Chapter 390 New Theory on Dark Forest

Fate seems to always play cruel jokes on intelligent life. The new world did not become the rejuvenation site for civilization as humanity had hoped, but instead gradually became a tragic stage shackled by both technology and spirit.

At some point, the Dark Forest became a shadow in everyone's heart, looming like a great peak over everyone's minds, slowly dragging this world into an endless abyss.

This world had already declined, and people began to forget their yearning for the stars and dreams, replaced instead by the fear of the Dark Forest and a pathological pursuit of survival safety.

Even within civilization, there emerged voices proposing to turn the Lou Su Star System into a Low Light Speed Curtain, their slogan shouting, "We aspire towards the light, but fate has doomed us to choose darkness."

The reason being that the universe is a Dark Forest; they were following the will of the universe to achieve immortality within the dark veil.

This seemingly rational choice was actually a helpless compromise to the cruel laws of the universe, and a profound revelation of their own vulnerability.

In this seemingly hopeful yet secretly tumultuous new world, humanity ironically proved again their contradictions and frailty. Even after escaping from the Dark Forest of old days, the inner fears and greed were enough to once again push civilization toward the abyss of self-destruction.

Despite this land of despair, there were still many hopeful individuals trying to save this lost civilization. Yet the development of society never shifted with the will of humanity.

The rise and fall of civilizations might just be a fleeting glimmer in the long and indifferent history of the universe, insignificant yet also silently articulating the indomitable struggle and helplessness of intelligent life, as well as that eternal longing for the unknown...

Crisis Era, year 1919.

Finally, a calamity triggered by a misjudgment of the Dark Forest Theory, like the hammer of doomsday judgment, mercilessly pushed this once brilliant civilization into an abyss from which there was no return.

Thereby, people of the new world believed their world's coordinates had been exposed, and thus, the extreme and desperate Low Light Speed Curtain project was about to be carried out.

That year, Zhang Beihai, this aged man who had slumbered through the long years, awoke from his hibernation. Although he was nearly 200 years old physically, his eyes were still as sharp as an eagle's, and his shoulders were still robust, capable of bearing the weight of a new interstellar voyage. His awakening seemed like the last grace bestowed by fate on this wandering fleet.

Over a thousand lightspeed spacecraft, like a silver meteor swarm, pierced the silence of the universe. They carried those ambitious humans, yearning for the sea of stars, unwilling to submit to fate, leaving behind this world to be mercilessly swallowed by darkness. Their departure was the last leap of the spark of civilization in desperation.

The entire Lou Su Star System, then shrouded under the Low Light Speed Curtain, gradually sank into an eternal darkness.

Nine hundred years of civilization development, like a brilliant yet brief dream, shattered resoundingly in this disaster. The Deep Space Fleet, once the ark of hope for human civilization, had now become homeless children, drifting in the vast and cruel universe.

Having undergone such radical changes, they might have truly grown up; darker than the universe were the heart's greed and fear. They stumbled into the dark depths of the universe and had not learned how to establish themselves immediately. Every attempt and exploration came with a steep price of blood and tears.

Finally, through repeated setbacks and trials, they paid a painful price, but gradually learned how to navigate the Dark Forest.

They reclaimed the name Deep Space Fleet, perhaps through some unknown intuition, this time they chose the direction of the Perseus constellation.

...

Crisis Era, year 2376.

After over 150 years of faster-than-light travel, the Deep Space Fleet left faster-than-light travel and after more than 300 years of conventional travel arrived at an inconspicuous red dwarf star, 190 light-years from the Solar System, which would become their second world.

This star system was also named Deep Sea Star, taking a character from Deep Space Fleet and Zhang Beihai, symbolizing a probe into the universe from the depths.

At this moment, they had completed a true transformation; they and the humans of the past were now psychologically two different species. They also named themselves the Deep Sea Civilization of humanity.

The Deep Sea Star System also had a planet, which became the next rise of hope for the Deep Space Fleet.

This planet was only the size of Mercury, very close to the constant star, and tidally locked. It had no atmosphere or ocean, the entire planet was a desert, but this perhaps better suited the current Deep Sea Civilization of humanity.

They constructed vast bases underground on the planet, with the Deep Space Fleet hidden beneath them. In this concealed space, they began a new life and exploration.

Also, during this interstellar migration, the technological level of the Deep Sea Civilization finally broke through to level 1.3.

However, fate seemed to play another joke on them, as they could not find the pathway to a level 1.4 civilization. The advancement in civilization rank had once again fallen into a stagnant predicament.

The Deep Sea Civilization did not choose to give up. They invested substantial resources into the study of Future History, combining the human development trajectory of the Lou Su Star System to establish a colossal cosmic social model. Through this model, they simulated various possible paths for the future of human civilization, trying to find a way to break through the predicament.

However, all simulation results revealed a frustrating fact: it was extremely difficult for human society to usher in a new era of thought and technological explosions. It seemed that only a force from the outside, a completely new civilization, could stimulate a new evolutionary journey for human society.

But the hidden costs behind such power were huge, possibly even leading to the extinction of the entire civilization. Introducing a new civilization was undoubtedly a high-stakes gamble, and the bet was the existence of civilization itself.

Thus, combined with the current state of the universe under the Dark Forest, humanity could now glimpse a corner of the entire universe, which was also the true reason the Dark Forest had formed.

Future History scholars believe that the Dark Forest is not solely a result of the chain of suspicion, but more fundamentally, it is also a drive of higher civilizations.

The derivation process of the Dark Forest has a loophole, or rather, the discourse exhibits a degree of one-sidedness.

Higher civilizations fear that new civilizations experiencing a technological explosion may threaten their own safety. Coupled with the chain of suspicion that prevents communication between the two sides, they thus adopt the most rational preemptive strike strategy, namely initiating sweeps to prevent future problems.

However, such sweeping actions are not very effective; it is not only impossible to sweep all low-level civilizations, but even civilizations at level 1.2 have mastered the technology of light-speed escape, so what is the point of such sweeping?

Moreover, higher civilizations must have a clearer understanding of the structure and rules of cosmic society. At their level, it is hardly easy for any two higher civilizations to annihilate each other.

In their eyes, there may not exist such a thing as the Dark Forest; old higher civilizations can hardly do anything to each other, and it is even more so for newly emerging higher civilizations. Therefore, their need to conduct large-scale sweeps on low-level civilizations is actually not the most urgent.

So, what force drives them to dispatch countless Sweepers to ruthlessly cleanse those low-level civilizations?

This leads to new conjectures: one is the mode of war, the other is the protection of living space.

The mode of war for higher civilizations has completely changed. Now, humans can use space and light-speed, even curvature weapons for "defense"; how strong, then, are the curvature weapons of higher civilizations, which can even construct a "Low Light Speed Great Wall" spanning bridges?

Their modes of attack are almost unimaginable, and there could even be Dimension Lowering Weapons (the dimension reduction conjecture was speculated when Lin Sen entered Quantum Space and talked with Lin Yun).

Higher civilizations have also come to deeply recognize that the path to the advancement and development of civilizations is filled with numerous shackles. And the most important means to break these shackles is through contact and warring between civilizations.

However, war is brutal, even the wars between medium-level civilizations are long and arduous.

They will spare no effort to tap into all possible war potentials, casting the embers of every conflict into the abyss of the cosmos. The scars made between the stars, like unhealable cracks, gradually erode the vitality of space until this vast realm becomes no longer suitable for the sustenance of any life.

This is also one of the first two topics studied by the Divine Vessel Civilization at the beginning of their venture into interstellar space: whether a civilization can directly grow into a higher civilization within its Home Star System.

The sweep operations conducted by higher civilizations, in essence, are not about cold conquest, but perhaps more about the protection of this cosmic space, even as the wars of low-level civilizations become uncontrollable in the later stages.

Under the conditions of the Dark Forest, the enthusiasm of low-level civilizations to freely explore other worlds will be suppressed, leaning more toward staying within their Home Star Systems.

Under the conditions of the Dark Forest, low-level civilizations also dare not use large-scale weapons that would destroy the cosmic environment when waging wars with each other.

Under the conditions of the Dark Forest, low-level civilizations are more easily bound by their own limitations and fears, gradually heading toward decay within various constraints.

Thus,

The Dark Forest does not care how many civilizations are being swept, nor how many low-level civilizations are cleared away.

The Dark Forest cares about making all civilizations realize that this is a Dark Forest, filling them with awe and fear of the vast sea of stars.

The Dark Forest cares about making all civilizations too afraid of the unknown to daringly step out of their Home Planet or to interact and come into contact with other civilizations.

The Dark Forest cares about sinking all civilizations into fear, allowing their own limitations and fears to devour them, avoiding deeper damage to this cosmos.

...

PS: This chapter's discourse on the Dark Forest diverges from the original text, yet the author believes it to be a derivation.

The author feels this is more rational; higher civilizations actually do not need to sweep low-level civilizations, and also cannot completely sweep them away.

Thus, the author leans toward the idea that the Dark Forest is a state of the cosmos created by higher civilizations, aimed at preventing all civilizations from easily exploring and contacting others.

And the usual Hines Strike is also a light particle, which to some extent does not cause significant damage to the universe, and this is also a form of cosmic protection.

As for why the Singer used the Two-dimensional foil, a weapon of destruction, the reason might be that their Home Civilization had perhaps failed in a war, prompting them to also embrace some destructive tendencies.

Of course, through the analysis of the original text, the Two-dimensional foil that destroyed the Solar System might not have been deployed by the Singer; the civilization that deployed the Two-dimensional foil might also have a tendency toward destruction.

The original text also mentioned that after eighteen million years, there would hardly be any space suitable for survival in this universe.

From this timeline, one might deduce that it's no longer the moment of a cosmic Cold War; the universe may have already begun to erupt into a new round of massive cosmic-level wars.

The Divine Vessel Civilization will also face greater challenges.