He Really Wanted to Build It

"What you said makes sense, but I still maintain that with our current technology, we simply cannot build such a Particle Collider. Of course, I hope we can have such a collider and achieve the Grand Unified Theory, but..."

Yu Nanfeng shrugged, looking helpless. "Before I came here, I went to the Material Science and Engineering. They said that our research in the field of micro-nanotechnology has hit a bottleneck. Scientists from the Crimson Flame Civilization in the Joint Academy of Sciences also think so. We can no longer start with smaller structures to create more powerful materials."

Yu Nanfeng arrived earlier than Liu Miyan. He had already told Yue Yuan these things before, and was simply repeating them now. Clearly, he had already considered the matter of a more powerful Particle Collider before Liu Miyan even came to discuss it with Yue Yuan.

It's not a leak, after all, this is no secret among scientists. Hundreds of years ago, everyone knew that the original Space Multi-Point Particle Collider could not satisfy the appetite of experimental physicists.

"Oh? What do you mean by that? Do they think there should still be progress in materials technology, or do they think they have reached the end before the Grand Unified Theory is realized?" Liu Miyan, looking like he was thinking about what Yu Nanfeng was saying.

"Both." Yu Nanfeng gave an unexpected answer. He didn't keep people in suspense and went straight to the point. "At the level of Level 3 Civilization, it's certain that we have reached the limit of what we can achieve at the microscopic level. From this perspective, our Nanotechnology is already the pinnacle of Level 3 Civilization. Unless we achieve the Grand Unified Theory, there is no possibility of further progress."

It's fair to say that there's no room for improvement in the fundamentals, but there are still other possibilities in the structure, such as our Alloy No. 1 and Alloy No. 2, which you should be familiar with.

"Of course," Liu Miyan replied cooperatively.

Yu Nanfeng nodded, his gaze sweeping over Yue Yuan and Liu Miyan's faces, and then said, "I've learned from the Material Science that, in fact, given our current level of technology, the fact that we were able to develop these two alloys back then was mostly due to sheer luck."

Although it appears to have been discovered from the wreckage of an Unknown Civilization Spaceship, Academician Xu actually told me that when they were researching it, they were somewhat lucky. To put it another way, the discovery of Alloy No. 1 was a matter of guessing correctly on various parameters with a probability of one in a billion – it was practically miraculous. Later, as you know, they successfully replicated the manufacturing process of Alloy No. 1 based on those parameters.

Before truly mastering the core of True Nano Technology, Alloy No. 2 were considered Black Technology by humankind. We knew how to manufacture them, but we didn't understand why they were so powerful. Of course, later, after delving into the microscopic world, we learned that it was because both alloys are Quantum Material.

Liu Miyan was quite clear about the concept of Quantum Material, and even Yue Yuan knew it.

It's not about quantum effect materials, but rather that the manufacturing process of Alloy No. 2 utilizes quantum technologies, such as condensed matter dialysis, quantum coherence technology used in single defect impurity doping, trapped ion technology, and quantum-simulated atomic array technology, etc.

Seeing that the two looked like they understood, Yu Nanfeng continued, "So we still have hope that, at the current level of Nanotechnology, we can create some amazing materials by changing the composition and structure of matter."

Upon hearing this, Liu Miyan immediately sensed something was amiss and interrupted, "Wait a minute, what magical material? Don't assume that just because you're a Particle Physics you don't understand materials technology. As far as I know, we can build a more powerful collider with our existing materials, right? To build a collider that's 6684.6 Astronomical Unit long, we just need to assemble modularly produced sections in space. Why would we need any magical materials?"

Yu Nanfeng: "."

You actually want to build a collider that long? If you want to study the Theory of Everything, wouldn't you need to build a circular Ion Collider with a diameter of 100 billion light-years? That's simply unrealistic.

Yu Nanfeng felt that these Particle Physics and experimental physicists were even crazier than him when they really went crazy. Although he also pursued bigger and Miracles Through Brute Force in Engineering Design, he at least considered whether it was feasible in terms of engineering. These guys just made decisions on a whim.

They don't even consider how many Star System would have to be hollowed out to build a 6684.6 Astronomical Unit collider. From an engineering perspective, it and the Dyson Sphere each have their own unique challenges.

One factor to consider is the Gravity of the star, and the other is the various parameter issues caused by the vast distance.

In fact, with current human technology, it is possible to create Dyson Sphere, but it would take an extremely long time. For example, to create a Dyson Sphere about 100 meters thick enclosing a star that is Aether distant, the materials required would be more than all the planets in our Solar System combined, not including the Sun itself.

A rough calculation shows that mining all the planets and asteroids in the entire Solar System, excluding the Sun, would only yield about 17 percent of the material needed to build Dyson Sphere. Therefore, to build a Dyson Sphere, humanity would need to mine in other Star System; roughly estimating at this ratio, mining through six Star System would be sufficient.

If they had that kind of ability, why would they need to build Dyson Sphere?

In comparison, building a Particle Collider a radius of 6674.6 Astronomical Unit would require less material if it had a radius of 50 meters. However, such a long collider is not simply built by piling up materials. It also involves various instruments and equipment at each accelerator node, the energy supply system for each node accelerator, time delay adjustment, and a series of other issues.

Capturing and observing high-energy collisions is also a major problem. Humans have only calculated it theoretically, but have not built the corresponding object. No one is sure if it is possible to observe them using the original methods. There are countless technical details and problems that need to be overcome.

Even if all the scientists of human Human Civilization were to work diligently, it would be impossible to know when they could fully overcome the challenges and allow such a massive project to enter the so-called feasibility simulation and verification stage. In short, this is an extremely massive project.

If we were to actually do it, humanity would have to be prepared to hollow out all the planets in six Star System, and even then, success wouldn't be guaranteed.

The worst part is that, unlike other small projects, you can't build a sample to verify the feasibility of construction first. You can only demonstrate feasibility in simulations, and once construction starts, it can't be stopped, and there's no guarantee of success.

Another point is that, given the nomadic nature of Human Civilization today, the collider would probably also need to be portable. After all, it would be such a waste if it were built, used, and then couldn't be taken away, and this requirement would inevitably increase the engineering difficulty.

"Hey Old Liu, you don't really want to build this thing, do you?" Yu Nanfeng clicked his tongue after hesitating for a long time.

"Besides this, do we have any other options?" Liu Miyan blinked and asked in return.

Creating such things has little to do with him, so he seems to enjoy making things worse. Anyway, he brought it up first, and maybe it will actually work out. Even if the Dao is eventually created but no Grand Unified Theory is developed, it will still eliminate a wrong path for humanity to explore the Grand Unified Theory, right?