August 2029, Rocket City, Liangguo
After nearly six years of flight, the Lingguang probe was about to reach Psyche. Among five hundred thousand asteroids, Psyche was the most special. Its main components were metals such as iron and nickel, and its surface was uneven, riddled with honeycomb-like holes.
According to Professor Braun, it was very likely the core of an ancient planet.
Once unfolded, Lingguang’s solar panels were the size of a tennis court, providing power for its new thrusters. Electrons reacted with the xenon ions excited by the propulsion system, dragging a dreamlike blue-green plume through the dark reaches of space.
In the control room of the Liangguo Space Agency, Dr. Daphne Braun, a member of the Lingguang probe project team, stared fixedly at the monitor’s large screen.
Perhaps because she was nervous, her body involuntarily leaned toward Michael Max beside her. The two of them had been passionately in love for more than half a year.
Michael Max was the richest man in the world, a legendary hero.
In 2023, his Aisbei company’s exclusive Birdhunter-5 rocket had launched the Liangguo Space Agency’s Lingguang into space, and Michael and his company had naturally become partners in the Psyche exploration project.
It was not the first time Aisbei Space Technologies had cooperated with the space agency. Once the rocket sent Lingguang into orbit, its mission was complete. In the years after the launch, Michael had shown no interest in Lingguang.
Beginning last year, he had suddenly displayed tremendous enthusiasm for Psyche. On the surface, it seemed to be because he had fallen for Daphne, who had joined the project team right after graduation; in truth, it was because he had discovered what made Psyche special.
When scientists observed Psyche from Earth, spectrometric analysis not only confirmed the presence of iron and nickel, but also led them to strongly suspect that its composition contained a large amount of gold.
Compared to asteroid research, gold was naturally more capable of drawing the attention of the media and the public. Some meddlesome enthusiasts had even calculated that this metal star was worth more than ten thousand billion dollars.
Michael Max was not interested in money. He was an “adventurer” who could always turn mad ideas into reality. Being the richest man in the world was not his goal, merely a byproduct of his willingness to lead the way.
His attention on Psyche had nothing to do with money.
“Lingguang has successfully entered orbit. Imaging system activated.” Daphne reported excitedly. It was her first time participating in such an important project, and joy was written all over her face. After nearly a year of waiting since joining the project team, all her anxiety vanished in this moment.
“Are the images being transmitted back in real time, or compressed and sent in packets?” Michael asked.
“Real time. Psyche is currently about 1.7 astronomical units from Earth. In fifteen minutes, we’ll be able to receive the first high-definition image,” Daphne replied.
After Lingguang entered orbit, it drew closer and closer to Psyche. Apart from the imaging system, devices such as the spectroscopic scanner, mass spectrometer, and high-resolution radar were activated one by one. The frequency signals emitted by the probe’s various electrical devices overlapped across Psyche’s surface.
This lonely asteroid, spinning through emptiness, had finally received a visit from humanity and was bathed in the flickering strobe of various photoelectric signals.
Suddenly, Psyche seemed to stir with sound, emitting invisible, intangible extremely low-frequency electromagnetic waves. They were chaotic and grew stronger, and the resonance and sympathetic vibration they triggered instantly destroyed all of Lingguang’s electrical equipment.
Fifteen minutes later, the decompressed image of Psyche appeared clearly on the control room’s large screen.
Daphne cried out in surprise, “Wow, the cross-sections of the hollows are all regular hexagons. Why does it look man-made?”
Michael was not surprised. He said, “Nature’s craftsmanship is uncanny. Anything is possible.”
Daphne adjusted the signal amplifier of the high-resolution radar and observed the radar reflection signals from Psyche displayed on the screen. The signals fluctuated and leapt across a continuous frequency band from low to high, as if an electroencephalogram had been taken of Psyche.
Abnormalities began appearing in the extremely low-frequency band. The amplitudes grew larger and larger, with the amplitudes from 0.5 hertz to 30 hertz striking against the upper and lower edges of the display.
All at once, the images and radar signals from Lingguang were completely cut off.
The air in the control room seemed to congeal. Unwilling to give up, everyone adjusted the equipment and restarted the system. After repeated efforts came to nothing, they had no choice but to helplessly accept the cold, hard reality: the Lingguang project to explore Psyche had been forced to end just as it began.
That night, at Michael’s home—that is, inside the prefabricated house where this unconventional richest man in the world lived—Daphne entered the non-confidential Psyche data into Michael’s supercomputer.
Michael sat down in a specially made apparatus resembling an aircraft seat, put on an induction helmet, pulled down the eye mask, and began a brain-computer fusion meditation.
Since 2018, Michael Max had set up a laboratory, recruiting top experts in biology and computer science to jointly develop a brain-computer fusion project.
In 2019, the first-generation prototype was completed. It could connect to human brainwaves through non-contact magnetic field sensors, assisting the human brain in memory searches, mind mapping, and path judgment, greatly improving the test subject’s efficiency of thought and stimulating deeper, more comprehensive thinking results.
At the time, a landmark building had just been completed in Nidu, designed by a British designer inspired by India’s ancient stepwells.
This landmark building seemed to have no practical function. It was merely composed of enormous metal components cast into interconnected stairways that extended upward, as if without end.
India’s stepwells descended step by step, while this building’s stairs rose layer upon layer, step by step. It had another name: the “Stairway to Heaven.”
Michael liked the concept of this building very much, so he named the human-brain assistant he used after its official name: VESSEL.
Michael’s imagination had always been more expansive than that of ordinary people. When AI based on logical algorithms was flourishing, he began researching brain-computer fusion, drilling a hole in the human skull and implanting a chip, turning “having a brain hole” from an exaggerated phrase into a real action.
When GPU display technology and computing merged into one, and AI upgraded from logic-inspired to scenario-inspired amid widespread cheering, Michael had already improved the hardwired cranial connection into non-contact inductive brain-computer fusion.
Michael had always firmly believed that the human brain was the most complete and energy-efficient neural network system. Computers should assist the human brain in thinking, not the other way around.
Daphne sat before the window, quietly waiting for the answer Michael would obtain from VESSEL. The summer breeze squeezed in through the open window crack, gently caressing her golden hair.
Daphne had already analyzed the data, but she still hoped that Michael plus VESSEL—this “superbrain”—could give her a more precise analysis. After all, her own analytical result was truly difficult to believe.
Michael lightly touched the shutdown key on the right armrest, pushed up the eye mask, and took off the helmet. He blinked, as if he were still thinking.
“Do you have a result? What do you think happened?” Daphne asked.
“Mm. I analyzed four extremely low-frequency bands and their corresponding amplitudes.” As Michael spoke, he stood and walked to the blackboard. As if afraid he might forget, he wrote rapidly:
Frequency: 14–30 hertz, 5–20 microvolts.
Frequency: 8–13 hertz, 20–100 microvolts.
Frequency: 4–7 hertz, 100–150 microvolts.
Frequency: 0.5–3 hertz, 20–200 microvolts.
“They correspond respectively to the human brain’s beta waves, alpha waves, theta waves, and delta waves.” Daphne voiced the same analytical result she herself had reached, waiting for Michael’s confirmation.
“Yes, Daphne. My result is that Lingguang received electromagnetic waves similar to those emitted by the human brain.”
“Psyche, with a diameter of about 250 kilometers, is nothing but an enormous lump of metal. How could it possibly emit electromagnetic waves similar to those of a human brain?” Daphne grabbed Michael’s arm, shaking it as she murmured under her breath:
“How is that possible?”
&
End-of-chapter cento poem:
Strings and song drift leisurely, weary of farewells and welcomes. Song, Liu Zai
Dawn drums hurry the court assembly, ending the short night watches. Ming, Li Xing
My thoughts in myriad strands, I write two sheets. Tang, Bai Juyi
Within the ninefold palace, waking or sleeping, he remembers loyalty and sincerity. Song, Chen Liang