Spark

The days of being confined in Chengfei were actually not that sad for Chen Nian, because he didn't have many social activities.

On the contrary, after eliminating some unnecessary meetings and exchanges, he had more time to study more advanced technical issues besides nuclear fusion and normal temperature superconductivity.

So far, the number of source points accumulated in his hand has exceeded 6,000, which is a huge number even for himself.

If broken down into various industries and technical fields, the number of 6,000 source points can promote major changes in at least 20 industries and solve more than 100 technical difficulties.

The most typical ones, such as the specialized seedling problems currently faced by vertical farms, can be directly analyzed through the system to obtain the required breeding methods.

But Chen Nian does not intend to invest resources in these areas. The reason is very simple, it is a cost-effective issue.

He could clearly feel that the growth rate of Source Point had gradually entered a bottleneck period after a cycle of explosive growth.

Or to be precise, this is not a bottleneck period, but a ceiling period.

In other words, no matter how he expands the number of people participating in the knowledge growth process, no matter how he improves his learning and R\u0026D efficiency, and no matter how he explores and optimizes the mechanism of source point growth, the speed of source point growth will not increase significantly.

Now the average number of source points he can harvest per day is about 20. Under the current premise of diminishing marginal utility, if the rate can be doubled to 40 points per day, the number of source points he can harvest in a year will only be less than 15,000. point.

And he himself can probably live to be .100 years old?

Then the total number of source points he can obtain in the future is 1.3 million points.

It's a lot, but it only seems like a lot.

Those technologies that can truly enable humans to break through the thick barrier of space, those basic principles that are close to the underlying logic, and those fantastic ideas that break the shackles of time and space. They exist, but the source points required to analyze them are There are always a series of question marks.

Therefore, Chen Nian must make a choice.

He needs to use the limited total number of source points to plan an optimal path.

Plan a path that can at least turn most of the question marks into visible values.

To do this, he must be cautious and carefully save all non-essential expenses.

This situation often made him feel powerless because he knew that no one could help him.

The original purpose of the Spark Team was to provide him with advice on technology and development. It is actually a consulting team.

However, this advisory team can only predict the future and deduce human development within a limited time scale.

You can't expect them to tell you whether the quantum tunnel effect is a prerequisite for super-light speed, right?

Even the system has not given this answer, because the technology related to this concept and the requirements for parsing the source point are question marks.

Sitting in his office, Chen Nian sighed deeply.

After hesitating for a long time, he finally put down his pen and put the messy manuscript paper back into his desk.

Then, he turned on his computer, clicked on the forum, and clicked on a very popular post.

What kind of future do you want?

Under this post, more than 200,000 people described the future world in their eyes - of course, this post should not have been so popular, but Chen Nian used a little privilege to push it to the highest level. location of attention.

Chen Nian has basically read the hundreds of previous answers.

Wild, conservative, wonderful, weird, there are all kinds of futures. From the novelty at the beginning, it has become a little boring now. Chen Nian spent less than a week on it.

He refreshed the page casually, not expecting to see anything new, but at this moment, the title of an answer jumped in front of him.

Humans may live on Earth forever.

The title stopped him dead in his tracks - because it had a different take on it than all the other posts.

Whether optimistic or pessimistic, everyone has at least the same view on the future, that is, they all believe that humans will definitely leave the earth and go into space.

After all, human beings have been yearning for the outer world since thousands of years ago, and now that the future is right in front of us, who would refuse to believe it?

Chen Nian clicked on the post and looked at the content.

Actually, this is a major paradox - if humans want to truly go into deep space, they must make a breakthrough in the field of basic physics.

But if we have already made breakthroughs in basic physics, why go to space?

We can get everything we need right here on Earth.

“It all includes resources, energy and the truth about the world.”

Well, maybe something like interstellar travel will be developed in the future, but that's outside the scope of our discussion.

In short, my view is that the earth is an island - or that the universe itself is an island.

Why do people living on the island want to leave the island?

These words are very mysterious, even a little unclear.

This also resulted in basically no response to this post, but after reading it, Chen Nian couldn't help but feel a chill.

Yes, no matter whether his subsequent inference is true or not, there is one thing he is really right about.

That is, if we can really make a breakthrough in the field of basic physics, there is a high probability that we will not go into the universe again.

This is an essential question and, as he said, a paradox.

Is this the Fermi Paradox, or the truth about the Great Filter?

If this is really the case, why does the system exist?

To overcome this paradox?

It seems reasonable?

Chen Nian touched his head subconsciously, and he suddenly came up with a somewhat crazy idea - maybe after he dies, he should donate his brain and dissect it to see if there is anything similar to a chip inside.

He laughed at his thought, and the dark emotions that had just invaded his mind disappeared.

What the hell!

World unity has not yet been realized, and people in mountainous areas still cannot afford to eat fried chicken for one dollar. I want to think about such macro issues?

Let’s leave it to scholars engaged in string theory and condensed matter to think about it!

Thinking of this, he closed the page, but before closing it, he curiously opened the author's homepage, took a screenshot of it and saved it.

There is no trumpet, the background cannot be seen, and the IP address shows that the location is in Shanxi.

Maybe it was the offhand answer of a bored college student.

Chen Nian didn't struggle anymore, but it was undeniable that this answer did plant a seed in his heart.

At the same time, in the study room of a luxurious villa.

The bearded man was sitting in the middle of the crowd. He had just finished his lecture and Q\u0026A and was making final conclusions.

So in the final analysis, the purpose of our organization is definitely not to destroy the world, let alone promote genocide like NAzi - of course, among the core concepts of the organization, there are indeed parts that can easily be misunderstood as wanting to carry out genocide. So-called 'genocide'.

But after my explanation just now, I think everyone can already tell the difference between us and NAzi.

In one sentence: We do not decide anyone's life or death, we just provide as fair a playing field as possible for all races.

Here, let me give you one more example.

“For example, why are we anti-American?”

The answer is simple, because they relied on the unique dividends of the era and an organizational structure that was eager for quick success to obtain resources far beyond what they should have, squeezing the living space of other races in the world and forming an abnormal competitive relationship.

So what we have to do is destroy the system, and keep destroying it, until they can be put back together in a framework that is in the overall interest of humanity.

This is what we are going to do. Now, is everyone clear?

After the words fell, the man looked around, waiting for everyone's answer.

It's very clear and well said.

Yes, I completely agree with this - and more importantly, this theory strips away the so-called populism and ultra-nationalism, allowing us to examine our views on the world from a more objective and clear-headed perspective. the emotions and demands of one’s own nation.”

This is good, it differentiates us from those 'low-level patriotic organizations'

Yes, but it is undeniable that I am still patriotic.

That's okay, it doesn't conflict with the philosophy of the organization.

Everyone agreed. Seeing that the atmosphere of the discussion became intense again, the man had no choice but to raise his hand and make a downward gesture.

Okay, let's leave the more specific discussion to our own small-scale gatherings after the meeting.

Now, as long as we can reach a consensus on the general direction, it will be fine.

Next, we have to do something more important.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone around him immediately fell silent.

Everyone knows what this means - when a task is issued, it means that the branch has been recognized by the upper management and will begin to play its role in the historical torrent.

The man coughed and continued:

We all know that early stage organizations have carried out several successful missions.

These include the Ras al-Khayla explosion, the Musk assassination and the Falcon 9 incident that we all know well.

However, a successful mission is not a perfect mission. Here, I want to reveal a top secret information to everyone.

The person responsible for Musk's assassination has been arrested by the national security department.

so fast?

someone asked in surprise.

Yes, very quickly. In a sense, this also illustrates China's advantage. But of course, this is not the focus we need to focus on.

What we need to focus on is that the rapid response of the national security department broke the cycle of the organization's operations and caused damage to the organization's credibility.

So, we have to find a way to rescue the executor.

As for how to rescue the executor, the organization gave us a suggestion.

That is, in exchange for conditions that China has to accept.

I'll put it bluntly here - we need to exchange Starfire's secret.

Is there anyone who doesn't know about the Spark Organization?

No one answered, and everyone assumed that they knew something about this organization.

This is a no-brainer.

Those who can appear at this party are all the first-class elites in this country. They play a leading role in all walks of life. Many of them have even had direct or indirect contact with Spark.

How could they not know about Starfire?

Looking at everyone's reactions, the man nodded slightly, and then continued:

Then I won't introduce Xinghuo too much. In short, this organization is the key to China's rapid development in the past ten years.

But until now, no one has been able to accurately describe what this organization is really like.

According to the official statement, this organization is an independent department and a highly centralized research institution. However, after verification by many parties, the credibility of this statement is constantly decreasing.

The general view is that on the surface, Chinese officials are not lying, but at the same time, they are not telling something more core.

So, what we have to do is to find this core.

.Is this treason?

Someone in the crowd asked, hesitantly.

of course not.

The man shook his head firmly and then said:

We will not use this information to do anything detrimental to China. All we need is official small-scale cooperation.

You all know my identity and my past experience. Do you think that I will do things that are detrimental to the country? Do you think that joining the organization is a sign of corruption on my part?

To be honest, I may have contributed more to the country than most people in the world.

The reason why we have to solve the problem in a secret and illegal way, to put it bluntly, is that we are bound by the so-called 'universal morality', which allows us to only exist in the backlight. In fact, our goal is different from China's goal. , are consistent”

Okay, we don't need to discuss this too much. Today we will just distribute tasks.

No one raised any further questions, so the man continued:

I need you to use your identity to contact the Spark organization as much as possible and collect as much information as possible.

Starting today and over the next two months, we will compile information weekly until we draw groundbreaking conclusions.

This job is actually not difficult. The only thing I need to remind you is: don't be deliberate and don't expose yourself.

The organization can accept no progress or failure, but it cannot accept being exposed to the world in advance. Do you understand?

Understood.

Everyone answered one after another, and then gradually dispersed.

After watching the last person leave the villa, the man returned to his seat in the study.

There is a work ID card on his desk.

The name of the department to which the work permit belongs has been mentioned by him many times.