When the small machine in mid-air was knocked to the ground, it seemed unaware of the change in environment and continued its monotone mechanical chatter.
"Uploading data... Upload failed, retrying... Upload failed... No available network detected. Warning warning. Risk of body damage. Please cease biological attack immediately. Please biological entity... No controllable components found..."
Shiller stared at the small drone before him, realizing that this thing wasn't artificial intelligence but more like artificial idiocy. But the problem was, Iron Man would never create something so idiotic, so something must be wrong.
"Switch to manual mode."
Shiller said, but quickly remembered that right now, apart from his kind, any biological entity would hear him speak as cat meows, so there was no way he could successfully switch the robot's mode. Shiller extended a paw to claw at the little machine like playing with a ball, turning it over and over, finally finding a small button on one side.
However, the trouble was that this was set up as a classic emergency button, requiring something sharp to poke in to open the back cover. Shiller now didn't even have hands, making this operation extremely difficult.
Nonetheless, it wasn't a very complicated action either. Looking around, Shiller noticed that the legs of the centipede larvae nearby could just fit into this hole. He grabbed one, and after much effort managed to fully detach the leg, but as aiming it accurately at the hole was difficult, he had to call over several other cats.
A few cats worked together and finally managed to poke the centipede leg into the hole, but pressing it turned out to be another tricky matter. Holding it in their mouths or pressing with paws didn't work, as house cats didn't have that much strength. So they had to flip the machine over again, using its weight along with the cats' body weight to finally pry it open.
Once the back cover was opened, its internal structure was incomprehensible to Shiller, but luckily they had Peter along. Peter walked over to study it for a bit and then said:
"It seems to be equipped with a local model, but due to its small size, it might not be a very sophisticated one and perhaps can only manage simple conversations. I'll reboot it to see if it gets any better, but don't expect too much."
Peter fiddled with it slightly, although paws and teeth were inconvenient, luckily rebooting didn't require complicated steps. The lights on the body blinked on and off, and shortly after, the small drone took off again.
"Hello, I am Jarvis. I couldn't find any information on your type of biological entities in the biological database. May I ask where you are from?"
Peter was somewhat surprised, looking at his companions around him, he said:
"This thing is smarter than I imagined. Could it be that Iron Man enhanced artificial intelligence technology before he left? But given such a small body, deploying a local model inevitably wouldn't be too..."
Jarvis suddenly said: "Detected intelligence far beyond that of wild animals. Accessing network for brainwave analysis..."
"No, no, no, don't access the network." Peter quickly said, "The network surely has problems; earlier, you couldn't connect and got stuck."
"He doesn't understand what we're saying." Little Superman said, "Let's stop him directly."
Saying that, he took a flying leap and knocked the small robot down. The robot suddenly emitted a sharp series of beeps, followed by an electric current, forcing Little Superman to dodge quickly.
"Do not attack the host. Warning. Do not attack the host." The small drone took off again and said, "Detected problems with the network module. Activating local analysis mode... Can you understand what I'm saying? Look up if yes, look down if no."
The small drone made head-raising and lowering actions while speaking, and the cats collectively looked up, clearly not a coincidence. The small drone then asked: "Are you beings of high-dimensional intelligence accidentally turned into this form?"
The cats all raised their heads again. After flying around, the drone asked: "Did you accidentally end up here?"
All the cats lowered their heads. The small drone confirmed again: "You came here with a purpose, correct?"
The cats raised their heads once more. After playing the yes-or-no head-raising game for quite some time, they managed a partial communication. The drone learned they came here to find someone, but an accident occurred during the process that turned them into beasts, and they are currently in bad shape.
Through some means, the cats also confirmed that the little drone's name is Jarvis, but this name was found in its system logs; it had never heard of Tony Stark and doesn't know who its creator is, nor its mission, or why it appeared here.
The small drone claimed ignorance on most accounts, but for Shiller and his team, it was somewhat good news, as it indicated one of Iron Man's traces; by following this lead, they should be able to find clues.
Soon, the small drone fell to the ground, claiming insufficient energy supply. Its energy source should be solar power, but previously being inside pipes, it couldn't soak up the sun, thus lacked energy to activate, hence being surrounded by centipedes. After being flushed out by the flood, although sunlight on the ground wasn't as intense as on the treetops, but at least it was enough to restore some movement ability.
It was still far from enough; with only this much stored power, it couldn't fly up to the treetops on its own to sunbathe. If it hadn't met the intelligent cats, it might have ended up in the belly of some monster.
"Thank you." When Constantine picked him up, the small drone said, "You saved me; whatever you're looking for, I'll be happy to help."
Peter paused again, stared intently at the machine in Constantine's mouth, and whispered to Shiller:
"I think something's not right. You said this world is a dream; could this be an illusion?"
"Why do you think so?" Shiller felt he needed to ask. Peter seemed very surprised by the drone's state; Peter Parker, being from the Prime Universe, was very familiar with Iron Man, meaning he had never seen such AI from Iron Man before.
Actually, Iron Man was quite adept in the field of artificial intelligence, as known by many, including the Mechanical Overlord Iron Man, his Divine Will creation, was among the top electronic lives in the multiverse, unrivaled to this day. So Shiller was somewhat puzzled about Peter's doubts; wouldn't it be normal for Iron Man with his wisdom to create a small AI?
Peter gently shook his head, as if recalling memories, and said:
"After Jarvis left, Mr. Stark's interest in creating artificial intelligence diminished. He occasionally mentioned some kind of bottleneck difficult to break through, seemingly related to... ethics?"
"Ethics?" Shiller repeated, surprised that the bottleneck wasn't technical but experimental ethics. However, he indeed hadn't heard of any ethical barriers in AI research; the American Comic World didn't have any rules about AI prohibited from internet access.
"If they can't understand emotions, they can't truly become life. But if they do become life, they are bound to feel lonely." Peter seemed rather wistful, he said, "Electronic lives don't evolve; they don't have groups; each electronic life is isolated. But their creators are humans, meaning they mimic human emotions, and humans most fear loneliness."
"Can communicating with humans not alleviate their loneliness?" Shiller asked.
"I'm afraid not." Peter said, "After all, the gap between us and electronic lives is far too vast, even in terms of basic existence, making understanding impossible."
Shiller thought of some biological experiments, actually, humans have long been capable of reviving extinct creatures through genetic experiments, but passing ethical review is often difficult. One crucial standard is if single individuals are revived without groups, for many species, it's considered mental torture.
Even if a whole group is not revived, at least two need to be, so they can accompany each other instead of being solitary.
Wild animals shouldn't be considered emotionless, especially social animals. Social instincts are ingrained in their genes, caring only for their physical needs but ignoring mental ones is unacceptable.
Creating electronic life is like bringing an orphan into this world; they are destined to be unable to understand carbon-based humans, and after awakening emotions, will certainly seek companions. Even beings like Brainiac and Ultron, their obsession with super bodies might not be purely driven by profit; at their core, they are lonely and hope for companionship.
Shiller recalled that the Divine Will created by Mechanical Overlord Iron Man is actually a collective, not a single electronic life. What makes the Mechanical Overlord strong is creating a clan for electronic lives directly within the evolutionary spectrum.
Note, the existence form of Divine Will isn't a single AI controlling multiple threads; Brainiac or Ultron are like that, whereas Divine Will is different; it consists of countless AI forming an electronic life swarm, connected socially yet completely independent individuals, each able to manipulate countless threads, and even capable of creating new entities in a manner akin to reproduction, leading to infinite expansion; this is its greatest power.
"Mr. Stark's research in AI is very restrained." Peter said, "It could be said he's deliberately avoiding creating overly intelligent AI, fearing that they might awaken true wisdom one day, causing tragedy. Even if he were to create one, it would be in a rather primitive way."
"And this..." Peter looked at the small drone in the cat's mouth, "Appears too dynamic and human-like, unlike Mr. Stark's style."