A Glimpse Through a Tube

"Schrödinger pointed out in his famous book What is Life that 'the main problem of biology and physics is not whether organisms defy thermodynamics by producing energy.'" Yi Kai didn't mind, he leaned slightly, "Obviously, they don't. If defying thermodynamics is the criterion for defining life, then the sun would also be considered a living thing."

"Human cognition is always objective and limited, so it is always filled with the wonder of the unknown, inspiring continuous exploration. The need to break through objective limitations has led humans to generate and develop various desires that transcend those of animals, and the pursuit of knowledge is one of them."

"The development of science has made people increasingly recognize that living things are naturally generated, but how can inanimate material and energy systems in nature become living organisms? Why do inorganic substances evolve into life with information functions? Where does the spirituality of living things come from? What is its driving force? Is it born only to die? Is feeding on negative entropy an instinctive drive? What role does wisdom play in this process?"

Hearing this, Yue Yuan couldn't help but interrupt, "Wait, Dr. Yi, just tell me what you've discovered."

What is all this? I'm asking you what progress you've made, why are you giving a lecture? Yue Yuan complained in his heart.

"Isn't this to allow the chief to understand it more thoroughly!" Yi Kai said leisurely.

"Alright, alright, you talk."

Yi Kai nodded, but did not continue speaking in a lecturing manner, "It's like this, we believe that life is led by information, directed by instinct, and exchanges holographic matter, energy, and information with the outside world through objectively inputting information, processing information, transmitting information, and materializing information to obtain negative entropy and evolve.

In this way, life not only maintains the stability of reproduction through the transmission of information, but also changes into genetic information through information feedback, absorption, and accumulation, from gradual change to mutation."

"Bringing it to us humans, that is the reproduction of the next generation, which is an instinctive imprint of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. This imprint is deeply engraved in our genetic information, and it has only one purpose, that is, its set of information that has been continued for hundreds of millions or even billions of years, in layman's terms, the genetic factors, want to pursue eternal existence."

"Continuing from generation to generation forever, there is no problem with this, until it doesn't know which step went wrong or inevitably led to the birth of wisdom."

Yue Yuan signaled Yi Kai to stop for a moment, and then asked his question, "Humans have had wisdom for no less than millions of years, and haven't we been continuing from generation to generation until now? What's the problem with this?"

"Of course there's a problem." Yi Kai raised his hand and pointed to his head, "The selfish inheritance of life lies in DNA, or rather, the information factors engraved in DNA, and the wisdom or consciousness born of life is more selfish than the instinct of life.

Because the instinct of life only requires that genetic information can continue to exist, but wisdom and consciousness do not. It wants itself to continue to exist.

But the information of 'born to die' has been deeply engraved in our DNA, and has been perfected over billions of years. Even if consciousness is unwilling, it is only a young thing of millions of years, dying with the withering of the current generation of DNA in vain.

So, in the long years, wisdom and consciousness are always fighting against this process, so there are two paths in front of wisdom and consciousness. One is to let genetic factors carry themselves and transfer to the next generation, for eternal existence. The other is to inhibit the mechanism that genetic factors have used for billions of years, so that it no longer withers due to inheritance."

"Obviously, that Red Gas has played a role on the second path. It has helped the self-consciousness of wisdom to successfully inhibit the life instinct that has been passed down for billions of years. And what we know now is that it has deceived the genetic factors."

"What do you mean?" Yue Yuan frowned.

He probably understood what Yi Kai meant, so now he had an ominous premonition.

Yi Kai glanced at Yue Yuan, and seeing that he still seemed to have doubts, he pondered for a moment and continued, "Let's put it this way, we believe that that Red Gas is essentially going to completely change that set of biological instinct mechanisms, so that genetic factors no longer aim to continue themselves through the next generation, but instead change to continuously updating themselves as the purpose of continuing themselves."

"However, judging from the serum research results, this goal has not been truly achieved, so I said 'deceive'. Consciousness has temporarily deceived the mechanism of genetic factors. After a long time, the deception is seen through, and that mechanism is activated again, and the life form returns to the original path again—the mission of the next generation to continue genetic information, as for the main body, it dies together with the old generation of genetic factors that have completed their mission. Um... saying 'die together' is a bit inappropriate, because genetic factors have never considered the self-consciousness of wisdom at all."

Speaking of this, Yi Kai raised his eyelids to look at Yue Yuan, and then just stared at him without speaking.

Yue Yuan felt a little hairy from his gaze, so he coughed to break the awkward atmosphere, and said, "I understand, Dr. Yi, what you mean is that that Red Gas is an inhibitor, an inhibitor of the blind continuation of the next generation of biological instincts. It acts on life's survival information, so as long as the life form continues to ingest that gas, it can continue to deceive, achieving the purpose of the long-term existence of self-consciousness."

"You can say that, but biological instinct is not blind, it's just that self-consciousness believes it is blind," Yi Kai corrected.

Yue Yuan started to think about it, "If this is the case, then this Alien Spaceship is likely not a transport ship, but just an ordinary exploration ship, and the Red Gas on the ship is just a life extension agent equipped by that alien civilization to allow its crew to adapt to the long space voyage."

"Yes," Yi Kai nodded.

This can be considered progress, Yue Yuan thought to himself.

To be honest, he didn't expect Yi Kai's biological research to be able to unlock the secrets of the spaceship, it can only be said that science is all related.

The amount of information brought about by this progress is really huge.

Judging from the effect of the Red Gas and the spaceship carrying it to extend the lives of the crew, it shows that the technology of this civilization has not reached the point of immortality.

Looking at it from another perspective, perhaps we can get a glimpse of the cosmic background.

Not to mention the distant future, judging by normal thinking, this Red Gas or liquid must be a very important material in the universe, because intelligent life needs it.

At least in the civilization level to which this Alien Spaceship belongs, it still needs it.

And humans now know this.

Just one serum research project can give humans such an understanding, which is the important significance of scientific research.