Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 375 - 374: Indecomposable Organic Polymer Materials

Chapter 375: Chapter 374: Indecomposable Organic Polymer Materials

"The Chemical Origin Theory" posits that life is native to planets and evolved from inorganic matter. It divides the origin of life into four stages: first, the stage of generating organic molecules from inorganic molecules; second, the stage of generating large biological molecules from organic molecules; third, composing a multi-molecular system from large biological molecules; and fourth, the organic multi-molecular system evolving into primitive life.

One of the most crucial elements is self-replicating genetic material, which for now, among different planets, is just DNA and RNA. Perhaps humans are too insular, having not experienced enough planets, or maybe this is just a cosmic fact.

Some might find it astonishing that different planets would possess materials with the same structure. For a better explanation, there is a very famous mathematical game called "Life Game."

The basic idea of "Life Game" is that, given an initial configuration and some basic rules, one observes whether life’s evolution will exhibit a series of similarities.

Initially, all cells are randomly distributed across a large grid, and the rules of evolution are quite simple, only four in total:

1. "Underpopulation": Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbors dies.

2. "Survival": Any live cell with two or three live neighbors continues to live.

3. "Overpopulation": Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies.

4. "Reproduction": Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors comes to life.

With these simple rules, extremely complex dynamic patterns can evolve, and these patterns will form very strange dynamic rules.

What does this mean?

It means that through this game, it is explained how from very simple rules, highly complex structures can evolve, sharing many similarities with the birth and propagation of life.

Volcanic craters and seabeds on every planet are almost the same initial environments. Their high pressure and humid, complex conditions provide the same rule set for the birth of life.

Under these rules, simple organic materials randomly assemble into complex organic substances.

These complex chemicals can further synthesize self-replicating genetic materials such as DNA and RNA, thus explaining the universality of life in the Universe. It also explains why every encountered life form possesses genetic material.

Even though the types of genetic materials are vastly different, species are still centered around genetic material.

"Unfortunately, we have not yet found the original DNA or RNA, the simplest self-replicating genetic materials... Otherwise, this hypothesis would truly become a theorem."

The discussion was initiated by Professor Yamamoto of the Unreal Laboratory and some geographical science experts from the exploration of Riley Star.

Zhang Yuan sat below, just an ordinary listener.

He frowned, unsure what Yamamoto was trying to convey, then raised his hand and asked directly, "Professor Yamamoto, time is limited, I want to ask what this mass extinction of life you mentioned is all about. Did you conduct any scientific experiments on the Riley Civilization without approval? Particularly biological virus experiments..."

"You have to know, although our current laws have no content about Alien Civilizations, which is a significant loophole, arbitrary biochemical experiments are not morally permissible..."

"Captain, I know, I know, I swear I definitely won’t make such a mistake," Yamamoto stood on the stage, rather agitated, possibly because his dark history was too extensive, attracting skeptical looks from those around him.

He hastily replied, "Please hear me out, it won’t take much of your time."

"I just gave an example, the Life Game..."

The screen displayed various patterns about "Life Game," "This game has a total of 256 rules, and under each rule, due to different initial conditions, the outcomes vary."

"But the patterns it can form are still limited, namely: settling into a steady state, forming periodic changes, changes appearing almost random, and exhibiting some complex patterns."

"If we analogize this two-dimensional game to a civilization in a two-dimensional world, can it be understood that settling into a steady state equates to a civilization completely solidifying its hierarchy, where no change occurs?"

"Periodic changes signify the phenomenon of historical cycles; although dynamically changing, they no longer progress. Both these categories are considered Ordinary Civilizations by the New Civilization History."

"The changes appearing almost random and those exhibiting complex patterns represent the possibilities of a Non-Ordinary Civilization. Our New Civilization History precisely aims to penetrate such complex patterns..."

"Let’s not forget that the Life Game operates on very simple rules. We also generally believe that the rules governing the Universe should be straightforward. Could we possibly draw some inspiration from this?"

Zhang Yuan frowned in thought. Yes, these were merely the simplest two-dimensional images; the real Cosmic Civilization is much more complex than two-dimensional images... But in some ways, could an individual civilization also be analogized as a three-dimensional geometrical body composed of certain rules?

This indeed constitutes a very novel perspective, many mathematicians had already fallen into contemplation.

But deciphering these mysteries is extremely challenging.

Yamamoto shifted the focus and continued, "Now, everyone, the topic of this meeting isn’t about New Civilization History, but about the imminent spontaneous species extinction occurring on this planet."

Species extinction?

A small portion of the audience who had just heard about the topic were jerked back to attention.

He didn’t hold back but took out something as thick as a finger, resembling wood, from a box and started conducting an experiment on the spot.

"Look, this is from the core of the World Tree, also the toughest part. This batch of tree cores come from a 15-year-old sapling, as tough as steel. Without the core, the World Tree couldn’t possibly grow so tall. Rest assured, we’ve already treated it specially to kill any germs, so you can closely observe."

Zhang Yuan took a small section of the tree heart passed by the staff and tried to bend it with great force; it was extremely hard, and despite using all his strength, it didn’t bend at all.

"It is indeed quite an impressive material."