Most of them were extinguished.
En Ya's words were like a cold wind. Gwen, who was about to get excited, instantly calmed down. His face became calm as he carefully tasted the information behind the 'extinguished'. After a long time, he broke the silence. "Extinguished … What kind of extinguished? Do you mean they all went extinct for various reasons? "
"Those signals were like lights flashing in the distance at night. Perhaps due to the limitations of technology, the flashing lights could only reveal very limited information. Sometimes the information was so simple that it could only convey the meaning of 'I am here'. Then, at some point, some of the signals would suddenly disappear, and no new information would come. There are too many secrets and truths buried in the vast universe. In the darkness, I can't see anything."
En Ya spoke slowly, as if she was picking up the yellowed pages of a book from a distant and blurry memory.
"I don't know what exactly happened to them. Just like other minds trapped on this planet, I can only guess the end of those civilizations by speculating about the known phenomena. But some of them … I have successfully deciphered the messages they sent. Basically, I can confirm that they were either destroyed by natural disasters or perished by the gods."
Gwen subconsciously repeated the last few words. "Perished by the gods?"
En Ya said softly, "Perished by the gods — their own gods. Among the few signals that have been successfully deciphered, I have indeed heard their final cry in the midst of the wrath of the gods. Even though that cry had crossed the distant stars, it was still so mournful and desperate that it was unbearable to hear. "
"So, as we have speculated before, if there are intelligent creatures on other planets, if their world also follows the natural law that we understand, then they will also face what we face …" Gwen took a deep breath. "After they developed to a certain extent, they also triggered the ritual of 'final disobedience', leading to the loss of control of the gods and the destruction of the world …"
En Ya did not say anything. Gwen paused for a moment and then asked, "What about the destruction by natural disasters? What kind of natural disasters are they? "
"Most of the signals that could be transmitted across the galaxy were vague, and very few of them could transmit clear and detailed information. Especially after the outbreak of the 'catastrophe', the civilization that sent the message often fell into chaos. The chaos was more serious than the arrival of the gods, so they could no longer organize the manpower to send an orderly 'final cry' to outer space," En Ya said quietly as if she was analyzing a corpse. She told Gwen about the cruel clues she had encountered in the past one million years. "So, the description of the 'catastrophe' is very messy and fragmented. But it is this messy and fragmented state that makes me almost certain that they encountered the 'demonic tide'."
Demonic Tide.
At this moment, Gwen's expression did not change in the slightest. Even though there were strong ripples in his heart, these strong ripples only confirmed the guesses he had made a long time ago.
En Ya's conclusion was within his expectations. The demonic tide was not limited to this planet, but a common phenomenon in the universe. They would fairly and periodically sweep across the entire starry sky, erasing the records left by civilizations in the stars.
The golden dome in the room remained silent. En Ya seemed to be carefully observing Gwen's expression. After a moment of silence, she spoke again. "All of these are just my conclusions based on the phenomena I have observed. I can't guarantee that they are accurate, but one thing is certain — this universe is more prosperous than we think, but also more dead. The dark and deep starry sky is full of flickering candles of civilization, but under those candles, there are more tombs that have long been extinguished."
"Do the Dragons know about these things?" Gwen suddenly asked curiously.
"They only know a small part of it, but no dragon dares to go deeper," En Ya said calmly. "For a long time of 1.87 million years, there have been dragons watching the starry sky from the critical point of danger. But I have blocked all the signals from the outside world and interfered with their perception of the starry sky. As you know, in the past Tarlonde, looking up at the starry sky was a taboo."
"But their god of gods has been paying attention to the sounds between the stars and even did so much research." Gwen looked at the golden dome in front of him with a strange expression. "If no Dragons can look up at the starry sky, then how did you —"
"Close your eyes and listen carefully," En Ya said with a smile. "Do you remember? At the top of the Great Temple of Tarlonde, there is the highest observatory. I often stand there and listen to the sounds from the universe. It is dangerous to take the initiative to go to the starry sky, but if the signals have been transmitted to this planet, it is not so easy to lose control by listening passively.
"But even so, it is not easy. Every time I stand on the observatory, I have to fight against two forces at the same time. One is my own resistance and fear of the unknown deep space, and the other is my impulse as a god to destroy the mortal world. So I have to be very careful to control the frequency of my visits to the observatory to maintain myself at the critical point of losing control."
Gwen listened to En Ya talk about these secrets that no one else knew. He could not help but ask curiously, "Why do you do this? Since this will cause you so much pressure … "
"Curious," En Ya said. "Aren't you curious?"
"… Nature and instinct are not the same, right?" Gawain shook his head with a wry smile after a brief moment of astonishment. "You know what? What you've told me reminds me of a theory that has been circulating in 'my hometown.'"
"Your hometown … the hometown of the wanderers?" En Ya's tone changed. "What kind of theory is it?"
"The Great Filter." Gwen sighed softly and patiently explained, "It is a filtering mechanism in front of all civilizations that determines whether they are lucky enough to step out of the starry sky. We believe that the process of life growing from nothing and gradually developing into an advanced interstellar civilization can be divided into several stages, and at least one of the stages is extremely dangerous and has a slim chance of survival. Some kind of crisis will cause almost all species to go extinct in this stage, so that they can't step out of their planet. This harsh screening and elimination mechanism is the Great Filter.
"We can't be sure when and in what form the Great Filter will appear. Before stepping into the starry sky, we can't be sure whether a civilization has luckily passed the test of the Great Filter, or if the test is tomorrow. But in this world, this problem that has troubled scholars seems to have an answer."
"Are the demonic wave and the calamity of the gods the Great Filter we have to face?" A gentle and calm voice came from the giant golden egg. "Ah, this is really a novel and interesting theory … Wanderer of the outer realm, it seems that in your world, there are also many brilliant scholars who are paying attention to the mysteries of the world … I really hope that I can get to know them."
This question had involved a complex field that was difficult to answer. Gawain cautiously stopped before the topic went further. In fact, he had already said a lot of things that he would never say to others, but he had never thought that he could talk about these topics involving the stars, the future, and extraterrestrial civilizations with people in this world. He could not help but want to continue to discuss more things with the Dragon God because it was hard to find a confidant.
"You just said that you have at least 'heard' the sound of shuttling in the universe hundreds of times." He thought of a new question. "And the sender of those signals did not encounter the calamity of the gods when they made the call. Does this mean that the act of building interstellar communication itself will not cause the gods to lose control?"
This was critical because "where is the final critical point of the gods losing control?" had always been the most concerned question of the Theocracy Council and the past rebels.
At present, scholars had separated the phenomenon of the collective loss of control of all the gods in the world from the 'calamity of the gods' corresponding to the loss of control of a single god and named it the 'ultimate calamity of the gods'. So, it could be said that before the crisis of the gods' loss of control was completely solved, the 'ultimate calamity of the gods' meant the limit of the development of the mortal civilization in this world. The more accurately they could grasp this critical point and all the related technological limits, the better the countries could prepare as much as possible before the ultimate calamity, so that the mortal civilization could have a greater chance of survival in the future.
So far, the Theocratic Council had deduced that the 'Ultimate Calamity Threshold' was the 'Ultimate Disobedience' determined by Tarlund's coming-of-age ceremony. That was to say, 'the mortal civilization would use their own technological accumulation to allow the explorers to materially and physically leave their home planet and step into a space environment that the civilization had never explored before.' The scholars could already confirm that this behavior would lead to the symbolic 'Ultimate Disobedience'. If they could survive it, they would be free; if they could not, the civilization would be destroyed.
But there were still many uncertainties about this critical point. The biggest question was, did the 'ultimate calamity' only break out at the stage of 'ultimate disobedience'? Was the conclusion of the Dragons' practice the 'standard answer' of the laws of the gods' operation? Was it possible that the ultimate calamity would break out at a certain stage before the ultimate disobedience?
If the explorers' material and physical departure from their home planet would lead to the ultimate calamity, then what about the preparation stage before the spaceship launch? What about the stage of global large-scale observation of the stars? What if the mortals launched an unmanned probe? What if … another interstellar civilization sent a greeting to this planet, and the mortals on the surface responded to this voice? What would it lead to?
None of these questions were groundless worries. Each of these questions marked the critical point of the end of the world and the survival range of the entire mortal civilization.
Enya obviously knew what Gwen was worried about, so she was very cautious when answering this question. After thinking for a long time, the former god broke the silence. "I think that what really determines whether the gods will completely lose control is not entirely a symbolic 'ultimate disobedience' ceremony. You should also consider the meaning behind this ceremony."
Gwen frowned. "The meaning behind the ultimate disobedience ceremony?"
"Mortals come into contact with the truth beyond their cognitive field, and this' truth 'is irrefutable and unshakable," Enya said. "As a god, I don't know how to look at the … meaning of this process from the perspective of mortals. But you can imagine, if there is a person who firmly believes that we live in a flat world and not on a planet, who firmly believes that the sun is a circular ball of light rising and falling from the edge of the earth, and not the planet under our feet moving around the sun, then how can he break this belief?
"External voices won't work because those voices may be lies; publicly accepted knowledge won't work because people may be deceived; even images from space won't work because those images can be fabricated …
"No matter how bizarre these explanations are, as long as they can be explained, then the person who believes that the world is flat can continue to put himself in a closed-loop and 'self-consistent' model. He doesn't need to care about the true form of the world, as long as his logical barrier is not broken.
"Unless he sees it with his own eyes."
Hearing Enya's explanation carefully, Gawain could not help but frown. "I understand what you mean, but this is also something that we have never understood. Even if there are a few observers among the mortals who have gone to great lengths to go to space and personally verify the appearance of the world beyond the known world with their own eyes and experiences, it only changes their 'personal perception'. How does such an individual's behavior produce a ritualistic effect and influence the change of the entire ideology? As a product of the ideology, why would the gods directly lose control just because a few humans suddenly saw the scene outside the world? "
"This shows that you are still in the wrong place," Enya suddenly chuckled softly. "The stubborn and pitiful guy I just mentioned who needs to 'see it with his own eyes' is not any mortal who launched into space, but the gods themselves."
"You mean …" Gwen was speechless.
"Your understanding of the ideology is a bit one-sided," Enya said. "The gods are indeed born from the ideology of a large number of mortals. This is a macroscopic process, but this does not mean that the only way to make the gods lose control is to cause a macroscopic change in the ideology. Sometimes a ripple produced by a tributary on the microscopic level is enough to destroy the entire system.
"If the gods are regarded as a huge 'entanglement,' then this entanglement includes all the cognition of all the beings in the world on a particular tendency of thought. Take me as an example. I am a god of Dragons, so my essence includes all the cognitive logic of the Dragons of the world in the Mythological Era. These logics are tightly intertwined like a ball of thread. Even if there are thousands of threads, all the threads are included in this ball of thread. In other words, it is a closed-loop, extremely exclusive, and refuses the intervention of external information.
"So, as long as one thread breaks away from the order of the ball of thread and jumps out of this closed-loop system, it is tantamount to breaking the basic rules of the ball of thread.
"Under normal circumstances, it is almost impossible for such a thread to appear inside this closed-loop system because the trajectories of all the threads have been determined, and the ball of thread itself is also preventing the occurrence of cross-border behavior. The closed-loop system itself cannot create a 'window' for one of its members to break away from the system. So, in most stages of the development of civilization, the only way to collapse the ball of thread is to gradually overload the entire system. In other words, the drastic changes in the ideology of a group of mortals in this closed-loop system lead to the loss of control of the gods. That is, the changes in the ideology of a large number of mortals in this closed-loop system lead to a qualitative change that eventually destroys the entire system.
"The closest example to you is the God of War.
"In another case, information from outside the closed-loop system intrudes into the system. This information is completely beyond the control of the ball of thread. Just a little bit is enough to make one of the threads jump out of the closed loop. This will make the system, which was originally self-explanatory, suddenly lose its self-consistency. It — that is, the gods — a factor that violates the rules in the originally perfect operating logic. No matter how small the factor is, it will still contaminate the entire system.
"The closest example to you is me."
(End of Chapter)
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
