Cyber Ghosts

Chapter 189 Brain in a Vat
Zhou Yuan found that his analysis convinced all people here, so he felt happy and continued. Zhou Yuan today spoke too much and felt content because Hao Ning always spoke too much before.

“Especially the two Bodhisattvas of Avalokitesvara and the Manjusri simultaneously receive faiths of incenses both from the realistic temple and the books. If we mixed them incorrectly, it would be more troublesome.” Zhou Yuan continued his analysis, which made Hao Ning feel that Zhou Yuan had got much more inferential capability with the Wit Sword compared to Hao Ning himself. Zhou Yuan added,” so we can conclude that the inside of the fake Manjusri must get confused that if it was in the reality or in the book for some reason. But what can make a witty Bodhisattva do not know if it is in reality or in the virtual world? I believe that the key point is in the famous vat…”

“Brain in a Vat? So it is! You mean…” Hao Ning understood suddenly after he heard a familiar word and he finally figured out what Zhou Yuan pondered,” You mean both the incense of the real Manjusri inside the fake Manjusri, and the self of the real Manjusri had met the problem of the Brain in a Vat?”

What Zhow Yuan mentioned the Brain in a Vat was a famous thought experiment: the original story was that if an evil scientist or a demon put the brain of human being into a vat which was given the same stimulation as the real world of humankind through electrical signal, such as the tactile sense, the gustation and so on, how could the brain in the vat testify that is was in a realistic world or a virtual world? Hao Ning guessed that the example taken by Zhou Yuan was used to explain that the Manjusri could not distinguish that it was in a realistic world or in a virtual world, just like the condition that the brain in the vat could not tell the realistic or virtual world. However, the example was too hard to understand, and Hao Ning believed that Liu Shuai could not understand the example.

“It is not that easy,” Zhou Yuan waved his hands and pondered for a while,” a tier of brain in a vat is not enough, and it is likely that the incense of the Manjusri have met the problem of multiple-tier brain in a vat, so the Manjusri is so confused.”

“Multiple-tier brain in a vat?” Hao Ning asked,” What is that? Is it the latest outcome of the study of the brain in a vat?”

“Wait! Don’t get too fast, I still don’t understand what the brain in a vat mean!” as expected, Liu Shuai did not understand. Zhou Yuan sighed and let Hao Ning explain it. Liu Shuai shuddered after he heard the explanation,” No way! It is too horrible! But if it’s true, for myself, it is absolutely unlikely to distinguish whether I’m in a realistic world or a virtual one.”

“But why you said the multiple-tier brain in a vat? Or what is the multiple-tier brain in a vat?” Hao Ning continued to pose more questions when he found Liu Shuai had understood the question. At this moment, Hao Ning was like a pupil attending a class by teacher Zhou Yuan,” I don’t understand, I have never heard about it.”

“Um…I guess it is like the Matryoshka doll…” Zhou Yuan scratched his head and turned to look at the scene outside the window,” if the Manjusri was absolutely fake, it wouldn’t be so complicated. However, the Wit Sword part of this Manjusri is real and the self-part is real too. Then how could a tier of the brain in a vat bewilder it? I guess that it is the first tier that made the fake Manjusri confused about whether it was in a real world or in a virtual world. All the first tier did is to disturb the origin…”

Zhou Yuan ceased and seemed to seek the simplest ways to express. The car was quite silent inside, and no one disrupted Zhou Yuan: “and the second tier made up another rule which converted good and evil. The tier made him believe that it uses the Buddha doctrine instead of evil doctrine even though it actually uses the evil doctrine. The Manjusri has practiced the real Wit Sword, and one of the tiers must be used to bewilder the Wit Sword, which made the sword unable to distinguish between good and evil. The Yin and Yang are converted!”

“One of the tiers is used to bewilder the Wit Sword?” Hao Ning got astonished, “the spiritual flying mosquito?”

“Very possible!” Zhou Yuan rolled his eyes and nodded, “we all thought the spiritual flying mosquito is an assault weapon of the Manjusri, but now it is quite suspicious. The fake Manjusri definitely believed that itself was real, so how could it make its inside body generate this evil thing? The only explanation is that the mosquitoes is not a weapon but the middle tier of the brain in a vat used to narcotize the intuition of the Manjusri.”

“That’s it!” Liu Shuai could finally talk about something on this topic, “from the remain of the tuition of the Manjusri, I find that when the Manjusri is in the introspection. There is no any evil treasure found or weapons of mass destruction. And even the intuition can also make the Manjusri’s power find those spiritual flying mosquitoes. Thus, there is only one possibility: those mosquitoes at that time were used to narcotize the self of the Majusri!”

“The spiritual flying mosquito actually has the effect of narcotizing and confusing the soul,” Xiao Hong nodded, “but the effect is too weak, and it is always used to absorb the whole soul of people.”

“So, it needs much!” Zhou Yuan got more confidence, “Such an extreme vicious means! The design of multiple-tier brain in a vat disturbs the Manjusri and converts Yin and Yang, and the incense of the Manjusri is used to do something evil. Even people who have higher cultivation will believe that the Manjusri Bodhisattva becomes a demon. What a means! If the Manjusri wins, the aim will be reached to swipe out all the obstacles, and if the Manjusri fails, it will blame all to deity. It would be a disaster!”

“Concealed intentions!” Liu Shuai nodded, “no wonder that the Manjusri cannot tell where it is and if it is real. And it even believes what it does is Buddha doctrine instead of evil doctrine. Thus, it is reasonable.”

“But there is still a question. It is for what reason that the Manjusri does not know where it is? It has something to do with the cultivation instead of the power doctrine. For example, Xiao Hong and Ne Zha both knew clearly that they are figures from the book, and who they are. Ne Zha has never been confusing even it has suffered so many disasters. So how do you know that?” Zhou Yuan expressed his thought inside. He found Xiao Hong hesitant and explained, “I do not want to figure out your secrets, but to speculate why the fake Manjusri does not know the point by figure out how you guys know the truth. That’s the key point!”

“Um…it is not secret,” Xiao Hong scratched her head embarrassedly, “I dozed when Brother Zhang talked about this before. Don’t laugh at me. I feel so bored. What he talked about could not help me fight or increase my power. But now I got something. Even though I have met the fake Manjusri and suffered a lot, I can’t answer your question without the explanation of Liu Shuai.”

“Me?” Liu Shuai felt happy that Xiao Hong mentioned him, “My explanation?”

“Instinct and intuition.” Xiao Hong said these words, and added, “Each deity I have met seems to be a kind of intuition that it knows that it is a god in the book. It is called the innate instinct.”

“How does the instinct generate?” Zhou Yuan asked with interest, “Where did you find the instinct?”

“Doctor Zhang once explained this to me,” Xiao Hong added, “you must have heard about the concept: the Chinese Civilization.”

“The Chinese Civilization?” Hao Ning did not catch it, “What does it mean?”

“The sear of the Chinese Civilization,” Xiao Hong thought for a while and said, “Brother Zhang think it does be the sear of civilization. I did not understand at that time but now I understand a little when you explain Vimalakirti today.

“Ah?” Zhou Yuan smiled, “Go on.”

“You mean the Manjusri Bodhisattva wanted to said WALK…” Zhou Yuan corrected after Xiao Hong said that, “It is Mr. Zhang that told me that it is what the Manjusri in the book wants to say. I cannot make sure if it is true.”

“Why are you so rigorous too…” Xiao Hong smiled, “Nothing. The last sentence is the key point. If the Manjusri is too easy to understand, people who read the scriptures will not understand the wisdom of the Bodhisattva. The scriptures are written by people and the aim of people’s writing is to make the readers understand the wisdom of the book instead of describing something. That is quite different from the ordinary communication among people.”

“You mean the real communication is from the conscience, while the story in books is to maintain wisdom?” Zhou Yuan understood immediately, “so that’s it! That’s it! The writer wants to maintain wisdom, which is what we call the Chinese Civilization.”

“Yes,” Xiao Hong seemed to understand more, and she smiled, “so I can understand now why the deity in the book must protect the Chinese civilization!”

“Because stories in the book do not matter, and what counts is the sear of the Chinese Civilization therein, which is the intuition and conscience of the figures in the book!” Hao Ning understood too. He patted Xiao Hong on her shoulder and sighed, “If there is no Chinese civilization and civilization sear lost, the deity inside cannot tell where the real world is and where from books is. What’s more, it may have an incorrect judgment to itself.”

“The judgment is incorrect,” Zhou Yuan nodded, “it would be likely that a fake Manjusri believes itself the real one. No matter who it is, human being or god, it has no idea who it is. Horrible!”

“Ah, that’s it!” Hao Ning now understood, “that is to say, it disturbs the intuition judgment of the Manjusri to the civilization sear, so the Manjusri couldn’t tell its real identity?”

“It should be some similar condition,” Zhou Yuan nodded, “but there is still a difference. There are so many scriptures mentioning about the Manjusri and the Manjusri incense is not the only one. The deity generated by that has many sears of books and further all kinds of sears from billions of incenses from believers. What we guessed just now is that if we want to disturb the judgment of the Manjusri, we could add something inside the Manjusri and disturb some kind of its root. And the root, we can call it as…”

“Conscience,” Hao Ning sighed, “You want to say this world?”

“You got it,” Zhou Yuan felt a little bit upset and looked out of the window, “the Manjusri became like this, and so did I.”

“You said I am the Monkey Under Boat who demands to gain the conscience, but I believe I am that Realistic Circle God who knows what others think. The original soul of mine just disappeared and the fake Manjusri and I both lost our consciences, didn’t we? But I’m so lucky that you guys did me many favors. However, that fake Manjusri is hurt by people around him. He believes that he has got incense faith from pure people, but finally he becomes the tool of others to do evil things…”

“Zhou Yuan…” It was the first time for Hao Ning hear the sigh of Zhou Yuan. He knew that Zhou Yuan sighed about the Manjusri but he actually sighed about what he himself had suffered, and Hao Ning did not know what to say about that.”

“Nothing!” Zhou Yuan waved his hands and said with a bitter smile, “I know that I have lost my conscience even if the golden cudgel does not find me. Just now I urged to order you to give the Soul Sun Stick back to me. I am stubborn about that. Something belongs to me, and it must be mine. There is no need to RETURN.”

Liu Shuai now got silent and he had to admit that Zhou Yuan understood the issues more deeply than him.

“But the Wit Sword of Bodhisattva also found you!” Xiao Hong said in a mood of comfort, “There is a heart inside wisdom. The wisdom finds you, which proves that you have a heart but permanently it is not the conscience. One who has a heart can find the conscience back, but for one who has no heart, how can he find the conscience back?”

“Hahaha,” Zhou Yuan laughed after he heard the words of Xiao Hong, “I accept your comfort. Thank you!”

“You are at ease now,” Hao Ning said with a bitter smile after he made sure that Zhou Yuan now was in a good mood, “How about the issue of Long Fei’s temple?