Chapter 380 Participants

Chapter 380 Participants

Chapter 380 Participants

Inside the restaurant of the training base.

Fang Yalin and Li Kangxuan chatted for more than half an hour, and Li Kangxuan finished the food in the lunch box.

Li Kangxuan wiped his mouth with a tissue and took the lunch box and tableware: "I'm leaving first, see you in the afternoon."

"Hello." Fang Yalin also stood up, but he and Li Kangxuan had different afternoon classes.

The astronauts of the Venus Expedition are not required to be omnipotent, but rather a system with clear division of labor.

After all, at this stage, as professional knowledge in various industries becomes more and more complex, it is difficult to produce all-round talents who are proficient in everything.

Fang Yalin works as a mechanical engineer and maintenance worker. In the afternoon, he will go to the spacecraft simulation maintenance center on the south side of the base.

Although Li Kangxuan is Fang Yalin's team leader, the astronaut team of Blue Whale Aerospace is not divided simply by profession, but a mixed matching model.

A standard astronaut team is staffed with one captain, one deputy captain, and three team members.

The captain is a spacecraft pilot, communications engineer, and the first commander of the spacecraft.

The deputy captain's job is the same as the captain's, he is the second commander of the spacecraft and also the logistics manager.

Team member 1 is a mechanical engineer, maintenance worker, and logistics manager.

Team member 2 is a precision instrument engineer, maintenance worker, and scientific researcher.

Team member 3 is a physician, bioengineer, psychological counselor, and scientific researcher.

Typically, the Venus Expedition 1 spacecraft currently being designed will have a standard crew of two teams, or 10 people.

The division of various professions is still more subdivided into branches. Therefore, when matching the personnel of the two teams, the professions of the personnel will be fully considered. We must make full use of the human resources and also be prepared to have enough redundancy in times of crisis.

After all, no one can guarantee 100% that there will be no accidents during an interstellar mission.

For example, if a mechanical maintenance worker suddenly falls ill and loses his ability to work, and the spacecraft happens to malfunction at this time, the consequences will be disastrous if only one team is deployed.

Although the probability of this possibility is very small, it does happen. According to Murphy's Law, once the number of spacecraft missions continues to increase, it also means that the probability of related risks is increasing.

Unless human spacecraft technology has reached a level where it can ignore the harsh environment of outer space and has efficient self-repair capabilities, the problems that are expected to arise will occur sooner or later.

Even if it is 99.999% safe.

This also means that there is a 100% chance of an accident occurring.

Because by extending the time scale and increasing the number of tasks, the 0.001% risk will become %.

This is something that humans cannot avoid at this stage.

Therefore, the previous triple redundancy design on spacecraft and spacecraft must continue until the level of human technology is raised to a level that can ignore a large part of cosmic disasters, and then we can consider reducing the redundant design.

In fact, a spacecraft equipped with two teams is still a combination with certain risks, but due to the triple redundancy of the spacecraft design and the combination of twice the number of personnel, the risk has been reduced to an extremely low level. If the number of personnel is increased, the risk reduction will not be of much help.

Fang Yalin called an autonomous electric car through the underground driveway inside the base.

After a while, he arrived at the spacecraft simulation maintenance center 10 kilometers away.

"Yalin, you're here so early today!" A colleague with a shaved head got off another electric bike at about the same time and called out from afar.

Fang Yalin, holding his coat, asked in surprise: "Huh? Erkang, when did you come back?"

Gu Erkang came over and walked side by side with him into the maintenance center: "I just got back today."

After taking a look at Gu Erkang's head, Fang Yalin quickly discovered that there were five special "tattooed" circles on it: "The circles on your head are what we are testing this time?"

"Ah."

"How does it feel?" Fang Yalin asked curiously.

"There was no problem with the surgery. It was just a matter of making sure the wound healed normally. I stayed there for a month and a half."

Fang Yalin leaned over and stared at the five circles. He found no signs of surgery. If it weren't for the five circles tattooed as a mark, he really couldn't tell that Gu Erkang had had a craniotomy on his head. "There's no signs at all. Are the techniques there so advanced?"

"Haha, do you think that's an ordinary hospital? That's the headquarters of our group, a center specializing in medical technology research. It's very easy to remove scars."

"How do you feel after the brain control unit was implanted?" Fang Yalin asked again.

Seeing that there was still an hour left before class, the two slowed down their pace and walked slowly towards the lounge.

“It feels great.”

"Huh? Aren't you talking nonsense?" Fang Yalin rolled his eyes.

"How should I put it?" Gu Erkang organized his words and described the feelings after the brain control unit was implanted:
"First of all, after the implant, there was no foreign body sensation, because I saw the samples given by the laboratory, and a brain control unit is only slightly larger than a mung bean."

"and then?"

"Then we tested the brain control device. The one I implanted was a biological brain control unit, so theoretically it is maintenance-free for life. It's a bit like having five parasites implanted in my body."

Hearing this, Fang Yalin suddenly got goose bumps all over his body: "Okay, if you can't describe it, don't describe it."

"Don't feel disgusted, kid! After all, this thing really looks like a parasite. No, to be more precise, it should be like a symbiotic parasite."

"Hehe..." Fang Yalin felt even more uncomfortable.

"Then there's the function of the brain control unit. This thing is really amazing. Compared to those electronic brain control devices on the market, its sensitivity, accuracy, and portability are a level higher."

Fang Yalin also blocked the idea that the biological brain control unit was a parasite, and instead thought about its function: "What are the specific manifestations?"

"The performance is that after using it, you can easily control various devices. I tested the expeditionary space suit that will be used by us in the future. It has an exoskeleton system inside. Using a biological brain control unit to control it is completely different from using an electronic brain control device to control it." Gu Erkang paused for a moment and added again:
"Well... it's a bit like having an extra organ, but with all the electronic brain-controlled devices, you can clearly feel the sluggishness and disharmony."

"Inharmonious?" Fang Yalin immediately understood.

Because he had also received training on how to operate a simple exoskeleton system at the training base, it was actually very easy to experience limb incoordination during the process.

"To put it bluntly, electronic brain-controlled devices require the operator to concentrate and not have any distracting thoughts. During the operation, one must be single-minded."

Fang Yalin nodded. He understood the feeling. Gu Erkang continued, "The biological brain control unit turns our ability to control some equipment into an instinctive reaction, allowing us to do two things at once."

"Just like we usually do when we walk and talk, right?"

"Yes, it is like that."

Gu Erkang talked about another thing: "I heard that the biological brain control unit was developed to avoid uncontrollable risks caused by simply using electronic devices."

"By the way, you're quite brave! How dare you take part in this kind of experiment? Aren't you afraid of any sequelae?" Fang Yalin joked with admiration.

"Sequelae? There are no obvious sequelae so far!" Gu Erkang suddenly thought of a situation and said with a half-smile:
"Speaking of sequelae, this transplant actually has an obvious side effect."

"What? Are you okay?" Fang Yalin's expression suddenly changed, and he looked at Gu Erkang with concern.

"The side effect is that I don't have to wash my hair anymore."

"What?" Fang Yalin was stunned.

"Didn't expect it? Hahaha, I finally got rid of this thick hair. From now on, I can only be a bald guy." Gu Erkang patted his big bald head for self-amusement.

However, Fang Yalin frowned and said, "Can you tell me what happened? Could this kind of surgery lead to permanent hair loss?"

"No, it's because in order to ensure that the biological brain control unit and the external patch can fully contact each other, when using the external brain control device, the location where the brain control unit is implanted must be shaved." Gu Erkang pointed to the circle tattoos on his head.

"But does this mean I have to remove my hair permanently?" Fang Yalin didn't understand.

"It was my own request." Gu Erkang stopped in front of a vending machine and used his facial recognition to buy two bottles of sea buckthorn juice. He handed one to Fang Yalin while opening his own bottle.

After receiving the seabuckthorn juice, Fang Yalin looked at his colleague speechlessly: "You asked for it yourself? You don't have a fever, do you? Can the hair grow back after it is removed? Don't make it impossible to recover!"

"Haha, regret it? My hairstyle is so ugly. It's not as good-looking as a bald head. Besides, I don't need to take care of it every day. It's so convenient. Yalin, do you want to try it?" Gu Erkang recommended the hair removal surgery.

Fang Yalin took a sip of sea buckthorn juice and then joked: "If everyone thinks like you, then all the barbers in the world will be out of work. But is this surgery permanent?"

"Of course it's permanent. What's the matter? Are you attracted?" Gu Erkang asked, his arm around hers.

Fang Yalin slapped the other person's hand in disdain: "Go...go...I have beautiful hair, I don't want to be a bald guy."

"That's such a pity. You will never be able to experience the happiness of a bald guy." Gu Erkang didn't miss his hair because his previous hairstyle was a very obvious widow's peak. After joining the astronaut training center, he had to have a buzz cut for a long time, so his hairstyle would be very ugly.

Suddenly Fang Yalin looked around and asked in a low voice: "Speaking of which, this kind of surgery should not only be used on the hair, right?"

"What do you want to do?" Gu Erkang's smile suddenly became perverted, and he squinted his eyes and stared at Fang Yalin's lower body: "Of course, why do you think this kind of surgery was originally developed? It was developed for medical beauty."

Hearing this, Fang Yalin immediately rubbed his hands and asked, "I see, how much does one operation cost?"

"It depends on the area! I did the whole head, including the beard and cheeks, but I was participating in the brain control unit implantation experiment, so the hospital did this project for me for free. I asked the doctor there at the time, and he said that doing a hair loss surgery on the whole head would cost about 6,000 to 8,000 yuan."

Fang Yalin stroked the stubble on his chin and said, "This price is acceptable."

Gu Erkang reminded him, "You can apply for an internal channel! After all, this is a benefit given to us by the group. It would be a waste if we don't use it."

"Oh? I almost forgot about this. With the group's internal channel, the cost should be reduced by half." Fang Yalin became more and more interested in this operation.

He has a hairy physique, which may be related to the fact that his ancestors have Baixianbei ancestry.

Gu Erkang put his arm around his shoulders and said mysteriously, "I have another discovery."

"Eh? Don't talk nonsense, kid. If you accidentally let it get involved in secrets, you'll be in big trouble."

Gu Erkang did not stop because of this, but whispered: "This is not a confidential document that I saw, but my guess through experiments. Can't you just not talk about it outside?"

"Haha, thank you!"

"The brain control unit I implanted is currently one-way, that is, it can only send control signals outward in one direction."

"So what? There can't be another..." Fang Yalin was talking and suddenly fell silent.

"Did you guess it?" Gu Erkang drank the sea buckthorn juice in his hand and threw the can into the trash can beside him:

"Since there is a way to control the one-way output of brain wave signals, it is possible that there is a brain control device that can input into the brain."

Fang Yalin's expression became serious, and then he warned: "Don't tell this to others."

Gu Erkang actually took this to heart and replied with a smile: "Don't worry! We are good friends, so I'm only talking to you about this kind of thing. I don't bother to talk to anyone else."

"That's good." Fang Yalin's expression remained stern: "This technology is likely to exist, but I don't know what stage of research and development it has reached."

"I don't know that."

"That's true. Let's not worry about this kind of thing. After all, if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up." At this time, Fang Yalin also put aside the random thoughts in his mind.

In fact, Gu Erkang's guess was accurate.

Hailufeng Group does have a brain wave input project.

The purpose of studying this project is naturally not to control or brainwash others. Although this idea can indeed be realized after cooperating with some drugs, Jiang Miao will definitely be wary of the risks in this regard.

The brainwave input project has many derivative application directions, such as "virtual reality", "deep learning", "amnesia treatment", etc.

The core application is naturally deep learning.

If humans want to fight against artificial intelligence that may get out of control in the future, rapidly improving human knowledge reserves is a very good entry point.

In order to quickly improve human knowledge reserves, the best solution is naturally to directly cram "knowledge" into the brain, which requires the use of brain wave input technology.

However, at this stage, the project still faces many difficulties.

Some of these shortcomings may be life-threatening.

For example, after brain waves are input into the brain, they may cause side effects such as cognitive confusion, schizophrenia, and brain overload. In severe cases, these side effects may cause death.

Therefore, the project is currently still in the stage of theoretical research and small-scale animal experiments, and has not yet entered the human experiment stage.

(End of this chapter)