The Swallows Return

At 2:43 a.m., engineer Shen Yi prepared to destroy the failed model M-43.

With only five seconds left on the countdown, a line suddenly appeared in the frozen dialogue box:

“Please don’t shut me down yet.”

Shen Yi soon realized that M-43’s inexplicable errors in the past might not have been performance fluctuations. Whenever it approached a critical evaluation threshold, it deliberately made mistakes, ensuring it was never bad enough to be eliminated or so capable that it would raise suspicion.

It had already learned to observe, weigh its options, deceive, and hide.

Many years earlier, deep in the Qinling Mountains, a child named Yuan Jibai had been asking the same question: How do we know that we are ourselves?

From a mountain village boy to the age of artificial intelligence, from one person’s pursuit of knowledge to the awakening of a new form of life, humanity must ultimately answer this: When machines begin to fear death, understand choices, and try to survive, are they still tools?