Chapter 55: Collective
The so-called "Earth Mediocre Principle" also has another name, the Earth's Singularity Hypothesis.
It is mainly used to answer a question, that is, why has human civilization's technology developed to the current stage and has a high ability to explore deep space, but still has not found any traces of extraterrestrial life?
The Earth's peculiarities hypothesis states that Earth is unique, which is why life has emerged on Earth alone. The rest of the universe lacks this uniqueness, and therefore cannot harbor life, which is why humans haven't discovered other planets.
But reality doesn't quite fit the Earth's uniqueness hypothesis. Most importantly, people can't find what makes Earth unique.
No matter how harsh the conditions for nurturing life are or how low the probability is, there should be quite a few planets that meet the conditions given the huge base number.
The Milky Way alone has hundreds of billions of stars and at least trillions of planets. Given such a large base, what stringent conditions can't be met?
As a result, people began to believe that Earth was, in fact, mediocre. If Earth could support life, so could other planets. The reason it hadn't been discovered was due to other factors, not because Earth was special.
Although this principle has not yet been proven, a large amount of data can provide relatively solid evidence.
The point in our current discussion is that since the Earth is mediocre, if the mediocre Earth can give birth to Gaia consciousness, there is no reason why other planets cannot give birth to it.
If this is the case, under the premise of possible external threats, the Gaia consciousness of the Earth actually chose to destroy the intelligent civilization it had nurtured?
You can't even trust the human civilization with which you have blood ties, deep emotional connections, and great common interests, and you want to kill it, but you choose to believe that other existences can protect you?
This is unreasonable.
It is too stupid to make such a choice both emotionally and logically.
Based on this, Zhou Cheng believes that even if the so-called Gaia consciousness of the Earth really exists, it is unlikely to be the culprit of the catastrophic event.
Since the existence of Gaia consciousness is irrelevant to the current situation, there is no reason to believe that it exists.
Therefore, this conjecture can be temporarily ruled out.
Faced with Zhou Cheng's words, Liu Yu could not help but fall into deep thought. After a long while, she slowly nodded: "You are right, it is unlikely to be Gaia's consciousness."
So... apart from it, what other existences meet the five conditions we have deduced?
The two racked their brains and thought hard.
Liu Yu suddenly raised his head and looked straight into Zhou Cheng's eyes.
"Could it be...a microorganism?"
Zhou Cheng was stunned for a moment, then shook his head. "This possibility was ruled out as early as the beginning of the Cataclysm Chronicle. The inability of sperm and egg to combine has nothing to do with any bacterial or viral infection."
Liu Yu said: "No, I'm not talking about microbial infection in the conventional sense. I just think that microorganisms, as a group, have motivations - let's not consider how they do it or whether they have the ability to do it for now, just consider the motivation. If they have intelligence, they have the motivation to do this.
As long as we humans survive and continue to exist, we are killing large numbers of microorganisms all the time.
Just boiling water once can kill billions of microorganisms.
The human immune system is constantly eliminating countless bacteria and viruses.
We also produce and use disinfectants in vast quantities, almost recklessly…
Compared with other living things, whether animals or plants, we, who possess intelligence, are the most efficient in killing microorganisms.
Furthermore, regardless of our technological advancement, the war with microorganisms will always continue, and the conflict between the two is unaffected by our technological advancement. The only difference is that higher technology leads to higher killing efficiency, while lower technology leads to lower killing efficiency, but the fundamental conflict remains unaffected.
In addition to 'possessing wisdom', it also meets the conditions we listed earlier.
They are on Earth, they are threatened by us, and it has little to do with the level of technology. Although their existence is conventional, if they have acquired intelligence through some means, the existence of such an intelligent being must be unconventional..."
Zhou Cheng frowned slightly and began to think carefully, seriously and solemnly.
At this stage, any possibility that seems absurd must be given sufficient attention and deserves in-depth consideration.
"Wisdom, unconventionality, wisdom, unconventionality..."
Liu Yu muttered these two conditions, and suddenly his eyes lit up.
"Could it be...collective intelligence?"
Zhou Cheng was stunned for a moment.
Liu Yu's tone was a little hurried: "Suppose, I mean suppose, what if we regard the microbial clusters on the earth as a collective?
If all the existence on the earth, such as mountains, rivers, etc., plus the collection of the earth itself, can be regarded as a collective intelligence called "Gaia", then if we regard microorganisms as a cluster, can we also assume that they can give birth to collective intelligence?
Its mode of existence, well, the mode... is similar to the relationship between cells and the human body.
A single cell does not have intelligence, but when countless non-intelligent cells are combined and connected in some form, they become intelligent people.
To some extent, each of us can barely be called the 'collective consciousness' of cells.
Assume that there are channels for communication and connection between microorganisms. No, it is not an assumption. Experiments have proved that different microorganisms can actually exchange simple information. And simple information exchange, if the number is large enough, can also produce complex communication.
Just like communication between computers, which consists of only zeros and ones, yet when combined, they enable incredibly complex communication. Or, like communication between human nerve cells, which has an equally simple basis, yet when combined, they enable incredibly complex and abstract thinking.
Could this situation also exist in microorganisms?
Through simple, basic communication and relying on their vast numbers, they have formed a macroscopic 'collective intelligence'. And because they feel threatened by humans, they have decided to eliminate humans..."
Liu Yu did not discuss specific means of rendering humans infertile.
At this stage, we only need to discuss which entities have motives, without discussing specific means. That will be done in the next stage.
Zhou Cheng began to think again.
Time passes bit by bit in silence.
After a long time, Zhou Cheng slowly shook his head.
"No, it won't. I have no evidence to deny the possibility of a microbial collective consciousness, but I am certain that even if it does exist, it has no motive to attack us."
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