Chapter 512: Qualitative Change

Satsuki was silent for a moment.

If it were just a single technology appearing ahead of time, she might have chalked it up to coincidence.

But what lay before her now was an entire system capable of practical operation.

Her gaze shifted away from the robotic arm that had just stopped, slowly sweeping across the others in the laboratory.

Aside from Kawakami, here were also Khalil Najafi, Philip Kennedy, and Miguel Nicolelis, who had just been poached from the United States by Saionji.

The former hailed from the University of Michigan and was a key researcher in micromachining and multichannel neural probes; Kennedy had been trying to solve the stability problem of neural electrodes after long-term implantation.

As for Nicolelis, he was still just a little-known young researcher at the moment.

But a few years later, this person would become one of the most important figures in the fields of multineuron recording and brain-computer interfaces.

Over the past year or so, Saionji had brought in quite a few people from various places for this project.

Some studied animal neurophysiology.

Some worked on micromachining and electrodes.

And there were those who originally only studied polymer materials, people who previously wouldn’t have had much to do with brain science at all.

Many of their names were found because she had relied on the materials she had seen in her past life, instructing her subordinates to look into relevant directions ahead of time and then following the clues to track them down.

If things had followed their original historical development, they would probably have been scattered across different universities and laboratories, applying for different funding, and only occasionally discovering each other’s achievements through papers or conferences a few years later.

Yet now, Saionji had stuffed them all into the same laboratory ahead of time.

There was also Yuxia.

And animal experiments that almost didn’t have to queue for funding.

As well as the engineering support that the group’s semiconductor and materials research departments could provide at any time.

Saionji had forcefully piled up results for this technology purely by virtue of "money power."

It seems that using memories from a past life to prematurely recruit talent that wouldn’t normally gather together, coupled with money, truly produces a qualitative change...

In the past, when she utilized her knowledge of past lives, she was mostly waiting.

Waiting for the stock market to fall.

Waiting for which company to go public.

Waiting for which industry to explode.

At most, she just placed money a few steps ahead and grabbed a few people to station there.

But this thing before her eyes was different.

It didn’t originally exist.

At least, it shouldn’t have existed this early.

For the first time, Satsuki realized very clearly that she had begun to turn her memories of the future from "answers" into some sort of catalyst.

"By the way, what is the current situation on the writing end?"

she suddenly asked.

The smugness on Emi’s face immediately halved.

"Writing is much harder than reading, and current progress is also much slower."

She led Satsuki to the other side.

"Through local microelectrical stimulation of the motor cortex, we have already been able to induce relatively predictable muscle contractions in another group of experimental monkeys."

"Wrist flexion and extension, palm opening and closing, and elbow bending—the success rate for these simple actions can reach sixty to seventy percent."

"By combining stimulation from multiple electrodes according to a preset timing, we can also get some slightly more complex movements—such as having the forearm reach out first, and then closing the palm."

"But—"

Emi paused for a moment.

"’Applying stimulation to the brain’ and ’writing a complete motor command into the brain’ are two completely different things."

Satsuki looked at her.

"I’ll give you an example."

Emi walked over to the whiteboard, drew a very crude circle, and dotted a few black points inside.

"Suppose these points represent the neuron groups controlling the wrist, palm, and elbow respectively."

She drew a few connecting lines between the points.

"If I want the monkey’s arm to make the action of ’reaching out to grab a cup of water,’ what I need is not to stimulate these regions separately."

"Because when the real motor system plans this action, the neural activity involved is far more complex than the final execution stage."

"First, we must determine where the cup is—this requires visual and spatial judgment. Then, plan the arm’s trajectory—this involves calculations in the premotor area and supplementary motor area. Only then is the actual execution command sent down to the primary motor cortex, and then transmitted from the spinal cord to the muscles."

She drew several more boxes outside the circle on the whiteboard.

"What we can do at present is merely intervene at the most downstream execution level. It is equivalent to skipping all the preceding planning and coordination steps, and directly telling a few muscles whether to contract or relax."

"The result is—with the same stimulation parameters, the monkey produces one effect when lying down and another effect when sitting. Its muscle tension is different when it’s tense, and different when it’s relaxed."

Satsuki watched Emi’s demonstration.

"So in other words, we can’t make it perform a fixed action just by giving a fixed command like controlling a machine."

"Mhm."

Emi obviously really disliked admitting this.

"There is simply no circuit diagram for us to look at inside the brain."

"At most, we now know what kind of reaction will likely occur if we stimulate here."

"But as for writing in a complete movement sequence..."

She gently put down her pen.

"We are still far from it."

The laboratory fell silent.

The other researchers watched their lab head beat around the bush in front of her superior to say her own work wasn’t good enough yet, and all began to worry whether their funding would get cut.

Satsuki didn’t say anything, slowly turning two pages of the materials in her hands.

"Then don’t rush for now."

Hearing this, Emi looked up at her.

"Since reading has already progressed faster, let’s proceed along the lines of reading first."

"Prosthetics, assistive devices, communication for paralyzed patients—all these can be done first."

Satsuki handed the materials back.

"As for those things you originally thought of..."

She glanced at Emi.

Emi’s expression instantly became very well-behaved.

"We’ll talk about them later."

"Oh..."

Satsuki smiled helplessly.

She naturally knew that when Emi first started researching this thing, her mind definitely wasn’t filled with helping paralyzed patients regain a new lease on life.

Her ultimate goal was probably to forge an impenetrable Satsuki-chan, or make Satsuki-chan cosplay Yuri or something.

However, after the project reached today’s extent, the direction that first showed practical value had truly turned out to be medical treatment.

That was quite interesting too.

She looked around the laboratory once more.

"How much money is still lacking for the next stage?"

The person in charge of the project budget was visibly stunned, probably not expecting the question to come so directly.

He instinctively looked at Emi.

Emi thought about it.

"If it’s just maintaining the current scale, actually—"

"I’m asking about the next stage."

Satsuki interrupted her.

"Materials, low-noise front-ends, multichannel arrays, animal quantities, and the implantation assistance you just mentioned."

She raised a hand to point around.

"List whatever you need."

"Buy the equipment if you can."

"If you can’t buy it, find people to make it."

"If you need cooperation from other research institutes of the group, go directly through the technical committee."

The laboratory fell silent for a moment.

Satsuki added another sentence:

"Personnel as well."

"As long as it truly has value, don’t bother saving salaries on my account."

This time even Emi’s eyes lit up.

"Really?"

Satsuki turned her face slightly.

"When have I ever lied to you about research funding?"

Emi thought about it seriously.

It seemed indeed never.

Even when she secretly applied for some strange equipment, the budget approved in the end was often higher than what she had written down.

"Thank you Satsuki... My Lady!"

This time she remembered there were other people around, forcefully swallowing back the "Satsuki-chan" that was almost about to slip out.

Satsuki pretended not to notice.

"However, there is one more matter."

Emi looked up.

"What?"

"Weren’t you guys always looking for people over in the United States recently?"

Emi was stunned for a moment, then reacted.

"Norman?"

"Not just him."

Satsuki walked over to the desk nearby. A stack of papers and correspondence materials was placed right on top of it; she casually flipped through a few pages, and soon saw the Utah electrode array that had appeared many times before, as well as research materials on Michigan probes.

Further back, there were also several research abstracts from laboratories at different U.S. universities.

"The people doing integrated neural probes over in Michigan, University of Washington researching closed-loop neural control, and several laboratories in the direction of motor cortex population encoding."

Satsuki turned to the last page and looked up at Emi.

"On the list you gave me two days ago, did you write down a total of six places?"

"Seven."

Emi immediately corrected her.

"Atlanta was added later. Kennedy’s long-term implantation route is different from what we are doing now, and I think it’s best to go take a look in person."

"Fine, seven."

Satsuki put the materials back on the desk.

"That’s perfect. I’m going to the United States next week; you pick a few people to go along."

Emi was stunned for a moment, clearly not knowing about this beforehand.

"You’re going to the United States?"

"First to New York."

Satsuki nodded.

"Gutfreund formally invited me over to discuss the upcoming cooperation between Salomon Brothers and S.A. Investment."

The surrounding researchers had all heard of this name, but their attention quickly fell back onto the two of them.

Satsuki continued: "After you guys follow along over there, your itineraries don’t need to be tied to mine. Go to universities when you should, and see laboratories when you should."

"Joint research, equipment procurement, personnel exchanges—all these can be discussed. If you find someone particularly suitable, you can also directly invite them to come take a look in Tokyo."

Hearing this, Emi’s earlier surprise quickly turned into excitement.

"Then Ann Arbor definitely has to be visited, and Salt Lake City can’t be left out either. If Baltimore can schedule the time—"

Halfway through her sentence, she already reached out to grab the materials on the desk, probably preparing to rearrange the route on the spot.

Satsuki looked at her appearance, finding it somewhat amusing.

"Slowly arrange the itinerary when you get back; the U.S. won’t run away."

Only then did Emi stop, though she still took the list into her hands.

"Then I’ll reorganize it tonight."

"Don’t take everything on yourself."

Satsuki reminded her.

"You’re the project leader now, have the people under you do it together."

"Got it."

Emi agreed quickly with her mouth, but her eyes had already fallen back onto the list, clearly still considering in her mind where it would be most worthwhile to go first.

Satsuki didn’t continue managing her, turning around and walking out of the laboratory.

Passing through the animal experimental area, her footsteps slowed down slightly.

A new round of testing had already begun.

The white spot of light in the center of the display screen paused for a moment, then slowly moved towards the upper left.

The trajectory still couldn’t be considered pretty, and even deviated from the target once in the middle. The researcher in charge of the experiment quickly adjusted the reward program, while the rhesus macaque sat quietly in the fixed seat, its hands never touching any controller.

A few seconds later, the white spot finally entered the target area.

The prompt tone sounded.

Satsuki stood in place and watched for a while.

In 1991, a monkey sitting in an underground laboratory in Odaiba was already able to push the spot of light on the screen by relying on its own brain.

Right now, it was still very clumsy.

But what if it were allowed to continue walking down this path?

Satsuki was looking forward to seeing its future.

The future changed by her.