I Am The Swarm

What is life? What is wisdom?

Can a machine, an artificial intelligence, truly evolve into a form of life? How should one define the distinction between them?

If artificial intelligence becomes capable of independent thought, does that make it a form of life?

Yet, at its core, thought is merely a process of analyzing and reorganizing known information—a process that machines can simulate with sufficiently advanced computational power.

So, how can the difference between the two be clearly defined?

For now, Luo Wen couldn’t arrive at an answer. Fortunately, time was on his side—an abundance of time to reflect on these matters. Perhaps, in the future, when his knowledge had grown broader and deeper, he would finally arrive at a conclusion.

But for now, he decided to focus on the immediate challenges.

An analysis of the gathered information revealed both good news and bad.

The bad news was that the Interstellar Technological Confederation was indeed extraordinarily powerful. It currently consisted of over 200 civilizations and species. Among them, aside from the Ji, the most powerful and ancient civilization boasted a history exceeding 500,000 years, with a territory spanning nearly a hundred star systems.

The good news, however, was that the Confederation’s territory was far from the Swarm’s domain. Numerous other factions stood between the two. Furthermore, the Ji still held supreme control over everything, and even the most powerful Confederation civilizations had to adhere to their rules.

The Swarm’s territory lay on the outermost edges of the Confederation’s domain, surrounded mostly by nascent civilizations with histories of roughly 10,000 years. Given the Swarm’s current strength, there was little reason to fear them.

However, another piece of bad news was that the Swarm had somehow caught the attention of the Ji. Perhaps it was due to the Swarm’s highly unique survival model, or perhaps it was through its connection with the Rat Folk civilization.

Indeed, the Rat Folk civilization. They, too, had been discovered by the Ji. But before the Ji could bury one of their spaceships there, the Rat Folk had evolved from beasts into a full-fledged civilization and even stepped beyond their homeworld in an astonishingly short time.

This pace of development was utterly shocking. Compared to the Rat Folk’s achievements, the records set by the Ji during their own time paled in comparison. This alone was enough to draw the Ji’s intense interest.

In its early stages of development, the Swarm had not concealed its activities, naturally drawing the Ji’s attention.

While the Ji’s true intentions remained unclear, according to the speculations of Daqi officers, they suspected that the Swarm was an extragalactic force that had cultivated the Rat Folk civilization for some unknown purpose.

Although the theory contained inaccuracies, it was a reasonable conjecture. After all, when compared to Luo Wen’s untold billions of years in slumber, civilizations with histories of a mere million years seemed insignificant. When Luo Wen was playing in the metaphorical mud of this starfield, the ancestors of those civilizations were likely still in the earliest stages of evolution.

Fortunately, the Ji had remained aloof as always. Although they were aware of the Swarm’s existence, they showed no immediate interest in intervening.

As for the outer civilizations, the notion of unity and mutual assistance was laughable. The older a civilization, the more tangled its web of relationships. Even if some were interested in the Swarm, their complex entanglements left them unable to act directly.

In the short term, however, the Daqi civilization remained a persistent problem. As the nearest Interstellar Technological Confederation member to the Riken species, their invitation target was naturally the Rikens. Yet, the Third Prince Diallo’s greed drove him to covet the secrets of the Swarm, resulting in the current awkward standoff.

While the Confederation had provisions for failed invitations, no such cases had ever occurred in its history. Thus, they lacked clear rules for such scenarios. Additionally, strictly speaking, the Daqi hadn’t outright failed; they were simply obstructed by the Swarm.

At this point, honor outweighed practical interests. A genuine failure would tarnish the Daqi’s reputation, marking them as the subject of ridicule in future discussions of Confederation history. What face would the Daqi have left if they became the first-ever failed inviters?

No matter what, the Daqi wouldn’t let this slide. They would undoubtedly return in greater force than before.

“Overlord, what should we do next? Should we retreat temporarily and relinquish the Rikens to them?”

The intelligent entities, given their replication of memories from their prototypes, displayed a wide range of perspectives on matters—hawks and doves, hardliners and moderates. Until Luo Wen issued his commands, they would propose strategies for the Swarm based on their individual viewpoints. Luo Wen’s role was to carefully weigh these suggestions and make the final decision.

The one who had just spoken was clearly a moderate, advocating for avoidance and concealment—a strategy that epitomized Luo Wen’s mastery of the “art of cautious survival.”

To the Swarm, the Riken species was merely a resource production base, one that was already nearing complete transformation. As long as the Rikens weren’t annihilated in one swift strike, they posed little risk to the Swarm’s overall interests.

From this perspective, it seemed reasonable to cede the Rikens to the Daqi, allowing the Swarm to infiltrate the Interstellar Technological Confederation and gather more intelligence. ɽАŊǑβƐS

After some consideration, Luo Wen shook his head. Deploying agents was indeed necessary, but not under such passive circumstances. If the conflict was only between the Swarm and the Daqi, a strategic retreat might have been acceptable.

However, the Swarm had already drawn the attention of the Ji. This meant it had likely been flagged in the intelligence networks of the two hundred-plus outer civilizations within the Confederation.

The Swarm’s distinctive traits made it impossible to remain inconspicuous. Moreover, the Daqi weren’t the Swarm’s only neighbors—other factions near the Rat Folk’s territory were reportedly also eyeing the Swarm. If the Swarm retreated now, it might be devoured entirely, leaving nothing but bones.

Thus, the Swarm needed to demonstrate strength. Any overreaching claws must be decisively broken, intimidating the surrounding hostile neighbors. Simultaneously, the Swarm would use the Confederation’s rules to restrain the distant ancient powers, buying more time for development.

“Damn it, the Daqi’s storage devices were destroyed, and their data was lost. If we had obtained the Daqi’s complete star map, knowing the specific distribution of the Confederation’s forces would have been critical for planning our next steps.” Luo Wen felt a pang of frustration as he thought of the Daqi warships that had been blown to pieces.

Clearly, securing a star map during the next Daqi incursion was a priority. Fortunately, while Lumina lacked capabilities for direct network intrusion, the outer civilizations—fearful and wary of Lumina—had imposed restrictions on the development and autonomy of artificial intelligence. Even the Daqi, who had only joined the Confederation a little over a millennium ago, were no exception.

This widespread restraint on AI to some extent lowered the difficulty of obtaining intelligence.

Even so, Luo Wen didn’t yet have a clear plan, but at least this was a silver lining.

The Daqi’s forces would take time to regroup and return. Factoring in preparations and travel, it would likely take no less than twenty years.

Luo Wen needed to use this period wisely to devise his next course of action. Furthermore, based on the intelligence provided by the Daqi’s intelligent entities, certain aspects of the Swarm’s previous deployments required targeted refinements.

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