The title could refer to two things in the chapter. First, the Deep Blue AI which Sai tells Ryusui about regarding the chess game. The computer knew a solution that no one expected. The second, the Medusa. As much as they possess the device now, they are still no closer to unlocking its secrets as they were in the beginning.
Back in Japan now, the process of reviving people to help with the rocket work begins. Gen is the one in charge of explaining the situation to everyone, a scenario we’ve seen him in before. When they first ran into Chelsea, Gen was the one who explained the current state of things. Kind of neat if you think he’s done this in all the other major cities/settlements they have come across.
Revived people need a means of comfort. Luxury. Something to fall back in the Stone World when things get tough. Sure enough, they get some of this from Francois’s wonderful cooking. Aside from that however, Ryusui comes up with another idea: entertainment media. Ryusui once said no one will follow someone who doesn’t know how to have fun. He has another motive in mind though: global domination.
To this effect, the computer from America finally arrives. Taiju is the one who was tasked with transporting it. Taiju transported an entire tunnel-digging drill in America, so it's a responsibility he's been trusted with before. Considering how terrible his driving/navigation skills are, there’s probably some other helpers in the boat with him.
Senku makes a television set to accompany the computer, which is supposed to be the display monitor. Senku had made a TV-like device previously, back in the Age of Exploration arc. The current one is an upgraded version of that, essentially.
Senku explains it in the chapter, but the previous TV worked with only horizontal lines to display sonar waves.
This current TV works with horizontal lines, too, but they are displayed in a vertical pattern. The horizontal lines are rapidly and continuously displayed from top to bottom to fill the screen.
Sadly, for the crew, there are no broadcasting stations present in the world. No cable TV, let alone satellites in outer space for satellite TV. Before cable or satellite TV, a home's TV would receive a locally broadcasted signal over air waves (remember "rabbit ears"?) which is very feasible in the Stone World. When cable TV came, it didn't depend on air waves and it took out the local middleman. Satellite TV returns us back to wireless transmission, but with one signal, containing many, many channels, reaching everywhere on Earth.
Obviously, at one point they will end up having to bring back media related entertainment. Movies, music, and the like. We already saw Lilian’s record, so I hope we see the process of how stuff like this comes back. Will they recreate Dragon Quest?
About the computer, there is also a bit of explanation needed here. On the computer surface, the words SAL are inscribed.
In the x86 architecture, SAL is the operation used to do the arithmetic shift to the left. This makes something like this? if you have a binary number stored in the register al, let’s say 0000 0010, and you call SAL al,1, that means you will shift every digit to the left. Meaning that the content of AX is 0000 0100.
This happens to be the best way to make powers of 2. Binary, again. Which is what their computer is operating on. It's basically a way of multiplying and dividing by 2.
Modern computers have more to them, which is why we have the z86-64 architecture.
With their computer at hand, they cannot watch TV (Yet). But they can come up with games. Which is a task left for Sai. This time, he does not have to write out the codes on a wall- like he did the first time. He has a whole device to feed the games into.
Several games are developed, among them Pacman and Tetris. Sai also develops a chess game that Ryusui plays. Like the first time the two brothers played chess, Ryusui loses again. Though when Ryusui was younger, he wanted Sai to help him polish his chess skills. Maybe this program will be how Ryusui becomes a global chess master, ha.
Sai tells Ryusui the story of Kasparov, a soviet chess master who was world champion at age 22. He got the highest FIDE title, grandmaster, at age 17. When he was 22, in 1984, he defeated Anatoly Karpov, and became the world champion. He would proceed to be in the top for 255 months, until 2005, he was undisputedly the best player in the world in this period, until he retired out of boredom. According to him, there was no point in continue playing after he won everything. Even when he stops playing, his current rating is 2851, making him the second highest rating in the world. He still is able to play and defeat grandmasters, even at age 55 and without training seriously for 15 years.
This story is no stranger to bringing up famous figures in scientific history. Remember the first photograph ever taken? Senku’s pose at the time was mimicking Einstein, so Kasparov is another name in the long history of scientific figures brought up in this marvelous story.
The whole conversation about A.I. feels strangely ominous. Could be a form of foreshadowing about Why Man, and if they are really an A.I.
Elsewhere in the kingdom, Senku and a few others are preparing a vacuum tube to contain the Medusa. His reasoning is that in a vacuum, the device won’t weather too much and become unusable. The devices in the Amazon were out in the open, meaning they were fully exposed to the weather. But also consider that sound does not travel in a vacuum as well. Meaning there’s no chance of the device being activated accidentally.
Except, as Gen and Yo are leaving, they suddenly hear sounds from the vacuum chamber. They try escaping, but its too late. The device activates, engulfing them in the blast.
What could have happened? One of two possibilities:
a) Someone gave the device a command before it was placed into the vacuum chamber. The Ukyo theories that we have seen floating around are quite amusing, even though he is most likely not guilty of anything.
B ) The device is rigged to activate in a vacuum automatically. If this is indeed the case, that means it cannot be taken out of the earth’s atmosphere at all. Considering it would activate and take out anyone nearby.
I’m quite curious what the side effects will be next chapter. Has the device burnt itself out with that blast? Or made itself unusable somehow? Will Yo be able to be saved?
Trivia:
-Taiju/Senku fist bump in this chapter reminds us that these two have known each other the longest. He also fist bumped Tsukasa at the end of Stone Wars, right before they teamed up to take out Hyoga.
- This is Yo’s third time being petrified in the Stone World, the first two being on Treasure Island and in America before. For Gen, this is his third time being petrified as well.
- Yo seems to be the happiest about video games being produced. He also was the most anxious for the TV to be working, reminding us how huge a slacker he is, haha.
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