A Single Stone Stirs a Thousand Waves

Without life, the universe would eventually descend into a cold, terrifying chaos and death, just as described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

Of course, it is flawed to extrapolate the end of the universe solely from the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In his published views, Gan De pointed out that people have long been blinded by the Second Law of Thermodynamics.

In fact, from the beginning of the universe to the present, the entire universe has been an evolutionary process from balance to imbalance, from unstructured to structured, and from chaos to order.

First, Gan De points out that the early universe after the Big Bang was actually in an extremely hot state, a uniformly heated 'fireball'. Because entropy equals the transferred heat energy divided by temperature, the universe at this time was in the state of extreme disorder and thermal equilibrium, as described by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, with the maximum entropy.

Afterward, the balance of the universe was broken, and then slowly moved towards order, thus continuously creating increasingly ordered, advanced and complex things and structures, such as Quark, Proton Neutron and neutrons, atoms and molecules, planets, Nebula, galaxies, and the magnificent large-scale structures of the universe.

Sentient Life can only be born in such a highly ordered cosmic context.

As for why it is said that Sentient Life is the universe saving itself, it is because Sentient Life was born in such a context, and naturally it would believe that the universe with such a context is the most beautiful and harmonious, and at the same time the most comfortable environment for Sentient Life to live in.

So, what if one day, Sentient Life discovers that its universe will eventually descend into a state of utter desolation, where everything will ultimately return to nothingness? What will Sentient Life do? Will it resign itself to waiting to die with the universe? Or will it escape reality and try to avoid thinking about the universe's end? Or will it try its best to save the universe? If we disregard other factors, the answer is that all three are possible.

But Gan De tells everyone in his argument that the answer is that Sentient Life will eventually strive to save the universe.

As a scientist, Gan De would not make baseless accusations.

His viewpoint in the paper is: Gene Instinct and intelligence.

First, there are genes. Modern humans know that genes are the source code of life, and the instinct of genes is to perpetuate themselves. In order to perpetuate themselves, they exhibit an extremely selfish side.

The book "The Selfish Gene" discusses this point very well. It even goes to the extreme of arguing that our lives are merely carriers of genes, and that our behavior and decisions are controlled by genes. The selfish nature is deeply ingrained in genes, whether in humans or animals.

The love that people admire is, in this book, merely a product of behavior driven by Gene Instinct; the continuation of offspring is the result of genes' unwillingness to die along with the short-lived previous generation. From another perspective, because genes will stop at nothing to continue their lineage, this impulse manifests more strongly in males.

After mating, females often need to spend more time caring for their offspring, so they become more dependent on males and are less likely to betray them. Males, on the other hand, are more likely to abandon females to find other females in order to spread their genes more widely.

From the perspective of gene continuation, this is the "three burrows" strategy for gene continuation.

So what does this have to do with saving the universe?

Of course it exists. The instinct to perpetuate genes drives the individual life that carries them to strive to survive, and this instinct manifests as a fear of death and a desire to live.

In this situation, genes naturally do not want to die with the Return to Void. Of course, Gene Instinct is not enough; it only provides a driving force.

When the organisms carrying our genes possess intelligence, becoming intelligent beings, this continuation rises to a new level, becoming the continuation of civilization. Going even further, it becomes continuing civilization at all costs.

Of course. Civilization is not solely created by Gene Instinct; wisdom also plays a role.

Intelligence and Gene Instinct are interdependent, yet also conflicting.

In the realm of Sentient Life that forms a 'civilization', when 'wisdom' cannot overcome 'Gene Instinct,' then the individuals within that 'civilization' can hardly achieve immortality. In this case, the characteristic of this 'civilization' is to perpetuate all the information of the 'civilization' that carries this Sentient Life from generation to generation as much as possible.

When intelligence triumphs over the most primitive Gene Instinct and continues to exist, the Sentient Life form gains immortality. This is then manifested in the "civilization" composed of these Sentient Life forms as their continued existence.

Because within the wisdom of the self lies a "perpetual existence".

Therefore, Sentient Life that evolves in the universe, whether it is genetics or intelligence that prevails, will eventually try to survive and will not sit idly by and watch the universe end.

Of course, this alone is not enough, after all, Sentient Life is far too insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Even if it develops into one civilization after another, it is still nothing more than a bunch of giant ants, far from enough to save the universe, and might even become the culprit that Tachyon Universe demise.

Therefore, the mysterious evolution of the universe has endowed Sentient Life with some inexplicable yet reasonable "materials," such as the desire for knowledge, curiosity, and imagination. The vast universe, with its dazzling stars, is profound and mysterious. When Sentient Life first looked up at the starry sky, the curiosity deep within its wisdom had already raised the sails of its pursuit of knowledge.

Driven by a combination of forces, Sentient Life have ignited their desire to explore, and among them, there may be a civilization that can develop to the point of saving the universe from destruction.

Gan De's views published on the Human Science Network offer humanity a new perspective, in which all Sentient Life, including humans, has the potential to become saviors of the universe.

Although it was only his personal opinion, it placed humanity in a glorious position, thus gradually instilling a lofty ideal in people's minds to some extent.

Perhaps this ideal will inspire lofty goals in some individuals, leading to a transformation and elevation of humanity as a whole at the level of thought.

Of course, this effect cannot be achieved overnight, but rather through a gradual and subtle process.

Well, not all scientists accept Gan De's views. After Gan De published his theory of cosmic evolution, a large group of scientists from various fields scoffed at it and formed teams to find flaws in his arguments.

These scientists believe that the emergence and evolution of life is a series of common results of natural laws, just one of countless possibilities, rather than an inevitable result of the evolution of the universe.

They pointed out that the article's starting point was wrong, just as "biological evolution" should be changed to "biological evolution." Using the word "evolution" is very inaccurate and wrong; "evolution" should be used instead.

Some of these scientists pointed out that Gan De's view, whether intentionally or unintentionally, compares the universe to a willful entity, which is unacceptable.

With the publication of Gan De's article, scientists around the world were immediately abuzz with excitement, and scientific conferences became more frequent.

For a time, scientists were divided into two camps: one supporting Gan De's views and the other opposing them. The two camps argued back and forth at scientific seminars time and time again.