Chapter 366: The Evolution of Technology and the Era

After humanity had crossed the threshold of a 1.4-ranked civilization, they realized that the path to advancing civilization became increasingly difficult. All that was left was the vast road of exploration, and it took humanity a full five hundred years to barely brush the edge of the next civilization rank.

The standard for a 1.5-ranked civilization still used the energy utilization index, which required a revolutionary breakthrough in the field of technology, the kind that could overturn existing knowledge and open up a new era with new power.

Just as with the chasm between the 0.6-ranked industrial age and the 0.5-ranked Iron Age, the arrival of the industrial age was like a whirlwind technological advance that pushed the efficiency of energy consumption to unprecedented heights.

An industrialized city of that time, with its incredible production capacity, could surpass the total output of a dozen Iron Age nations combined. The difference was not just a matter of quantitative accumulation but also a qualitative change manifested.

A 1.4-ranked human civilization had pushed the research of the four fundamental forces to the utmost, completing the magnificent puzzle of the grand unification theory.

However, humanity, filled with anticipation, thought that the breakthrough opportunity for a 1.5-ranked civilization would be in the fundamental research and technological utilization of dark matter and dark energy.

Yet, on this exploratory path, humanity had already stumbled for over two hundred years, still without any significant achievements.

The dark matter curled up in the high-dimensional space at the microscopic level could only be harnessed by humanity in some trivial applications of entanglement resonance, while the real breakthroughs remained as elusive as a mirage.

As time passed, humanity also understood that if a great breakthrough could be achieved in this field of research, it would mean breaking the boundaries between different dimensions.

The dark matter coiled in the microscopic high-dimensional space was, in fact, a relic or remnant of the original four-dimensional space of the universe after a dimensional reduction. If the resources here could be infinitely utilized, then civilizations in different dimensions might also exist within a Dark Forest.

What was once a hopeful direction of research was now shrouded by a heavy haze. Humanity's technical approach to utilizing dark matter had nearly come to a standstill, and it was necessary to find other directions for breakthroughs.

Ultimately, humanity identified two possible directions that might lead them to new heights.

One was the mass decay direction. We know in the Higgs mechanism, gauge bosons such as W and Z bosons, which were originally massless, undergo a transformation into massive particles when they absorb a certain "excitation" from the Higgs field.

In addition, fermions like quarks and leptons gain mass by experiencing resistance within the Higgs field due to the Yukawa coupling, thereby exhibiting mass.

Humanity envisioned that if this process could be reversed, mass could be directly transformed into energy.

Of course, the mass of common matter, such as protons and neutrons, is 95% derived from the strong interaction binding energy between quarks, manifesting as mass.

Humanity had long achieved the reversal of binding energy, but it could not achieve a controlled chain reaction. The most fundamental part of this process is the reversal of the 5% of mass produced by the Higgs mechanism.

If the mass decay technology direction could be completed, it would be a great leap for human civilization. Any form of matter could potentially become fuel for combustion.

The re-fusion engine in planetary engines would be replaced by the new mass decay engines, becoming the new driving force for advancing civilization.

In the armamentarium of warships, mass decay technology would also shine. It could induce mass decay in the enemy from a great distance, turning them into nothingness.

Even the indestructible neutron star warships would be easily shattered like fragile glass in the face of mass decay weapons.

The second direction is quantum fluctuations and vacuum zero-point energy. In quantum field theory, virtual particles (virtual energy) are temporary particles that are created and annihilated with real particles (real energy) in a very short period, a phenomenon known as quantum fluctuations.

The vacuum zero-point energy attack of the dinosaur civilization amplified these quantum fluctuations by lengthening the annihilation time of the real and virtual energies after they were produced. Thus, macroscopic matter crumbled and dissipated like fragile dreams under the force of this impact.

The acceleration process of the high-energy Sophon Beam of the Mountain Civilization also utilized the phenomenon of quantum fluctuations. After the emergence of real and virtual energies in space, Sophons directly harnessed real energy for acceleration, while the leftover virtual energy caused a microscopic space storm.

This theoretical weaponry concept continues to deepen, and an unprecedented concept of weapons gradually emerges - the vacuum superzero field.

If real and virtual energies are simultaneously produced on this superzero field, they will immediately transfer to both sides, and by harnessing both energies, we could obtain two forms of energy in space.

The use of real energy needs no elaboration; it has long been the cornerstone of the development of civilization. However, virtual energy is also an extremely precious resource, with potential uses that might be more extensive than we imagine.

In the future, we may carve out a completely new technical route for exploiting virtual energy. That will be the true future of civilization, a new era brimming with infinite possibilities and wonders.

If energy from the virtual realm was used during combat, any attack targeting it or launched by it would instantly be nullified.

After another long three hundred years, humanity finally made a breakthrough in the exploration of mass decay, stepping into the coveted threshold of a 1.5 rank civilization.

At the same time, the Mountain Civilization also achieved a remarkable breakthrough in the direction of quantum fluctuations, similarly reaching the splendor of a 1.5 rank civilization.

In fact, we can see that the direction of quantum fluctuations undoubtedly holds a much broader prospect. The highest conversion efficiency of mass decay is the mass-energy formula.

In the realm of quantum fluctuations, the energy produced in a very small space is almost infinite. The most environmentally friendly aspect is that space is also without limits.

But this technological pathway is necessarily more difficult and challenging, requiring unimaginable effort and cost.

The Mountain Civilization has only taken a short journey on this technological path, yet they have achieved a 1.5 rank civilization, and perhaps this path could even support them in entering a 1.6 rank civilization.

Although the mass decay technology of human civilization seems to have reached its end with no more prospects to speak of, this technology undeniably holds a more significant practical meaning for humanity today.

*

In this era, the human world has entered an unprecedented stage of prosperity, with resources being extremely abundant. Work is no longer just a means to make a living, but an important way to realize personal value and social contribution.

Human technological development has completely abandoned the once-integrated model of production, learning, and research, and it has even gotten to the point where advancements in technology do not bring about any change to human society.

Take smart terminals, for example, their performance has long surpassed the limits of human needs. The high-resolution quality is far beyond what the human eye can discern, becoming a useless luxury. And the time it takes to download 10T of data is the same as for 1KB of data, in fact the concept of downloading no longer exists in this era.

Against this backdrop, private capital hardly invests in product research, only investing at most in some emotional art design and other "high-value-added" products.

And real cutting-edge scientific research has become a forbidden zone that private capital cannot reach.

On one hand, they do not have the strength to undertake the massive investment and resource consumption; on the other hand, even if they are fortunate enough to delve into it, the scientific products researched will not bring them high value returns.

In most cases, private capital can only serve as a peripheral supplement to civilization-level projects. They are like a group of small fish swimming next to a giant ship, relying on the bids they receive for the peripheral equipment of civilization-level projects to sustain their existence.

All this, as if history is repeating itself, has once again taken us back to the era of planned economy. However, what's different from before is that this system has emerged naturally, as if it were simply part of the order of things.

In this era, the quality of life for the average person has reached an unprecedented height. Wealth and happiness have become the norm.

In this era, wealth symbolizes more the realization of personal value than the embodiment of exploitative value, which refers to the value of depriving others of labor time.

In such a society, humanity will pay more attention to spiritual pursuits and the realization of individual value.

During this high-intelligence era, and with the oversight of other civilizations, the upper echelons of humanity will not quickly become corrupt. Decisions made by highly intelligent systems ensure that the allocation of social resources is extremely efficient and fair, with information and knowledge becoming the most precious assets.

This is virtually the communalist society humanity has longed for. In this society, everyone can freely pursue their dreams and values without the fear of being shackled by material constraints.

Of course, there are still some aspects of today's society that require macro control by the rulers to guide its healthy development. For instance, humanity has long stepped onto the threshold of an era of unlimited electric power; theoretically, there seems to be no value or market for researching energy-saving products anymore.

However, rulers still charge high electricity fees, not out of greed or shortsightedness, but to maintain social stability and continuous operation.

Furthermore, even though humanity has vast resources at its disposal, when compared to the enormous resources required for unknown cosmic exploration, it still seems insignificant. Conservation is not only a virtue but a necessity for survival.

Today's rulers are no longer those foolish enough to make political promises like free electricity just to pull a few votes.

The standards required of rulers in this era are the highest in history. Not only do they need to possess exceptional wisdom and profound insight, but they must also be capable of guiding human society steadily forward in the raging torrent of technology.