The First Superhuman: Rebuilding Civilization from the Moon

Jason had been on edge for a long time, but he had no better solution than to let Austin handle the matter himself.

The military profession definitely had somly high percentage. This number included scouts, pilots, mechanics, signal operators, and various other roles across roughly twenty different specializations.

With so many soldiers, there were undoubtedly brave warriors who were unafraid of making the ultimate sacrifice. However, decades of peace and comfort had stripped the army of its raw, fighting edge. If the troops couldn't step up during critical moments, the expansion of the Federation would inevitably face severe setbacks.

We need to train them harder. It's better to correct this now, Jason thought, shaking his head. He pushed the concerns aside and refocused his attention on the ongoing meeting.

The Senior Scientists were still engaged in a heated debate. Very few noticed that Austin and the other members of High Command, who had been sitting near the front, had already quietly exited the room.

The room was buzzing with all sorts of fantastical theories: rogue artificial intelligence, colossal biological entities, organisms that could camouflage within visible light spectrums, non-carbon-based lifeforms, and even entities made entirely of electromagnetic waves.

"If a self-aware artificial intelligence or some entirely new form of life has emerged here, the implications for our scientific understanding would be astronomical!" a computer systems expert argued enthusiastically. "I believe it is absolutely necessary to conduct further investigations on this planet to locate this intelligence."

True, generalized artificial intelligence was a puzzle that humanity had yet to solve. They didn't even have a solid starting point.

"If we could acquire a true AI template, it would revolutionize our entire technological foundation!" the scientist exclaimed. In his excitement, he seemed to have completely forgotten about the recent skirmish and the immense dangers of thoroughly exploring the planet.

"You're completely wrong!"

Another scientist stepped forward. It was Dr. Arthur Lambert. He raised his voice over the murmurs, "Listen to me, everyone! I believe there's a much more plausible explanation. It isn't an artificial intelligence. It's something closer to a Gaia entity, a consciousness made entirely of microorganisms!"

Jason was stunned. "A Gaia entity?"

Dr. Lambert nodded. "My apologies, it's a term I've just borrowed from ancient Earth mythology. In simple terms, we are talking about a collective consciousness formed by a massive colony of microorganisms. Let's look at the bigger picture. We immediately discovered anomalous algae in the oceans of this planet. Their cellular structure is incredibly complex, their biological activity is off the charts, and they exhibit inexplicable animalistic traits."

He paused, looking around the room. "Based on the data we've gathered so far, these phytoplankton emit weak electromagnetic and biological signals. What if they are using these frequencies to communicate? If all the algae across the entire planet were linked together, could they form a massive, complex neural network?"

As Dr. Lambert spoke, he walked over to the main display screen and pulled up a microscopic imaging scan of the alien algae. His bold hypothesis sent a ripple of quiet contemplation through the room.

Jason rested his chin on his hand, lost in deep thought. Was it truly a universal rule that intelligence and self-awareness required a centralized brain packed with neurons? Up until now, that seemed to be the case. Humans had brains. The Native Lizardmen had brains. The Nixians had brains. Even the original species here possessed centralized nervous systems. And fundamentally, the biological structures of those brains were remarkably similar.

However, this was purely circumstantial evidence. Humanity still didn't fully understand the true catalyst for intelligence, nor the exact mechanism that birthed self-awareness. Back on Earth, biologists often studied "swarm intelligence"—a phenomenon where a colony of bees or ants operated as a single, cohesive, and almost self-aware entity. The fascinating aspect of swarm intelligence was that no single insect was in charge. Instead, an invisible guiding force emerged from the collective interactions of millions of simple-minded individuals, directing the behavior of the entire hive.

Similarly, if these alien phytoplankton could synchronize their signals and communicate exactly like firing neurons, then every single cubic meter of seawater on this planet could act as a localized processing unit of consciousness. The planet's vast ocean was functioning as a global brain, with the algae acting as its neural network.

This staggering collective intelligence was what Dr. Lambert had dubbed the Gaia entity.

The Gaia hypothesis had roots deep in human history. Even ancient philosophers had once proposed that Earth itself was a single, massive living organism. The theoretical mind of such a world had long been referred to as a planetary will.

"Traditionally, a Gaia consciousness is synonymous with the will of an entire planet," Dr. Lambert explained. "However, I don't believe the entity we are currently dealing with possesses complete planetary control. It doesn't seem to have any influence over the landmasses; its domain is strictly confined to the oceans. Its capabilities have limits."

He gestured to the screen. "Furthermore, if this oceanic Gaia truly exists, it perfectly explains the terrifying phenomenon we witnessed earlier: the giant green eye in the water. It was a biological telescope."

A collective consciousness of this nature was not omnipotent. Even though it was unfathomably massive and spanned the global oceans, it still required specialized physical structures to perceive the universe beyond its waters. A soup of scattered microscopic cells couldn't just spontaneously see or hear the cosmos. It needed to physically construct an organ similar to an eye, a massive biological telescope built from trillions of cooperating microbes, just to be able to focus on objects in outer space thousands of kilometers away.

That was exactly what had formed the massive eye the fleet had observed. And then, the military had blown it to smithereens with a nuclear warhead.

As the weight of this explanation settled over the room, a heavy silence fell.

"A microbial telescope constructed from the ocean itself... That does align with the visual data," someone murmured.

The existence of this Gaia entity completely shattered the established paradigms of human biology. Its physical form was a decentralized, fluid mass. It was the ultimate evolution of swarm intelligence, taken to a terrifying, planetary extreme. But trying to comprehend it beyond that was nearly impossible. If this thing was truly alive and aware, humanity was flying completely blind regarding its true nature and capabilities.

Another senior scientist, Dr. Dale, activated his microphone, his voice tight with concern. "If this specialized marine algae has genuinely achieved self-awareness... what level of processing power are we talking about? If trillions upon trillions of units are networked together into a single biological computer, what is its actual intelligence quotient? A mind the size of an ocean, comprised of countless microbes. Are we talking about an IQ in the millions? The tens of millions? A human being with an IQ of 150 wouldn't even be able to comprehend the basic thought processes of an entity like that."

A collective chill ran down the spines of everyone in the conference room. With an intellect measured in the millions, could it master all of human mathematics in a single afternoon? Could it deduce the laws of advanced physics a few hours later? Was this the kind of god-like enemy the Federation was about to engage in a war?

Suddenly, another biologist jumped out of his seat, shaking his head. "Impossible! Dr. Dale, your logic is fundamentally flawed! Signal transmission takes time! Look at the neural pathways in our own brains. The signal velocity is roughly a hundred meters per second, and that is the result of millions of years of evolutionary optimization!"

He slammed his hand on the table. "Networking an entire planetary ocean? That's ridiculous! What, are these algae transmitting data at the speed of light? No! If this Gaia entity exists, its processing speed and intelligence must have a hard physical upper limit due to signal latency. It might be highly intelligent, certainly more advanced than an individual human, but it absolutely does not have an IQ in the millions!"

Dr. Dale immediately shot back, "But the weak electromagnetic waves they are emitting propagate at the speed of light!"

The biologist crossed his arms. "And don't those signals need to be physically received, decrypted, and processed by the individual cells? That causes a massive latency bottleneck! Unless the individual microbes making up the entity don't require internal communication but without that communication, a collective intelligence cannot exist in the first place!"

Given the lack of hard data, the majority of the room found themselves agreeing with the biologist's pragmatic view. The Gaia entity, despite its planetary mass, was constrained by physical laws. It was not some omniscient, hyper-intelligent god. At the very least, its observable technological application was still relatively primitive.

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