Deep Space Wandering Fleet
Chapter 500 - 498: The Bubble of False Progress

Chapter 500: Chapter 498: The Bubble of False Progress

Zhang Yuan babbled on about his scientific experience, regardless of whether the other party was listening. Since the other party didn’t want to communicate, the only option left was to provoke them.

According to his strategy, could someone be considered a real scientist if they saw a mistake and chose not to correct it?

Confronted with Zhang Yuan’s nonsensical ramblings for five days, one of the large dollfish in the interstellar trading market finally began to lose its patience. There was actually someone who spoke such nonsense here!

It discussed with its superior for a while and, after getting permission, jumped out somewhat angrily, "I’m sorry! Your statement is incorrect—grossly incorrect! The true Magnetic Field Perception is like ’Kan’s Valargan’, it’s a kind of ’An series Bei Er’ sensation..."

"I don’t know what you mean by ’color’, probably referring to some wavelength of the spectrum, but the magnetic field is completely different from electromagnetic waves. You shouldn’t treat it so simplistically!"

Now that the other party had finally spoken, Zhang Yuan felt a stir in his heart and started to engage in conversation calmly.

He didn’t know what the "Kan’s Valargan" or "An series Bei Er" were, probably things that were inherently indescribable in the human language of Xia Country.

Just as the English word "party" doesn’t only mean "gathering" or "soiree", its true meaning includes "faction" or "group", something that’s quite difficult to express in Chinese. The translation into Chinese could only convey a vague sense.

The language of the Gaia Civilization was even more so. Grasping the Gaia language solely through human translation was inaccurate.

The large dollfish was indeed very particular about details; each sentence was considered for a very long time to avoid revealing the core secrets of their civilization. Their specialized terminology was also exceptionally strange, and Zhang Yuan could only guess based on his own experience.

However, as the conversation went on, they touched upon optical perception, which was the key research topic of the Tos Civilization. The Tos person realized that Zhang Yuan was not uneducated, and since these were things he wanted to know himself, his original anger subsided somewhat.

"I really want to know what true light is, the Perception Ability regarding electromagnetic waves is much more important than that of the magnetic field."

Zhang Yuan said, "True light should be like this... First, you need to understand color, which refers to the sensation of color perceived by vision. Within our Human Civilization, there are also some blind individuals, so we understand what it’s like not to be able to perceive light. Here is a book by a famous person from my civilization that I can give you."

It was a book named "If I Had Three Days of Light", with some edits so as not to reveal too much information about humans.

"I greatly appreciate your gift. But we still don’t know what ’color’ really means, and your description isn’t much help to us."

It was that same indifferent tone.

It was because this civilization didn’t appreciate you, nor did they like to communicate, and they weren’t pretty, that they didn’t hold a high position in the trading market and didn’t have many friends.

On the contrary, the Human Civilization, new to this place, managed to form friendships with more interstellar civilizations due to the Human diplomats generally being more diplomatic.

However, Zhang Yuan knew that the friendship between civilizations was only superficial. When it really came down to interests, such friendships weren’t very useful.

So, the other’s current state was quite good.

Zhang Yuan asked, "Can you tell me about the civilizations that have conducted related experiments in the past? How many have developed their own Magnetic Field Perception?"

This issue wasn’t a big secret; after half a day, the other side answered, "None."

Zhang Yuan fell silent, realizing that the difficulty of this task was higher than he imagined. Indeed, breaking through the boundaries of one’s brain was very, very difficult.

"May I ask for your name? Perhaps we can initiate an academic exchange in the future..."

"My name is Calvi. For an academic exchange, you’d have to consult our Diplomat..." The large dollfish refused quite rudely.

Then, another diplomat from Tuo City Civilization explained, "We are sorry, scientist of the New Human Civilization. We have had such technology exchanges with other civilizations before, but they have not yielded any results. So we feel that there is no great need."

"We do not have high expectations for this matter."

"More and more civilizations only want to obtain data on magnetic field perception, then trade it amongst themselves to create an illusion of effort and progress within their own civilizations, that’s all. Very few civilizations really settle down to study the matter."

"The repeated lack of results has blunted the edges of nearly all interstellar civilizations."

He spoke at last, a bit wistfully, "Young New Human Civilization, it’s fortunate that the entire trading market is about to dissolve... It is both a misfortune and a blessing. Let’s hope we can gain something in this last period of time together."

Mr. Zhang Yuan did not quite understand this statement.

However, it was clear that the other party did not want to elaborate further.

He left the room and returned to his own office, mulling over the words of the other party, and finally sighed softly.

Lack of ambition is the norm for life, as well as for civilizations; once progress stops, laziness becomes natural. This state is not unique to humans; other civilizations, in theory, are the same.

That is to say, the implied message was that the vast majority of interstellar civilizations here have almost ceased progressing, although everyone is still very busy discussing research meetings, renting experimental equipment, and exchanging with each other...

This might well be a beautiful bubble touted for self-deception!

Yes, I’ve made an effort, I’ve gained some data... Civilizations must surely be progressing, right? Yes, this way, I can be at peace with myself. But what about in reality?

The effort might be in vain, all efforts might be in vain.

Thinking of this, Mr. Zhang Yuan chatted with a fellow diplomat nearby.

He said with a wry smile, "However, Mr. Zhang Yuan, this bubble of false progress cannot be easily burst. Only a minority within the civilization know they are indulging in false progress; the general populace is unaware. Even if the effort is fruitless, it’s better than not making any effort at all."

"Once the bubble is burst, and the people learn the truth of the great stagnation, what then will happen?"

Mr. Zhang Yuan was at a loss for words.

Think about it, once there have been no changes for hundreds, thousands of years, what then is the meaning of the people’s hard work? It’s like with the humans of Sakura World; they already no longer strive, what they have is enough to satisfy everyone’s needs.

Once the bubble is burst, they would wake up immediately, and what happens then is difficult to predict. That is exactly why fruitless efforts are better than no efforts at all.

This is a massive barrier set before third-level civilizations, even fourth-level civilizations.

Only by becoming a Level 5 Civilization, thoroughly altering the motivation for one’s own existence, can one avoid this crisis of laziness.

Mr. Zhang Yuan silently pondered some of the words left by the Tos People...

It is even possible that the Tos Civilization has already entered this crisis but lacks the strength to struggle out of it.

How tragic.