"If we increase the experintal sample size, we might produce more successful results. But there's no point..." Dr. Kelly said, pursing her lips. "After all, success depends entirely on blind luck, and the probability is astronomically low. We could burn through our entire stockpile of the Perfect Elent and never see another success."
Upon hearing this explanation, Jason frowned deeply. So, the widespread use of the Perfect Elent was still just a pipe dream!
Moreover, judging by the results of this latest experint, that beautiful dream was rapidly slipping further out of humanity's reach.
Ten to twenty tis a normal lifespan gone, just like that?!
The underlying reason was simply that the human brain was too crude; it was riddled with evolutionary bugs, making it fundantally incompatible with such highly sophisticated genetic rewriting.
Perhaps many Senior Scientists had already suspected this, but they had refused to give up hope so easily. Now, the accidental survival of this common street dog had provided a wealth of hard data, exposing the brutal truth.
It was the coldest of realities: humanity currently possessed no way to artificially restructure and "perfect" the brain's architecture.
At least, current dical technology was entirely incapable of it.
No wonder these scientists were so deeply frustrated, showing no joy whatsoever despite a successful test subject.
According to their mathematical models, the probability of surviving modification by the Perfect Elent was infinitesimally small. While marginally related to individual brain structure, it largely boiled down to winning the genetic lottery.
The survival rate was estimated to be between one in ten million and one in a hundred million. Even if all sixty thousand citizens of the Precursor ship volunteered, they wouldn't have nearly enough bodies to beat the odds!
They couldn't possibly line people up and try it one by one. Because every failure ant instantaneous death.
How did this goofy mutt hit the jackpot? It must be the luckiest animal in the universe!
"So, the Perfect Elent project has completely failed?" Jason asked, unwilling to accept it. He patted the dog's fluffy head. The animal happily lolled its tongue and aggressively licked its chops, tail wagging frantically.
The others also stared expectantly at Roman, awaiting a definitive answer.
Had the much-anticipated Perfect Elent truly failed? Had the dream that humanity had chased for decades shattered just like that?
Without the pursuit of this dream, the Lunar Society would never have rebelled, and the Lunar Base would never have been established! Without that base, humanity would have been wiped out on Earth!
And in the end... it turned out to be an impossible fantasy?! Fate truly had a twisted sense of humor.
"That's not entirely accurate," Dr. Roman said slowly after a long silence. "This biological modifier simply wasn't designed for humans. It is intended for species with a significantly more advanced, 'perfected' physiology."
"Currently, we still have two potential avenues of approach."
"First, we know that successful individuals like you, Jason, undergo these changes at the embryonic stage, bypassing the issue of brain modification entirely. We still don't understand the exact chanics behind your survival; there are underlying variables we haven't identified yet."
"However, this avenue is incredibly difficult to replicate. Only one fertilized egg out of millions survived the process. It's an extre statistical anomaly. Moreover, we still don't fully understand the biochemical chanics of the Perfect Elent."
"But, there is a second avenue: the developnt of a Neural Interface Chip!"
"We could artificially optimize our brain structures through the surgical implantation of neuro-chips. This would not only increase our raw intelligence and computational processing power, but it would also theoretically stabilize the neural pathways, vastly increasing the survival rate for Perfect Elent treatnts!"
As he spoke, Dr. Roman beca noticeably animated. He truly believed this path held the highest probability of success.
Granted, the idea of surgically inserting a microchip into one's brain sounded a bit unsettling, but Jason himself was perfectly open to the idea.
If a chip could genuinely enhance human intelligence, he doubted most scientists would be able to resist the temptation!
The inherent limitations of the human brain were simply too restrictive. No matter how brilliant a natural genius was, their raw processing speed couldn't match a computer. And regarding mory retention, a human mind could never outperform a digital hard drive.
If a neural chip, functioning similarly to a miniaturized personal computer, could be integrated with the human brain, it would trigger a massive evolutionary leap in human intelligence!
Furthermore, individuals could utilize these chips to directly transmit and receive digital signals, or even operate complex machinery via direct neural link, massively increasing efficiency.
As for public acceptance? That wouldn't be an issue. Anyone who refused such an upgrade in their current survival situation was a fool.
"Isn't developing a functional neural chip incredibly difficult?" Jason asked directly. "That's standard sci-fi technology. The engineering required must be staggering."
He felt that, while their technological progress had been rapid, they were still a long way off from achieving true brain-computer interfacing.
Dr. Roman shook his head, then nodded. "Primitive neural chips already existed back on Earth; they were used to help paralyzed patients regain basic motor function. We have all the historical data on those early prototypes, and we've analyzed it thoroughly."
"However, the advanced cognitive chips we need are exponentially more complex. They must seamlessly assist the human brain with high-level computational analysis, external data storage, and sensory integration. It essentially acts as a secondary, synthetic brain lobe. The biggest hurdle is achieving flawless, bidirectional data translation between digital signals and organic human thought..."
Roman launched into a dense, theoretical lecture.
The general consensus was that while it was theoretically possible, the required technology was far from mature. They needed to achieve a much deeper understanding of human neurology before they could finalize a working prototype.
It was impossible to establish a tiline. A single breakthrough paper could accelerate developnt by years. Conversely, they could remain stuck at a roadblock for decades.
"In conclusion... this path offers a wider margin for error and a much brighter future. It is definitively achievable!" Roman concluded.
Jason nodded in agreent. He was a staunch advocate for neural interface research, whether its primary purpose was to facilitate Perfect Elent integration or simply to augnt human capabilities.
A neural chip would massively accelerate all other scientific fields by directly boosting human intelligence!
Complex research problems, like calculating massive matrices that previously required tedious manual input into a terminal, could be solved instantaneously by a neural chip. It would be an incalculable boon for scientific advancent!
So traditionalists might oppose the concept of cybernetic bodily modification. However, Jason believed that neural augntation was entirely acceptable.
It was essentially just a highly advanced auxiliary tool that enhanced raw processing power without fundantally altering a person's core personality. Why oppose it?
The human body was fundantally flawed to begin with, so why not use technology to artificially perfect it? As long as the neural chips were rigorously tested for safety!
The group debated the topic for a while longer, with the majority of the Senior Scientists expressing strong support. Only Austin, the Head of Security, frowned slightly, though he refrained from voicing direct opposition.
With this, the primary research focus officially shifted from the Perfect Elent to Neural Interface Technology.
Until a functional neural chip was developed, the Perfect Elent remained a lethal, unsolvable puzzle and would be shelved indefinitely.
"...By the way, what about the broad-spectrum immunological reagent?"
Amidst the discussion, Jason suddenly rembered his original purpose for visiting the lab. The researchers at the main conference had heavily promoted the developnt of a potent serum designed to massively boost the human immune system in a short period.
Upon hearing the question, Dr. Roman paused for a mont before replying, "Well, that project relies entirely on you and this mutt right here. Because you are both Superhumans... uh, aning you possess highly advanced, hyper-resilient immune systems."
"If universal biological constants exist, then even on a frozen, dead world like Nyx, we must take strict precautions against indigenous microbial life."
Every planet possessed a unique evolutionary ecosystem. The results of natural selection on different life-bearing worlds would be fundantally alien to one another.
Even assuming that life on Nyx was carbon-based—similar in structure to Earth biology—its core biological chanisms would be drastically different.
Pathogens lethal to Earth-based organisms might be harmless to alien life, and vice versa. However, given enough exposure, biological cross-contamination was inevitable as the ecosystems clashed and eventually synthesized.
Humanity had learned this brutal lesson during their battle against the Martian virus. Through prolonged exposure and aggressive vaccine developnt, the human body had eventually developed a baseline immunity to many Martian pathogens, demonstrating the incredible adaptability of the human immune system.
However, an unaugnted human couldn't simply survive a massive exposure to an entirely new alien bio. The human immune system might mount a defense, or it might be completely bypassed. To put it bluntly, taking off one's helt to breathe alien air like the idiots in old sci-fi movies was suicidal.
There were essentially two outcos: The human immune system would imdiately recognize the alien microbes as a threat and eradicate them with overwhelming force. Or, the alien microbes would bypass the immune response entirely, leading to mass infection and death within hours.
Gambling the survival of the entire species on the assumption that Earth's ecosystem was inherently superior was utter foolishness.
Therefore, developing an immune-boosting reagent to artificially enhance humanity's baseline resistance was an absolute necessity.
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