The last human in the universe

Chapter 256 Vacuum Model
For humans, the events of Cadillac civilization are just an episode.Even, from the beginning to the end, it did not cause any waves in the society.

Time is still slowly passing by, and the population of human civilization has increased from about 700 billion before to nearly 2000 billion at this moment-this is still under the premise that the population of the Storm Country is not counted.

The four large planets revolving around the H1 star are all surrounded by countless huge spaceships.One after another living spaceships were full of voices, and one space factory after another was roaring with machines.

At this moment, no matter how it is measured, no matter in terms of technology, population, culture, or the scale of civilization, human civilization has already stood at the pinnacle of the third-level civilization.

From the historical data of other civilizations obtained as a comparison, the development of human civilization is not unpleasant.After all, just a few hundred years ago, human civilization only had a few large spaceships, and the population was only that small.The level of science and technology has not really reached the level of three-level civilization.

If this speed of development is known by other civilizations, I am afraid that they will not only be surprised, but frightened.

But this miraculous thing actually appeared in civilization.

However, from now on, a new problem has appeared in front of the leaders of human civilization headed by Zhao Changxing.

"Up to now, we have millions of scientific research institutions of various types, with more than 40 billion scientific practitioners, and the number is still increasing at a rate of about 1.6 million per year; we have large-scale neutrino telescopes, super There are 10,000+ extremely important large-scale scientific research equipment such as high-energy particle accelerators, deep-space radio, optical telescopes, gravitational wave telescopes, large-scale genetic analyzers, and supercomputing centers; the atmosphere of "science first" in society is strong, so that the scientific community can recruit The most outstanding group of talents in civilization. From a certain level, we who pursue the policy of 'everyone is equal' have almost reached the highest level of scientific research capabilities that a third-level civilization can possess."

In another highest-level meeting, facing many civilized leaders, a participant made a report with clear words.

"But even so, according to the model calculation, we want to rely on our own strength to complete the unprecedented super-large scientific research project of the 'vacuum model'. The most optimistic estimate will take at least a thousand years."

All the participants here know that the so-called "vacuum model" is a set of scientific methods using the latest scientific theories to describe the vacuum, just like the standard model is used to describe microscopic particles, and the theory of relativity is used to describe gravity.

Completing the "vacuum model" and having the ability to fully describe the vacuum with the latest theories means that there is enough understanding of the physical characteristics of the vacuum, which means that this civilization has truly become a fourth-level civilization.

On this basis, the development of propellant-free propulsion based on a certain type of "vacuum fluctuation" and more types of related application technologies, such as new weapon systems, protection systems, etc., will have theoretical basis.

Zhao Changxing listened carefully, and when he heard this, he raised his hand to interrupt the reporter's words.

"What do you mean by the most optimistic estimate?"

The reporter replied: "The efficiency and transparency of social operation, at least the same level as now, the social atmosphere at least the same level as now, as well as the endless emergence of great scientific research scholars, And, a stage that allows these scientific researchers to fully display their talents. These factors are indispensable."

"Even so, does it take at least a thousand years...?"

"Yes. At least a thousand years. The scientific research project of 'vacuum model' is too big and too complicated, and there are too many difficulties and nodes in it. Even, a branch of a branch, compared with the whole project, A topic that is too small to be small requires many outstanding scientists to spend their entire lives on it, and it may not be finally solved. This entire project is by no means something that can be solved in a generation.”

Zhao Changxing was slightly moved.

He can clearly realize that the human civilization that pursues the unique "everyone is equal" policy has much deeper scientific research potential than other civilizations.But even human civilization needs at least this much time. What about other civilizations?
In particular, in the vast and cold universe, there is not much time and opportunity for a third-level civilization to go all out to develop technology.

Invasion of alien civilizations, wars, cosmic disasters, ubiquitous threats, internal strife within civilizations, unbalanced distribution of benefits, chaos, etc. If you are not careful, civilizations will weaken, split, and even perish.

On average, I am afraid that one year in ten years may not be able to concentrate on developing technology.

"Every civilization that can enter the fourth-level civilization stage has a wonderful story."

Without wonderful stories and unique experiences, it is impossible for them to reach that stage.

"It would be great if we could expand the scale of civilization again, increase the population, and increase the population to 4000 billion, or even one trillion."

In today's era, a human civilization with a population of about 2000 billion can support more than 40 billion scientific researchers.Then, if the scale of civilization expands, for example, the population increases to 4000 billion, can the number of scientific researchers that can be supported reach 80 billion?
Doubling the scientific research population will obviously have a greater role in promoting scientific research.At that time, it may only take a few hundred years to complete the unprecedented super scientific project of "vacuum model".

"This question, I will answer."

A research scholar in the Faculty of Social Sciences stood up.

"The conclusion of our research is that it is not feasible. The population of our human civilization has almost reached the limit, and it is impossible to increase it on a large scale."

Although this answer was expected long ago, Zhao Changxing was still slightly disappointed when it was confirmed.

He sighed silently in his heart, and continued to listen.

"The reasons are various and complex. But in short, I can give an example.

Taking the history of our human civilization as an example, why did civilization only have city-states and tribes in the early days of the slave era, and there was no country with a large area?At the end of the slave era, there was a country, but why did the country have such a small population and area?Why did the huge country across the Eurasian continent established by the Mongols fall apart after a short period of time and could not be maintained? "

Facing his series of rhetorical questions, all the participants showed thoughtful expressions on their faces.

"The final answer is actually very simple. The size of a group—whether it appears in the form of a city-state, a country, or a civilization—depends on the level of technology of this group, that is, productivity.

The scale must match the productivity.Otherwise, the group is bound to split.

Can you imagine a country that uses mules and horses as its main means of transportation to eventually rule the world?Can you imagine a country that only mastered chemical rocket technology and eventually ruled the entire solar system?Can you imagine a country that has not even invented a computer, a country that relies on pen and paper to record and count data, and billions of people live in the country? "

"This is unimaginable." He concluded: "So, with the current productivity and technological level of our human civilization, the total population of the ruling population is between 1800 billion and 2200 billion, which is already the limit. If there is more, it will Restricted, leading to a series of sociological accidents such as the failure to maintain order, lack of energy for leaders, and unbearable regimes. This is actually supported by real cases-in the last 100 years, the number of criminal cases involving the division of civilization has increased to an average of about 1.6 cases, an average of about 2.6 people are executed every year because of this, and tens of thousands of people are imprisoned, which is the evidence."

"The root cause of all this is that our civilization is too large and our population is too large, which is already close to the upper limit. If we continue to increase the population on a large scale, then our civilization will surely split, and the universe will There are two human civilizations emerging."

No matter who it is, such things as the division of civilization are absolutely unacceptable.Then the only solution is to limit the rate of population increase, and control it to about 2000 billion people as a whole.

This also means that increasing the population of scientific research and shortening the way to break through scientific problems by increasing the scale of civilization will not work.

"Alternatively, we can divide a part of the population and establish a human country like the 'Storm Country', and hand over the responsibility of governing this part of the population to the political system of the human country, thereby achieving the de facto goal of reducing the size of civilization. But this plan, I think everyone is also unacceptable.”

The attendees fell silent, expressing disregard for the proposal.

"There is another plan, which is the integration of other civilizations. Just like when we integrated the storm civilization, which led to the explosion of our civilization and technology."

Zhao Changxing murmured: "Communication with different civilizations is indeed a good way to promote the development of science and technology."

At this point in the meeting, everyone fell into silence.

Several roads for the future development of civilization have been clearly laid out in front of people.

"Hey, if we can get rid of that unknown threat so that we can return to the Jagged Nebula without any scruples, that would be great."

At this moment, I don't know how many people have this idea in their hearts.

Zhao Changxing tapped on the table lightly, attracting everyone's attention.

"At the current stage, let's focus on ourselves. The resources of the H1 galaxy are already showing signs of being exhausted. It's time to plan for the next interstellar voyage."

(End of this chapter)