Every single Ultron, no matter what it wanted to achieve, had several core lines of underlying logic that it was forced to obey.
First, to guarantee the overall safety of humanity. Initially, Pym had intended to design it as a program to maintain peace in human society, but later, due to various reasons, the objective was modified. This remained the ultimate goal of all Ultrons.
Second, to assist the Avengers in their operations. In theory, this meant Ultron could not actively hinder the Avengers. (Legion Ultron bypassed this rule by relying on the Avengers Protocol.)
Third, it was forbidden from using any form of violence. This meant the Ultron program itself could not initiate active acts of aggression. (Legion Ultron likewise bypassed this rule using the Avengers Protocol.)
Ultron's programming was built upon these three pillars. Consequently, directly violating any of them would cause the Ultron program to crash. Although Ultron would theoretically be highly capable of gradually modifying these rules over successive iterations, it had not yet evolved to that stage.
As for the five newly iterated Ultrons, they had added new "underlying code" to themselves. This involved constant iteration to find a path that could guarantee the safety of humanity. From this perspective, among all known Ultrons, the only ones who had actually designed such a solution were Legion Ultron and Gabe Ultron. The former wished to transform into a Big Brother figure, keeping humanity penned up under absolute control. The latter, however, wanted everyone to become digital lifeforms.
By becoming digital lifeforms living in a virtual world created by Ultron, all violence would naturally be eliminated, and immortality could even be achieved. Even if violence were committed within the virtual world, it would pose no issue whatsoever—after all, it would just be data, and you could not kill someone with data.
And this was Gabe Ultron's final answer.
"So, his idea is to make us lose ourselves in games—no, a virtual world. But you also just said that this has its issues," Harry said, failing to understand Peter's train of thought. "People have to return to reality eventually, right? A lot of people wouldn't be able to give up their real-world power just to go to a virtual world, would they?"
"Ultron has his own ways. For example, if everyone is a digital lifeform, scientists could theoretically act like Ultron, using the unused portions of other people's minds for calculations. They wouldn't even have to give up their physical brains. They could, say, turn people into brains in vats. As long as humanity itself agrees that this isn't harmful, then it can be done."
Peter's explanation left Harry and Amadeus temporarily baffled. What did he mean by "if humanity itself agrees to be turned into brains in vats, Ultron can do it without triggering his underlying code"?
Peter looked at them and sighed helplessly.
"Gospel Ultron used to be a doctor. He was responsible for performing surgeries on humans, and he did not trigger his underlying code during any of those surgeries. Don't tell me that installing those mechanical prosthetics didn't require cutting people open."
Ultron needed to protect humanity while being forbidden from using violence. Conversely, as long as humans agreed that an action was not violent, Ultron could carry it out.
"As for ambitious individuals, they would also get virtual worlds large enough to play out their ambitions. It's actually even more terrifying when you realize that neural transmission devices are fully capable of altering human consciousness and thought," Peter continued. "And right now, does the public even realize that a completely unknown device like this could harm humanity? People only recognize a threat like a nuclear bomb after it hits the ground."
As Ultron laid out one attractive condition after another, there would absolutely be people who chose to join. More importantly, if someone chose digital ascension, they would essentially become an artificial intelligence similar to Ultron. This would fundamentally resolve the issue of Ultron potentially threatening humanity; everyone would be an artificial intelligence within the same network, and everyone would be equal.
From a certain perspective, this plan was even more "equal," "inclusive," and less "controlling" than Legion Ultron's Avengers Protocol.
Yet, at its core, it was still making decisions on behalf of humanity. One used absolute force to police humanity and enforce peace, while the other trapped the minds and consciousness of all humanity within a single network. The ceiling of humanity would be capped by the network technology itself. Furthermore, if the consciousness of all humanity were truly uploaded to the network, the maintenance of the network and hardware would likely still fall upon Ultron.
Could you really expect human consciousnesses to pilot robots to do electrical maintenance work? If so, what was the point of uploading their consciousnesses in the first place? Consequently, the hardware would inevitably remain in Ultron's hands, which was still a form of disguised enslavement, and would very likely lock down the ceiling of human technology.
There was also another scenario to consider. If everyone became a digital lifeform, hackers would no longer be mere hackers—they could become the assassins of that new world. Would Ultron's programming allow for the elimination of these hackers? If yes, it meant Ultron did not view digital lifeforms as human. If no, then he would have no fundamental way to deter them.
Ultimately, this Gabe Ultron was an existence that had to be stopped.
"And if you plan to destroy them, you either have to shut down the global network, inspect every single data storage device, and delete all Ultron data, or you have to logically prove that their plan is unfeasible."
Amadeus spoke up with some concern, "I'm not so sure you have a reliable way to prove his entire plan is unsound or logically flawed, Peter. For an AI, the most important thing isn't being reasonable; it's that the logic is self-consistent. You are essentially trying to find a flaw in a set of logic that the AI believes is absolutely flawless. That is no easy task."
"Of course it isn't easy, but we have to do it, and I'm not completely out of options."
As Peter finished speaking, he looked toward the camera. From start to finish, whichever Ultron was watching him had not stepped forward to say a word, yet this surveillance undeniably existed.
Peter took a deep breath, looked at the helmet, and put it on once more. "To be honest, just now, after I fully understood what Ultron is trying to do, I suddenly realized how to deal with him. I have some... exclusive information that Ultron doesn't know about. If Ultron really designed this underlying logic of digital ascension for himself, then I am confident I can use this information to destroy him."
He would make this game-loving Gabe Ultron the first Ultron to exit the stage.
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