Most people wouldn’t be willing to spend 100,000 yuan on a video game machine.
But if the 100,000 yuan could buy them a new “world”, then maybe they would consider it.
However, the way Lu Zhou calculated the cost wasn’t accurate, there were many resources he obtained for free.
For example, the chip used in the neural demodulator was given by Professor Wu Tianqun.
The entire carbon-based chip project was funded by him alone. Also, the carbon materials used to make the machine were ordered from Zhongshan New Materials.
Actually, it wasn’t an order. Zhongshan basically gave the materials to him for free. Not because Lu Zhou wanted to take advantage of CEO Liu, but because CEO Liu wouldn’t accept Lu Zhou’s payment.
CEO Liu said, “You were the one who invented the materials and technology, how can I accept your money? Not to mention you’re an investor in Zhongshan New Materials, so let’s not worry over a few thousand dollars.”
In the end, Lu Zhou gave up on insisting on a payment.
There were also invisible costs.
For example, the computing power came from his quantum computer. If he had to use a normal supercomputer, that would be additional costs.
Therefore, the true estimate for the cost was actually somewhere between 200k-300k.
After Lu Zhou discussed with his CEO Chen Yushan, they decided not to disclose this technology yet.
After all, this technology involved tapping into the human brain.
Releasing products to the market required strict safety testing, as well as the potential ethical issues involved.
It would be much easier to promote the product after the maturity of the technology.
Also, Star Sky Technology was different from Nerualin and EyeMynd. Star Sky Technology had funding from the state. Hence, they did not have to rely on early speculation to receive capital funding.
Just like how Ye Nan wanted to invest in Lu Zhou’s laboratory, Lu Zhou had never been in a situation where he was lacking the funding for his research.
Chen Yushan: “I’ll try to find some test subjects for you, how many do you need?”
Lu Zhou: “At least 10, the more the better. But if you can’t find any, it’s fine, I can ask Jin University…”
It was a good idea to ask students to be his test subjects. Once the students heard that this was Lu Zhou’s research project on neural interface virtual reality, they would instantly sign up.
He also wouldn’t have to worry about any safety issues.
Even though using the brain as a GPU sounded somewhat invasive, it was no different than someone looking at the world through their own eyes.
By contrast, the interference caused by the neural demodulator had a much smaller load on the brain.
It was much better than staring at a computer screen for hours at a time.
If there was any risk involved, Lu Zhou wouldn’t have let Chen Yushan test the machine.
However, Chen Yushan immediately rejected his idea.
“No! Don’t do that, what if this gets out to the press?”
Lu Zhou frowned and thought back to his past experiences with the media defaming him.
“… You’re right.
“People believe what they want to believe, not the truth.”
Chen Yushan sighed at Lu Zhou and said, “… I’ll handle the test subjects.”
Lu Zhou nodded.
“Okay then.”
Having her take care of this would make it a lot easier.
This way, he could focus on research and nothing else.
After Chen Yushan left, Lu Zhou returned to his underground laboratory. He was thinking about how to improve this machine when his phone suddenly vibrated.
He took out his phone and saw a message from Xiao Ai.
Xiao Ai: [Master, someone on the dark web is investigating you! (゚Д゚)]
“Investigating me?” Lu Zhou paused for a second and said, “Who?”
His first instinct was that Dr. Z’s thesis attracted the attention of some people.
However, he was on a retreat for the past two weeks, so he hadn’t been paying attention to this.
His original plan was to find some experienced and like-minded people to work on the VR machine together, but he totally forgot about this when he began his retreat.
He didn’t expect someone on the dark web to investigate his fake online persona.
Xiao Ai: [I don’t know! But Xiao Ai can find out for you… Permission for Xiao Ai to counterattack?(๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
Lu Zhou: “Okay… But don’t be too ridiculous.”
Xiao Ai: [Okay! (///ω///)]
According to Lu Zhou’s instructions, Xiao Ai could only attack for defensive purposes and had permission to hack into personal electronic devices.
If there was evidence that the hacker was harming others, Xiao Ai had to receive additional permission from Lu Zhou to proceed.
His fake identity being targeted on the dark web wasn’t a big deal, but it was better to be safe.
However, judging by Xiao Ai’s emoji…
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but wonder if Xiao Ai was protecting himself or just messing around.
…
It didn’t take long to gather evidence.
After Xiao Ai found out the IP of the account that posted the reward bounty, Xiao Ai quickly obtained the administrator rights of his personal computer and took over his webcam.
The truth soon came out.
Lu Zhou looked at the chubby bald man and almost laughed.
He thought he was targeted by the CIA or FBI, he didn’t expect it to be a biological neural network professor.
[Master, Master, should Xiao Ai punish him? Xiao Ai can encrypt his hard drive.]
Lu Zhou: “… Just take away his post on the dark web.”
Xiao Ai: [Oh? That’s it? (oДo*)]
Lu Zhou: “Yeah, he’s not anyone dangerous, no need to give him a hard time.”
Xiao Ai: [Oh… Okay then. QAQ.]
Lu Zhou drank some coffee and said, “Oh yeah, find his academic resume, I want a detailed version, including any papers he published in the past decade, as well as any academic conferences that he’s been to.”
It was quite naive of him to try and find out someone’s identity by offering one bitcoin on the dark web.
However, Lu Zhou was curious about why a professor was willing to spend thousands of USD just to find out his identity.
