[Popular Science of Chinese Military Technology] Can the "digital life" in "The Wandering Earth 2" break through the dimensional wall and shine into real life?

With the release of the sci-fi movie "The Wandering Earth 2", many hard-core black technologies rich in Chinese elements have appeared on the screen. These ubiquitous high-density sci-fi details weave a seamless near-future world in a visual form, giving the audience a shocking audio-visual experience.

The plot of the movie "The Wandering Earth 2" can be simply divided into three main story lines and one hidden story line. Among them, the most complex and brain-burning hidden line that determines the survival of the earth is the "digital life" line. The film transforms the abstract "550-W" self-consciousness into a concrete picture of Tu Yaya to ensure a smooth viewing experience for the audience. So, what exactly is digital life in the real world? Let's talk about it today.

Caption: In "The Wandering Earth 2", scientist Tu Hengyu chose to store his daughter Tu Yaya's consciousness in "550A" when she was dying (screenshot from the movie trailer)

The history of "digital life". The research on "digital life" has a long history, which can be traced back to Alan Turing and von Neumann's attempt to describe the logical form of life's self-reproduction by computational methods. In the 1960s, experts in computer and biology jointly proposed the "L system" and widely used it in scenarios that simulate the real growth process of plants. Based on the research of predecessors, Langton proposed the idea of ​​"siliconized life" and established artificial life as an independent research field, namely "digital life".

What is "digital life"? In short, the digital life plan is to upload human consciousness to smart terminals and exist in the form of computer programs in a random access memory environment, so that human thoughts and consciousness can be separated from the body and exist independently, and live forever in the digital world. There is also a saying that this immortal digital world is the metaverse. This requires an artificial system with vital signs or behaviors, using computers as a medium to create new life forms. Here is a misunderstanding to clarify. Artificial intelligence is machine life created by big data algorithms. The reason why it can have scientific vital signs and behaviors comes from the application of human bionics. AI does not have human consciousness, so it is a completely different concept from digital life.

This difference can also be seen in the film. "550-W" is based on the learning of Tu Yaya's "human in the loop" and is constantly evolving. This means that once machine learning (artificial intelligence) has the intervention of digital life, it can combine machine consciousness with digital human consciousness and evolve from weak to strong. Usually, the machine learning process is based on a black box of data. Humans are only responsible for adjusting parameters and data sets, and cannot understand and interfere with the computer's learning and training process. "Human in the loop" learning refers to the integration of humans (digital life) into the entire computer system and participating in the machine learning process.

How to realize "digital life"? The prerequisite work of making digital life is complicated. Storing human memories before death requires high-precision instruments to take snapshots of brain structure. Only by making a perfect brain-computer interface can the long-term brain wave interaction between the machine and the human brain be realized, and the brain operation mode corresponding to various conscious activities is recorded. It is necessary to have mature whole-brain simulation technology to fit the thinking to autonomously rebuild human consciousness without the human brain. In addition, a device with extremely strong computing power is needed to support the long-term operation of digital life. Otherwise, it will be like Tu Hengyu uploading Tu Yaya backup card in 550-A in the film, and digital Tu Yaya can only get two minutes of life. But from the current reality, the above series of work can only be completed in science fiction movies. However, at present, we can use computers to simulate life behaviors and key characteristics for self-iteration, following the laws of biological genetic evolution.

In the film, the personal consciousness data backup card that Ma Zhao gave to Tu Hengyu is a random access memory. The core component inside, the "brain-like chip", is the key to the generation of "data life". The basic architecture of the brain-like chip is to simulate the synaptic transmission structure of the human brain and the working method of the human brain. It has countless processors similar to neurons and a communication system similar to nerve fibers. Its role in the entire digital life system can be compared to the role played by mobile phone chips inside mobile phones. It integrates all functions in one. The human consciousness stored in the backup card will be continued and even "grown" in the process of deep learning of artificial neural networks driven by brain-like chips.

Caption: Scientist Tu Hengyu's words in The Wandering Earth 2, "Ya Ya only has two minutes to live, I want to give her a complete life," moved countless viewers (screenshot from the movie trailer)

The application of "digital life" technology around us. Although the current world technology level cannot reach the level of being able to store human consciousness as a backup card and upload it, "primary digital life" has been realized, and the industry around it has also extended to various fields in our real life. The 3D cloud array camera developed by 3D digital human company Youlian Times is one of the representatives. It uses the cutting-edge technology "digital twin" that has attracted much attention in the context of digital life. It shoots and creates real-life 3D digital avatars similar to clones. It has been applied in many industries and commercial scenarios such as scientific research and teaching, brand promotion, game entertainment, cultural tourism, etc., especially in the game industry where multiple people work together in real time, driving the development of various human-computer interaction technologies such as voice, gestures, touch, etc.

Compared with "digital twins", the application of "primary digital life" in the field of medicine and health is closer to the essence of digital life. Researchers can use gene sequencing methods in the traditional medical sense and comprehensively apply various molecular biology techniques to realize the process of digitizing carbon-based life, "quantify" organic life, and then interpret life data, understand the health status behind each set of data, and provide personalized human health management solutions.

Figure: The digital life card that stores human digital life consciousness in "The Wandering Earth 2" (screenshot from the movie trailer)

Real problems derived from "digital life". Often, people's discussion of "digital life" falls into the category of scientific issues, but it is not limited to the scientific category. Further thinking about the meaning of the existence of "digital life" can easily rise to the philosophical question of "what is life".

From the perspective of traditional biology, digital life is obviously not life, it has no genetic material, no cell growth and reproduction. But as Ma Zhao said in the film, digital life is too tempting for ordinary people: after a person dies, his digital backup of consciousness can be copied many times and uploaded to many advanced quantum computers for operation, free from the constraints of the human body, and there will be no birth, aging, illness and death, no extinction of things, and he can also acquire many skills like Tu Yaya's photographic memory, thus achieving immortality in the logical sense.

The "Digital Life" plan runs counter to the "Wandering Earth" plan, and at the end of the film, the "Wandering Earth" plan also negates the "Digital Life" plan. "Civilization without people is meaningless" has become the most refined judgment word for "Digital Life". Putting aside these profound questions that directly hit the root of human beings, "Digital Life" is still an academic topic that is very worthy of our in-depth study and repeated deliberation. But imagine that one day in the future, humans can realize this technology, and "Digital Life" may become an innovative way to continue human civilization.

Author profile: Guo Bingxin, core member of the "Strong Army" theory group of the National University of Defense Technology, a key student of the International Theoretical Research Center of the school, has published several articles in the central core media such as the People's Liberation Army Daily and China National Defense News; Zuo Yizhi (core member of the theoretical research group)

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Producer: Guangming Online Science Department

Author: Guo Bingxin and Zuo Yizhi (National University of Defense Technology)

Review expert: Fu Songyang (National University of Defense Technology)

Planning: Jin He