Chapter 172 "The Change of the Guardian"
"...Old cat, how is your observation data recently?"
"What else can we do? Let's just say that... To be honest, artificial intelligence can already handle most of the problems, so why do we need to artificially follow them here?"
In the deep space observatory of the Kribo Interstellar Trading Enterprise, those data recorders who are repeating the boring work day after day have such complaints.
This is what they do every day. Even though this kind of career that can "observe the universe all the time" is the yearning of each of them since childhood, their learning career also takes this career as the goal.
But after actually entering the work, the enthusiasm and novelty quickly dissipated like a fire that encountered water.
Repetitive behavior is the chief culprit of killing enthusiasm for work, and it is the high salary that still supports the work of these recorders.
"Sigh... I don't know why, but the higher-ups have recently asked us to pay more attention to those A and B-type stars... It is difficult for a celestial body system in that kind of cosmic environment to produce habitable stars?"
The mouse continued to complain about the "change of work focus". In the past, they could fish in troubled waters, but now they have to work harder after they have orders.
What makes it even more difficult for him to understand is that the boss of Kribo, who has always regarded population, labor force and market as the most important capital, would actually work hard to pay attention to this kind of thing that only astronomical researchers would care about.
As we all know, because stars are in the fusion reaction, they release energy all the time.
The higher the temperature of the star, the greater the energy it releases, and the more intense the light that can be seen.
According to the classification of stellar spectrum, stars can be divided from the brightest O-type star to the dimmest M-type star, and the sun is an intermediate G-type star.
O-type stars are rare in the Milky Way, and there are only a few records, but A and B-type stars are not so rare. Basically, there are one or two on the border of every civilization.
The stars of type A and B belong to the type of stars with extremely high surface temperature. They grab a large amount of material from the nebula at the beginning of their formation, and their masses are much larger than other types of stars.
The huge mass is a violent nuclear fusion reaction, and their surface temperature can reach more than 20,000 degrees, while the temperature of the sun's surface is only more than 6,000 degrees.
Because of this, type A and B stars are always one of the brightest celestial bodies in the universe. The light they emit can travel to extremely long distances, and they already appear bluish-white in the spectrum.
But it is difficult for the celestial body system in this stellar environment to have life.
It is not that there is no habitable zone. The habitable zone of A and B stars is much farther than other stars, but it is not without.
The biggest problem is that this type of star is about to enter the next stage of life, and there is not much time for life to be born naturally.
The excessively violent fusion reactions of A and B stars lead to their very short lifespan, and they will soon transition to the red giant star stage fueled by helium.
At this time, the volume of the star will expand rapidly, and it will choose to have a "passionate explosion" or "quiet death" in a faster time.
The former will blow itself into a white dwarf in the form of a supernova explosion, while the latter will quietly lose mass in the stellar wind and become a black dwarf.
No matter which option is chosen, it will not be suitable for the birth of life. The time from the formation of A and B stars to their death may not exceed 2 billion years. It is even impossible to evolve a planet from a primitive state to a general state in such a short time. Not to mention the birth of life.
Because of this, Ke Ruibo, a universal company that is only interested in population and trade markets, never pays too much attention to these star galaxies where life does not exist.
Just sigh when passing by: "What a bright star!", mark it in the star map, and then leave in a hurry.
But recently, there may be some wind from above, and these paddling observers have begun to pay attention to the types of celestial bodies that they would never have cared about before.
These observers are veterans who have worked for a long time, so they can naturally distinguish when to fish and when to be serious.
It is rare for them to work hard for so long, but they have not been able to wait for the day to stop, which makes them guess the truth behind it.
Gossip is a rare decompression link, even in the interstellar era.
"I have a friend who is a student of a relative of a person working at the headquarters of the Community..."
"Let's just say it, we all know that that friend is yourself, so there's no need to talk so much about the identity of the relationship."
"... Well, actually, the community seems to have passed an issue and decided to build a 'public Dyson sphere' to alleviate the energy problem of the galaxy."
“Although the topic has been settled, there have been endless debates about where to build it.
"Some people want to build on M-type stars with a lifespan of tens of billions of years once and for all, but some people want to build on A-type stars. First come a wave of big ones."
"Most of our superiors want to see if we can work on this matter and make a fortune..."
This well-connected observer talked about what he had heard. After watching the stars for a long time, it is also a good seasoning agent to occasionally have a little social phenomenon unique to Interstellar.
The audience also listened to the story with relish, and expressed some opinions from time to time, until someone noticed that the monitors that were observing A and B stars had abnormal data.
“…stop bragging and look at the data.”
An observer also looked at the string of floating data as he said, and then showed an incredulous expression.
Someone noticed this and came over to check the situation.
Having received a similar education, he can naturally understand the data, and he quickly realized the seriousness of the matter.
“…From our observation point of view, there are already several A and B-type stars that have been focused on being dimmed.”
"This is not a sign of a star's collapse... It looks more like something is covering the star?"
While they were still guessing, Li Wenyuan, the mastermind behind all these changes, had already started working on the final steps of the Dyson sphere.
It would take him several years to build such a huge building surrounding the stars. The only good news is that the Dyson sphere does not need to be fully built to exert the most basic "power generation effect".
But it is useless for him to need so much energy. The current energy output has seriously overflowed for him. If it is not to meet the energy demand of the "core database", he will never build so many Dyson spheres.
This time he broke the tradition of "hoarding" for a long time, and used the resources that had been stored in the space warehouse for a long time to build the Dyson sphere.
He likes the feeling of affluence when watching a large amount of resources explode. When constructing giant buildings, he basically maintains an extreme abundance of resources. He only uses "output" to support construction consumption, and never uses the hoarded part.
The so-called "just a little short" will take tens of millions of years on an interstellar time scale, but the production capacity is huge, and there is absolutely no problem in meeting the needs of the "core database".
So, in this way, he completed several Dyson spheres in a few years, and at this time, the galactic civilizations were still arguing within the community about how much they needed to spend and where to build the "public Dyson sphere".
But it was also at this time that civilizations that were concerned about Type A and B stars also received "abnormal reports" from their respective observatories.
They explored the source secretly, and finally found that those "suspected to be occluded" stars were in fact someone who built a Dyson sphere there, brand new from the factory.
This matter itself is nothing, but the identity of the builder makes them have to pay more attention.
Because of this incident, it can also be regarded as a change of the "guardian" to a certain extent.
Although the "Guardian" has had a lot of changes in the galaxy, if we insist, the two resolutions of the galaxy crisis are enough to be called quite big changes.
But this kind of "change", the galactic civilizations can easily see the reason, in order to protect them, there is nothing wrong.
But this time, the situation of building a large number of Dyson spheres at the same time made everyone uncertain.
"...The Observatory reports that the Guardians suddenly have a huge energy demand, which may even far exceed the sum of civilization needs. How about this matter, let's discuss it."
The leader of the Tinder Alliance left a report on the conference table, and then the surrounding senators discussed it in a hurry.
Although there are many guesses, the general direction has not changed.
They all felt that the Guardian's galaxy-filled spaceship had finally found what it had been looking for, and those Dyson spheres were built for this purpose.
Of course they can't compare the changes of the "Guardian" with the changes of the "Civilization Destroyer". If this lost machine intelligence wanted to destroy the galaxy, they would have been finished many times.
After two crises, they have long engraved their trust and respect for the "Guardian" in their hearts.
As long as the "Guardian" is not directly driving a warship to bomb them, they will think that anything related to the "Guardian" is an "unsophisticated" behavior.
Although exchanges between civilizations should not be "sentimental", the so-called "trust" and "friendship" are based on eternal interests.
But the "Guardian" is obviously beyond this rule, he and other galactic civilizations are not on the same level at all.
Even if the change of the "Guardian" is really a bad start, they can only pinch their noses and admit it. After preparing the fire, they should resist and lie down.
Judging from various signs, the "Guardian" obviously would not do something like "destroy the galaxy".
They trust this lost machine intelligence very much, just as the "Guardians" protected the galaxy without asking for anything in return, they will trust it unconditionally in return.
"I hope this time the 'Guardian' really found what he was looking for... A mechanical intelligence who has been working for an unknown amount of time, it's time to retire..."
Some of these people feel sorry for the "guardian".
They don't know exactly when the "Guardian" was born, but they know that it must be a very long past.
The upgrading of the hardware may never change the essence of the string of data. If the "Guardian" has not changed from the beginning to the end, then this is a machine that has been working for at least tens of millions of years.
"Metal Forever" isn't quite right, it's just that time hasn't reached the point where "Metal Corrupts".
If a person is allowed to work alone for tens of millions of years, this feeling of loneliness is horrifying just thinking about it. You can’t take it for granted that there is no problem just because the other party is mechanically intelligent.
The words of the person who felt sorry for the "Guardian" resonated with everyone, and they began to feel sad.
People in the Tinder Alliance seem to have a strong capacity for empathy, and it’s no wonder they are able to put in so much effort to protect indigenous and wildlife.
Looking at this scene, the leader of the Fire Alliance also felt something, thinking silently: "Maybe... only when we are strong enough, the 'Guardian' can have the day of retirement..."
There are civilizations like the Tinder Alliance that are happy because "the 'Guardian' has finally been found", and naturally there are civilizations that don't care about it.
Not everyone can understand the hard work of a "machine intelligence", but idealistic civilizations who do not agree with the legitimacy of "machine intelligence" at all, are more touched by the changes of the "guardian".
Although the various manifestations of the "Guardian" seem to be a "mechanical intelligence" with a thriving root, they firmly believe that it is just an appearance.
They have flexible criteria for what is "data imitating consciousness" and what is "true consciousness".
Machine intelligence is different from machine intelligence. Some can be worshiped by statues, while others can only be dismissed as "iron cans".
They have more in-depth research in the field of mind and emotion, and they feel that only a "sage" with a truly loving heart will make two actions to save the galaxy without expecting anything in return.
And the "asceticism" of the "Guardians" who have been looking for something in the galaxy for thousands of years seems to them to be much firmer than most monks.
In a civilization with a strong religious atmosphere, a "sage sculpture" has even been created for the "Guardian" to worship the "Guardian of the Galaxy".
So in those idealistic civilizations, they are basically peaceful people similar to the Tinder Alliance. They feel that the "guardians" can finally stop the "guardianship" process that has been going on for a long time.
But no matter whether they care or don’t care, at least these civilizations don’t feel that the “Guardian” will cause them harm.
However, there are still a small number of civilizations who are deeply worried about the changes of the "Guardian".
This part of civilization has never been afraid to speculate on the civilization of the galaxy with the worst malice, even if the other party is a lost empire that has protected the galaxy twice.
Even if they know very well that if the "Guardians" really want to destroy the galaxy, they can't resist, they don't know the motivation of the "Guardians" to destroy the galaxy.
But this does not prevent them from wanting to make some preparations for resistance and survival. In the end, they focused on the legacy of the "Silencer" and "Civilization Destroyer".
The "Guardian" ignored the legacy of these two lost empires, and the community naturally accepted these places with the remains of the lost empire.
Until now, these places are under development and cooperation, but those civilizations with a sense of urgency want to use those heritages to find a way to preserve the fire before the "Guardian" changes more frequently.
At this time, Li Wenyuan, who is the highest consciousness of the "guardian", has built most of the Dyson spheres and perfected the energy pathways.
The star energy absorbed by the Dyson sphere is being wasted a lot, and it has not been sent to the core database yet.
Just waiting for Li Wenyuan's instructions, this small building complex that inexplicably requires a huge amount of energy will reveal to him the secrets hidden in it.
(end of this chapter)