Chapter 142 Intergalactic War Scenario_1

Feng Zi: "I am a soldier, and because I like to think outside the box tactically, I'm accustomed to using military thought to tackle problems."

"In military terms, 'detection equals destruction' is a concept of informational warfare."

"In my view, future space warfare is unlikely to feature ship-to-ship exchanges of broadsides or fighter jets darting across the battlefield. Accurately speaking, space fighters are really just small combat platforms."

"Nor will there be space combined fleet formations similar to carrier battle groups, nor distinctions like main battle cruisers, joint command ships, frigates, or comprehensive supply ships..."

"Because interstellar warfare is more akin to the silent, invisible battles between submarines."

"They share two essential similarities:

First, in terms of dimensionality, both are truly three-dimensional engagements;

"Second, in the mode of warfare, to some extent, they are both blind."

"The means of warfare involves detecting and analyzing the target, whereas attacking the target is secondary, for the moment an attack begins, it signals the end, where either you die or I perish."

"In interstellar space, our external perceptions cannot exceed the speed of light, and given the vast distances involved, the speed of light is practically no different from blindness."

"Like submarine warfare, the primary aim is to search and discover the enemy. Whoever is found first loses the initiative."

"Interstellar warfare is much more complex, where one cannot dare to scout each other out, sometimes not even knowing if the enemy exists, and any target detected might also be a trap."

"How should one analyze a target? Is it attackable? Can it continue to be tracked and observed? Does the opposition possess stronger retaliatory weapons?"

"Finally, there are attack and defense strategies. According to the most advanced military theories today, future directed energy weapons are predicted to be very powerful, potentially rendering any defense useless."

"The Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet would be no different in terms of defenses; it's unlikely they have achieved epoch-making progress or significant innovations in defense—at least, our current theories do not support such futuristic defenses."

"Everything returns to submarine warfare in the deep ocean, which has its constraints. We have a certain level of knowledge about the enemy, but in interstellar space, we are unaware of everything."

"Such warfare ultimately leads to one outcome… exposure means destruction, and everyone must hide."

Feng Zi saw the picture of warfare among interstellar civilizations from a military perspective, where the inability to communicate meant exposure equals destruction.

This is also a new kind of Dark Forest, similar to his own proposal for the Deep Space Fleet, and can be described as an expansion of the Dark Forest Theory.

The only mistake Feng Zi made was his understanding of defenses—of course, apart from Lin Sen at that time, no one realized the defensive means of the Trisolarans, the defense with strong interaction materials, which was a truly epoch-making product.

Trisolarans lacked resources and couldn't extensively use this defensive capability. If the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet were equipped with a large amount of such defense materials, they could accelerate to the highest speed and coast inertially to the Solar System; then the Solar System would already have been conquered by now.

Lin Sen: "Your understanding of warfare is very profound. The picture of interstellar civilization warfare is totally different from the wars we imagine, and your line of thought is the correct one.

"The only model we can refer to for interstellar civilization warfare is submarine warfare. Even if the weapons used in interstellar warfare are different, it only adds more tactical choices to the interstellar submarine battle.

"Interstellar civilization warfare breaks free from any rules and is a hundred times more complex than submarine warfare."

Feng Zi: "I feel that the universality of 'exposure means destruction' does not only apply to the military field but is also relevant in sociology."

Lin Sen: "You must have a very unique understanding of sociology, and it's not true that you don't understand it as you claim.

"Or, to put it another way, when military studies reach a certain depth, they become sociology, even philosophy. Can you share your thoughts on the relationship between human civilization and Trisolaran civilization?"

Feng Zi: "I have been pondering why we and the Trisolarans cannot achieve communication and cooperation?

"Human civilization and Trisolaris could form a joint civilization. What they lack is only a stable living environment.

"The vastness of the Solar System can fully accommodate two civilizations; the fusion of the two civilizations would undoubtedly accelerate the development of both sides.

"We might have misconceptions about civilization, often viewing it as two countries in different regions. Our first impression is to cooperate and compete."

"But interstellar civilization might be completely different from our expectations, possibly overturning all our understandings.

"Our civilizational moral attributes are different, and substantive communication between us is impossible.

"The barriers between people are constrained by the current social ideologies (that is, morals) and social coercive measures (that is, laws) and are gradually obscured, but they have not vanished."

"The moral attributes of civilizations between different countries, even between different civilizations, are entirely different; the barriers cannot be eliminated. In the infinite space of the stars, these barriers are vastly amplified."

"Like the Trisolarans, even if they monitor every moment, they cannot trust us, and any communication between us will not yield substantial results."

Lin Sen agreed, saying: "The moral attributes of a civilization form its social ideology, and civilizations have differing moral attributes.

"However, sociology and civilizational ideologies cannot be calculated through models. This type of calculation is akin to using quantum mechanics to compute relativistic mechanics.

"That is the greatest barrier to communication, whose superficial characteristic is the formation of a suspicion chain."

"Distance and suspicion are not the biggest barriers to communication, morality is!"

"I even wonder, if the moral attributes of a civilization are inconsistent, can they still be considered one civilization? Can they communicate with each other?" Feng Zi added.

Indeed, Feng Zi's understanding refreshed Lin Sen's perspective of him once again.

In the original work, there are many instances that illustrate the point that even people living together cannot communicate due to differing moral attributes.

Typical examples include the new humans after the Great Ravine being incompatible with the Common Era People; and the "Bronze Age" spaceship returning to Earth for judgment after the Doomsday Battle.

The captain's statement, "Those who truly enter space, are no longer human. The price to move into space without ever looking back, is much greater than you imagine."

And the final cry of the crew member, "Do not return, this is not home!"

Both indicate one problem, that people with different moral attributes cannot communicate.

Lin Sen: "Maybe it is possible to communicate, but the price is too great for us to bear.

"The most rational action is 'do not reply'. There are too many 'us' around, we are afraid, and the Trisolarans are even more afraid.

"The key point is that the Trisolarans are afraid of us, sociology is not mathematics, it cannot be deduced mathematically."

Feng Zi: "Yes, the price might be too great for us to bear.

"Thank you for your answer, Mr. Lin Sen, I've found the answer now."

The two did not communicate about the Dark Forest issue, and Lin Sen did not even answer anything, everything was Feng Zi speaking his own conjectures, and Lin Sen merely affirmed appropriately.

With these words, everything became clear, and Feng Zi also understood the real threat posed by Logic to the Trisolarans, and he himself might have become one of those facing the wall.

"Now that you've found your answer, what do you plan to do next?" Lin Sen asked.

At this moment, Lin Sen suddenly had an idea, wasn't this person the best candidate to carry out the Lagrange Project?

This era had brought him too many surprises; individuals of such astonishing talent were buried unnoticed in his original timeline.

Xiang Gaofeng surpassed himself and Logic in terms of intelligence, temperament, skills, and qualities.

If he had a stage to display his talents, he might even achieve more than Zhang Beihai and Wade.

"Plans? I don't know, this era should be... sufficient with you all," Feng Zi replied.

"Each of us has our own value, and we are all looking for a place to realize that value, I have a question for you too," Lin Sen said.

"Please, I will withhold nothing in my answers!" Feng Zi replied.

"I have read about your experience in the Cat Ear Cave, over those twenty-plus days, and I admire your perseverance.

"The violently trembling ground and the extreme cold could have swallowed you at any moment, and you must have thought about giving up countless times, but you held on.

"Do you think, if humans underwent the same pain and despair, they would have the belief to persist?" Lin Sen asked.

"During those days in Cat Ear Cave, what tortured me most was actually the anxiety and loss.

"The violently trembling ground, as if I would die the next moment, and the rocks above that seemed they could collapse at any second.

"I refused to let myself fall because I knew that once I did, the shaking ground would shatter my insides, and the extreme cold could put me to eternal sleep.

"I also thought, there was no need to persist anymore, if death was the ultimate outcome, better to rest a while and cherish my last moments — perhaps that was the right thing to do.

"In truth, people sometimes feel the same whether in a cramped space or an infinite expanse, both can induce claustrophobia. I prayed that the mountain wouldn't collapse, thinking I was surely doomed.

"At that moment, my thoughts were also bewildered, strangely I found a ludicrous goal; I was in a contest of will with Cat Ear Cave, as if seeing the cave collapse would mean my victory," Feng Zi slowly recounted.

"In pain and despair, the most dangerous is the loss of goals?

"In extreme situations, we need an attainable goal, no matter how absurd, it could be the motivation that keeps us going.

"It seems that humanity needs an attainable goal as well," Lin Sen lamented.

PS: This chapter's understanding of interstellar war has evolved from the Dark Forest; certainly interstellar war will not be battleships firing at each other; that efficiency would be too low.

The breadth of the war could even span several astronomical units, and the speeds of the battleships would also be very fast. At 10% the speed of light, the weaponry deployed, and the perception of information relative to that speed, actually wouldn't be much in excess.

Interstellar war is like a bunch of unprotected blindfolded people shooting arrows at each other.

Of course, this mode of war is limited to low-level civilizations like humans and Trisolarans; even the Trisolarans, if they had the resources, could don armor for themselves.