"What exactly is the Human race?" Peter's voice echoed in the empty room, sending back a low, resonant reverberation.
Though he was describing a mad plan, it sounded like a performance in a great hall. "Whether one believes in God or is an atheist, one has to admit that the Human race is truly exquisite."
"Everything we possess is far too powerful, a double miracle in evolutionary and civilizational history. So many scientists, because of the subtlety of the human body, have begun to believe in God."
Little Superman looked at Shiller, because not long ago he had heard a completely different view from Shiller. Shiller believed that the evolutionary path of the Human race had only just begun, that there was still great room for evolution, that many flaws yet to be evolved away had accumulated and still needed improvement.
But he quickly understood as well: Shiller had long emphasized that a psychiatrist is not responsible for saying what is correct, but for saying what the patient wants to hear. You can't tell someone already tormented by cognitive disorders how perfectly their body fits together, that everything is part of God's flawless design—wouldn't that make things even worse?
Yet being intrinsically exquisite and still having room for improvement can coexist, especially in the psychological realm. After all, Psychology is a very young discipline and society is developing too fast; no matter how subtle the design, to keep up with the times it probably still needs to speed up a little.
Just then, Peter suddenly shifted the topic: "I'm not referring to the Human race on the macro level, but on the micro level. If God truly exists, then the structure of Human DNA must be His proudest, most perfect work."
"Those who come to believe in God because of this can only appreciate its beauty; those who, because of this, seek to surpass God are the best evidence of this miracle. Iron Man is outstanding among them. He even believes that what God did still isn't good enough, and that he can do better than Him."
Shiller's claws tightened slightly. He had to admit that Iron Man fit the name Nimrod far too well; his rebellious spirit was his greatest charm. Betraying class, betraying humanity, betraying God—he could be called the foremost hero under heaven.
"The Extremis Virus was born under such circumstances." Peter continued, "Iron Man sought to create the perfect Human race—he wanted to make something better than God's work. But even so, that was only the prelude to another mad plan."
"A biological neural computer." Peter introduced another new term. "Using DNA molecules for distributed storage, exhibiting astonishing intelligence in non-data domains—not simulating intelligence through data computation, but genuine intelligence, intelligence on par with that of Humans."
"An artificial human?" Constantine said. "Is he trying to create a new Human race?"
"Far beyond the Human race." Peter let out a light sigh. "The completed form of this biological computer would far surpass any Human individual, and even far surpass civilization-level brain-linked computers. Yet its volume could be compressed into a single test tube."
The other cats all froze. Although Peter's description was very concise, the content was so shocking that they still needed some time to properly take it in.
"You mean, Iron Man plans to condense the thinking of a civilization into a test tube?" Little Superman could basically only understand it to that extent.
"Not a single civilization, and not just a single instant of thought." Peter said, "I'm not very clear on the exact data, but as I said before: the Extremis Virus, which is used to optimize Human DNA, is the pre-pre-pre-prelude to this plan."
Everyone fell into thought. Earlier Peter had said that Human DNA was already excellent; a single molecule could store many things and could even repair itself. Yet Iron Man still chose not to use it directly. He started instead from developing the Extremis Virus to optimize DNA and bring it into a more perfect state.
Generally speaking, if something can be used directly, there is no need to go such a long way around. The Extremis Virus is no easy thing to develop, so there is only one possibility: the biological neural computer Iron Man wants to create has requirements for DNA molecules that are far higher than those of the current Human race.
"What exactly is he trying to do?" Constantine couldn't help asking. "What kind of cosmic catastrophe requires something like this?"
"I can't claim to fully understand his thinking." Peter was clearly being very tactful. He said, "Sometimes, when interventionism is pushed to the extreme, one inevitably begins to ponder the correctness of the cosmos and Human existence, and whether one can, or should, interfere with it in some way."
These words were a bit convoluted; Constantine and Little Superman both felt rather lost listening to them. After all, the two of them were actually not very familiar with Iron Man, but Shiller understood.
As the saying goes, rivers and mountains may be moved but one's nature is hard to change. After Old 616 Earth departed, the series of operations the young New Main Universe Justice League carried out on Clarkia already showed that most people had interventionist leanings.
However, the term interventionism is not entirely negative. Although most of the time it sounds like meddling in other people's business, as long as there is even one case where it's not meddling but something that truly should be managed, it can also be understood as a strong sense of responsibility. If one truly has the ability to reverse a situation and uphold justice, one indeed can be called a hero.
The problem with the young Iron Man was that his ability still wasn't strong enough, whereas the Iron Man of the Old Prime Universe, having gone through so many major events, was clearly no longer the same. With great power comes great responsibility; what he wishes to interfere with is no longer confined to matters within the cosmos.
What's the best way to rebel against fate? Everyone might have their own answer, but Iron Man picked the simplest one: find a way to punch God in the face.
Shiller figured that Iron Man's idea of building a super bio-neural computer probably isn't just to use it as a tool, but as a weapon. He knows very well that something with such an immense, even potentially infinite, instantaneous computing load can inflict a destructive attack on the structure of the cosmos—essentially a form of nuclear deterrence.
Using that previous metaphor again, it's like using massive computation to overheat the server room until it burns the whole house down. Of course, it's not that he really wants to do this—it's just that he wants to have the capability, so he can actually sit at the negotiating table with the creator.
In fact, this is roughly the same principle as the Magical Defense Network: since the creator made these things, there must be a reason. Whether it's higher-dimensional interference or simply that the creator is too lonely, in any case they obviously want the cosmos to exist and have certain reasons not to let it be completely destroyed.
Whether Human race or god, as long as there is desire, there is a weakness. Since you don't want the structure of the cosmos to be completely annihilated, I'll build a weapon that can annihilate it—only then can both sides negotiate on equal footing.
And the reason it's a super bio-neural computer rather than some big bomb or time-paradox weapon is that the latter only brings destruction in an instant. Clearly, Iron Man has already realized that the cosmos can be rebooted; if it breaks, you just restart it.
The deadly part of a super bio-neural computer is that, beyond its insanely high instantaneous throughput, its computation can be continuous, and its destruction of cosmic structure is also continuous. As long as it's still computing, it's very hard for the structure of the cosmos to be rebuilt. Even if you eventually figure out a way to optimize and reconstruct it, there will still be a gap, a downtime. That's something the creator undoubtedly does not want to see.
Even the nuclear bomb analogy isn't quite accurate, because nukes mainly rely on instantaneous lethality; the aftermath radiation dissipates fairly quickly. This thing Iron Man wants to build is more like a device that continuously outputs high-energy radiation—so long as it's running, nothing can live around it.
It's basically like this: if the Demon Gods want Earth's faith, then the Mages build a Magical Defense Network, and the principle of this network isn't protection, but that if the Demon Gods try to take Earth, the Mages will drag Earth and the Demon Gods down together. Whether it's the invading Demon Gods or those watching from the sidelines, no one gets anything.
Iron Man's line of thinking is: if you won't allow us to resist fate, then we'll destroy your creation completely and prevent it from being rebuilt. Whether you're acting under orders from higher-dimensional beings, or just looking for companionship, you'll fail utterly and end up with nothing.
This does sound extreme, but when the power gap between two sides is too great, displaying a tendency toward self-destruction really is an effective game-theory tactic to level the playing field. Because the very fact that you're bargaining with me means I have some value, and if that value is destroyed, you suffer a loss as well. This is essentially psychological warfare.
As for whether Iron Man can actually build this thing, Shiller thinks it's going to be very hard. After all, his Wisdom is also founded on how the creator set him up; once this plan reaches any real progress, the creator can simply strip him of his Wisdom, and everything afterward becomes empty talk.
Though he's already left the Marvel Universe and arrived in the Cthulhu Mythos Universe, where the creator can't do much to him, if he wants to build this here, the Outer Gods probably won't allow it either, right?
Or rather, there is no creator who would allow their own creations to play with something like this in the cosmos. This isn't some kid at home turning on the stove; this is a cockroach hoisting up the gas cylinder.
But then Shiller thought about it again; he wasn't sure whether the Outer Gods could even understand this kind of thing. Which inevitably brings up Yog-Sothoth, the foundational being of the original Cthulhu cosmos. If Nyarla is the Outer God closest to orderly life, then Yog is more like the very order of the Cthulhu Mythos Universe itself.
After all, if it were pure disorder and Chaos, there'd be no cosmos structure at all. The structure and order of the Cthulhu Mythos Universe weren't established by a half-asleep Azathoth; they should be credited to Yog. Does Yog know what a super bio-neural computer is?
Shiller doesn't know whether Yog has ever seen something like this before, but if he finds out what this thing does, he definitely won't allow Iron Man to build it in the Outer Gods' home turf. Same old line: you can't bet your life on Asathos's sleep quality.
If Reed's portal was like poking Asathos once, then if Iron Man actually builds a super bio-neural computer here, that's basically the equivalent of punching Asathos square in the face.
So, is the cube's current out-of-control state related to Yog-Sothoth?
As one of the so-called Three Pillar Gods of the Cthulhu Mythos Universe, Yog-Sothoth is someone Shiller has heard of for a long time, but unlike The Nameless Fog and Nyarlathotep, Yog rarely appears in the American Comic World.
The reason it's "rarely" and not "never" is because Shiller suspects that the passage from the Cthulhu Mythos Universe to the American Comics Universe is under Yog's management. Without him, the Cthulhu Mythos couldn't possibly have set up an embassy in the American Comics Universe; just traveling back and forth would be a huge problem.
From this, we can infer that Anatoli may have had contact with Yog, because if Yog didn't know him, there's no way he and Nyarlathotep would have pulled out that fast back then. Both the speed and the force with which the door was shut show that Yog had at least heard of Anatoli.
Too bad that despite all the precautions, something still slipped through. This is like just having managed to keep traditional nukes outside the door, only to turn around and find you've smuggled a hydrogen bomb home instead—bigger yield, newer tech. If he were Yog, he'd probably be scratching his head right about now.