The Fermi Paradox
His words sparked another discussion. Although the Staff Department's previous plan was quite good, many people now believe that this plan is more in line with the overall situation.
It's not that the plan proposed by the Staff Department was ineffective; both plans had a lot of room for maneuver. However, using this plan would prevent humanity from being labeled as actively deceiving others.
While this thing is worthless when it comes to security, the latter is naturally better when security is guaranteed. Moreover, it allows one to glimpse the authenticity of the star map released by the Nair Civilization in advance, so why not?
Most importantly, even if the Nair Civilization received the news and chose to come and intercept humanity, they would not be able to reach the Red Dwarf Star before humanity.
Furthermore, if the Nair Civilization is truly a malicious one, then humanity can simply run away. As a Wandering Civilization, humanity's various Work Platform are designed for rapid deployment and resource extraction. As Level 2 Civilization, humanity's resupply speed is certainly faster than that of the Nair Civilization, so there's no real fear of the Nair Civilization catching up.
The small-scale discussion on how to respond to the Nair Civilization came to an end. Everyone expressed their opinions, and Yue Yuan made the final decision. Then, humanity's response was transmitted to the Nair Civilization via Neutrino Communication.
Yes, Yue Yuan ultimately decided to tell the Nair Civilization that humanity had completed its turn and was heading towards the Red Dwarf Star.
Incidentally, this Red Dwarf Star had a name in the star charts sent to humanity by the Nair Civilization. According to the translation, in human language, this star should be called the Pot Lid Vastness Star, though I don't know how linguists translated it, but that's the name Yue Yuan saw on the star chart.
As for the target that humanity was trying to reach, that Yellow Dwarf Star, it is called the Great Blaze Star, scientifically known as GV8989. G indicates that its spectral type is G, and V is its luminosity.
Responding to the message from the Nair Civilization was just one step away. From receiving the message to discussing and finalizing it, then having relevant personnel draft the main text, submitting it to Yue Yuan for approval, and finally having it converted into a signal form by experts in communications and cryptography before sending it out.
All of this happened in just two short days.
Two days later, the human fleet resumed its normal navigation schedule.
In reality, Wandering Civilization like humanity only spend a small portion of their time encountering and interacting with other civilizations; most of their time is spent silently navigating through space, as they are doing now.
On the one hand, the universe is too vast, and it takes a very long time to travel from one Star System another. On the other hand, the probability of encountering other civilizations in the universe is too small.
From this perspective, most civilizations actually face the quiet and lonely universe most of the time, often needing to travel for hundreds or even thousands of years, or to countless places, before encountering a Life Planet or an intelligent civilization.
However, the truth is that humans have only been in space for less than three thousand years, yet they have already encountered many civilizations and Life Planet. As a result, human scientists have come to the conclusion that life and Cosmic Civilizations are common in the universe.
That's not wrong in itself, but encountering it too often makes one feel inexplicably uneasy.
Others didn't think much of it and didn't think much of it, but the scientists involved still couldn't forget about it.
Gan De was one of them; he was also involved in the previous conclusion that life was universal in the universe.
But if life is common in the universe, then Cosmic Civilizations must also be common. Humanity's experiences and observations along the way have confirmed this. But if civilization is common, then where were they before humans set foot on the stars?
After Yue Yuan presided over the reply to the Nair Civilization's message, Gan De returned to his office, where these questions were once again on his mind.
After pacing back and forth for a while, he left the office alone and went to a porthole on the Lyra, gazing at the dark universe outside.
"If Cosmic Civilizations are so common, why didn't any other civilizations visit Earth before humanity set foot in space?" Gan De murmured to himself.
Gan De recalled the previous discussion about the Fermi Paradox. He remembered asking the Awakeners about the technological explosion. The Awakeners's answer was that a technological explosion exists, but only within civilizations at the same level. On the path of crossing civilization levels, there will not only be no technological explosion, but there will also be Technology Barrier.
Humanity's current position at the peak of Level 2 Civilization has proven the validity of the Technology Barrier, thus disproving the Dark Forest theory.
So, where have the extraterrestrials been during the more than two million years from the Stone Age to the Information Age? Why haven't they visited Earth? Gan De has discussed this with other scholars and scientists. Some of them believe that extraterrestrials have visited Earth, and the various extraterrestrial legends on Earth are proof of this. However, this view has no physical evidence whatsoever; it is all just speculation.
Therefore, even in today's Human Civilization, the Fermi Paradox has not been adequately answered.
As an astronomer, Gan De was well aware of several possible answers to the Fermi Paradox. One was that Alien Civilization simply do not exist, which has been ruled out. Another was that extraterrestrials exist, but for some reason, humanity is completely unaware of them; this has also been ruled out, as humanity has already encountered many extraterrestrials.
However, for some reason only, many hypotheses can be derived.
The most famous of these is the Dark Forest hypothesis, followed by the Planetarium Hypothesis, the Zoo Hypothesis, conspiracy theories, the theory that humans haven't discovered extraterrestrial life simply because of their low level of technology, the theory that humans and extraterrestrials have different ways of understanding each other and therefore cannot discover them, and the theory that the Great Filter hypothesis.
Judging from the various events that humanity has experienced today, Gan De believes that the cause is not a single hypothesis, but a combination of a series of hypotheses.
First, Gan De believes that the three possibilities mentioned in the Great Filter hypothesis must exist, because humans have indeed encountered planets with life but without intelligent life, which to some extent proves the difficulty of the emergence of intelligence.
Gan De was also well aware of the three hurdles in the Big Filter hypothesis: the birth of life, the birth of multicellular organisms, and the birth of intelligence.
However, considering that humanity encountered one civilization after another during this period, there must have been enough life forms that overcame these three hurdles and became civilizations.
So why haven't any Alien Civilization arrived on Earth during such a long period of time? Gan De gazed at the twinkling stars outside the porthole, a flash of inspiration crossing his mind. He murmured, "Could it be that the starry sky is too vast, and most Sentient Life that have reached the level of civilization spend most of their time traveling, just like humans are now?"
"Gan Boshi, what are you saying?"
As soon as Gan De finished speaking, he heard a familiar voice behind him. He turned around and found that Yue Yuan had appeared behind him at some point.
"It's the Chief of Staff. It's nothing. I was just thinking about the Fermi Paradox," Gan De replied truthfully.
Yue Yuan walked over to him in a few steps, somewhat puzzled, and asked, "The Fermi Paradox. Do you have any thoughts?"
Yue Yuan wasn't so confused as to say something like, "Why are you thinking about this?" because he knew that the truth behind the Fermi Paradox was about the environment of the entire universe, or rather, the large society composed of various Cosmic Civilizations within the Milky Way Galaxy —that is, the cosmic background.
Although Human Civilization is no longer a novice that has just set foot in the stars, it still knows very little about the universe. If we can glean even a little bit of knowledge about it, it can be used to guide the future behavior of Human Civilization.
This is very important.
Therefore, when we see Gan De suddenly pondering the Fermi Paradox, Yue Yuan believes that he may have been inspired by encountering the Nair Civilization, hence this question.
He was also curious about how professional scientists understood something as seemingly normal as encountering the Nair Civilization.