he defended earnestly, “Mr. Lin is definitely not out of his mind. , he is a bee-loving idiot, and he got into the horns of a bull.”
Investigators were disappointed with the outcome of the interview, and the unexpected lead was cut off. They used to focus their biggest doubts on the “beekeeper”, but now, even the most skeptical people will conclude that this outspoken and talkative Zhang Shulin is by no means a conspiracy. When they were about to leave, they revealed Mr. Lin’s misfortune to Lao Zhang. After the bee man was shocked, he burst into tears and choked up, “Good people don’t live long, and good people don’t live long.”
The investigator went to the High School Affiliated to Peking University again. Lin Da’s last social activity was here to give a report to the students. Director Chen, who was in charge of the reception at that time, said in confusion that Lin Da came to the school to contact the school on his own initiative, and there was no charge for this report. This was the first time I had encountered such a self-recommendation, and I was not familiar with Lin Da. I wanted to politely decline it, but after reading the work permit of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I agreed. As for the actual effect of the report, Director Chen joked: “It’s hard to say, anyway, it won’t improve the results of this mid-term exam.”
They called five students who had heard the report by random sampling, two men and three women, and they sat cautiously on wooden chairs in the teaching office. It’s the school’s evening self-study time. The rows of classrooms are silent, the windows are shining with bright lights, and the strange neon lights are shining in the night sky in the distance. The answers of the students were not quite consistent. Some people said that Mr. Lin’s report was good, while others said that they were not impressed, but the answer of a girl with glasses was different.
“Profound, his report was very profound,” she said earnestly, “but not too new. He was basically expounding on a new philosophical point of view: holism. I happened to read a thing or two about holism. This original work in English.”
This girl is thin, with a pointed chin, big eyes, shaved shoulders, and a childish face. No matter her age or size, she is obviously taller than her.Others are smaller. Director Chen said in a low voice, don’t look at her unremarkable appearance, she is a famous little genius in the city, she has already skipped two levels, her grades have always been top-notch, and her English is the best. The investigators asked other students to return to the classroom, thinking it might be better to talk to the girl alone.
Sure enough, the little girl lost her prudence, and recalled with shining eyes: What is holism? For example, Mr. Lin said that the intelligence of a single bee is extremely limited, and the complex moral rules, complex customs, and complex architectural blueprints in the bee colony cannot exist in the brain of any single bee. But when thousands of bees gather into a colony, these things come out naturally – why? do not know. Humans have only seen the outer signs of the jump, but have no idea of ??the underlying mechanism of the jump. For another example, the human brain is composed of 14 billion neurons. The structure and function of a single neuron is very simple, but it generates an impulse according to external stimuli. So which neuron represents “I”? It doesn’t mean that only enough neurons are combined in a certain space-time sequence to produce a “wo stone”… The investigators heard the word “wo stone” again, and they waved their hands hurriedly and asked her to stop with a smile. a bit. Little girl, what is a nest stone? We’ve heard this word in our investigations, it’s not like kidney stones, it’s never heard of stones in the brain.
The little girl turned her face to look at them, a smile beating in her eyes. She tried her best to hold back her laughter, and said patiently, it was not “Wo Shi”, but “I know it”. “I-consciousness” is “my consciousness”, that is, the awareness of an “I” independent of nature. Human babies can produce “I-knowledge” before they are 1 year old, but computers can’t. Even if they defeat Kasparov’s “Deep Blue”, it will not have a sense of “I” achievement. “This is the case of digital computers. Since the advent of analog computers such as optical brains, quantum computers, and biological component computers, the situation has changed a lot. Mr. Lin also mentioned the ‘standard human brain’ and ‘standard human brain’ in his report. Critical Quantity’…”
The investigator smiled wryly, thinking that this little girl might be talking in an alien language! They asked him to pause again and explain what a “standard human brain” was, a term that sounded a little murderous. The girl simply said that it is just a unit of measurement, just like the measurement of astronomical distance can use light years, parsecs, astronomical units. In the past, the capabilities of digital computers were described by some precise parameters, such as storage capacity (bits), floating-point operation speed (times/second), and so on. This method is no longer suitable for analog computers. Some people have recently proposed to use the standard intelligence of the human brain as a reference unit. This calculation method has not been rigorously refined. For example, the calculation of the total capacity of the world’s computer networks is estimated by some to be 10 billion standard human brains, while others are estimated to be 1,000 billion. The difference is huge. “However, Mr. Lin has a very incisive point of view. He said that the exact value is meaningless. No matter how much it is, the current network capacity has already exceeded the critical number, which has caused a surge in intelligence. The skyrocketing computer intelligence is beyond our ability. The level of understanding…”
The investigator politely interrupted her, saying that she was grateful for her help, but could not delay her study time any more, goodbye. Then he left the school with a wry smile.
They also asked about the deceased’s grandparents (Linda’s parents were not local). They were third in the chronological order of the interviews, but the fact that the investigative report was narrated last may be a hint that the writers were inclined to accept Linda’s grandfather’s analysis of the cause of death. When they arrived at Lin’s home that day, the living room was full of people, all old ladies over 60 years old, with white handkerchiefs on their heads, all humming with great devotion and devotion. Mr. Lin hurriedly let the two of them into his study, and explained somewhat embarrassedly that these were his wife’s church members, and they were praying for the deceased. Mr. Lin said that both he and his wife converted to God when they were studying in England, and changed their faith after returning to China, but after retirement, his wife continued the faith in their youth. “Everyone has their own aspirations. I didn’t persuade her. I don’t think it’s a good thing to have some spiritual sustenance. It’s a pity that the old ladies that my wife comes into contact with have only ‘low-level’ beliefs. They are not pursuing spiritual purification, but The obsession with believing that God will show miracles vulgarizes religion. To be honest, I didn’t expect my wife to get along with these old ladies.”
He is very saddened by the misfortune of Ai Sun, because he knows that Sun Tzu is a genius, and that he has been building a grand system code-named “Heaven’s Ear” to explore superintelligence and the possibility of communication between different intellectual levels. But when talking about the cause of Linda’s death, Mr. Lin definitely said that it was suicide. There is no doubt about this, you don’t have to waste your energy. Because Linda had a phone call before he died, and he talked about religious beliefs abruptly. “It’s a pity that we didn’t hear the undercurrent of his emotions. We really regret it.”
Mr. Lin said that in the past two years, his wife has been instilling religious beliefs in his grandson, often stuffing him with some poorly printed pamphlets. However, her efforts have been fruitless. It can be seen that the grandson did not refute his grandma face to face because of politeness. But in that strange phone call, Linda abruptly announced that he had established three beliefs: 1. God exists; 2. God will interfere in the process of human beings in good faith, but this interference must be invisible. 3. Human distributed intelligence can never understand God’s higher-level thinking. “I don’t know why he suddenly got religious insight, and I don’t know why he told me about it instead of his grandma.” Mr. Lin shook his head slowly and said bitterly, “I don’t approve of his religion, but I think these three points of view are acceptable. They are actually in line with the open-minded modern religious view of Western countries. However, Sun Tzu was in a very strange mood at the time. He seemed very anxious and distressed. He said rudely on the phone, I can’t stand this fucking god because I’m sure God exists. I can’t stand having a pair of eyes watching me eat, drink and sleep like we study monkey feeding and sex The same. What is especially unbearable is that we exhaust our intelligence to explore science. In his view, it is just a mouse digging a labyrinth, a pitiful rambling of low-level intelligence. What is the meaning of such a life! Of course my wife and I tried our best to comfort them. After a while, it’s a pity that we didn’t hear the undercurrent of his emotions, we really regret it.” Old Lin shook his gray-haired head and repeated sadly.
Investigators asked suspiciously, would he really kill himself just for this kind of whimsy? Old Lin said yes, he will, we understand his character. Old Lin smiled wryly at himself and said, this is the family tradition of the Lin family, our needs for spirituality are often more than the needs for worldly life – unfortunately, I was a step late and couldn’t persuade him. Investigators said goodbye to him and went downstairs. They saw his wife saying goodbye to more than a dozen church members at the door. The church members said solemnly, God will hear our prayers, it will definitely happen, and Daer will definitely ascend to heaven. The two turned their heads to look at Mr. Lin. Mr. Lin shook his head gently, with inexplicable sadness in his eyes.
That Saturday night, the little girl with glasses finished her homework and couldn’t wait to get down in front of the computer screen. It was the optical brain that her parents had just bought for her, and a cable incorporated her into the network, into the infinity, the infinity, and the boundless. The fiber optic cable was like a long, narrow, absolutely dark tunnel, and she would never be able to pass through it, and she would never be able to see the whole world behind the tunnel. What she saw on the screen was only what the “Internet” was willing to open up to her and what her intellect could understand. But she was still exploring frantically, hoping to see the occasional flash of light in the tunnel. Linda stared at her from the stage, Linda stared at each young audience, his eyes were melancholy and calm. No one knew at the moment that he was going to visit the god of death, and probably no one would understand the motivation for his report in the future. Linda remembered the young mathematician who founded “group theory,” who stayed up all night the night before the duel and hurriedly wrote out the gist of group theory—no one in the world could understand it at the time. To this day, in those precious drafts, the anxiety before his death can still be touched. Scribbled in the margins of the draft: It’s too late, there’s no time.
Linda said that honeybees have long been equipped with three conditions for the evolution of advanced civilization: social life, labor and language (body language). They even have a far more favorable condition than humans: time. They evolved efficient bee societies at least 60 million years ago. But bee evolution ended long ago, at a very low level (relative to human civilization). Why? There is only one reason, biologists say, that their brains are so small that they do not have the material basis for the development of higher intelligence. With that said, we should really be grateful for our 1,400-gram brain—but kids, have you ever thought that a 1,400-gram brain probably has its limits? Could human intelligence also end at a certain height?
No one ever relayed Linda’s last words to the girl: Don’t wake the bees. However, even if it was conveyed, she could ignore it because she was young.