Chapter 290: Nerve secret

Meng Chao nodded: "I know that insects or annelids have very primitive nervous systems and their information transmission speed is extremely slow, about one meter per second, while the human nerve information transmission speed can reach 100 meters per second. It is a hundred times that of lower creatures. No wonder it can generate a spark of wisdom in the collision of nerve information."
"Yes, the reason why humans and other advanced animals transmit nerve information so fast is because there is a layer of'myelin' outside our nerve cell axons, which can insulate and prevent nerve impulses from being transmitted from neuron axons. In addition to the axon of another neuron, the mechanism of'jumping conduction' can also be used to accelerate the transmission of action potentials."
Gao Ye thought for a while and used an analogy, "If the nerves of lower animals are a bumpy village road, if you are not careful, the car will drive outside the highway. Then the nerves of higher vertebrates like humans, Wrapped in myelin sheath, it is like lifting and closing the highway, turning it into an'information highway', and the transmission speed is naturally hundreds of times faster.
"And the extraordinary, by absorbing psychic energy and continuously tempering the nervous system with aura, gradually forming a'spiritual vein' or even a'crystal vein' in the body, which is equivalent to upgrading the'highway' to a'high-speed railway'. The neural information transmission speed of the supernatural can even reach a terrifying kilometer per second. Regardless of the logical deduction ability, the computing power or the understanding ability, it is naturally ten times stronger than ordinary people.
"However, evolving myelin sheath is not the only way to give birth to wisdom.
"Many animals have chosen another evolutionary path, which is to increase the diameter of nerve fibers.
"Scientific research has proved that the diameter of nerve fibers is directly proportional to the transmission speed of nerve information.
"In this regard, the best examples are octopus and squid.
"The thickest nerve axon fiber in human beings does not exceed 20 microns in diameter. It needs 50 to be close together to barely reach one millimeter and can be recognized by the naked eye.
"The huge axon fibers of some squids have a single diameter of one millimeter, fifty times that of humans.
"Even without myelin, such a thick nerve gives octopus and squid a high degree of wisdom.
"They are the most cunning creatures in the ocean, and they even use a variety of tools. As early as the earth age, marine biologists have discovered that some octopuses will use soft tentacles when hunting their favorite oysters. The pebbles on the coast, while the oyster is opening the shell, throw the pebbles in, jam the shell, and then leisurely swallow the soft body of the oyster.
"This is wisdom that many vertebrates have never possessed.
"No wonder many people say that octopuses are the most alien-like creatures on Earth. Without human interference, they may not have been able to evolve another kind of wisdom that is very different from humans.
"When we crossed to another world and saw snakes, insects, rats and ants over one meter in length, especially giant insects, arthropods and mollusks, we were also confused.
"Because according to the research of the earth age, the organs and body structure of insects cannot maintain a body size of more than one meter. Even if they are not crushed by their own weight, the fatal injury of nerve transmission speed will make their reactions extremely slow. .
"But after we captured and dissected some insects and monsters, we found that their nerve fibers are similar to the octopuses and squids on the earth. The diameter of their nerves has been expanded a hundred times to cope with such a large body and perform agility. And fast movement."
Meng Chao nodded thoughtfully: "So, when modulating the giant sandworm, inserting octopus or squid gene fragments to expand the giant sandworm's nerve fibers to the limit, can it improve its wisdom?"
"Yes, the diameter of the nerve fibers of the giant sand worms prepared by our'spiritual creatures' can reach more than 3 millimeters, which is enough to understand various complex instructions."
Gao Ye paused, then said, "If the myelin sheath is wrapped around the nerve fibers of the giant sandworm, its wisdom can be further improved, even reaching the level of pet cats and dogs."
Meng Chao took a deep breath: "What!"
Takano said: "There are only two ways to improve wisdom. Either thicken the nerve like an octopus, or wrap myelin like a vertebrate. However, if the two schemes can be merged together, the nerve fibers will be wrapped around the extremely thick nerve fibers. The upper myelin sheath, how terrifying the nerve transmission speed can be-aren’t you curious?
Meng Chao swallowed with difficulty: "Does your company conduct research in this area?"
"No."
Gao Ye was full of regrets, "I really want to make this kind of super-intelligent giant sandworm, but Xie Xiaolei feels it unnecessary, because there is no suitable buyer in the commercial market.
"In the final analysis, he is a businessman, doing everything from the perspective of interest, I can only respect his opinion."
"I think……"
Meng Chaodao, "It's better not to conduct research in this area, otherwise, don't you think it is dangerous if you create giant sandworms that are smarter than humans?"
"I don't know, which one is more dangerous than a monster with wisdom or a monster driven by the killing instinct."
Gao Ye said, "Have you ever seen a wave of insects, densely packed snakes, insects, mice, and ants, forming a mighty black wave, coming one after another to hit the human defense line, no matter how many similar species are torn into pieces, burned into coke, and sparked by electricity. Risking, successors are endless.
"In the end, thousands of insects were all wiped out, but humans suffered heavy casualties. It was an out-and-out loss of both.
"Why is this?
"Because worms have no wisdom.
"Those insect monsters are just flesh and blood machinery that encapsulates certain instructions. They have no consciousness, no wisdom, and no concepts of'survival' and'death'. When bullets tear their bodies apart, they will not produce a single trace. Fear.
"I think this is the most terrifying.
"If we can give lower creatures some wisdom, we don’t need to be too high, as long as we let them understand the preciousness of life, understand the horror of human weapons, and even understand that it’s better to be a slave to mankind than to be an enemy of mankind. This is a simple truth. Maybe the Monster War can be solved in another way?"
Meng Chao hesitated.
With a population of tens of millions of people, even if it can be conquered, it is destined to be impossible to rule an entire planet with abundant aura and extremely fast evolutionary mutation.
This is the consensus of many people.
Faced with the question of "how to conquer and rule the alien world," people of different professions, different forces, and people with different interests gave different answers.
In the Agricultural University, known as the "Monster University", "given monsters a certain degree of wisdom, turn fierce beasts and monsters into spirit beasts and pet beasts, and let them be the progenitor of kings, acting as cannon fodder, slaves, tools, partners, Allies, finally conquer another world", this argument is very marketable.
From Takano's standpoint, it is normal to have such thoughts.
However, thinking of the damage caused by the "nine monsters and gods" to Dragon City among the memory fragments of the previous life, Meng Chao was still vaguely disturbed.
"I still can't imagine what impact and change will be brought to our civilization once a monster that is smarter than humans appears." Meng Chao murmured.
"Student Meng Chao, you think too far."
Takano said, "The speed of nerve transmission is only the basis for the birth of wisdom. It does not mean that as long as the thick enough nerve fibers are covered with myelin sheath, wisdom can be produced instantly.
"On the one hand, the brain structure of the giant sandworm is very primitive, and it is very different from the highly developed human brain. Even if the information flow can be high-speed in its intricate and huge neural network, there is no real brain to analyze and integrate information. It is still impossible to become wisdom.
"Even if we genetically modify the giant sandworm to have a larger, real brain, this is just ‘hardware’.
"In terms of ‘hardware’, in the Stone Age millions of years ago, the brain capacity, number of neurons and sulci circuits of ancient humans were almost the same as modern humans.
"But it is absolutely impossible for humans in the Stone Age to possess the wisdom of modern humans.
"Because wisdom is not only the collision of nerve sparks, but also the accumulation of thousands of years of history, and the sum of intricate social relations.
"Throwing a normal and healthy modern human baby into the wilderness, assuming that he has not died and can thrive to eighteen years old, he will not be able to produce the slightest wisdom.
"Transfer a strong stone age primitive man to today's Dragon City, he can't cause the slightest threat.
"Therefore, thinking that the giant sandworm has sufficiently developed nerves and brains, it can instantly have wisdom, and even deeply understand human civilization, and become like humans with seven emotions and strong ambitions-this is an unreasonable thought.
"In the final analysis, wisdom is not necessary for survival. If the giant sandworm can rely on swallowing garbage and rocks, it can live comfortably. It is not necessary at all, has no interest, and cannot produce real wisdom."
Meng Chao pondered Gao Ye's words seriously.
I have to admit that this giant sandworm expert made sense.
So, what happened to the giant sandworm that evolved into a demon in the previous life?
While he was pondering, in the laboratory, two researchers wearing negative pressure protective clothing transmitted the test results.
Gao Ye looked at him, his face darkened, and cursed in a low voice.
"How is it?" Meng Chao asked hurriedly.
"I knew it."
Gao Ye said, "Someone injected a virus into the giant sandworm!"
Meng Chao thought for a while: "Is it man-made, not a virus infected in the wild?"
"surely not."
Gao Ye said, "More than a dozen natural subtypes of the mutant rabies virus can be transmitted between humans and animals, but the new mutant rabies virus found in the giant sandworm cannot infect humans-it is not a product of natural mutation. , But products developed in human laboratories."