A Colossus rushes in at the start

Chapter 149 Cosmic Herding is Too Difficult

The universe is our pasture, and civilization is our livestock.

After Lu Shang pointed out the direction, the Babel Tower bee swarm began to take action, intending to build a cosmic-level civilization breeding farm with a spacetime no smaller than the main universe.

However, there is a problem here. If this problem is not solved, the cosmic-level civilization breeding farm will not be able to operate normally.

The problem is that psychic energy can open wormholes, and other civilizations outside the universe can also freely enter the cosmic-level civilization breeding ground of the Tower of Babel beehive through wormholes.

If a large hole is made in a wall, then even if the wall exists, it is as if it does not exist.

Using the old methods from the river system aquaculture farms, the incorporation of atomic organisms into psionic beings is no longer as effective.

Because there are barriers between universes, these barriers cannot be penetrated by spiritual energy. Spiritual energy can only act on things within the same space-time. If a cosmic barrier is isolated, it cannot exert its proper effect.

If an atomic organism is taken to another universe by a psionic creature from the breeding area, regardless of whether the psionic creature will die instantly due to different physical rules, the atomic organism will undoubtedly be forcibly disconnected from the swarm network.

The Babel swarm was also unable to track down the escaped psionic creatures through the swarm network.

Another possibility is that when civilizations from other universes explore other universes, they might rashly intrude into the swarm's cosmic-level breeding ground. If the other side is stronger than the swarm, then the swarm's cosmic-level civilization breeding ground, which has consumed a lot of resources to create, will become unusable.

The best solution is to fundamentally eliminate the possibility that civilizations from other universes could enter the swarm's cosmic-level civilization farm simply by opening a wormhole.

"What should I do?" Lu Shang muttered to himself, deep in thought.

After much deliberation, Lu Shang realized that it seemed impossible to completely eliminate the problem.

A wormhole, also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge, is a spacetime tunnel that connects two different points in spacetime.

Its scope is extremely broad, encompassing connections between two universes, two coordinate points within the same universe, and even spacetime conduits between black holes and white holes.

Therefore, once wormhole technology is unlocked, all barriers to exploration in the universe become sieves with large holes. Even if you fall into a black hole, as long as you remain intact, you can escape the event horizon of the black hole through a wormhole.

To prevent wormholes from appearing at their source, the entropy of spacetime needs to be reduced to zero.

Because in the quantum sea at the microscopic scale, microscopic wormholes are born and collapse in an instant every moment. Other civilizations do not need any wormhole manufacturing technology. They only need to use negative quanta, psionic energy, or other things that can directly interfere with and distort spacetime to expand the microscopic wormholes and freely enter and exit the swarm's cosmic-level civilization farm.

Spacetime structures with zero entropy do exist; frozen cycles are an example of zero entropy.

The change in time is directly correlated with the increase in entropy. The greater the increase in entropy, the faster time goes by; conversely, when the increase in entropy is zero, time stops.

But if we transform a cosmic-level civilization breeding farm into a frozen cycle, where the flow of time is equal to zero, how can the bee colony still breed civilization?

What kind of civilization can thrive and flourish in a timeless space where time does not change?

This is putting the cart before the horse.

Just as Lu Shang was racking his brains, one of the worker bees among the many creatures in the swarm who were also thinking together came up with an idea.

"A bee colony doesn't actually need to create a holistic, universe-level civilization farm."

The worker bee said, "It's also possible to reach the cosmic level, for example, to create a miniature universe farm that is equivalent to the scale of an entire universe."

"The microcosm is small in size and has a large amount of variability. It is not an easy thing for civilizations from other universes to invade the farm. The probability is about the same as when exploring and breaking into the void entity of a member civilization of the cosmic alliance."

As she spoke, the worker bee continued, "Even if we take a step back and assume that a civilization from another universe opens a wormhole while exploring and enters the bee colony's microcosm farm, and maliciously destroys this microcosm farm, it will not affect the bee colony's other microcosm farms."

"It will never be like a breeding ground for an entire universe-level civilization, where there is a possibility of collateral destruction."

Lu Shang was taken aback. After hearing the worker bee's thoughts, he realized that he had fallen into a misconception.

Traditionally, farms were structured as a single, integrated unit.

Planetary farming involves defining a planet.

Aquaculture at the scale of a star system delineates a star system.

River system-scale aquaculture delineates star systems, and the aquaculture areas constructed by these star systems together form the entire vast river system aquaculture farm.

The cosmic-level civilization breeding farm, including Lu Shang and many other bee-like creatures, habitually feels that they need to define an entire universe and then carry out civilization breeding.

Actually, there's no need for that. If the entire universe were to become a breeding ground for civilizations, that would be far too vast.

It would be better to divide the entire universe into many smaller universes, each of which would be a river system aquaculture area. This would make it easier to manage and reduce risks.

"That's a good idea." Lu Shang nodded, agreeing with the worker bee's idea.

However, there was more than one problem at hand, so Lu Shang asked, "Then, how do we prevent these psionic creatures in the miniature universe breeding farms from using psionic energy to escape?"

The worker bee was at a loss; it hadn't figured out how to solve the problem.

The two questions belong to different directions: one is from the outside in, and the other is from the inside out.

The solution from the outside in is relatively easy: by increasing the rate of change and directly interfering with the microcosm, the risk can be minimized.

However, the situation is different from the inside out. This rate of change of interference is useless. The psionic beings are already in the microcosm, and what the swarm is trying to do is prevent them from leaving the microcosm.

At that moment, Nanali suddenly thought of a solution.

"We could try raising the barrier of spacetime distortion."

"Back when the Swarm was fighting the Star Alliance, they used the gravitational field of the black hole at the center of the Vorsotis galaxy several times to increase the difficulty of spacetime distortion, thereby reducing the effect of psionic spacetime distortion on matter."

Lu Shang frowned. He had thought of this method before, but then abandoned it because it had a point of conflict with civilized breeding farms.

Lu Shang said, "But if the bee swarm uses psionic energy to compress spacetime, although it raises the barrier to spacetime distortion, what about time acceleration? Time acceleration requires expanding spacetime, but raising the barrier requires compressing spacetime, which is a contradiction."

What's the difference between a civilized farm that can't accelerate time and one that doesn't exist?

The bee colony seeks out psionic creatures in the farm, and through the passage of time, relying on the principle that "life always finds a way," it discovers brains with higher levels of psionic energy.

If time cannot be accelerated, then it's better for the bee colony to take its own time to search.

Nanali said, "It's not contradictory. Time is measured against entropy increase. As long as the bee swarm ensures that the movement speed of all kinds of particles does not decrease, it can still be regarded as time acceleration."

Lu Shang pondered for a moment. If this could be achieved, it would indeed suppress the interference of spiritual energy while ensuring the acceleration of time.

But this is just theory; bee colonies have never tried it before, and whether it will work depends on actual practice.

Finally, Lu Shang made the decision: "Then let's give it a try."

(End of this chapter)