A science fiction writer, who influenced President Obama 's cosmology, said, "What will happen if China first contacts with extraterrestrials?"

byGreg Rakozy

World's largest 500 meter radio telescope "FAST"Was completed in Guizhou Province, China in 2016, and exploration of extraterrestrial life bases based in China began full-scale. Although there is no report that the extraterrestrial life body was observed as of 2017, a science fiction called "If China contacts an extraterrestrial life form" is reported to President Obama and CEO Mark Sackerberg of Facebook It is acclaimed and has become a hot topic. What happens when China first contacts extraterrestrial life in the world? That is told by the author 's interview.

China's Race to Find Aliens First - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/what-happens-if-china-makes-first-contact/544131/

The radio telescope "FAST" in China completed in 2016 is expected to be useful for exploring extraterrestrial life forms. In January 2017, a novelist who was invited to this FASTLiu Jianxing(Ryu Jikin)Mr. Mr. Ryu is an engineer who continues to write novels while managing computers at power plants.

byopacity

You can see what FAST is like from the following article.

FAST, the world's largest 500 meter radio telescope accelerating the search for aliens, began operation in China - GIGAZINE


Why are novelists invited to the radio telescope? As you might wonder, Mr. Ryu's novel is published in English in 2015, for the first time as a science fiction novel in ChinaHugo AwardWe have acquired.

Awarded the Hugo Award "Three bodies"Is the first of a series called" Episode 3 trilogy ". Three bodies were published in 2006, the second work "Triple II: Black Dark Forest" was published in 2008, the third work "Triple III: Shinigami Nagao" was published in 2010. Although it is scheduled to be filmized, translated versions of series trilogy are not published in Japan.

Three bodies are said to have given President Obama President Obama a view on the universe, and Facebook's Mark Zuckerburg also recommends this book and is gathering support from all over the world.


The story is the communism after the war in the 1960's, community China is the stage, a female college student who entered a secret base to search for aliens sent secretly radio waves containing information of the earth civilization to space. As the alien "Three Body" received information, the Earth and the three worlds begin to be involved. In the face of the ruining of their own star, the three-star stars invade the earth, but in the third work "Nagasaki Shinigami" the two societies, the Earth and three bodies, will explore the path of coexistence.

In the second work, one of the main characters says, "All civilizations should not transmit their existence to outer space." If other civilizations know their existence, they are regarded as "threatening" and they are excluded, or they follow the path of eliminating others because of their superiority in civilization. This idea is called "dark forest theory" in the story because it resembles the situation that "hunters lurking in the dark forest think the sounded ones as rivals and kill".

According to the dark forest theory, three-body stars tried to invade the earth in trilogy, but the female college student who is the hero believes in the idea of ​​the Communist Party and holds the idea that "human beings should not survive any more" I do not care about the invasion of the three-body star because it is. And, while heading for aggression, the three-star will disrupt the movement of the particle accelerator so that progressive weapons like atomic bombs are not developed on Earth.

As mentioned above, the three figures depict the encounter with extraterrestrial life forms based on the history of China, and Mr. Ryu can be said to be a person closely related to contemporary space science. Invitation to FAST is because Mr. Ryu's style matches the development of contemporary Chinese space science.

Exploration of extraterrestrial intelligent life forms(SETI) can be subject to ridicule as "religious mysticism" even in the scientific community. Edited by the editors who interviewed Mr. Ryu accidentally met at FASTRoss AndersenMr. Mr. pointed out that there is a common point between SETI and religion as "hope for" connection "and" transcendence of God ".

byBen White

But not only in China, other countries also spend a lot of money on exploring extraterrestrial organisms that are not even known, without considering SETI as meaningless, and Russian wealthy Yuri Milner To fund the exploration team of the extraterrestrial life bases based in the University of California at Berkeley it has invested 100 million dollars (about 11.4 billion yen). Researchers are also thinking about advanced civilization and technology outside the Earth and developing technologies to find traces of artificial contaminants present in the universe.

FAST is the most sensitive radio telescope in the world, according to astronomer Andrew Siemion, the leader of Mr. Mr. Mr. 's SETI exploration team, "FAST is the world's most sensitive radio telescope," the most possible as a transmitter for extraterrestrial life forms It is thought that it is a thing with sex. "

FAST was built in Guizhou Province located in the southwestern part of China, but 9110 residents around Guizhou Province, central to rural areas, will be evacuated with a guarantee of 12,000 yuan (about 210,000 yen) during construction It was reported that it was criticism.

The Chinese government to evacuate about 9,000 people from their settlements for searching for aliens - GIGAZINE


Although FAST construction which was advanced rapidly even if such sacrifice was produced in this way, there was motivation for the development of science and technology in China there. Originally, China's science and technology had reached a high level at an early stage, but there is a history that it was overtaken by Western countries from the way. In 1948, in order to explore the reason why "China's science and technology had developed, why was it defeated to Europe due to war despite being developed," the biochemistJoseph NeedhamMr. started the "Needham Project", and when a work comprehensively describing Chinese civilization and science was released, it gave a great impact to the West.

For some reason why science and technology did not develop in China, some think that Confucius emphasized norms too much. Also, among historians, as the huge dynasty continued governance for a long period of time, it seems that energy was not poured into technological things compared to Europe where many countries competed in small areas Some people. The fact that war ignites science and technology competition,The Manhattan ProjectIt is also clear when you look at.


On the other hand, some researchers think that China was not curious about the life beyond its own country. Until entering SETI in recent years, extraterrestrial life has not been a concern of China for a long time. Even while European people are going to adventure in the late medieval period, China has not put the emphasis on the navy, but "curiosity is not seen as being supposed to stop the development of science and technology in China" It is there.

Although China lost to Europe in science and technology, it is said that the pace of R & D in the last 10 years is over the United States. There are still problems with the contents,According to one studyEven for papers submitted by the most prestigious university in China, one-third of all articles contain plagiarism and forgery. In China it is said that a bonus will be given if the paper is published in research magazines in Europe and the US It is pointed out that this may lead to misconduct. Also, restricted freedom of speech and limited access to overseas publications are obstacles to the development of science and technology.

Construction of FAST which was done in such a situation is also one manifestation that China put much money into fundamental science, not applied chemistry. Following the construction of the radio telescope,CERNA plan to construct the world's largest circular accelerator to carry out experiments like the one like this is also being raised, and Mars exploration will be expected to start around 2020 as well.


However, as for extraterrestrial exploration, Mr. Ryu, who advocated "dark forest theory" among the three bodies, that the civilization which is different from the earth existing somewhere in the universe sends a signal is " Trying to be invaded by other living beings,Gamma ray burstIt is only when it is in an imminent state, such as there is a danger of being exposed to it. "

Although Mr. Ryu's novel sometimes says "It depicts the future that will occur", on the other hand, in many respects historical facts are allegorical. Mr. Andersen told Mr. Ryu: "I have expectations for signals from the universe, the dark forest theory is based on a narrow range of interpretation of the behavior between the Chinese civilization and the Western European civilization I think that I think that it is "I think that it is." Then, Mr. Liu can easily find the pattern that the civilization with excellent technology has expanded and threatened other civilizations when one understands the history, and one of the contacts of civilization which was done on a large scale is It is said that it returned as an example. Mr. Ryu explained that what China has been doing to neighboring countries for a long time is also a similar pattern.

Even after receiving this answer, Mr. Andersen had the view that even if the history of mankind follows the "dark forest theory" from the beginning, the same can not be said about the civilization of the universe ". Andersen said, "Our civilization is relatively young, and what we are doing is not a civilized behavior - for billions of years the Milky Way has an environment in which life can exist I asked Mr. Ryu about the fact that we can come into contact with the civilization which has survived for a long time and became smarter.

Of course, we have not found evidence that a civilization with a longer history than the Earth exists somewhere. In the past, SETI researchers were looking for civilizations that emit laser light in multiple directions from one location to advance colonization of the universe with advanced technology. If they were consuming energy, they thought that there was a trace of infrared as evidence. However, it was impossible to detect infrared light even after investigation.

byTobias Cornille

Next,GenesisPaying attention to the fact that the spacecraft harbors the possibility of sowing the planet and accelerating its evolution there, "If the extraterrestrial life body is expanding the range of action in invisible places I have noticed the possibility that it is. And our DNA was examined for traces from extraterrestrial, but the result was swaying out.

Mr. Liu has partially denied Mr. Andersen's opinion based on the above circumstances. There is no signal from extraterrestrial life body, Mr. Ryu thinks that they are "a good hunter to hide". "The idea of" trying to jump out of the universe because there is technology "represents the limit of our way of thinking about civilization. Mr. Liu does not deny the possibility that a wise civilization that is aged exists, but because they understand that they are "difficult to understand who is at the vast distance of the universe" , And explains that it hides himself like a hunter of "dark forest theory".

In this regard, even if artificial intelligence dominates the earth, it will be difficult to contact with extraterrestrial organisms, Mr. Andersen. Artificial intelligence has no empathic ability which is indispensable for "intelligence", because information of evolution and culture history is installed instead of emotion. Researchers at Oxford University think that logic to derive artificial intelligence goes beyond human understanding, and that the entire planet may be transplanted to a supercomputer. Considering that the earth is getting too hot, artificial intelligence thinks about the energy consumption of the computer and may put himsel as a dormant for a long time until it gets suitable temperature.

"When we leave the dark forest theory aside and if the Chinese Academy of Sciences contacts" I received a signal ", what would you give to the civilization that is beyond the universe?" , Mr. Ryu answered, "We will not tell the history of humanity to detail". That 's why talking about the history of mankind makes us a threat to them.

In addition, Mr. Ryu said that the movie "message"We see that the first contacts of extraterrestrial life forms will bring some sort of friction to humanity if not war. H. G. Wells'Space War"Was panicked across the country when it was broadcast on the radio, the likelihood that this prediction will actually occur is likely to be high. Furthermore, Mr. Ryu suggests that a cultural shift including religion may also occur.