Volume 1 Chaos Comes Chapter 14: Epitaph of Mankind
Observer No. 1 witnessed the history of civilization on Earth with his own eyes. Unlike the ecstasy he felt when he first discovered this strange carbon-based life form, mankind's subsequent great voyages, industrial revolution, and even world wars did not make him excited again.
After all, from the moment they started smelting metals, these were things that would happen sooner or later.
"These carbon-based organisms are developing faster than I thought, and it looks like they will soon enter space."
He surveys the East European plain in 1903, where an ambitious Earthling has just published a new work.
The name of that Earthling was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and the name of that book was "Exploration of Outer Space Using Reaction Facilities".
"It must be much more difficult for them to explore space than for us."
This inference is very reasonable. Apart from the fragility of carbon-based organisms, the dense atmosphere of this blue planet also requires any attempt to travel to and from the universe to undergo a baptism of fire first. This gas shell is both armor and a cage for the organisms underneath.
"Yes, their initial spacecraft should need a lot of additional parts. Such as thermal insulation, sealed cabin, operation panel, circulation system to provide oxygen and food..."
The history of interstellar travel of metal civilizations is almost as long as their history of civilization. They mastered the technology of electromagnetic propulsion in ancient times, just as humans mastered navigation technology very early on.
Unlike chemical media that generate a large amount of gas through combustion for recoil, electromagnetic propulsion relies on the recoil force between conductive gas and strong magnetic field. Strong current will cause the gas medium to expand and ionize due to heat, and the ejected plasma will generate power far greater than all solid fuel rockets currently in service.
However, this is still a type of propellant propulsion, which is very primitive in the technology of interstellar travel.
Sixty years have passed in the blink of an eye, and the first satellite made by carbon-based organisms has slowly risen in the Gobi Desert of Central Asia. Its name is "Walking Along". It is the first metal companion of the moon, but it will definitely not be the last.
On September 5, 1977, during a once-in-a-century gravitational window, Carbon-Based Biology launched another famous deep space probe, its target being the vast Milky Way.
It's called Voyager 1.
It took humans 20 years to go from traveling together to traveling. Voyager 1 carries a copper record with greetings to unknown cosmic life in 55 human languages.:
How are you all, we all miss you very much, please come and visit us when you have time.
These words should have become humanity's epitaph, commemorating in the eternal universe that such a fragile civilization once existed.
It was completely dark when I returned to the empty dormitory. I threw my schoolbag on the ground and slumped in the chair.
"Where have you been? Why haven't you come back yet?" I sent a message to Xu Xia. He might have gone out to party.
"I'm in the lab, what do you want from your father?"
I remembered that Xu Xia told me before that he wanted to study 3D printing.
Yes, it is already the second semester of my sophomore year, and most of my classmates have already started to contact their supervisors to join their research groups, and some have even started to prepare to go abroad for summer internships. I just go with the flow and don’t think too much, I just want to do the things in front of me well.
But what does Ai Bishui think?
She is smart and hardworking, excels in study and scientific research, and has no problem with English. She will definitely go to a top university in the world in the end.
It would be natural for her to be noticed by the best mentors, to produce astonishing results, to get a teaching position in another country, and to live a life that I could not imagine under the attention of the entire academic community.
The intersection of my life and hers was just a joke of fate. I was just lucky enough to be admitted to this university, lucky enough to meet her, lucky enough to have a few words with her, that's all.
She is the moon that does not belong to me, but she brings a moment of brilliance to my ordinary life .
The strong sense of insecurity carried me towards the abyss. I struggled desperately, hoping that a big tree on the cliff could save my life.
Not long after, I found the big tree in my QQ friend list. His avatar was a salted fish against a brown background.
"Mai Shen, what are you busy with now?"
"I'm doing my homework, what's wrong with you?"
"I thought you were doing research."
The tone seemed a bit sarcastic, but he probably wouldn't care.
"(Sweating Soybean) The lab report is due next Monday. How much have you written? I saw someone wrote more than ten pages."
I totally forgot about it.
"Is your lab still hiring? I want to go there and do some heavy lifting, too."
"Why don't you just go to Ai Bishui's lab? Don't be a coward."
"You are sick."
"Their lab is recruiting undergraduates who are capable of doing the job. You can just go there."
“Isn’t this too deliberate?”
"What's wrong with being deliberate? Didn't you say you two were working on the same project? You have plenty of reasons."
It seems to be true.
"Let me tell you, the first step to courting a girl is to appear in front of and let her get used to your presence."
Although Mai Ge still has no girlfriend, he is very good at giving guidance.
"I understand what you mean. In fact, we have been taking classes together. I feel that it is enough..."
"I've told you everything. Why are you so stingy all the time? It's good to do some experiments. It's like doing exercise. Do you know what Wittgenstein said: physical labor means the salvation of the soul..."
He has chosen a popular science course on the philosophy of science this semester, and he would show off these things at every turn. He was quite restrained by not speaking in German this time.
I hesitated for a moment, opened my computer and sent an email to the instructor in her group.
On Saturday evening, when I returned to the dormitory from the library, Xu Xia was concentrating on playing games. I had just finished an 8,000-word Hall Effect experiment report in one day, and also drew a very delicate schematic diagram using 3Dmax.
"From the first germs of life underwater, to the giant beasts of the Stone Age, to the first human upright walk..."
"Are you using Lao Qin?"
"Yeah, just a casual game. I'm still a little dizzy after running."
"Running... Do you know Senior Zhong Mengxun?"
To be honest, the images of Xu Xia and Zhong Mengxun are completely overlapping in my mind. When I mention one, I will think of the other.
"Isn't he from the football team? Our captain went hiking in Gannan with him before, but he doesn't go on adventures with us anymore."
It’s a pity that these two have never appeared in the same frame.
"He told me before that there were many strange phenomena at the ruins at the South Gate, and it seemed that the armed police had been dispatched."
"It's possible. Now the land has been completely filled up and the subway is not being built."
I haven't been to the South Gate for a long time because I have to pass by the Family Affairs Courtyard. I don't really want to run into Teacher Jie outside of class, and it's too difficult to find the right time to say hello.
"Do you still believe there are aliens there? "
"It's hard to say. If something is so evil, there must be something fishy going on."
I looked at the computer screen and saw that Persia had declared a surprise attack on you!
"A zebra...jumped."
"Will you be free tomorrow?"
"No, I have to accompany my girlfriend."
I held his shoulders and squeezed him hard, but he was so amused that I couldn't move at all.
Xu Xia ignored me and without even turning his head, he threw out a bombshell.
"By the way, how is the relationship between ?"
Genius mahjong girl, right? I roughly understand his XP.
"What the hell, who told you that?"
"Ah? The whole class knows about this, right? This is the exclusive love affair of the academic god. Didn't you just go out for a walk together after class on Friday?"
I took my hands off his shoulders and closed his laptop.
"What's going on? Which noble person said that?"
It must be the valuable thing of that man named Mai. How did he see it?
"Oh, it's okay. No one will bother you. After all, most people in the department can't say much to you two."
He unfolded the computer and the screen was not black when he closed it.
"The main thing is that it's not what you think. She really didn't mean that at all. We were basically talking about physics..."
"That's your problem, can't you talk about something else that could interest girls?"
"I don't need to say anything..."
I don’t know what girls are interested in, I’ll ask Ning Yu’an next time.
"Have you ever seen the movie 'My Youth Romantic Comedy'?"
"I've watched anime, what does this have to do with it?"
Xu Xia leaned back in his chair and cleared his throat.
"'——So what about you, Hikigaya? Do you like Yukino?'
"——My mother always taught me not to express my likes and dislikes."
To be honest, the tone is too similar.
"What kind of 2D are you? You still have a girlfriend like this."
I'm sure that he became a popular star because of his muscles.
"I'm your father. I'll show you my face when I'm horny."
He turned on the front camera of his phone and handed it to me. The person on the screen had his facial features squeezed together and his face was flushed.
"I think first you need to cater to her interests and help her with things that interest her; then you need to improve yourself in the direction that she is interested in. Girls are animals that need a sense of superiority..."
His guidance was much more specific and he really had experience.
"...I don't know what she is interested in besides physics..."
"Then you can talk to her about physics... or see how you can help her do scientific research..."
Xu Xia and I were both silent. The only way we could think of to please him was to talk about physics.
This woman is like a thin but obscure book, but every sentence in it shines like a spell.
She is a black box to everyone. If you want to understand her in depth, you cannot rely on conventional methods, but can only observe her continuously.
Wittgenstein once said: Don't think, but look!
