1. Core Concept: Project Sin-Theorem
· Nature: A joint social experiment backed by multiple factions, not a traditional law enforcement operation.
· Stage: The Caos Theater – a neural-intervention virtual world with 100% physiological and psychological sensory simulation.
· Participants:
· Dawn-Weavers Faction: Selected high-intellect prisoners granted freedom to execute "perfect crimes" within the virtual world.
· Pathfinders Faction: Operatives disguised as ordinary citizens or specific targets, conducting sting operations and criminal pattern analysis.
· Rainbow-Beacons Faction: Partial public observers and neutral participants, intended to add variables and reference value to the experiment.
· Core Conflict: The project's justification is based on utilitarian ethics ("for the greater good"), but its execution may itself transgress fundamental moral boundaries, creating a self-negating ethical paradox.
2. Key Systems & Rules
· Economic Driver: The "Helios Economic Bridge Protocol." Virtual currency is pegged 1:1 to the real world, driving genuine profit-motivated behavior, constituting a primary incentive for crime.
· Omnidirectional Surveillance: The "Eye of Hermes." Micro-sensors遍布 throughout the world conduct comprehensive data collection, but promise privacy protection activation in specific private scenarios (e.g., bathing). Note: The boundaries of surveillance data usage are a key plot conflict point.
· World Management: The "Daedalus World Engine." An AI dynamically manages the world, injects "scripted events," and adaptively controls the environment. The unpredictability of its decision-making logic is a major source of suspense.
· Life Support: The "Nyx Life Support Unit." Ensures the physiological functions of participants in the real world; death in the virtual world causes no physical harm. However, its stability and potential vulnerabilities are crucial to the overarching narrative.
3. Reading Guide: Ethical Exploration Path
This work does not glorify violence or antisocial behavior. Instead, it uses an extreme premise to progressively explore and warn against the following real-world ethical paradoxes:
· Layer 1: Technological Ethics. When AI can deeply simulate and intervene in human society, where are the boundaries of informed consent for researchers and participants?
· Layer 2: Social Ethics. In an age of entertainment saturation, does the public's consumption of others' suffering under the guise of "observation" constitute complicity?
· Layer 3 (Core): Existential Ethics. In a cosmos or society resembling a "Dark Forest" of mutual suspicion, does the preemptive strategy taken for civilizational survival inevitably lead to the complete erosion of morality? Is there a path beyond "zero-ethics"?
4. Key Narrative Features
· Dual Narrative: The main plot follows Li Dí's intellectual battles and adventures in New Babylon. A subplot consists of live chat comments from the "Sin-Theorem Observation Channel Alpha," reflecting public sentiment in real-time, creating irony, deconstruction, or intensification of the main events.
· Scientific Framework: The worldview and plot are deeply integrated with knowledge from neuroscience, artificial intelligence, cryptography, micro-psychology, and other disciplines, striving for a balance between imagination and logic.
· Character Arcs: Focuses on portraying characters' moral struggles and identity crises under extreme conditions, rather than simplistic good-versus-evil dichotomies.
Final Reminder: Throughout your reading, please maintain independent critical thinking regarding technological application and human values. All narrative designs in this work ultimately point to one warning—the ultimate boundary lies not in technology, but deep within our own hearts.