In Full Swing

Humans once built a Space Multi-Point Particle Collider. This Space Multi-Point Particle Collider is still in use today and has played a significant role in advancing basic science over the years.

Particle Collider of this size was already considered a huge space project at the time, but it is far from being comparable to the next generation of Particle Collider that humanity is now building.

Its overall shape resembles a large ring, with a circumference of approximately 12,000 kilometers, making it slightly larger than the moon. The reason for building it so large was primarily because its maximum achievable energy level was too small to meet the needs of human scientific research.

The situation is the same today. Space Multi-Point Particle Collider can no longer meet the needs of basic scientific research. The energy levels they can reach are ultimately limited, and they cannot achieve the environment in which the unsymmetry of the Strong Interaction Force is broken in theory.

The so-called Grand Unified Theory is to truly unify the Strong Interaction Force into the Electroweak Force, making these three forces into one. As for Gravity, in current human theories, if Gravity were also included, it would no longer be called Grand Unified Theory, but rather Theory of Everything or Theory of Everything.

It has been proven that humanity's theoretical path is largely correct. Although the forces of things like the Theory of Everything Theory of Everything still just concepts, at least we have a concept, don't we?

When humanity first encountered the Awakeners, the Awakeners did not tell humanity about the Grand Unified Theory and the Theory of Everything. Perhaps because humanity did not mention them at the time, Human Civilization did not know whether the technological development concepts it proposed were correct.

Fortunately, not long ago, humanity encountered a Drift Bottle from an even older civilization—a Drift Bottle left in the Milky Way Galaxy by Precursor of Quantum Macro Tunneling Characteristic Technology before their the Great Voyage.

The message in the Drift Bottle was very open and honest.

It not only tells humanity about the Technology Tree that marks Level Six Civilization, but also briefly mentions Level 5 Civilization and Level 4 Civilization. Level 4 Civilization, needless to say, is the Grand Unified Theory that humanity is currently striving to master.

This is the theoretical foundation of Level 4 Civilization. Only by mastering the Grand Unified Theory can one master a series of related application technologies of Level 4 Civilization. Therefore, the Grand Unified Theory is also the hallmark theory of Level 4 Civilization.

As for Level 5 Civilization, they also Theory of Everything a defining theory: the Theory of Everything of All Things, a theory that describes the interconnectedness of the Four Fundamental Forces. The Theory of Everything of Everything is to Level 5 Civilization what the Grand Unified Theory is to Level 4 Civilization —a cornerstone-like existence.

All technologies and derivative technologies mastered by Level 5 Civilization are based on the Theory of Everything.

Of course, this is all that humanity knows; the specific technologies that have evolved from it remain unknown. But this is not bad either; at least Human Civilization knows how to proceed in the future and in which direction to focus its efforts.

Just like this current Millennium Project, everyone knows it's built to study the Grand Unified Theory, but if people don't know that the Grand Unified Theory is the hallmark theory of Level 4 Civilization, they'd probably encounter a lot of resistance in building this thing.

Because uncertainty has been amplified.

If the Grand Unified Theory is the hallmark theory of Level 5 Civilization, then humanity could not possibly master it at the Level 3 Civilization stage. All the effort put into building such a Particle Collider would be in vain, and that's the point.

This is like the difference between "crossing the river by feeling the eagle" and "crossing the river by feeling the stones".

That said, in the construction of the New Particle Collider, humanity has already staked everything on it, investing the greatest resources of the entire civilization, including the Crimson Flame Civilization with a population of over 100 billion.

As time went on, the collider acceleration modules, which were originally floating in their designated spatial locations, were gradually pieced together section by section by the engineering construction spacecraft.

Looking out, the starry sky was ablaze with lights.

Every moment, countless Engineering Spaceship travel back and forth in space, densely packed together, all Engineering Spaceship, circling and flying around the gradually forming corridor like bees around a pillar.

Transporting, assembling, and verifying—each batch of engineering spacecraft completes a set of procedures, and this next-generation Particle Collider grows 10 kilometers in length. The straightforward laser measurements give the entire Particle Collider a technological glow.

This Particle Collider is so long that even with the most advanced laser calibrators, it is impossible to irradiate it from beginning to end. Instead, laser calibrators are placed at the beginning and end of each acceleration module, and then they are cross-corrected with their respective neighboring laser calibrators to ensure the collider's straightness.

The principle that forces act in pairs is especially evident in the weightless expanse of space. Even a slight adjustment applied in a certain direction can result in a significant shift over time. This makes straightness adjustment a technical challenge.

What is the average distance from the Sun to the Earth? The answer is one Astronomical Unit.

That's an incredibly vast distance. Even in space, with current human technology, ensuring that the accelerator module of Particle Collider is an Astronomical Unit in length, remains in a straight line is extremely difficult. Engineers estimate that this next-generation Particle Collider will accumulate an error of 1 to 2 kilometers every 15 million kilometers or so.

Errors are unavoidable, so to eliminate their effects, humans can only work on the accelerator's magnetic field. Engineers increased the intensity of the accelerating magnetic field at each point where the accumulated error reached approximately 100 meters, thus correcting the particle beam's trajectory.

It's not difficult, because it's based on the technology of a ring particle accelerator.

The inevitability of errors greatly increases the difficulty of building the next generation of Particle Collider, but this cannot diminish humanity's determination.

Engineers estimate that once this next-generation Particle Collider is built, its straightness calibration will take at least several years before experiments officially begin.

This isn't just a matter of instrument precision and operational techniques; there's also the unavoidable communication delay issue. This Particle Collider is simply too long—6,674 Astronomical Unit in length. If placed within the Solar System, that's 223 times the average distance between the Sun and Neptune.

That's such a long length, it can't even fit in the orbits of the eight planets.

Only civilizations capable of escaping their own Star System could build such a collider; otherwise, the Gravity of a star alone would be enough to warp and destroy it.