Suppose the purpose of the piece of dirt in your hand is to pass through this sieve.
Suppose that the holes in the sieve become smaller each time the soil passes through it.
Suppose that the force that the soil relies on is the strength of my hands. This force will make it smaller so that it can pass through the sieve smoothly. Under these assumptions, what kind of result do you think it will be
Kun tossed the lump of soil in his hand, and the sieve was suspended between the two of them, constantly changing the size of the sieve holes.
Tang Ling looked at the two simple things in front of him. The smile on his face gradually disappeared. Then he frowned, and finally there was uncontrollable bitterness in his heart.
Slowly, Tang Ling raised his head and looked at Kun: "Are your hands limited?"
Kun narrowed his eyes, and then replied with a helpless tone for a moment, "Even my power is not unlimited."
Tang Ling paused for a moment, feeling a chill in his heart: "So? What about the sieve? Is there an end to the size of the sieve's holes?"
Kun shook his head: "Unknown."
Tang Ling lowered his head and fell silent.
This is actually a conclusion that has been thought of for a long time, but no one can accept that such a brilliant civilization was silently annihilated like this - the Great Filter of the Universe.
Kun used this method to inform Tang Ling of the reason for the destruction of the first generation.
**
This was a bit of speculation from previous civilizations, and after reading many books from previous civilizations, Tang Ling naturally saw this. One of the theories of speculation about the universe by previous civilizations was the Great Filter of the Universe.
To talk about the Great Filter of the Universe, we have to mention a prior theory—Fermi Paradox.
That was a guess that a scientist from a pre-civilization suddenly made while looking up at the stars.
At that time, human civilization was far from reaching its peak, and scientists all had romantic fantasies about the universe.
In this romantic fantasy, the galaxy full of planets is like the ocean of mankind, filled with navigation, adventure, discovery, exploration, and battle like a magnificent era.
After all, due to the existence of human beings and the existence of this planet under our feet, intelligent life has broken the number of 'zero'. According to mathematical theory, this is not absolute 'nothing', so the probability of the existence of other intelligent life has been magnified. many.
But this is just fantasy and speculation. In fact, human beings are lonely and the entire galaxy is quiet. At least at that time, there was no sufficient evidence to prove the existence of other intelligent life.
So a scientist named Fermi was confused. According to the existence history of the universe for at least more than 10 billion years, there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way alone, and the star that gave birth to human beings, the sun, is only one of the younger ones. So even taking into account the limitations of that era and the unbreakability of the speed of light, humans should not be so lonely.
But what is the real situation? Human beings are really lonely. Even pre-civilized people tried to send wireless signals to the universe, but they did not receive any response.
This is Fermi's question. Rather than asking himself or his fellow scientists, it would be better to say that he is asking the universe
Is there life besides us? If so, where are they? Why have we never met
Obviously, this is a theory that makes human beings feel extremely lonely and lose their illusions, so in the subsequent time, many scientists have emerged trying to answer the Fermi Paradox.
Among these many answers, one of the more recognized answers is the 'Great Filter of the Universe'.
Tang Ling's hands were trembling slightly. Kun held his chin with one hand, his eyes were deep, but he didn't know what he was thinking about
Tang Ling wanted to say something, but couldn't. All that was echoing in his mind was the theory of the Great Filter of the Universe.
The core of this theory is actually quite simple, just like the example Kun just vividly illustrated.
To put it simply, the entire universe is filled with layers of invisible filters. If these layers of filters cannot be broken through, life will not appear in the first place. Even if it does appear, it will die silently. This is why human beings No other reason for intelligent life has been discovered.
The scholar named Robin who proposed this theory described the Great Filter he speculated in great detail.
The first is to have a planetary system suitable for nurturing life. People with some basic astronomical knowledge will frown after hearing this.
Because of the distance between the planet and the star, whether there are organic matter on the planet, and whether it can avoid the radiation that exists at any time in the universe.
See, the initial conditions are so harsh, enough to screen out most planets.
Thinking of this, Tang Ling swallowed and looked at the sieve floating between him and Kun. He was too lazy to recall the other eight specific filtering rules of the Great Filter of the Universe.
In short, according to that statement, the probability of the emergence of human beings is almost infinitely small and infinitely harsh.
If there are other intelligent life forms, they will also face such harsh conditions. Therefore, under these layers of filters, civilizations have been annihilated. How can there be any possibility of discovery, contact, or even war with each other
This was just a guess at the time, but now that Kun was sitting in front of Tang Ling, he had completely proven this guess.
But, but, the great filter of the universe is derived to the last one, which roughly refers to the last layer of filter, which is the interstellar expansion. If humans can break through to this point, civilization will not be annihilated, at least the instinct of biological reproduction will no longer be Due to resource constraints, he was eventually trapped on the planet beneath his feet.
The logic makes perfect sense, but what about the first generation? They are so brilliant.
Thinking of this, Tang Ling looked up at Kun again. Before he could speak, Kun already sighed: "If you are just locked in a room all your life, and no one delivers information from the outside world to you, you Do you know what the outside world is like?"
"I know what you are thinking of? What I am doing is also telling you that the reason for the destruction of the first generation is a limitation similar to the Great Filter of the universe. It is just completely different from the limitations of the so-called pre-civilized human imagination. After all, pre-civilized humans It’s just a person locked in a room with very limited knowledge.”
Tang Ling nodded heavily. At this point in the story, there was really no need to demonstrate how the first generation of civilization was destroyed.
After all, there is no war, no enemies, what you are facing is just relying on your own strength, reaching the end, and there is no way out.
A trace of sadness filled Tang Ling's heart. He couldn't say anything, but he knew that Kun only told him the reason for the destruction of the first generation.
The story is far from over.
"Don't forget, the conclusion drawn by the entire universe is that the Origin Star is extremely important."
"In addition, the pre-civilization's great filter of the universe proposed that the conditions for human beings to exist are so harsh. Do you think everything is a coincidence? The important thing is that one key fragment, oh, I mean the self-replicating molecule, like RNA. You have to know that the most critical direction for human beings to move forward now is the gene chain.”
"What do you think of when these two are connected?"
Facing Tang Ling, who was immersed in sadness and silent, Kun drank three glasses of wine in a row, and then asked Tang Ling several questions in succession.
I had a stomach bug last night, so I wrote a request for leave at four in the morning, thinking I might as well forget it. Get up quickly today and code a chapter first. Because of the need to travel, the update time may not be fixed until next Monday, so I’ll let you know first. This is the result of not saving the manuscript.
(End of chapter)