Never mind the Third Era-the Second Era could not even be brought to an end yet. How could Victoria be so certain?
Elliot wanted to ask, but worried that this might also be common knowledge, he hesitated.
Vanessa, on the other hand, could not hold back. "Why? Isn't the Second Era still going on? How do you already know about the Third Era?"
Victoria glanced at her and shook her head. "Precisely because preparations to enter the Third Era were completed long ago, the inability to end the Second Era has become a problem."
"Vanessa, you have a degree from the History Department too, don't you? Then can you name five major mechanical inventions from the past two hundred years?"
"That's easy! The steam turbine, the improved steam engine, the steam-powered spinning jenny, the spinning mule, the eccentric shaft, the steam locomotive, the steamship, the airship..."
She rattled off a long list in one breath.
"And from the past fifty years?"
Vanessa froze. After hemming and hawing for a long while, she finally said, "I remember someone made a steam-assisted bicycle, but ended up cooking their backside..."
Victoria sighed. "That's the crux of it. The development of the age has ground to a halt, yet the Third Industrial Revolution simply will not begin. Humanity is locked in the Second Era, able only to watch helplessly as the world heads toward destruction."
Vanessa was stunned.
The history she had studied was secular history, with no trace of the supernatural.
She had heard about this matter before, too.
"The edifice of science is complete. All that remains for future generations is the piecemeal work of filling in the gaps."
And that was indeed the case. Technological progress had stagnated. Human civilization no longer ascended; only the spiral remained.
She had always thought