Chapter 322: Hundred Years of Change

Crisis Era, year 342.

Despite the world being shocked by the discovery of Dinosaur Civilization, the development of humanity did not slow its pace.

After the Human Expedition Fleet encountered the Time-Space Binding Well of the Trisolaran Civilization, humanity also realized that it belonged to curvature weapons and began research on these weapons.

The Solar System Alliance needed only eight years to achieve a breakthrough from zero to one in spatial curvature research.

The primary goal of humanity's research on spatial curvature was to find solutions to counteract curvature weapons like the Time-Space Binding Well, acknowledging that curvature weapons could cause irreversible damage to space, an issue without solution.

Yet, the ruling elite saw a glimmer of hope for the future in this; if the Solar System ever faced a Dark Forest Strike, applying curvature to power engines and creating Lightspeed Spacecraft might be humanity's last hope.

However, upon understanding the Dark Domain effect caused by Lightspeed Spacecraft, they immediately kept this information secret from the public and classified it as top secret.

From this moment, the New Era began,

and within the Solar System Alliance, a top-secret project known as "Ark" was being quietly advanced.

Similarly, Wallfacer International was covertly undertaking a secret project that had been ongoing for over half a century, named "Death Star."

The Trisolarans were also executing a top-secret project in the shadows, codenamed "Ignition."

In fact, there wasn't much difference in terms of technology between Trisolaris, the Solar System Alliance, and Wallfacer International; their focuses in development just differed.

No one knew what kind of sparks would fly when the three projects "Ark," "Death Star," and "Ignition" collided in the future.

...

Time hurried by, and in the blink of an eye, a century had passed.

Crisis Era, year 443. (Humanity is too powerful now, looking up, hands on hips)

Over the past century, despite the rapid changes in technology, the political ecology of human society had not undergone revolutionary transformation. The Solar System Alliance remained the supreme political entity, maintaining peace and stability throughout the Solar System.

However, beneath this solid union, the independence among the allied powers became increasingly prominent, gaining ever higher levels of autonomy.

This trend was partly due to the rapid development of technology, which enabled the various powers to be more self-sufficient in resource exploitation, economic construction, technological research, etc.; on the other hand, it was also a result of the constantly growing demands for diversification and individualization in human society.

In fact, this was an inevitable rule of civilization development, and it was beneficial for the progress of human civilization.

In these hundred years, humanity established a superluminal internet covering the entire Solar System, and even the scale of superluminal relay platforms could be miniaturized. It allowed for the instant transmission of information and tightly linked all corners of the Solar System, forming a vast information exchange network.

At the same time, humanity also launched a large number of small superluminal relay drones disguised as meteorites. These drones appeared indistinguishable from meteorites on the outside, but inside, they carried passive surveillance systems. They were deployed within a range of 3,000 astronomical units around the sun, creating a massive surveillance network.

They served as sentinels for humanity, constantly vigilant for potential dangers, and provided valuable time to respond to possible Dark Forest Strikes.

Since humanity had not yet observed a real case of a Dark Forest Strike, there was no proposal for a shelter plan.

At the same time, due to the resolution of the Trisolaran crisis, there was a surge of voices within human society calling for a reduction in the manufacturing of warships. In the past, humanity had spared no effort in investing resources to build warships. But now, it seemed humanity could temporarily breathe a sigh of relief, channeling more energy and resources into improving the quality of life.

Ultimately, the Alliance's joint meeting agreed that the future development should prioritize the quality of human life while slowing down the construction of warships.

This was also a re-division of resource utilization, which was actually conducive to the development of human society.

In the field of material science, humanity had pushed the performance of Strong Interaction Material to its limit, bringing nuclear particles closer to their limit distance, also known as Neutron Star Material, or Neutron Degenerate Matter.

Humanity had previously been capable of creating Neutron Degenerate Matter, as the core vibrational strings of Gravitational Wave Broadcast were made of Neutron Degenerate Matter.

The massive antenna for Gravitational Wave Broadcast, for the most part, was just there to support and encase the materials for the few nanometers of Neutron Degenerate Matter that composed the Super Dense Strings. However, the stability of such material was not ideal, it would quickly decay, and once it reached its half-life, the function of Gravitational Wave Broadcast would be completely lost, which is why in the original text the Gravitational Wave Broadcast's half-life was only 50 years.

Now, the Strong Interaction Materials were almost on par with Neutron Degenerate Matter, and using them as the material for the Super Dense Strings of Gravitational Wave Broadcast, the size of the Gravitational Wave Broadcast would only be as big as a small house.

Furthermore, the application of this strong interaction material is far from limited; as the surface armor of warships, it would greatly enhance the defensive capabilities of the vessels, even allowing them to enter the blazing and dangerous center of a star.

The most powerful warships currently in service are the Neutron Star Warships, and as long as they avoid being hit at close range by glueball oscillation beams, they can virtually withstand any attacks without damage.

The theorem that offense is greater than defense seemed to be challenged by the advent of this type of defense, but there is also a consensus in the scientific community that this might be the ultimate defense.

There are still many technological theories for offense, but the theoretical limits of defense have been reached, and humanity has exhausted all its theories in defense.

Regarding quark degenerate matter, theoretically, such matter indeed exists; under special conditions, quarks can almost be free, and some theories even propose that such matter might be found inside certain neutron stars.

However, due to the confinement of quarks, the existence of free quarks is extremely difficult. Quark degenerate matter is also prone to rapid decay, has a short lifespan, and could even evolve into small black holes.

Quark degenerate matter is not only hard to form, but also lacks strong defensive power after formation. Because of its strict stability requirements, it is not an ideal defensive material, thus neutron degenerate matter represents the limit of conventional defensive capabilities.

In terms of offense, beyond glueball oscillation beams, there are numerous technologies that utilize matter curled up in high-dimensional space at the microscopic level.

Techniques like macro-atomic fusion are also a utilization of microscopic high-dimensional matter, although they were previously too inefficient.

If humanity were to battle the Trisolarans now, they could create ball lightning at a distance next to a Trisolaran warship, which would then enter the interior of the warship directly from high-dimensional space, triggering a macro-atomic fusion explosion. No defense could stop it, and its power would be hundreds of times that of human macro-atomic fusion at the beginning of the Crisis Era.

The engines of humanity's future might be dark matter engines. Matter curled up in high-dimensional space at the microscopic scale, also known as dark matter, can also be utilized as a power source for warships.

But although this technology has a promising future, humanity still finds it difficult to utilize, and it is expected that this technology will remain immature for the next few hundred years.

The forefront of modern physics has fully entered the era of microscopic high dimensions, and research into dark matter is the mainstream of scientific development.

Many scholars believe that upon reaching a certain level of dark matter research, humanity will truly grasp the essence of gravity. In the future, we may see artificial gravity, gravity well bombs...

Classified by civilization level, this is a solid 1.3 level civilization, and another leap in civilization level has been achieved in this century.

...

Lastly, the greatest potential change in human society may be humanity itself, as humans are increasingly evolving towards a hybrid of part human, part smartmachine.

We need not worry too much about this half-human, half-smartmachine trend. For example, wearing glasses or implanting intelligent chips in the eyes of space humans for smart zooming is, in essence, a modification of the eyes.

We use smartphones, and in the future, humans may implant them into their palms, eyes, and ears, which is simply a further utilization of tools.

At the onset of the space age, the microgravity environment had numerous effects on the human body, the most obvious being changes to the skeleton and muscles. Initially, an effective but primitive method was adopted, using electrotherapy capsules to stimulate the muscles and maintain their function.

Latter, with the development of nanorobots, these robots were also implanted into the human body. They could even regulate bodily functions at an extremely fine level. These bots could also repair damaged cells and remove diseased cells, preserving the body in a state of perpetual health.

Now, these robots can even fuse with the nervous system. Nanorobots not only help process vast amounts of information but also assist in complex thought and decision-making, far surpassing the function of human interfaces.

This has resulted in a complete overhaul of human lifestyles, work habits, and social patterns.

Not only the internal physiological functions but also the external appearance and form of humans have undergone tremendous changes.

Their body lines have become more streamlined and elegant. Although their muscles are no longer as pronounced or strong as in the past, they now possess greater flexibility and endurance.

Their skin has become fair and elastic, as if it were carefully sculpted porcelain, smooth and delicate, full of vitality.

However, their arms have become abnormally elongated, nearly reaching the knees, while their legs, in comparison, seem short, giving their overall physique a resemblance to Earth's "Great Macaque."

The aesthetic concepts of the space age have also undergone revolutionary changes, where today's aesthetics is a new type of aesthetic that merges strength with flexibility.

Beauty is the sediment of history, and the "Great Macaque"-like figure, after a long period of cultural immersion, has gradually become accepted and even a symbol of beauty. This form of beauty results not only from the deposit of history but also from the natural selection for adaptability to the space environment.

While feminine aesthetics occupy a certain place in the market, the mainstream concept of beauty remains a combination of strength and flexibility.

Of course, some social psychologists analyze that if today's comfortable social status continues to develop for another 100 years, feminine aesthetics will inevitably become mainstream, and perhaps strength and toughness will be excluded from the aesthetics altogether.