Chapter 79 The Big Filter
Life may be universal in the universe, and this is temporarily assumed to be true. Unable to find anything to refute, the scientists decided to accept the law for now.
"But we cannot yet draw conclusions about whether wisdom is universal, there is too little information on this..." Professor Heigl said.
"However, we can make guesses based on the existing information...The key is the Great Filter Theory." As Professor Heigl told it, the logic began to become clear.
According to the classification of Soviet scientist Kardashev, the civilization levels of the universe can be divided into three categories: Level I civilization, Level II civilization and Level III civilization. With each level advanced, the available energy increases by 10^9 times.
"Our new human civilization, including the old human civilization on Earth, has not reached the level of Level I civilization. According to classification, our technological level is about 0.7, and we can get a glimpse of a Level I civilization."
"I think that only those who have reached at least Level I civilization, or a civilization between Level I and Level II, are qualified to fly into the universe. Isn't there any doubt about this?"
What Heigl meant by soaring through the universe was actually traveling between stars, not as simple as launching satellites or landing on the moon. The distance between stars is so far away that it is generally measured in light years. Alpha Centauri, the closest star to the sun, is also 4.37 light-years away.
This is measured in light years! How much is a light year? 9,460.8 billion kilometers!
This distance is simply despairing. With the fastest speed of human spaceships currently, it would take 100,000 years to sail!
One hundred thousand years is too long, and it is impossible for humans to do it.
Therefore, a civilization must be at least between level I and level II, and the speed of the spacecraft must at least reach the sub-light speed level. Only by shortening the navigation time to ten or a hundred years can we say that we have taken a small step to travel in the universe. …
The scientists discussed quietly for a while and all agreed with this point of view. If we follow this division, human beings are indeed the lowest level of civilization... This may sound uncomfortable, but it is true.
Only by reaching level I civilization, or a civilization between level I and level II, can the spacecraft accelerate to the sub-light speed level and compress the flight time to tens or hundreds of years. Only such a civilization can be considered as stepping into the starry sky and a true interstellar civilization!
Human beings are not like that at all... Even if people use cheating and constant static mass of the Noah spacecraft, they can't make it reach sub-light speed. This is determined by technology and the energy level that can be utilized.
"Such interstellar civilizations should be very rare. At least we humans have not observed them in the past one or two hundred years of modern science. Nor have any extraterrestrial civilizations communicated with us." Heigl continued, "This is something we all know no disagreement?"
"Yes, it is true... Although one or two hundred years is nothing on the scale of the universe. But humans have never observed the activities of extraterrestrial civilizations, which can also indirectly indicate that interstellar civilizations may be rare." Yu Yifeng thought about it. I think, I don’t think there are any big flaws in Heigl’s words.
"Then the question is, since life is common in the universe, but interstellar civilization is rare, why is this?"
Even Yu Yifeng couldn't help but think about it. He didn't have a clear answer.
Assuming that life is common in the universe, why are interstellar civilizations so rare? According to Heigl's point of view, there must be some obstacle that blocks the evolution of almost all life in the universe!
"We call this barrier the Great Filter!"
Heigl said seriously, "This Great Filter will filter out all unqualified life forms, leaving only a very small number of lucky races. Only civilizations that have passed the Great Filter can grow into interstellar civilizations!"
"This big filter will be encountered by almost all life. Yes, I think almost every life on the planet will encounter it! It is like a steel wall, blocking the progress of all life. Moreover, if you want to break through This wall is almost extremely difficult, even impossible to cross!”
"Only a small number of extremely lucky and powerful civilizations can overcome this big filter and then slowly progress to interstellar civilization. The probability is: one in ten million to one in 100 million..."
"I think this explanation is a more likely hypothesis. If the Great Filter theory is established, it can be judged that it must have appeared before interstellar civilization!" Heigl said categorically.
At this point, the topic is already very heavy. But Yu Yifeng had to cheer up and continue listening. Life is too common, and because of the existence of a big filter, most races are filtered out. It does... make some sense.
Scientists are really amazing. In fact, they know nothing and have very little information, but they can infer so many things through constant guessing. This is wisdom, the wisdom that mankind is most proud of.
So, what is this big filter? Has mankind already surpassed it, or is it still ahead, waiting for mankind?
These are two situations: excellent and extremely bad... If human beings have unknowingly crossed this big filter, then the future will be smooth sailing.
If the Great Filter is still in front of mankind, then mankind will have to challenge the success rate of one to one billionth...
Thinking of this, Yu Yifeng's heart couldn't help but beat wildly. Even if the chance was one in ten million, it was still shocking! Can humans really make the leap?
No matter how confident you are, if you challenge the odds of one in ten million, your face will probably turn pale and your heartbeat will speed up. With a pass rate of one in ten million, are humans really so lucky?
As the leader of civilization, Yu Yifeng has to worry about whether this so-called "big filter" is real... whether it is the wild imagination of scientists trying to scare himself.
"Professor Heigl, I have some ideas." Dr. Rimbaud suddenly raised his hand. "I have also heard some about the Great Filter theory. Now, let me first talk about some possibilities of the Great Filter so that everyone can distinguish it."
"The first one is the formation of life. In the past, we thought that the formation of life was very difficult and could only be formed under extremely accidental circumstances. A large number of our previous experiments did not create life artificially, so we think this one has reason to become a major filter.
But because of the emergence of life on Mars... life is likely to be universal, and this article has been rejected first. I won't say more. "
"Second, the breakthrough from prokaryotic life to eukaryotic life. It took our earth more than a billion years to achieve this. It may be a very small chance... This kind of small probability time can become a big problem. filter possible.”
"Yes, Dr. Rimbaud, after the birth of life on the earth, it took more than a billion years to complete the evolution of prokaryotic cells and eukaryotic cells. It is impossible to determine whether this evolution is inevitable or an extremely low probability accident. If eukaryotic cells were produced The odds are only one in a billion, so this could be a big filter," Heigl agreed.
"Moreover, the Martian virus has not yet broken through to eukaryotic life, which provides a little evidence for this statement." Someone suddenly said below, "The Martian virus is not eukaryotic life, which is really good news for us."
After hearing this, scientists began to discuss that life on Mars is carbonyl-based organisms and is indeed inferior. No eukaryotic life has been found on Mars.
From this point of view, the probability of a breakthrough from prokaryotic life to eukaryotic life may be very small, and it is indeed qualified to become a great filter!