The Programmer Cultivator

Chapter 725: Chapter 152: The Essence of Communication

Zhang Deming looked at the sky full of cultivators. Some had fallen into deep thought, but most remained dumbfounded. He paused for a moment before continuing, “Under normal circumstances, any disciple who still doesn’t have the faintest clue would likely have no fate with me. That’s because I don’t care about a disciple’s Talent; I care more about their Wisdom Root.

‘Hm… seems like there’s no fundamental difference between the two, is there!’

“I’ve gotten sidetracked. Since this is a cross-world Dao discourse, our fellow Daoists from the Celestial Universe are probably mostly confused due to cultural differences. After all, you haven’t been steeped in years of witty sparring, have you? So, I will now break down and re-explain this Dao of communication.”

Zhang Deming once again glanced around. Seeing that every disciple, including the Great Cultivators who had been displeased earlier, was now paying rapt attention, he decided not to keep them in suspense any longer. He turned to Qin Shizhong and said, “Qin Shizhong!”

“Disciple is here!”

Zhang Deming called out again, “Qin Shizhong!”

“Disciple is here!”

Zhang Deming called out a third time, “Qin Shizhong!”

Although Qin Shizhong didn’t understand Zhang Deming’s intention, he was smart enough to know that if you don’t understand, you shouldn’t pretend to. He obediently played the part of a tool and replied for the third time, “Disciple is here!”

“The exchange above is the fundamental core of communication. Well, to be precise, it’s one of the two core communication methods in the Celestial Universe.”

As Zhang Deming spoke, a few more disciples seemed to have a moment of insight.

The smile on Zhang Deming’s face grew wider. He said, “Of course, the many disciples who still don’t get it must be cursing me right now, this elder who loves to speak in riddles. So today, I’ll make an exception and spoon-feed it to you!

“Regarding the Dao of Array communication, the esteemed seniors here have already spoken at length about the grand principles, so we can save those for a summary at the end. But the communication that our fellow Daoists from the Celestial Universe speak of…”

Zhang Deming paused deliberately, looking toward the Celestial Universe Floating Island Group, before continuing, “Perhaps due to cultural differences, many disciples were utterly lost. That’s why I simplified it and started with riddles, using a method more familiar to our disciples.

“In my opening just now, I demonstrated the two core principles of the Celestial Universe in a simplified, riddle-like fashion.

“Their two mainstream communication methods are TCP and UDP. Hmm, I’m being too technical. You’re probably all looking dumbfounded again. To put it simply, it’s call-and-response versus me just talking and not caring if you’ve responded.

“The essence of the Celestial Universe’s Dao of communication is a path forged by analyzing the very nature of human interaction. Thus, it has two protocols—or rather, two main directions of development.

“In truth, Hongmeng’s communication is the same. It’s just that the addition of Daoist Skills and a much longer history have completely obscured its essence. Many disciples now only know the ‘how’ but not the ‘why.’

“The first method, call-and-response, is the basis of all interaction, the most fundamental starting point of communication.

“The initiator—me—calls out once, and the tool, Qin Shizhong, answers once. This completes one communication cycle. If I don’t receive a reply, the communication is not complete.

“In the terms of the Celestial Universe, you could say the connection failed! I would continue to call out repeatedly until someone answers, only then proceeding to the next communication.

“The Celestial Universe generally uses this type of communication for precision transmissions. While it ensures the integrity of the communication, every transmission has to wait for a reception and a response before the next one can begin. This back-and-forth process slows things down considerably.

“Building on this foundation, the second type of communication was born. It also originates from daily life; nearly all the Daos of the Celestial Universe are like this.

“The first type originates from our daily conversations, one question and one answer. The second originates from storytelling!

“This second type of communication is when I, the initiator, just talk on and on, telling my story, completely ignoring whether my currently dumbfounded tool, Qin Shizhong, has heard me or responded. All I do is give out the information. How much he receives is his business.

“To describe this second type of communication more vividly, it’s like transmitting packets. I package bits of information into individual stories and throw them at you one by one. I don’t care how many you catch; I just keep throwing and ignore your responses.

“What if you don’t receive it? Tough luck!

“Then wouldn’t the information be incomplete?

“Exactly. But for large-scale information transfers, this flaw doesn’t matter if it doesn’t affect the overall experience.

“For example, the Celestial Universe’s video transmissions and the Dao of gaming use this packet-based communication method. The amount of information is so massive that call-and-response is completely unsuitable—it’s far too slow.

“A story of ten million words would require me to complete twenty million interactions between the call and response to finish the transmission.

“This is why in the Celestial Universe’s Dao of video and gaming, when you experience a moment of lag and then reconnect, the picture doesn’t resume from where it left off. Instead, it jumps forward to a later point in the video.

“The reason for this is that during the lag, I didn’t receive the packets you sent, but you continued sending them without repeating the old ones. The technical term for this is ‘packet loss’ or ‘dropped frames.’

“But because the total amount of information is so large, missing a little bit doesn’t ruin the experience, which is why this protocol was born.

“These are the two mainstream directions of development for the Celestial Universe’s Dao of communication—their communication protocols! Any other protocols are almost all extensions of these two concepts, with no fundamental difference.

“For call-and-response transmission, the Celestial Universe used the Thunder and Lightning Dao to replace the vocal channel as an intermediary. By successfully simulating the method of human interaction, they opened the Heaven-Reaching Path of communication.

“As for us in Hongmeng, we do not have such conditions. So, how you all choose to develop this is up to you. If you can thoroughly grasp these two fundamental principles and apply them to the Array Dao, I believe the current limits on the quantity of Hongmeng Array Dao communication will be solved effortlessly.”