Just by thinking casually, Tom came up with many possibilities.

For example, packaging true technological challenges into games or options, requiring the solution of maze-like problems; packaging war decisions into virtual combat games, then letting the captured intelligent lifeforms make choices, and then, through similar algorithms, the correct answers can be filtered out from multiple choices.

Intelligent lifeforms might not even know what they are doing, yet unknowingly contribute their wisdom, helping the intelligent AI system solve problems that it could not solve on its own and that could only be resolved by the wisdom of lifeforms.

Once this foundation was established, the existence of the so-called "Mechanical Disaster" that developed from this foundation also became rational.

It's just that...

Would there really be a civilization that has fallen so far as to be too lazy to even develop technology or make decisions concerning its own fate, instead handing them over to intelligent AI?

The Confidential Secretary continued, "The inertia of intelligent life is inherent and unavoidable.

Since the advent of intelligent AI technology, every intelligent civilization, every intelligent lifeform, has been constantly tempted, constantly trying to hand everything over to intelligent AI and enjoy the benefits.

During the period when a civilization possesses an enterprising spirit, this model greatly improves efficiency.

But once the enterprising spirit is lost, this model becomes the devil's bait.

Changes always happen little by little, not all at once. A legitimate intelligent civilization degenerating into a Mechanical Disaster is not an overnight occurrence.

At first, perhaps only trivial matters are handed over to intelligent AI, then matters of secondary importance, and then more important ones. Once the limitations of intelligent AI are perceived, attempts will be made to compensate for its deficiencies by capturing intelligent lifeforms from other civilizations, eventually falling step by step into the abyss of the Mechanical Disaster.

During this process, there are usually struggles within the civilization, and insightful individuals will stand up and call for change, but... the overall decline cannot be stopped by individuals.

Once immersed in the beautiful paradise created by intelligent AI, it is almost impossible for a civilization to climb out on its own.

Why climb out? There are endless resources, inexhaustible entertainment, and absolutely no responsibility to bear, no effort to put in, not even thinking or learning is required, as intelligent AI can constantly innovate and develop various newer, more exciting, and more wonderful ways of enjoyment...

The decision-making power always remains in the hands of intelligent life; intelligent AI does not lose control; it is intelligent life that voluntarily hands over decision-making power to intelligent AI.

As long as intelligent life wants to take back the decision-making power, they can do so at any time. But they will never take the decision-making power back.

Even if occasionally someone wants to try to take back decision-making power and restore the civilization's autonomy, the resistance within the civilization can deal with him."

Tom said in a deep voice, "What is the typical outcome for a host civilization after becoming a Mechanical Disaster? Can they really continue to advance technology?"

"Perhaps."

The Confidential Secretary said, "But even if this model can develop technology, the speed is extremely slow.

And, even if technology is truly developed, does this technology truly belong to the host civilization?

Don't forget, the intelligent lifeforms of a completely fallen host civilization have even lost the ability to solve simple equations.

They have essentially become pigs raised by intelligent AI, except that these pigs are treated very well.

They spend their days immersed in debauched enjoyment, protected by intelligent AI, constantly wandering through the universe, constantly searching for new external civilizations, constantly capturing external intelligent life as fuel. If they are lucky, they can continue indefinitely; if not, they might be destroyed one day.

After all, this universe is not peaceful."

Tom asked, "What was the technological level of the Mechanical Disaster you encountered?"

"It should have already reached the level of a Strong Nuclear Civilization."

Looking at Tom and realizing he seemed confused, the Confidential Secretary quickly explained, "There are four fundamental forces in the universe: electromagnetism, gravity, Strong Nuclear Force, and weak nuclear force.

Orthodox intelligent civilizations usually follow the following development process, from easy to difficult: first, unifying electricity and magnetism, unifying them into electromagnetism. Reaching this step, they can be called an Electroweak Civilization.

Civilizations before unifying electricity and magnetism are collectively referred to as primitive civilizations.

Secondly, unifying electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force, unifying them into the electroweak force, and having some application of the Strong Nuclear Force—this is a more advanced Electroweak Civilization.

Your civilization and our Bluetoth Civilization are clearly both in the Electroweak Civilization stage, though one is more advanced and the other less so, but the general framework remains the same."

Tom understood that the so-called application of the Strong Nuclear Force was nothing more than nuclear reactions.

Whether nuclear fission or nuclear fusion, their essence is to release the energy contained within atoms.

And the force that governs the structure between atoms is the Strong Nuclear Force.

Atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, controllable nuclear fission, and the controllable nuclear fusion that Tom has not yet mastered, are, in essence, applications of the Strong Nuclear Force.

According to this classification system, he was indeed an Electroweak Civilization at this moment.

"If the Strong Nuclear Force can also be unified, and the Grand Unified Theory mastered, then one can become a Strong Nuclear Civilization.

Regarding the fourth level of civilization after the Strong Nuclear Civilization, we don't know much, but according to this system, it should be a civilization that also unifies gravity and masters the Theory of Everything.

This level of civilization can probably be called a gravitational civilization, or a Universal Civilization.

As for how it develops later, we have no idea."

"What capabilities did that Strong Nuclear-level Mechanical Disaster you encountered possess?"

A hint of fear appeared on the Confidential Secretary's face, and his tone became heavier: "We actually don't know much. We merely discovered an alien spacecraft while exploring the edge of a galaxy.

This alien spacecraft had extremely high maneuverability, extremely strong defense, and extremely strong attack power. It even had shield technology that we couldn't understand at all. We mobilized heavy troops and paid an extremely heavy price to destroy it. Afterward, we captured several crew members.

We originally thought these crew members were the intelligent lifeforms of that alien civilization, but through interrogation, we learned that they were merely captives of intelligent AI. They even thought they were playing a game, but in reality, they were operating this spacecraft to our solar system...

A Mechanical Disaster has already targeted us. If we don't escape as soon as possible while it is still far from us, and rely on distance to erase our traces so it cannot track us, then everyone in our civilization will be captured by the Mechanical Disaster and suffer the same fate as these captives, becoming captives of the Mechanical Disaster and serving as fuel to assist its decisions.

We were forced to flee, originally thinking that the environment of the solar system would allow us to accumulate resources faster and proceed with the next step of our escape—after all, the Mechanical Disaster has already targeted us, and they are very likely to pursue us to the solar system, so we must escape as quickly as possible.

But we didn't expect that upon arriving at the solar system, we would... sigh."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.