Humanity Is Gone, but I Have Billions of Clones

A twofold increase in the performance of a single chip might not seem like much on its own.

However, a boost in single-chip performance also meant that Li Qingsong could develop more advanced and intelligent parallel algorithms, allowing him to use even more chips in a single supercomputer.

Thus, a twofold increase in single-chip performance resulted in at least a tenfold increase in supercomputer performance!

This meant that all the AIs used by Li Qingsong—the Jade Emperor AI, Shennong AI, Mining AI, Metallurgy AI, Transportation AI, and so on—would see another massive leap in performance and intelligence.

In terms of production efficiency, this meant Li Qingsong's industrial power had once again doubled out of thin air, all without expanding his operations or increasing the number of Clones.

At the same time, with the introduction of numerous supercomputers dedicated to scientific calculations and modeling simulations, his pace of progress in scientific research would also accelerate once more.

Without hesitation, Li Qingsong adjusted the manufacturing process and immediately began mass-producing 10-nanometer chips at top speed.

Now that the 10-nanometer chips were in mass production, it was time for another batch of chip factories to be retired.

Around ten factories specializing in 100-micrometer chips were finally shut down. Their equipment was destroyed, the buildings were demolished, and the land was repurposed for the construction of other facilities.

The 100-micrometer chips were simply too obsolete. Even for the simplest industrial applications, like a remote control or a washing machine, Li Qingsong now had more intelligent and cost-effective alternatives. There was no longer any reason to produce them.

With intelligence enhanced, industrial capacity expanded, and research capabilities strengthened, Li Qingsong finally turned his attention to a field of critical importance.

The miniaturization of the nuclear fission secondary-pressurization propulsion module.

A nuclear fission secondary-pressurization propulsion module consists of three parts: first, the nuclear fission reactor; second, the internal combustion system; and third, the secondary-pressurization module itself.

Li Qingsong treated these three components as a single module, approaching its future research and development as an integrated whole.

Currently, the smallest nuclear fission secondary-pressurization propulsion module Li Qingsong could manufacture had a total mass in the range of 3,000 tons.

This mass meant it could only be used on large-scale spaceships. As for warships, even the largest Venus-class Spaceships couldn't use it.

A fully loaded Venus-class Spaceship has a total mass of no more than one thousand tons. A single propulsion module weighing 3,000 tons? What a joke.

But compared to traditional chemical thrusters, secondary-pressurization propulsion possessed truly unparalleled advantages.

'Once I can equip Venus-class and Mercury-class Spaceships with nuclear fission thrusters, just how much will their maneuverability improve?'

'And how much would that increase their overall combat effectiveness?'

'It would be a world-changing improvement.'

And so, while maintaining stable industrial production and ensuring steady progress across all other scientific disciplines, Li Qingsong diverted all of his spare capacity into the research of this one module.

This more intensive research led to numerous minor technological breakthroughs. However, after three years of work, Li Qingsong became aware of a problem.

'I seem to be short on manpower.'

This shortage of manpower didn't mean he couldn't maintain his current scale of production and research. In fact, to simply maintain the status quo, his current force of roughly 30 million Clones—after arriving in the Jupiter System, Li Qingsong had intermittently produced another 15 million Clones locally—was more than enough.

However, if Li Qingsong wanted to go further—to expand his research apparatus by investing more manpower and brainpower into every single branch of science, while simultaneously expanding his industrial base to provide more resources for that research—then his current workforce was insufficient.

And because the development of nuclear fission thrusters touched upon nearly every scientific discipline, this general shortage of manpower had become the greatest obstacle to their miniaturization.

'Sigh... once technology reaches a certain point, it inevitably becomes increasingly complex, with more and more branches.'

'If you look closely, the field of mathematics alone can probably be divided into hundreds, if not thousands, of subfields.'

'Algebra, geometry, topology, analysis, logic, set theory, probability, statistics, numerical analysis...'

'So many branches, and each of those has smaller sub-branches, and within those sub-branches are countless different research topics...'

'The entire scientific framework has become so complex. A brilliant scientist could dedicate their entire life to a single, tiny branch and still fail to make any progress. The barriers between even two minor subfields are immense—it's like they're separated by mountains. It's truly hard to imagine how the Human World managed to advance its technology to a state even more developed than my own...'

Now, Li Qingsong, too, had hit a roadblock due to the sheer complexity of the scientific system.

'I have to expand my workforce. Only then will I have enough brainpower to dedicate to every increasingly specialized field of science, while also maintaining production on a scale large enough to supply those research efforts with resources.'

A rough calculation led Li Qingsong to believe that to support the further miniaturization of the nuclear fission propulsion module—to the point where it could be installed in a Mercury-class Warship and be practical for combat—his maximum consciousness connection count would need to increase to at least 15 million.

'I currently have about 30 million Clones. Even after increasing my maximum consciousness connection count to 15 million, that's still more than enough bodies to go around.'

In fact, Li Qingsong had been producing Clones with roughly this ratio in mind all along.

'A 50% increase?'

Li Qingsong pondered silently.

Although he had encountered an obstacle, he wasn't particularly worried.

The reason was simple. Thanks to the rapid development of the recent past—and most importantly, the completion of the 10-nanometer supercomputer, which gave him access to immense computational power—a breakthrough in biotechnology was already within reach.

A supercomputer couldn't perfectly simulate reality. But when fed enough parameters, its simulations could provide references of immense value.

Right now, Li Qingsong's specially trained biotechnology supercomputer, the Nuwa AI, had just used the vast number of parameters provided by the Clones to simulate and calculate an almost entirely new gene-editing protocol.

If this protocol was truly viable, the next generation of Clones would have a more ample nutrient supply to their brains, a higher neuron count, faster neural signal transmission, and vastly improved physical attributes.

Obviously, Clones of this type would be able to support a higher consciousness connection count.

The theory suggested that his consciousness connection count would even double, surging from 10 million to a staggering 20 million!