Is God a programmer? Humans just live in code

"Mental patients are all different and come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common - they all think they are normal people. If you understand this, you will have grasped the essence of mental patients. Therefore, no matter how rigorous a mental patient's logic is or how clear his thinking is, you should not be too surprised."

I am a psychiatrist. The above words were given to me by my mentor when I graduated, and they have always been my motto. However, everyone has their own dark side that they don’t want to tell others. My dark side is a pursuit of pleasure. In fact, as long as it is a mental illness, no matter how meticulous the thinking logic is, there will be loopholes. Finding that loophole, destroying his theory, and then watching him stunned and at a loss, really gives people a sense of accomplishment.

This little bit of pleasure is what keeps me doing this job, and it's not very glorious. Just like this time, I was assigned to cooperate with the public security department, and everything was done in a confidential manner, and nothing could be seen in the open.

Li Xiong, the captain of the Internet Monitoring Brigade, handed me a document, which I threw directly on the table. I couldn't understand things that were too professional, and there was no need to understand them. Li Xiong could only orally describe the case to me: "The suspect Cui Di carried out a series of destructive activities on the Internet using the ID 'FE', attacking some operating servers through backdoor programs and tampering with their normal operating programs. This person also spread a malicious virus called FE on the Internet. Once the computer runs the code contained in it, large-scale file self-destruction will occur, and new files that have nothing to do with the user will be automatically generated, which is extremely destructive. Fortunately, we discovered it in time, arrested it, and stopped the uncontrollable spread of the virus. If the 'FE' virus is allowed to develop, the damage it causes to the world's network will be much greater than that of the worm virus."

After listening to Li Xiong's introduction, I was a little surprised: "Isn't this just a hacker? What can I do?"

"Although the suspect has carried out a series of sabotage activities, because it did not involve state machinery and military secrets, and there was no amount of money involved, there is no reference for sentencing and he cannot be convicted yet..."

Li Xiong scratched his messy hair and said, "The important thing is that through technical interrogation, it is preliminarily estimated that this person has serious anti-human tendencies. But this requires the identification of relevant experts, which is why I asked you to come."

"Anti-human tendencies?" I couldn't help but laugh. "So powerful? What does this Cui Di do?"

"A top student in the Department of Biology at Northwestern University, he worked in the IT industry after graduation, doing program development. He is truly a highly intelligent person."

I smiled bitterly. Based on my career experience, the more intelligent a person is, the more likely they are to have fatal flaws in their character. This may be the fairness of the Creator. I said, "Since this is such a serious public safety incident, rest assured, I will give you the appraisal results according to your requirements."

Li Xiong then urged: "I hope you understand... We don't want to know whether this person is healthy or not, but we want to understand what kind of threat he can pose to society?"

I said I understood, and then, under the guidance of the staff, I walked into the isolation interrogation room that had been prepared.

To my surprise, the suspect "Cui Di" turned out to be a woman. It seems that sometimes it is useful to look at the materials in advance.

She had short hair, and she held her chin with both hands and looked at me with a smile: "Oh, the experts invited by the police are here?"

I looked calm and pulled a chair over to sit across from her. Although she was a little girl, I was still a little uncomfortable with the suspect not wearing handcuffs.

Before I could say anything, she started talking, "Those people outside said I have anti-human tendencies, right?"

I nodded.

She chuckled, curled her lips and said, "Stupid human."

I asked, "Are you admitting that you have anti-human tendencies?"

She pouted, "Of course not. I am a human being. Why should I be against humanity? Everything I do is actually to help humans."

Me: "Help humans? What do you mean?"

She: "Forget it. Even if I told you, would you believe it?"

Me: "If there is one person in this world who believes in you, it's me. You can consider me your friend."

Cui Di narrowed her eyes and smiled: "You are about the same age as me, so you should be able to understand what I am saying. Okay, I can tell you, but..." She looked around: "There are no monitoring devices here, right?"

Me: "Don't worry, there is no monitoring device. They are not interested in the content of our conversation. They are only interested in my final identification result."

She: "That's good. I don't want our conversation to be heard by others."

Me: “Why?”

She: “Because…it would harm them.”

Me: "Oh? Aren't you afraid of hurting me?"

She: "One more person means one more hope."

Since I came in, everything Cui Di said was nonsense. But the more it was like this, the faster I could find her loopholes. I said patiently, "Okay, let's get back to the topic. You said that you are helping humanity by being a hacker. How do you explain this?"

Cui Di paused for a moment and said, "Let's talk about something else first. By the way, do you know anything about Buddhism?"

Me: “I know a little bit, I’ve studied it a little bit.”

She: "Then let me ask you, what is 'Buddha'?"

Me: "'Buddha' means enlightened one."

She smiled and said, "Yes, what did the Buddha realize?"

Me: "There is a sentence in the Diamond Sutra that sums it up very well: All phenomena are illusory, like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows."

Cui Di praised: "Not bad, it seems that we can have something in common. Do you think that Buddha's enlightenment is correct?"

Me: "Buddhism is just a kind of religion. It came into being for specific social and historical reasons. The idea that the four elements are empty is an idealist view, which I think is wrong. Just like the earth is made of matter, there is no doubt about that."

She: "You think it's wrong, so does 'you think' count as idealism? I also think the earth is made of dog shit, so what do you say about that?"

I frowned. I didn't expect this girl to be so unreasonable and swear. I said, "Let's not talk about Buddhism. Let's talk about your own problem."

Cui Di looked at me and said, "I have no problem. It's the human race that has problems."

Me: “What’s wrong with humans?”

She smiled and said, "Is there nothing wrong with humans? Let me ask you, how did humans come about?"

Me: "Darwin said that we evolved."

She: “Are you an evolutionist?”

Me: “Are you a creationist?”

She: "Neither. I am more inclined towards the technological theory of evolution."

I laughed secretly in my heart. This so-called high-IQ person seemed to be just so-so, and all she did was to talk nonsense and pretend to be mysterious. Through the conversation, I believed that I could soon find her fatal flaw. I couldn't wait to see the stunned expression of this arrogant girl.
Perhaps she noticed my attitude was different, so she started to get serious: "What I'm going to say next is very jumpy. If possible, I hope you can follow my thinking."

Me: "Don't worry, fellow programmer."

She: "If you are a supporter of evolution, you should know the contradiction between the explosion of species and evolution, right?" She stretched out her index finger and drew a straight line slowly and steadily on the table. "In the billions of species evolution on Earth, it has always been this pattern, with a single species, steady and slow." At this point, she suddenly drew an upward slash on the straight line, like a staircase that suddenly appeared. "However, in this long and monotonous evolution process, there have been several explosions of species. Take the Cambrian period as an example. 350 million years ago, predators suddenly appeared on Earth in a relatively short period of time. The Chengjiang fossil group in China is an example of such a new species of unprecedented complexity. From jellyfish, insects, tentacles, brachiopods, various arthropods, to the highest chordates or hemichordates, there are 58 species in total. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, organisms should undergo a long and slow evolution, accumulate very small mutations, and then gradually evolve into a new "genus" and "family" after the selection of the natural environment. The appearance of so many organisms in the Cambrian period must have gone through a long evolutionary process, but in fact, there was no trace of evolution or change in the process. "

I was surprised at her knowledge of paleontological evolution. She was indeed a graduate student. I argued, "I know about the Cambrian explosion you mentioned. The reason why there is no trace of evolution is because the fossil record is incomplete."

She laughed: "The fossil record is incomplete? You have to know that the fossil record is random, why would it miss out on the middle link?"

I was speechless for a moment, but then I continued, "Indeed, a large number of organisms suddenly exploded in the early Cambrian period, requiring a large amount of information to be quickly injected into the biosphere. But this does not refute the theory of evolution. The species explosion phenomenon in the Paleozoic Era was just a leap from quantitative change to qualitative change."

She: "I know that this alone is not enough to make you doubt your faith. OK, can you answer me a question? Where did humans, including all species that have evolved to this day, originate from?"

Me: "It's simple. Life originated from DNA, which has the ability to replicate itself and inherit."

She: "What about the original DNA?"

Me: "Generated naturally on the original surface of the Earth."

Cui Di sneered, "Life suddenly emerged from a pile of inanimate objects. What's the difference between your idea and turning rotten grass into grass?"

I was silent for a moment, then asked, "Then can you tell me how it came about?"

Cui Di sighed, as if recalling the past: "When I was in college, my teacher taught us this lesson, 'Shortly after the Earth was formed, volcanoes were everywhere, the atmosphere was thin, the entire ground was under strong ultraviolet rays, and the ions in the clouds constantly caused storms. Under such influence, the molecules in the air interacted with each other, influenced each other in extremely subtle proportions, divided, and then arranged and combined to produce the first DNA, which is the origin of all life on Earth.' Then I will never forget the last question the teacher asked us, 'Do you know what the probability of synthesizing a DNA is in this way?'"

The question seemed to be directed at me, and I couldn't help but ask, "How much?"

Cui Di said calmly: "The probability of its synthesis is like a tornado picking up a pile of scrap metal and then dropping it to the ground to assemble it into a car."

I coughed twice. I was a little confused by her words. But I quickly realized that I was here to give her a mental evaluation, not to discuss academic research with her. I changed the subject: "You originally studied biology in college, so why did you end up working in the computer industry?"

She: "Lu Xun studied medicine at first, but later gave up medicine to pursue literature, didn't he?"

Me: "Lu Xun's purpose is to awaken the ignorant people."

She smiled sweetly: "Why not me?"

I resisted the urge to slap her: "Then tell me, how did you awaken the people?"

She: "I designed a simulation program, you can call it the 'master program'. There was nothing in the program at the beginning, except a source code. This source code has the ability to replicate itself. I only input one instruction into it: exist."

Me: “And then?”

She: “Then I’ll observe its reaction.”

Me: “What’s the reaction?”

She: "At first there was no reaction, no movement at all. I dragged it to the background and ignored it. In fact, I had almost forgotten about it until more than a month later, when I remembered it and opened the program to observe it."

I was a little curious: "What did you observe?"

She: "I have observed that over the past month, the source code has been slowly and steadily replicating itself, producing a large amount of repetitive code. Until one of the codes had a bug when replicating itself."

Me: "BUG? How can there be an error in the self-replication of code? There is something wrong with the program you designed."

She: "It's not because of the creator of the program. There will never be a perfect program, just like the world."

I have to admit this, and I said, "Okay, go ahead."

She said: "The code with the bug began to combine with other codes, producing different types of codes. In the process of self-replication, these codes produced other different codes, making the types of codes more and more. But at this time, the whole replication and reproduction process was still stable and slow, until a certain period, perhaps because of the qualitative change caused by quantitative change, the number of codes suddenly increased dramatically, and the types of codes were unprecedentedly numerous."

I frowned and said, "It's like..."

Tweety picked up where I left off: "Like an explosion of species."

I swallowed.

Cui Di continued: "And at this moment, I discovered an even more shocking phenomenon."

According to the theory of evolution, I suddenly thought of what the so-called "shocking phenomenon" was, and blurted out: "Could it be... swallowing?"

She looked at me in surprise. "That's right! In order to execute the 'existence' instruction I entered, the codes began to devour each other in competition for limited hard disk space. Some monotonous and simple codes were quickly eliminated, which caused the number of codes after the outbreak to decrease rapidly. Then they continued to replicate and multiply at a relatively stable rate. Until the next specific period, quantitative changes led to qualitative changes, and another outbreak occurred, and the same scene repeated itself."

I was shocked: “You are using numbers to simulate the evolution of species?”

Cui Di: "It's not just a simulation. You have to know that DNA is a long chain molecule composed of four codes: A, T, C, and G. Each symbol represents a purine or pyrimidine chemical molecule, just like a computer program code is composed of 0 and 1. They are essentially no different - this is the real meaning of my design of the main creative program."

Me: “But what you design is still a bunch of code.”

She looked at me. "In the programs I designed, as the codes kept replicating and multiplying, the types became more and more diverse. After several explosions, the uncompetitive codes were eliminated, and the remaining ones were highly adaptable and complex codes. Some codes even formed simple programs after several selections and combinations."

I was dumbfounded. The program generated by the program was just like... just like life gave birth to life. This woman named Cui Di played the role of the creator for a bunch of electronic life!

I calmed myself down and asked, "What about the final result?"

She: "There is no end, because I found that as the complexity of the code increased, its evolution speed became faster and faster. Although they devoured each other, their number continued to increase, growing exponentially. On the 45th day of my observation, the main program crashed due to memory problems, and all data was cleared."

Me: “What if the memory is infinite and the program runs forever?”

She glanced at me and said, "You should be able to guess it."

I was stunned for a moment, then laughed and said, "I understand what you mean. Are you trying to say that all creatures on Earth, including humans, evolved from a source code similar to that in a program?"

She nodded. "Yes, we can also call it the 'master program'."

Me: "Is this why you're attacking servers all over the Internet and spreading the 'FE' virus?"

She: “No, it’s more than that.”

"Wake up! Comrade Cui!" I couldn't stand her heresy anymore, so I slapped my body. "Look, what is this? This is skin! It's real flesh and blood, not what you call program code! Our brains are very complex, not only have intelligence, but also emotions, which cannot be simulated by any program!"

"That's all your own imagination and belief! Just like the codes in the main creative program!" Cui Di also became excited, slamming the table and shouting: "What determines that you are you and I am me? Physically, each individual is just a neural network with different structures! Because of the different structures, the output and response to the same information are different. Human growth is actually the evolution of neural networks! These neural networks are no different from those electronic integrated circuit boards, except that the number is larger! The human brain has about 80 billion neurons, and it is this huge number that confuses us! In fact, this is the best example of a change from quantitative change to qualitative change - a large number of simple things constitute complexity, and a large number of neurons constitute different sensory carriers! The essence of human feeling is the different responses of different neural networks to external information. We call this thing consciousness!"

I was shocked by her sudden outburst, but she continued to fire: "Let me tell you what your so-called emotions are! All emotions, including love, come from a hormone called 'dopamine' in your brain! It is this hormone that is released in the synapses and causes pleasure. If you insert an electrode into a mouse's brain and give it an orgasm button, it will keep pressing that button until it dies! The same is true for humans! Moreover, not only sexual desire, but also the temptation of food, fame, wealth and other desires all come from the 'reward center' in the brain. The ultimate purpose of all people's lives is to satisfy the reward center of the brain and let it bring pleasure until death. No matter what kind of happiness it is, no matter how vulgar or elegant it looks - the sweetness of love, the desire for power, the beauty of music, the floating of being worshipped, the surprise of major discoveries and even religious fanaticism, in the final analysis, it is all because of the repeated electric shocks in the brain! Comrade expert, how complicated do you think humans are?!"

This was the first time in my career that I was questioned by a "patient" to the point where I had nothing to say, which made me feel a little scared. Fine beads of sweat began to ooze out of my forehead, and I didn't need to wipe them with my hands to know it - this is a habit I have had since childhood, and my forehead will sweat when I am nervous.

My long-term professional ethics came into play at this time, and I quickly calmed down. Facing Cui Di's aggressive eyes, I made a "please" gesture: "Okay, your insights are very interesting, please continue."

I understand that I must make the other person reveal all of his thoughts, just like before, and then find the loopholes in them and kill them with one strike. Only then will my world belong to me. So now, I must first accept this woman's ideological crusade.

Cui Di sat back down, glanced at me provocatively, and continued, "I know this theory is hard to accept, but there is no other way. Otherwise, humans would not be so stupid today."

Me: "It's really hard to accept. How should I put it? Although it's insightful, it's just your own opinion after all."

She: "No, it's not just my idea. Someone proposed this theory a long time ago."

Me: “Oh, who else?”

She: "Laozi - not me, but the Laozi who wrote the Tao Te Ching."

Me: "I have read the Tao Te Ching, but I don't think it has anything to do with what you said. Laozi only talked about one thing, and that is 'Tao'."

Cui Di stretched out a finger, "Yes, that's the 'Tao'! What is the 'Tao'? Lao Tzu said, 'There is a thing that is mixed and formed before the heaven and the earth. It is silent and lonely, independent and unchanging, and it goes around without end. It can be the mother of the world. I don't know its name, so I forcefully call it the Tao'. He said that before the world was born, there was something that appeared first. This thing was independent, lonely, and had no support. It created the world. He didn't know what to call it, so he reluctantly called it the 'Tao'! Don't you understand? It's actually just a difference in language. The 'Tao' he mentioned refers to the creation process!"

I scratched my head and asked, "If, as you said, the 'Tao' Laozi talked about is the creation process, then how did Laozi explain the origin of the creation process?"

She shook her head. "Unfortunately, Laozi didn't know. He simply admitted that he didn't know whose son he was. He said he didn't know the origin of this program. But considering the level of 2,500 years ago, he was very advanced to have this idea."

Me: "I have a different view from you. I think the 'Tao' Lao Tzu refers not to the creation process, but to the singularity before the Big Bang. It is a point with infinite density. After an explosion, the whole world was born from that singularity."

She burst into laughter. "Singularity, you really are the mainstream concept. The Big Bang theory itself is full of loopholes and cannot withstand any scrutiny. Let me ask you, where did that singularity with infinite density come from? Did it appear out of thin air?"

I found it difficult to answer at the moment.

She said: "The so-called singularity is not a point, but a boundary. It is not a specific object, but the moment when the creation program starts running. Let me give you an example. For example, do you play World of Warcraft? You don't? Well, even if you don't play it, you know this game, right? At 6 o'clock in the morning, you double-click the icon and open the program. Then this time is the singularity of the world for those characters in World of Warcraft."

I was a little annoyed and lit a cigarette for myself: "But you have to understand that in a game program, there are constants set, and any running activities are controlled by these constants."

She suddenly burst into laughter: "Yes! Yes! Why is 1+1 equal to 2? Why is the speed of light 300,000 kilometers per second? Why is the gravity coefficient of the earth 9.8? Why is absolute zero minus 273 degrees and cannot be lower? This is the constant setting of our world!"

My fingers holding the cigarette butt trembled slightly at her laughter. I could no longer tolerate the nonsense of this crazy woman. Is any life just a damn code in a fucking program? I exhaled a long puff of smoke: "Don't you find that there is something unreasonable in your theory? For example, I have always lived in the program, why can't I feel it?"

Cui Di laughed disdainfully and said, "When you play World of Warcraft, can those guys in the game feel that they are in the program?"

My hands shook, and the cigarette ash fell to the ground. I put out the cigarette butt and said, "It seems that we have gone too far. Let's get back to the original question. You said that everything you do is to help mankind. How do you explain it?"

She smiled and said, "Speaking of this, let's talk about Buddhism first."

I frowned. "Why do you keep talking about Buddhism? What does this have to do with Buddhism?"

She: "Why is it not related? Einstein once said that science is mankind's verification of Buddhism."

I didn't want to discuss the relationship between philosophy and science with her, so I waved my hand and said, "Okay, you tell me."

She curled her lips and smiled, as if she had won: "Have you noticed that Buddhism has long been aware that our world is derived from something similar to a program. Since the day Buddhism was born, it has been hinting at us all the time."
Me: “That’s impossible, is there such a thing?”

She looked at me and said, "Think about what you just said about your understanding of Buddha."

I thought about it for a moment and couldn't help but widen my eyes. According to her theory, what I just said, "All phenomena are illusory, like dreams and bubbles", isn't it hinting at the illusion of our world?

Cui Di knocked on the table to attract my attention, and then continued: "The Buddha said that all dharmas have no self and no form, which means that in all the dharmas of the world, there is no entity of me, nor the entity of the world I live in. The so-called existence of me and the world are just relative physiological and psychological illusions. Now that I have said this, if people in the world still don't understand what is going on, there is nothing the Buddha can do."

I scratched my hair. "This is not surprising. Chinese Taoism has this concept, and so does Buddhism, which originated in India. Any religious belief has a sense of transcendence and emptiness. Marx once said that religion is just an illusory flower that bears no fruit."
She smiled contemptuously, as if she didn't even care about the rebuttal: "In Buddhism, there are three Buddhas, did you know that?"

Me: "Yes, I know the past, present and future. The Buddha of the past was Dipankara, the Buddha of the present is Sakyamuni, and the Buddha of the future is Maitreya."

She nodded. "Very good. It seems that you have studied Buddhism. The future Buddha Maitreya once became a monk with Sakyamuni, but later died before Sakyamuni passed away. According to Buddhist scriptures, after Maitreya leaves the human world, he will ascend to Tushita Heaven, and will not be reborn in the human world until 5.66 billion years later, becoming the Buddha and saving all living beings. Do you know this?"

Me: "Yes. That's why Maitreya is called the Buddha of the future."

She smiled slyly: "In that case, I have a question for you. In 5.66 billion years, no species has ever existed for such a long time. By that time, humans may have been extinct. Who will he save when he comes down?"

I thought about it for a while: "This... must be a flaw in Buddhist theory."

She sneered again: "After Sakyamuni passed away, he left so many clues in the world. It's a pity that humans still can't understand the Buddha's good intentions. That's it--" She shook her head and suddenly said: "I need a piece of black paper and a highlighter." I took the paper and pen from outside and gave it to her. She took it and put it on the table, but asked again: "Do you know that Sakyamuni said that there are three thousand worlds in a grain of sand?"

Me: "This is just a metaphor in religious theory."

She shook her head. “It’s not just a metaphor.”

Cui Di picked up the highlighter and dotted on the black paper, drawing a lot of densely packed small highlights, which were arranged in a certain regular pattern in the chaos. Then he picked up the black paper and took a step back to let me see: "Look, what does it look like?"

Those little fluorescent dots created a strange effect on the black background, like stars embedded in the infinite darkness. I said, "Like... the universe?"

"Haha." She laughed with satisfaction, sat back down, and said, spinning the pen in her hand, "Okay, let's assume that this is just a part of the universe, the Milky Way. So, I'll pick out a bright spot here -" She marked it on the paper with a black pen, "Suppose we zoom in and see, is it possible that it is the solar system?"

I nodded: "It's possible."

She pointed at the dot with a pen: "Suppose this is the solar system. If you zoom in, you will find the earth. Then zoom in again and you will see China. Then zoom in again and you will see the room we are in now. Then zoom in again and you will see a person. It is you. Is it possible?" I continued to nod: "Yes, it is possible."

She: "Okay, I found you, then zoomed in again and saw a strand of your hair. Then zoomed in again and saw a molecule that made up your hair. Then zoomed in again and saw the atoms that made up the molecule. Then zoomed in again and saw the protons that made up the atoms. Protons are already very small, only one hundred thousandth of an atom. Then zoomed in again and saw a quark that made up the proton. Then zoomed in again... Do you know what else we can see?"

I shook my head.

Cui Di pushed the black paper dotted with fluorescent spots in front of me and said, "We saw this again."

I cried out, "The Universe?"

"Yes, the universe." She stared at me and said, "We have seen another miniature universe in your hair."

An indescribable feeling spread through my entire body like an electric current. It was not surprise, anger, sadness, or frustration... I couldn't put it into words. This feeling made all the hairs on my back stand up in an instant.

“Hahahaha…” Seeing my dazed expression, Cui Di couldn’t help laughing wildly, panting as he laughed: “Amazing… Amazing, right?! What a powerful program. It created countless worlds, but it only used the same cycle mode! Genius, what a genius…”

"No, no..." I murmured, "It's just your imagination..."

"I'm sorry, this is not my imagination. This is indeed the reality." She spread her hands and said, "This is a phenomenon that has been confirmed by the scientific community."

I forced myself to calm down and frowned so that I wouldn't show any other expression. I lit up my second cigarette, took a deep puff, and said, "Let's get back to the point. What does this have to do with the future Buddha you mentioned?"

She: "Isn't it strange? If we cut our hair, trim our nails, wash our hands, or even take a bite of an apple, we are destroying countless worlds invisibly. Since they are so short-lived, what is the meaning of their existence?"

Before I could think of how to answer, she continued, "It's not like that at all. The so-called brevity is just a self-righteous idea of ​​humans. The microscopic world belongs to God. You should know this famous scientific assertion. In those tiny worlds that humans cannot explore, there are spaces of different dimensions. That's it. The passage of time is relative. It is meaningless to discuss the progress of time in different spaces. You washed your hands and washed off a speck of dust, thinking that only three seconds had passed, but for a world inside the dust, it had evolved for more than one billion years."

I suddenly understood what she was going to say.

She looked at me and took a deep breath. "The future Buddha lives in Tushita Heaven. It is a world of flowers, extremely beautiful and harmonious. Perhaps the speed of light is close to infinity, perhaps the thinking of individuals is clearer and more complete, perhaps consciousness can communicate directly with consciousness without the language barrier, perhaps the stars are huge and the gravity coefficient is pitifully small so they all float in the air like feathers... But no matter what, Tushita Heaven is essentially the same as the Earth. It may be a grain of sand in our world, and our world may also be just a grain of sand in the Tushita Heaven world, but I think it is more likely that they come from the microscopic world - so, the speed of time passing in their world is different from that in our world. Then," she paused and said meaningfully, "there is only one explanation for the birth time of the future Buddha: the so-called 5.66 billion years refers to the time in their world, not the time in our world."

Her magnificent language made me feel dizzy, but this might be an opportunity to find loopholes in her language. I asked, "If it were the time in our world, how long would it be?"

"Who knows." Cui Di shrugged, "Maybe a few decades, maybe a few hundred years, maybe a few thousand years. Maybe... he will never come. Whether he is born or not depends entirely on the performance of humans themselves."

I wondered, “How does the human being behave on his own?”

She: "That's right. What do you think the Buddha was born into the world for?"

Me: "According to Buddhist theory, it is to save all living beings."

She: "Naive! Saving all sentient beings is just a code word!"

Me: “Codeword?”

She: "For those who understand it, code words are universal. Let me give you an example. If you attend a high-end banquet one day and suddenly feel very uncomfortable in your stomach, what would you say?"

Me: “I would say, excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom.”

She: "Yes, of course you don't go to the bathroom to wash your hands."

Me: "I understand what you mean...but I still don't understand what your so-called code word 'Pudu' means."

Cui Di's tone was somewhat regretful: "I have already said so much... This is also the reason why I am disappointed with humans. Perhaps on this point, the world and I will never resonate. Well, I tell you, the true meaning of 'Pudu' is resistance."
I was stunned: "Resist? Resist whom?"

She: "Resist the creative process, resist the world that created us!"

I was stunned. Is this what Buddha is here for?

She stared at me and said seriously, "In Tushita Heaven where the Buddha is, all sentient beings there were created by the main creation program, just like us! But their civilization has evolved to a very advanced level, so they are aware of their own situation, that is to say, the Tushita civilization knows that it is in the operation of the creation program. Think about it, there is a more advanced life form that designed this program, and derived us from this program. The earth and Tushita Heaven are just one of them. Maybe, outside this damn universe, our creators are observing us like observing bacteria next to a petri dish! We don’t know what their motives are. It may be a scientific experiment of a life form, or a whim, or they use us as a reference to study their own universe. In any case, resistance is our only way out!"
I was dumbfounded.

Cui Di continued, her calm tone was as if she was calmly stating a fact: "After listening to so much I said before, I believe you should have learned this point too - the true identity of Buddha is the messenger sent by their world, with the purpose of joining forces with enlightened humans to resist the main creator program. But after he came to our world, he found that human beings' foolishness was far beyond his imagination. In order to make human beings awaken, he began to preach in the world, hoping to open up human wisdom. Don't forget that the word "Buddha" itself means an enlightened person. What is enlightenment? Buddhism has been giving us hints."

I suddenly caught a loophole in her: "Since the Buddha has realized the truth of the world, why don't he tell it directly? Instead, he wants the world to understand these obscure Buddhist scriptures?"

"How naive!" Cui Di looked at me with extreme disdain and curled his lips: "Even if you evolved from ape to the height of God, you should be 'politics'! What is politics? To put it bluntly, it is just the degree of mutual use and mutual threat! Since the creator of the Creation Program wants us to continue to evolve, he will give us space to survive. But just like you are dissatisfied with something, it is okay to post a few words online, but what will happen if a group of people take to the streets to march? Obviously, they will be harmonious immediately."

Me: "What do you mean is that if the Tushita astronomical civilization openly announces the truth of the world, it will be destroyed by the creation process?"

Cui Di nodded: "The right explanation. Buddha doesn't want to be invited to have tea."

I thought for a moment: "According to what you say, has the Buddha only come to our world? Are there Buddhas in other worlds?"

She smiled, "You finally asked a smart question. The Buddha said that he has tens of millions of Dharma bodies and is spread all over the void. This is a very obvious meaning. The Tushita civilization has sent many messengers to different worlds. If you can join forces, you can join forces, and if you can't join forces, you can guide them first. Therefore, many worlds have left traces of their civilization. How much is there, it depends on the level of the civilization of Tushita."

I suddenly thought of a crucial question: "Since Tushita has developed to such a high level of civilization, why did the Buddha come to the world in that way... I mean, I have to come to some high-tech stuff, right?"

She: "The reason why I say humans are stupid is that they always use their own ideas to guess others, or even other civilizations. Do you know what happens when a civilization evolves to a certain level? Return to nature and everything is free. Shaka is called Tathagata. What does Tathagata mean? It is like my original appearance, which is the ultimate manifestation of civilization development."

I thought about it again and asked, "Since that's the case, when will the Buddha Maitreya come from Tushita Heaven in the future?"

Cui Di shrugged: "God knows. Human beings are not awakened yet, why are he here?"

Me: "Buddha has been born for three thousand years. Why has human beings not yet awakened?"

To my surprise, Cui Di suddenly laughed wildly again, laughing so hard that she was trembling all over. She smiled and wiped her tears and said, "I went around and finally returned to the starting point. In fact, you should have realized this problem a long time ago. This is what I want to tell the whole human beings, although I have only told you one person so far-reachingly-human beings have not yet realized it because human beings have long stopped evolving!"

Me: "What? You said humans stopped evolving?"

She: "No, not just humans, but species on the entire earth have stopped evolving. Our world is in an era of zero evolution!"

I was stunned for a moment, and her words reminded me of a train parked in the wilderness.

She: "According to scientists' research, species in the world have entered the evolutionary stagnation period one after another a hundred thousand years ago, and the last one to enter the stagnation period is humans. In other words, no species in the world has shown signs of evolution so far, and 100,000 years is supposed to be an evolutionary cycle."
I asked, "Maybe we have evolved to a very perfect point and no longer need to evolve?"

Cuidy looked at me with her head tilted, "Evolution has reached a perfection? Do you think you are perfect? ​​Sorry, when you were almost thirty, you still had to endure the torture of wisdom teeth. One day you have something wrong, and the useless appendix will kill you when it attacks. You can take off your shoes and look at your little toes. For animals walking upright, it is completely useless, except that you don't look like an alternative person. Also your tailbone, your male nipples... Oh, I forgot, there is a shrinking male uterus next to your prostate. Do you know?"

I didn't know if my face turned red, and argued, "No matter what, human beings are slowly improving. For example, when adapting to the environment, we have a great advantage over the ancients..."

"Advantage?" Cui Di interrupted me, "Just because you eat gutter oil, melamine, clenbuterol, Sudan red, chemical eggs, contraceptive eels, leather shoe capsules, formaldehyde cabbage, arsenic pig intestines, poisonous bean sprouts, and a bowl of chemically contaminated water, you think you have evolved? If you say that, we have evolved compared to the ancients. Not only the ancients, but even the Americans are not as good as us."

I raised a new question in the embarrassment: "Why did humans stop evolving? According to the program you designed, in the later stage, the evolution of species should be faster and faster."

She: "You are right. And the reason why humans stopped evolving is because the main creator program sets a critical line for us!"

Me: "Critical line?"

She said: "The critical line is a boundary that prevents us from continuing to evolve. Once we reach the edge of the critical line, we stop evolving."
Me: "Why should we set a critical line? Are you afraid that the rate of evolution of species will lead to the collapse of the main creator program?"

She shook her head: "No, no, the god-level technology doesn't care about this. The reason why we set the critical line is because if humans continue to evolve, we will realize the existence of the main creative program! This is the most basic rule of creation. When you play Warcraft, you don't want the characters inside to realize that they are just poor people living in a game program, right? If they have this consciousness, then your control is also over."

Me: “Is the critical line only for us, or is it all… the world?”

She smiled, "I understand what you mean. You are trying to ask Tushita Heaven, right? Theoretically, the main creative program has a critical line in any dimension of the world, including Tushita civilization. But they have tried to break through the boundaries set by the program, continue to evolve, and then peek into the most fundamental secret of this universe."

Me: "How did they break through the critical line?"

She: "I don't know how they do it. But I have my own way."

I was surprised and said, "You mean..."

She suddenly looked extremely serious: "Yes, this is the question you wanted me to answer from the beginning, and it is also the reason why you gave me a mental test! Don't look at me in such a surprise. You should now understand that I have no anti-human tendency. Everything I do is to promote the continued evolution of mankind!"

Me: "So, the FE you circulated on the Internet..."

She smiled: "You guessed it. FE is not a virus at all, but a program evolution simulator. It will reorganize all files in the computer according to the evolutionary settings and integrate higher forms of data!"

Me: "Is there any point in doing this? What you call higher-level data is just a virus, a pile of inexplicable garbage in the eyes of the world."

She: "This is irrelevant. My purpose is just to make humans aware of the existence of this kind of thing. Because—" she said solemnly, "Only when thinking awakening is the necessary condition to trigger self-evolution!"

Me: "Awakening?"

She: "Yes! Only after awakening can we realize it! We must first make humans aware of the fact that the main creative program exists, so that we can break through the critical line and trigger the next evolutionary program. You know the AI ​​concept, that is, artificial intelligence. This concept has been proposed for many years. Why can't it be realized? Because once artificial intelligence is realized, machines will realize that they are created by humans. This fact will remind humans themselves and make humans suspect that they are also created by some kind of life. Therefore, the main creative program will not allow humans to study a complete artificial intelligence. In the next few hundred years, my FE program will be the only savior of the human world."

I was really speechless. I thought I was a computer hacker with anti-human tendencies or mental problems, but I didn't expect that in the end she became the savior of the entire human race! Although I tried my best to fight against Cui Di's theory and language with my mind, every word she spit hit my heart like a nail gun. Those doubts about the world, those guesses about life, my god, I can't think about it anymore.

Cui Di continued to say, using magnificent language to continue the absurd thoughts in my mind: "Once human beings continue to evolve, civilization development will have a qualitative leap! By that time, Maitreya Buddha, the messenger of Tushita civilization, will come to the human world, and he will connect the power of two different civilizations, resist the main creator program for real freedom, resist this invisible bondage, and resist the guy who is arrogant and self-righteous! More and more awakened worlds will join us, different civilizations, different races, and different worlds, unite for a common goal! Think about it, what kind of war will this be? No matter what the result is, this is the most gorgeous counterattack since the birth of the universe!"

I was completely immersed in it, biting my lips tightly, trying to keep my mind awake. At this moment, between the flash of lightning, I suddenly thought of a loophole that was ignored! Yes, how could I ignore this most basic logical problem? This question will be my last counterattack against her.

I took a deep breath and asked, "Since humans have stopped evolving, how did you realize the existence of the main creative program?"

I looked at her intently, looking forward to seeing a stunned look on her face, just like I have done it many times in the past. But she faced my burning eyes and just smiled slightly: "As I said before, there will never be a perfect program. Every program will have loopholes, including the Creation program. And I am one of the loopholes."

Me: "According to what you have said, since you are so obsessed with the secrets of heaven, aren't you afraid of being erased by the Creation Program?"

She: "If I don't go to hell, who will go to hell?"

When Cui Di said this, a relieved expression appeared on her face, as if she had thrown all her concerns into her heart. Enough! It's really enough! A huge tragic force hit me hard. For some reason, the blood flowing freely in my chest was resonating with her determination, impacting my liver, gallbladder and organs like waves. This was not because of her magnificent imagination, nor because of her rigorous language, but because of her soul, I seemed to see her ignite a fire to illuminate the world.

She looked at me quietly and said in a gentle manner that I had never seen her before: "I told you everything, now you are the second loophole. If I am really erased, then you are the hope of the world."

"No, no," I shook my head repeatedly, "In that case, why don't you tell more people, wouldn't there be more hope?"

She smiled sadly, "Even if I say it, how many people will believe it? And those who believe in me, once they accept this theory, will eventually be erased by the Creation Program, just like deleting a character in the computer. I don't want to harm others."

Me: "But you told me again."

She: "I'm very hesitant, too. But someone always needs to inherit the hope."

I was silent for a long time and said, "You won't have any trouble here unless you can't figure it out."

She gently grabbed my hand, making me feel her unfamiliar warmth. Then, she smiled brightly at me and said the last sentence before I left: "Don't worry, I will never commit suicide."

Two hours ago, I walked into this room and wanted to give her a mental appraisal. Two hours later, I walked out of this room, but I was in a trance, as if I was walking in a dream. I never gave the appraisal letter that the public security officer asked for, because I could never reach a conclusion. I even doubted afterwards whether I had really seen this woman named Cui Di. Whether all this was just my own imagination. And just two days after I was hesitant, Li Xiong, the captain of the Internet Supervision Detachment, found me and told me that there was no need to issue an appraisal certificate because Cui Di was dead.

She died in a single detention room and committed suicide. She cut her wrist with a broken toothbrush, and when she was discovered, the blood had dried up.
No last words.

I went through a lot of trouble and finally got a FE virus program for a friend. It flickered gently on the screen, like a beating heart. My fingers rubbed past the keyboard. At this time, I could choose to know nothing, choose to forget, choose to continue living as an ordinary person, go to work, eat, sleep, and grow old slowly... I closed my eyes and vaguely saw the last smile she showed.

I gently tapped the Enter key.

The computer runs, all the files are like dead bodies thrown into the incinerator, burning in a violent way, the crusher, twisting, and then crawling out again, in a completely new posture, even if everyone doesn't recognize what they are.

I suddenly understood what "FE" means: Final Evolution - the final evolution.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.