Chapter 2823 Test Drive
Spectacles can ruin a country, but ancient dynasties really couldn't do without them. Spectacles, to a large extent, monopolized the right to interpret the communication between humans and gods.
The Egyptian pharaohs built pyramids, believing that they could communicate with the god of death by being buried in the pyramids after death, and they could be resurrected at that time. Those who mastered the pyramids were naturally the most powerful in the whole country. If they had something that others didn't have, they could show their difference.
There are also churches, which take hundreds of years to build and cost countless people's money, and they are also for the purpose of monopolizing the communication with God. God has a spirit, and he must like big houses. The bigger the church, the closer it is to God.
Pagodas, Buddha statues, etc. are all the same. The emperor's palace is also built in a magnificent way, taller than all the buildings in the city, which is also the same reason.
Spectacles mean that I can build them, but you can't, so I am more amazing than you, and you have to listen to me.
However, in modern times, spectacles are tourist attractions. Although they still have some political significance, they are definitely not as big as in ancient times.
The planetary engine is definitely an industrial wonder of this era. It goes five kilometers underground and rises ten kilometers into the sky. The vertical distance is fifteen kilometers. The ground part must also cover a fixed plate with a radius of ten kilometers to prevent the huge thrust from causing the engine to sink. The technology and funds required for such a behemoth are unprecedented, more than those for building a space station.
Coupled with the various difficulties encountered during construction, other countries that have not yet built planetary engines are in pain. It takes a long time to get back the money after spending so much money.
It’s not that it’s not good. The engine can generate electricity, people can live underground, and even if there is a nuclear war, such a building can withstand nuclear bombs. There are many benefits. But it’s really too expensive.
Expensive is a problem for customers, not for products. Moreover, any expensive technology product is basically expensive when it is bought, but it must be a pleasure to use it later. This engine is a good thing. Even if it doesn’t push the earth, it is good to prevent a nuclear war.
If everyone builds the engine, when a nuclear war really breaks out, won’t the country without the engine be finished? It seems that it has to be built, even if it is expensive. If others have it and you don’t, then they can drop nuclear bombs unscrupulously.
Finally, the United States stopped wrangling. The two parties were worried about the nuclear bombs falling, and finally agreed to allocate funds for construction, just to prevent the other two major powers from dropping nuclear bombs.
The second and third planetary engines finally started construction, and it was only after construction that it was found to be really difficult.
Duran watched the engineer's hair fall out on the construction site, and the remaining hair turned gray. They are also constantly trying new construction methods and new materials.
This kind of steel must not only be resistant to low temperatures but also high temperatures, because there is a period of transportation during the wandering stage. Except for the operation of the equatorial orbit change engine, other engines will not run at full power. At that time, the earth will be completely exposed to the low temperature of the universe, and even the atmosphere will be completely frozen. The engine must withstand the test of the low temperature of the universe.
Of course, when starting, the temperature of the engine exceeds 10,000 degrees. At such a high temperature, ordinary metals have melted long ago. In short, this metal is very powerful, but very expensive.
The Trisolarans said that they are familiar with the alternation of high and low temperatures. When the three suns of the Trisolaran system appear together, the ground is ignited. But when the three suns sink together, the atmosphere of the Trisolarian planet will also freeze directly into beautiful blue snowflakes, which is beautiful beyond words. But when the atmosphere is completely frozen, the ground will not be able to survive. So the Trisolarians can only dehydrate to save their lives, hiding underground, or in a heavy pyramid made of huge stones.
However, the engineer will not give up. After all, he is a wanderer. He believes in the data collected by science and believes that the sun will definitely have a helium flash. The latest data proves that the sun has not improved, so the Wandering Earth Plan must be implemented.
As for other things, such as the spaceship plan, it is actually also in progress, but according to the current political situation, the planetary engine brings the most short-term benefits, especially in terms of defense against nuclear bombs. In fact, according to historical laws, the Third World War could have started long ago, but it has been held back because no country can defend against nuclear bombs 100%. But if there is a planetary engine, it may become the starting point of a nuclear war.
Although the spaceship is also good, it cannot be directly transformed into a force for nuclear war.
However, Duran knows how much the predecessors who implemented the plan have sacrificed their lives and blood, and how ironic the stories that will happen on Earth in the future will be. In fact, whether the helium flash happens or not is the same, it is ironic for humans, because it is just a struggle of humans.
In the end, humans encountered problems and paid a price. It's just that the problems encountered are not big or not, and the price paid is not terrible or not.
People living in the quasi-wandering era are still happy, because there is no military control, all behaviors are carried out on the existing social physique and economic activities, using political competition as an internal driving force. People who build planetary engines do not think that the earth will really leave, they just think they are building power plants.
With the investment of planetary engines, a large amount of funds are in operation, and each industrial chain can get a share of the pie, the economy is stable, and the employment situation is very good. And industry insiders believe that the cost of engines will be reduced in the future. When the entire industrial chain matures, the engine can be completely modularized. At that time, just dig a standard pit and assemble the engine.
This industry seems to be emerging and prosperous. With money, more and more beneficiaries have begun to fund the scientists of the Wandering School and have begun to constantly promote the statement that the sun is hopeless, hoping that more people will invest in the engine to maintain their own profits in the process of building the engine.
Future generations of humans may not know that the Wandering Plan was political blackmail at the beginning and later became a capital flow. They are not trying to save the world, but just for their own interests. They just happened to be on the right path. This is luck.
Duran saw that he could only say that human luck is not bad. In fact, using the economy as a guide is definitely more practical than saving humanity. After all, this is four hundred years. Even if this generation is willing to sacrifice their lives, what about their children? What about their children's children?
Hatred and ideals are impossible to be inherited. Using interests as a guide can be said to be the best choice. Grandfather, father, and son all know that it is profitable, so they will naturally move in this direction.
At this time, the capital that relies on the engine for a living constantly promotes the destruction of the world and allocates resources, which has played a positive role in the Wandering Plan.
When everyone saw that there was money to be made, more and more people joined in, so the fourth engine was also put on the agenda. After fourteen years of hard work, Duran stood in front of the completed engine and watched the launch ceremony with other workers.
In fourteen years, the Anti-Japanese War was won. Many people went from young to middle-aged, and they also had a lot of problems. The aging chief engineer was in tears.
Putting in the flint is actually a small hydrogen bomb.
Everyone watched the ceremony from a distance. It didn't matter anyway, because the engine was so high that if you got too close, it would be evaporated due to the high temperature. Everyone wore sunglasses, as if they were watching a nuclear bomb detonate.
With the rumbling thunder, a heat wave came, and then an orange flame dispersed the clouds. Everyone felt unprecedented warmth. This is the wonder of industry, the planetary engine, and it was successfully tested.