Hot Wavelength

Chapter 41 (Virtual Reality 1): Special Edition

6500 million years ago, Venus
Hedison was one of the greatest inventors in Venus's history. He was more than ten years older than Nikola Tesla and was Tesla's former boss.

More than a hundred years ago, Dickson Hedson invented the light bulb, direct current, and phonograph, among other things. He was hailed as the man who lit up Venus.

In his later years, Hudson's greatest wish was to be recorded in the history of Venusian science as the greatest inventor, without exception.

He dismissed Nikola Tesla's inventions and theoretical hypotheses, such as alternating current and so-called superluminal waves, and often claimed in public that alternating current was unsafe and that the misuse of superluminal waves would pose huge risks.

As He Disheng predicted, the extra energy injected into the Earth's crust by the ultra-light-wave power station built on Venus intensified plate tectonics, causing the landmass of Tasmania to rise and recede, completely destroying Venus's topography and ecosystem. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and other disasters followed one after another.

A superluminal power station built on Saturn's moons caused an explosion, forming a giant ice ball in the Saturnian system. This caused Jupiter's orbit to narrow, pulling it closer to the Sun, and threatening to destroy Venus, Earth, and Mars in the habitable zone of the solar system.

How can anyone say that Nikola Tesla was an inventor as great as Edison? He was clearly a scientific fanatic with no sense of awe, and the culprit who destroyed humanity on Venus.

He Disheng believes that scientific research and invention are two different things. The former can be done without limits, while the latter requires extreme caution. After all, Venusian humans only have one solar system, and there are only three planets in the habitable zone.

Since the Venusian Alliance government publicly admitted that the hypersonic power station caused a series of crises, public opinion has been in uproar. The government's announcement of a remedial plan to blast Mars, stabilize the solar system, extract genes, upload consciousness, and achieve post-disaster recovery has once again torn public opinion apart.

Most people are realists; if there is a lifeline or hope for rebirth, they are willing to grasp it and stop making pointless complaints.

Although the opposition to the plan is in the minority, it has a significant voice on social media.

Interestingly, although they all oppose Tesla's plans, their respective ideas and demands are not entirely the same, and are even diametrically opposed.

Based on Venus's current technological capabilities and corresponding plans, once Venusians choose to upload their entire consciousness from their brains, their bodies will lose vital signs, meaning they will die.

Opponents share the same stance against uploading consciousness, but their reasons for doing so differ greatly.

Some people with strong religious beliefs believe that everything is God's arrangement, and that uploading consciousness and cloning the human body are blasphemy against the gods. They believe that people will go to heaven after they die, so why bother to go to such lengths to disrupt God's arrangements in a human way?

Naturalists believe that birth, aging, illness, and death are natural laws, and individual events unrelated to the group. Disease, traffic accidents, and the destruction of the solar system are just different ways of dying, but the result is the same. Death is death; don't give me that bland motivational talk about the propagation of Venusian humans or the protection of the solar system.

No matter how loud the opposition, it will not have a substantial impact on the rescue plan. The Venus Union government has not intervened in the dissenting voices.

Perhaps believing they had received tacit approval, some radical opponents have proposed taking action to prevent the explosion of Mars.

Their reasoning is that Tesla and scientists from the Venus Academy of Sciences claim that only actively exploding Mars can prevent the destruction of the habitable zone, but who can guarantee that their calculations are correct?

What if Jupiter's orbit never changed, and Venus could "make do" with maintaining the ecosystem needed for Venusian humans? Wouldn't that be equivalent to Tesla and others exploding on Mars, directly causing the deaths of their opponents? That's murder!
Kill one person to save fifty – that's another unsolvable philosophical dilemma.

The Venusian Alliance's stance is firm: the parliament and government serve the vast majority of people; in this life-or-death situation, maintaining the stability of the solar system and ensuring the continuation of Venusian humanity are of paramount importance.

Radical opponents were not satisfied; they needed a more persuasive leader. In terms of both scientific achievement and personal reputation, Hudson was the ideal candidate, no less capable than Tesla.

As a result, a scathing article by David Hedson, Venus's greatest inventor, went viral. He wrote:
The government has neither the need nor the right to actively blast Mars. This is my stance, and it is also my reflection as a scientist on so-called science.

When I was young, like most scientists, I thought the scope of science was far smaller than that of philosophy and theology. However, as I've grown older and as Venusian science and technology have continued to advance, the boundaries of science have become increasingly blurred for me.

Someone asked me if I believed in gods. I said, if you mean gods are omnipresent and omnipotent, then I don't believe in them.

But if we say that gods are the creators, then I have to believe it; otherwise, we cannot explain why particles in the large-scale universe and the microscopic world are so evenly distributed and structurally similar. The environments in which human activities take place, regardless of distance or size, are too uniform, too perfect, as if they were created. When Venusian humans can run code programs in computers, set up scenes and characters, create electric cars and robots, and even upload their consciousness, I have no reason to deny the following viewpoint:
The scenario of life for humans on Venus, and the fact that we humans ourselves are a program written and run by the "Creator," is a game designed by Him.

If what we call reality is merely a virtual construct, then the Creator should be aware of the crisis we face. If He had not grown weary of us, the solar system and Venusian humanity would not have been destroyed.

The so-called rescue plan, for us, is both extremely complicated and involves taking lives for the sake of the so-called majority.

For the Creator, however, it may be very simple; he only needs to press the restart button.

Hedisen's influence was indeed extraordinary. The rescue plan, forcibly passed by the Venus Alliance Council, was once again thrust into the spotlight. Although the number of opponents was small, the situation was deteriorating daily. The one who tied the knot must untie it; Speaker Kent and Dean Abbott paid a visit to Hedisen.

He Disheng understood their purpose, and he spoke first, saying, "Tesla's superluminal power station has created a crisis. I think his so-called rescue plan is an even bigger crisis. You should stop the Mars Explosion Project."

"Mr. Hudson, this is not the time to assign blame. Besides, Tesla only proposed the theory; we built the power station. Humanity's exploration of science is always accompanied by risks," Speaker Kent said. "If we don't take action to avert the crisis, we will all be destroyed, unless you have a better solution."

“If you come to me and we only talk about measures and methods, it will be difficult for us to reach an agreement. I feel it is necessary to tell you about my thoughts on science and the divine over the years.”

As he spoke, He Disheng opened the holographic projection screen and explained his logic. In recent centuries, Venusian scientific research has made tremendous progress.

Concise and elegant formulas and laws have been discovered, and the all-encompassing world can be explained by mathematical logic and reproduced by program code.

From images to videos, and then to virtual reality technology, the scientific ability to "simulate" has developed to the point where it is difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction.

Dean Abbott understood Hedisen's thoughts. He realized that reaching a consensus today would indeed be difficult because the two sides had different understandings of science. With this in mind, Abbott followed Hedisen's line of thought and asked:

"If there really is a creator as you say, can you guarantee that he will automatically save the solar system and the people of Venus if we do nothing?"

“Why not? He can decide for himself whether to explode Mars, and there might even be simpler ways to stabilize Jupiter’s orbit,” He Disheng said.

“I’m speechless. So, as you said, could you describe what your Creator looks like?” Abbott asked helplessly.

This is a very interesting question. If a creator had the ability to create any kind of scene in three-dimensional space and create any kind of life form, what would he do?

Hedson believed that the Creator would build a huge, stable structure and make it move, creating all sorts of living things within it, because that would be more fun.

Beetles, dinosaurs, or even Thanos—any living creature could be chosen as the protagonist of a particular game.

However, as the game scenes and protagonists change from game to game, the creator will suddenly find it boring to be an observer. Why not just participate directly?
The Creator, as a player, derives the greatest pleasure from participating in a virtual reality game of his own design. Therefore, the protagonist among all that he created is likely a "special version" modeled after himself. This most intelligent special version is none other than the Creator's fellow human—humanity.

Therefore, the most likely form of the Creator's existence is a human being!

If our universe were a scene set in a virtual reality game, then the creator would likely be a human from another dimension, and his indistinguishable human counterparts would be scattered throughout the bustling crowds.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
Everyone knows that the Green Emperor brings back spring; Song Dynasty, Zhang Gongxiang

Private wisdom cannot dictate the course of fate. — Yu Yue, Qing Dynasty

We should emulate the recluse, as Liu Caishao of the Song Dynasty said.

I offer you a golden cup, Changxing. — Qu Dajun (Qing Dynasty)
(End of this chapter)