After a main-sequence star that is reaching the end of its life becomes a red giant, its temperature will rise sharply and its volume will expand rapidly. It will soon expand two hundred times in diameter, swallowing up planets orbiting close to itself.
However, this "soon" is measured based on the universe.
In humans, this process will last for a long time.
However, for the sun to destroy humans, it does not need to expand so much. As long as the sun gets hotter or cooler, it will be a disaster for the earth's biosphere.
Once this sign appears, humans may not have much time to prepare. Reduced food production and climate imbalance are enough to trigger a sharp decline in human populations.
"Suppose, just today, you observe the signs of the sun turning into a red giant." Xiang Shan clasped his hands on his chest, closed his eyes, and asked: "Then, I will give you permission to propose any plan you can think of.
, what will you do?”
David and Yawgmoth looked at each other: "This..."
"It is simply impossible for mankind to complete interstellar immigration with the current technology. This is something we have just discussed." Xiang Shan closed his eyes and said: "Immigrate directly by spaceship? Impossible. Because there is no way to build such a large
A spaceship big enough to hold an immigrant group. Hibernate? Even more impossible. The success rate of human hibernation technology is very pathetic."
"To take a step back, 'frozen sperm and eggs' and 'nursing robots' are not unacceptable. The team that immigrated in the form of cells may no longer belong to human beings in terms of social attributes, but under this premise, they are still
'Acceptable', right? At least they have continued the 'human' species. Ah, but if there is a glitch in the parenting system, even if these fertilized eggs become babies, they will all die."
"But what if frozen cells can't do it? Or what if no organic matter can support it?"
"For example, this journey takes a hundred thousand years, a million years, etc. In such a long time, the corpses of living things are enough to become fossils. Things as complex as cells probably cannot be frozen for such a long time.
"
"At this time, can we take a step back?"
David was stunned: "There is no organic matter in Ogun... One more step back? One step?"
"'As long as the things arriving in the new home include our genetic information'." Xiang Shan sighed: "Compared with the option of 'not culturally human, but biologically human', it is actually just a step back.
But at this time, if we take a step back, it is...'As long as we have the genetic information of the creatures on our planet'."
"But there are no cells in Ogun!"
"Didn't I just say that? Because no cells can be preserved for a hundred thousand years, perhaps allowing cells to reproduce in Ogun is also an option - select some cells that can absorb nuclear radiation and place them in a corner of Ogun
, allowing them to reproduce from generation to generation. But maybe those cells died before we humans discovered Ogun, because Ogun cannot remain sealed for a hundred thousand years. The atmosphere and moisture inside have been losing." Xiang
Sandow: "Ogun's voyage took too long. With such a long time and such low technical level, nothing can be guaranteed."
"As you just said, the information engraved on the stone tablet is still there, but the information outside the stone tablet has disappeared in large numbers. The mechanical system has aged due to the accumulation of overall errors, and the possible microorganisms have not kept up with the internal environment of Ogun.
It became extinct because of the changes. In the end, only the message on the stone tablet was conveyed.”
Xiang Shan sighed: "So, the truth about the codebook may be this. It is part of the genetic information of aliens."
David was stunned: "But, it's only...two hundred megabytes?"
"yes."
"Two hundred trillion."
"Yes." Xiang Shan sighed: "They tried their best, but they could only send 200 megabytes of information."
"But, is this really enough?"
"This is 200 megabytes after being compressed by the compression algorithm." Xiang Shan said: "I remember that the entire genetic information of human beings is only a few gigabytes?"
"Considering that there are a large number of repeated sequences and conserved sequences in the genome..." Yawgmoth rubbed his chin with his right hand and thought: "Perhaps a compression algorithm with a high compression rate can be developed?"
"There must be a way to record it in the simplest order, remove all direction symbols, start symbols, end symbols, etc., convert it into binary or quaternary, and use the simple ones that are available locally at the destination.
By reproducing organic matter, perhaps we can create..."
Xiang Shan rubbed his forehead, thought for a moment, and said: "Create alien creatures with the genetic information of their planet's creatures. The rest can be left to time."
David shouted: "But does this make sense? It may take billions of years for these re-created cells to become intelligent life again. During this process, the original genetic information has long been changed beyond recognition due to mutations.
Right? No, the emergence of intelligent creatures is an accidental event! Maybe the sun in the new home has turned into a red giant, and the cells that were created are still plankton, with no signs of evolution at all..."
"But the genetic information carried by those plankton has existed for billions of years." Xiang Shan said: "They tried their best and could only send 200 megabytes of information. This is the best result they can achieve."
David shook his head: "I still don't understand. Without human civilization, there would be nothing special about human genetic information."
"If life has a 'purpose', it must be for the 'preservation of genetic information.'" Xiang Shan said: "I feel like I have returned to my original nature."
Yawgmoth suddenly said: "If this information is carried by other civilizations, it may be a continuation. At least the fire created by their planet for billions of years can be passed on to other civilizations."
David shook his head: "This... is incredible. Just for this bit of genetic information?"
"Think about it, your planet is about to be destroyed, but your civilization has tried its best to transmit only 200 trillion messages." Xiang Shan sighed: "At least some microscopic biological reactions are still based on the lowest energy.
Physical laws such as principles are common to the entire universe. But culture...who knows whether your culture is based on some unique physiological mechanism?"
"These two hundred trillion are already the cry of a civilization using its last strength."
"After all, they really only have a 200 trillion chance."