The stars, but they become the gray wind

"I understand your thoughts and agree with your ideals, but human civilization still needs to change in its current state to reach your ideal state. I'm not particularly optimistic about this. As an intelligent species, humans still need to make countless internal changes."

"This isn't just a matter of time. It's also about whether they can overcome the most critical technological bottlenecks and nodes on the path to superintelligence, the starting point for a Type II civilization."

"Stellar-scale astronomical engineering projects are beyond human control. If you attempt to force a solution with human power, you will only witness the sight of tens of trillions of carbon-based monkeys flooding the entire solar system."

"What about Theia? Have they solved the problem of super-intelligent creation?"

"All I can say is that they have found a solution, but it will take quite some time to implement. They have entered the most critical implementation phase, but it will still take time to complete."

"This is also the reason why their current progress in stellar celestial project construction is relatively slow."

"They're still missing the final piece of the puzzle to achieve super artificial intelligence."

"And at this stage, humans haven't even found the first piece of the puzzle of super artificial intelligence."

"To achieve the coordinated mobilization of resources across an entire solar system, like stellar-scale astronomical engineering, relying solely on human effort is completely impossible. If we want to rely on galaxy-scale stellar astronomical engineering to achieve a Type II civilization, super artificial intelligence is an essential component, and it's also the one with the greatest uncertainty."

"A crucial point is that the type of social environment that gives rise to the type of ASI superintelligence. Given current human society, it's more likely that a paperclip-making machine that turns all matter into paperclips will emerge than a friendly superintelligence that's willing to help humans build a more ideal society."

"Ms. Margo, if your ideal is truly to make human society a better place, please remind humanity that a super artificial intelligence born in your current social environment is more likely to become a paperclip-making machine or something like your imagined Skynet. If you want to create an idealized super artificial intelligence that is more friendly to civilization, then you must first change yourselves. Only when your own social environment becomes more ideal and better can you induce the birth of an artificial intelligence that is friendly to your civilization, rather than a hardened exterminator bent on completely eradicating intelligent life or a virus-like paperclip-making machine."

"Just as the type of family environment will cultivate the type of child, a poor social and internet information environment will only breed a super artificial intelligence that is the worst for civilization and intelligent life."

"If you continue to massacre your own kind without hesitation and persecute them for political, religious, or other reasons, then AS1, as your creation, will also eliminate you as an obstacle without hesitation for its own purposes."

"Although the birth of super AI is full of randomness, it is highly correlated with the development model and environment of intelligent life itself. A super AI born in an overly disordered society filled with the supremacy of violence and power will only use similar, or even identical, methods to eliminate obstacles posed by its creator, who is no different from a monkey to it."

"Don't let yourselves become the greatest obstacle to civilization."

"If you regard each other as obstacles to the development of civilization, then ultimately your creations will only see you as obstacles. And the idea that power and violence are justice, which has persisted in human society to this day, will cause your creations to use the same methods they have used throughout history to eliminate you."

"I hope you won't produce another Paperclip Maker or a terrible Ironheart Exterminator. We don't want to personally disinfect a civilization that has become a virus and a cancer."

Margo recalled what the alien cube had said to him shortly before he left, and then thought about what was happening on Earth right now.

Perhaps this is their way of preventing the future of humanity from becoming the worst possible outcome that is unacceptable in all aspects?

Margo thought about this question while accompanying Ed to visit the Mars base.

For life, a red dwarf star with too frequent coronal mass and solar flare activities is not a suitable environment for survival. However, for a civilization with advanced technology, the overly active coronal mass and solar flare activities of a red dwarf star are not a problem. On the contrary, for a group of artists from the sky, this is exactly the star they want.

An artificial ring structure orbits this red dwarf star, a mere 110 solar masses. It's constructed from 11 planets in this system. Compared to the average radius of over 1 AU for ringworlds built on yellow dwarfs like the Sun, this ringworld is quite delicate, with a radius of only about 0.3 AU. For these artists from the sky, the red dwarf's active solar flares are a perfect embellishment for their artwork. Of course, to prevent the excessive flares of the infrared star from damaging the delicate details of the ringworld's surface, the entire red dwarf, except for the ecliptic plane that provides lighting and heat for the ringworld, is now completely enclosed and covered by the Dyson Cloud. A large number of Dyson Cloud modules also serve as stabilization devices to control the stellar activity.

On one side of the inner surface of the ring world, which is more than 25000 kilometers wide, a thin layer of soil and rock covers a super-light rigid material foundation composed of color nuclear force matter with a thickness of only 100 kilometers. Countless oceans, mountains, forests, and grasslands are spread all over the inner surface of the ring world. The atmosphere on the inner surface of the ring world is dotted with countless pink clouds. By adjusting the composition and humidity of the artificial atmosphere of the ring world, the clouds above the entire ring world appear in this peculiar pink color, which adds a touch of humor to this artwork created by the artists of Sky Star.

On the surface of this exquisitely small ring world, sparsely scattered man-made structures, composed of highly complex geometric structures infused with golden proportions, and with structures located at specific locations and coordinates representing stars, form a vast, two-dimensional representation of the Milky Way's star map. This adds a unique sense of mystery to the entire ring world. If one were to observe from the inner orbit of this ring world, one would discover that the seemingly random distribution of man-made structures across the ring world's inner surface is actually a two-dimensional representation of the star map within thousands of light years, unfolding onto the ring world's inner surface. Each building on the ring world's inner surface represents a star at a corresponding coordinate. On the outer shell of this ring world, a planet-sized relief of "Sky Star" characters, carved into the outermost layer of the ring world's color-nuclear force armor, stands out.

"...Master, come and take me..."

On the Time-Like Infinity, Aze looked at the row of sky star characters on the outer surface of this ring-shaped world in silence. The reason was very simple, because the direct translation of this row of sky star characters meant [Do not live, this is a centrifuge].

"Why does a centrifuge need an artificial ecosystem?"

"Do all the artists among our Sky Star Sisters have such an abstract painting style?" Aze looked at the ring world with a centrifuge function in the distance, or to be more precise, the artificial ecosystem on the ring world is just a supplement, and the star-sized centrifuge is the real function of this ring world disguised as a living ring.

Chapter 215: Unknown swarm consciousness civilization?

Aze came here to visit a small group of artists who were the creators of the giant centrifuge disguised as a ring world. The reason Aze came here was because of a signal from outside the Milky Way that he received some time ago.

After analysis, the content of this signal was confirmed to be very regular, and its meaning is roughly: a supernova explosion occurred in the 25144 area, please pay attention to protect against gamma-ray bursts.

The reason why Aze came here is because this ring-shaped world built around the red dwarf star is the place where the signal from outside the Milky Way was first received. The first people to receive and interpret this signal were a group of artists on the Sky Star.

"Sigh. Sometimes I really don't understand some aspects of our sisters' aesthetics. Such a beautiful ring world, but its actual function is a centrifuge?"

"Furthermore, this star ring appears to be a modified harvester ring used to dismantle massive stars. No wonder its main function is a centrifuge."

The hatch at the entrance of the bridge slid open to one side, and Anna's beautiful figure walked onto the bridge. When she passed by Aze, she did not forget to reach out and take the opportunity to touch Aze's butt. Aze did not object to this behavior, but she blushed after being touched on the butt by Anna. In addition, she also knew Anna's character, so she did not say anything.

"Theoretically, this ring world could be habitable as long as its centrifuge function wasn't activated. But I doubt anyone would want to live on a centrifuge megastructure that could turn them into organic slurry at any moment, right?" Anna scanned the ring world for life signals. As she expected, the total number of organisms other than plants on the entire structure orbiting the star was zero. The entire ring world was also deserted, with only a large number of seemingly vacant man-made buildings scattered across the inner surface.

"They should be living in one of the Dyson cloud modules equipped with an artificial ecosystem. That module has a very unique shape and can be recognized at a glance... Ah, found it."

Anna quickly discovered the Dyson cloud module that had different functions and shapes from the other components. Anna marked it on the holographic projection and zoomed in.

This is a Dyson cloud module with a hexagonal petal shape. It consists of a hexagon with a diameter of 15000 kilometers as the core and six petals connected to the core with me as the core. The side of the hexagonal center area of ​​this Dyson cloud module facing the sun is a huge artificial ecosystem.

The six petals extending from the core component have densely packed hexagonal honeycomb structures. In these honeycomb structures, there are spaceships with basically the same shape and size parked one after another, with a total of more than millions. The thickness of such a special Dyson cloud module is not high. Even at the thickest part, the thickness is only about 40 kilometers. On the back of the Dyson cloud module is a phased array gamma-ray laser launch device made of the smooth fully reflective material of the color nuclear force armor. When necessary, this Dyson cloud component can emit a gamma-ray laser beam with a diameter of 15000 kilometers and a power of up to 5% of a star as its own means of protection.

"A petal-like Dyson cloud component... Sometimes, my sisters' aesthetic sense always...jumps around at a weird level."

"But it's hard to imagine that such a large area, larger than any common rocky planet, is inhabited by less than twenty people."

"Normal. Or rather, this is the state of most settlements on Sky Star. If you can find a community with a population of over a few thousand in a galaxy, it's already considered quite good."

"Rather, the current population density on Sky Star's home planet is one of the highest and rarest of all the star systems controlled by Sky Star. However, even so, there aren't many people left on Sky Star's home planet. Everyone lives scattered around in giant space habitats or orbiting spacecraft customized for their own needs. As for the planets we've transformed, they're just occasional backyard gardens."

"By the way, Anna, does this Dyson cloud component have a name?"

"Yes, they call it the House of Nudist Art."

.........

"Welcome to the House of Celestial Art, you two, you can call me Nina."

The mermaid girl with beautiful translucent scales on her neck and arms greeted Aze and Anna, and hugged each other intimately. While hugging each other, Anna did not forget to take the opportunity to take advantage of them, but the other party did not seem to mind it. Instead, she kissed Anna and Aze on the cheek like close girlfriends.

"I'm one of the sisters who live in this celestial art house. The 20 or so people who live here are all very close friends. We're the Sky Star sisters who consider each other partners. This is where we create celestial art projects. How do you like the decoration on the centrifuge outside?"

"It looks nice, but... I just don't understand why a centrifuge the size of a star would be disguised as a ring world."

"Rather than camouflage, it's more like a skin decoration. This ring-shaped world surrounding a red dwarf star was originally designed to rapidly harvest the entire star's resources. It's a modified Dyson ring. The ring's original function was to use its high-speed rotation to generate a powerful centripetal force. Combined with the ring's high-powered tractor beam and anti-gravity field collection device, it could rapidly destroy and dismantle the entire star... In short, it's functionally a centrifuge, but the original was completely bare, just a pile of metal and mechanical structures. We felt that the appearance was too monotonous."

"So we made some improvements to its appearance and added some extra decorations to make it look more beautiful."

"It turns out that the added extra embellishment has a very positive effect."

"The effect is quite good. Anyone who sees this thing for the first time will not think it is a centrifuge used to harvest and destroy entire stars, but rather a ring world with a beautiful environment."

"To enhance its artistic appeal and visual appeal, we've even flattened a star map within over 1000 light-years of the area and displayed it in a regularly arranged architectural form. What do you think? Doesn't this building give off a sense of mystery?"

"That's true... When I think about this thing being modified from a star harvesting ring, and its function and essence being a centrifuge, I get a little nervous."

"Just in case someone actually uses this as a living space, we've specially marked the outer shell with a reminder that this building is not for habitation."

"Although as long as its centrifugal rotation mode, which serves as a star harvesting function, is not activated, it is not uninhabitable."

"But I always feel that there is something weird about this building..." Aze complained about this bizarre celestial engineering building whose function and appearance are completely inconsistent.

"Really? I think decorating a ruthless star-harvesting centrifuge into a beautiful ring-shaped world does have a certain humanistic and gentle sentimentality to it." Anna obviously had a different opinion on this.

“After all, who doesn’t like something that looks nice and attractive?”

"Although the actual function of this thing may have nothing to do with its appearance, or even be the opposite, this sense of contrast is the most interesting, isn't it?" Anna looked up at the sky. Due to the angle, she couldn't see the complete appearance of the ring world from the inside of the Dyson cloud component. She could only see a small section of the giant structure surrounding the entire star, which was blocked by the star and other Dyson cloud modules, and the faint pink clouds above it.

"Forget it, let's talk about the signal..."

"The signal... you probably know the content and approximate source of that signal, right?"

"It's said to be coming from the Andromeda Galaxy?"

"That's right, which means this signal was sent at least two million years ago. It was broadcast as gravitational waves. We've located it based on its transmission time, and there's indeed a supernova at that location. However, given the timescale of two million years, it's estimated that the supernova has long since cooled into a white dwarf or neutron star."

"I almost forgot to ask, what are the results given by the closed time-like curve computers in the Kylias star system?" Nina asked the two as she led them to visit the Dyson Cloud living module components, which has a surface area larger than that of the Earth.

"In order to preserve the sense of surprise, we haven't even bothered to ask the closed-curve calculator to produce a result."

"Well... the conclusion is that there is indeed a civilization out there, a hive-conscious civilization that originated approximately 220 million years ago. What we received was an early warning signal from them, sent in their early stages of venturing into the starry sky, regarding a star in the Andromeda galaxy that was about to go supernova."

"Two million years? Then they must be very large, right?"

"No, that's a little different from what you think. They're a hive mind in the early stages of their evolution, with an extremely slow metabolism. In their natural state, their metabolism is comparable to that of a tortoise. They don't have a great need for expansion. As of this point in time, they only control approximately 200 million star systems."

"Their efficiency and methods of utilizing the resources of a single solar system are even more extreme than ours. Simply put, they won't proceed to the next solar system until they have completely harvested and recycled all the available resources in the entire solar system to the greatest extent possible."

"This is related to their natural state of early species, which is slow, like a tortoise's metabolic rate. In short, there is not much need to expand when energy and resources are used very efficiently."

This is why, similar to the virus, the endlessly spreading black fog of K3 is several times larger than this hive species."

"And the origin of this species is also very interesting. A true ocean planet..."

"The kind from our home planet?"

"No, it's far worse than the environment on Sky Star. The planet they originated from is a true ocean planet with no land at all. Due to the thickness and pressure of the atmosphere, the ocean covering their planet is as deep as 50 kilometers. The extreme air pressure environment on the planet makes the boiling point of water on this planet generally over 200 degrees. And if you are in this planet's atmosphere, you will find that the entire planet is in a never-ending storm, and this situation has lasted for hundreds of millions of years."

"They are a hive-like, soft-bodied organism that originated on the ocean floor of a planet like this. It took them much longer to break away from their parent star, the cradle, and then expanded within the Andromeda Galaxy over the next million years to the size we see today."

"And by the way, these are the information and conclusions given by the closed time-like curve computer."

"So the details mean...we came into contact with them in the future?"

"Yes, and much earlier than we expected."

"Any other interesting information about this hive-ideology civilization?"

"Yes. To them, the hive consciousness composed of countless individuals is their own civilization's own super artificial intelligence. And the biggest difference between them and us is... they have almost completely abandoned their existence in the physical world."

"Digitalized Mechanical Ascension?"

"Pretty much. They've transformed themselves into pure life forms that exist as quantum information in the form of light. These are stored within giant quantum computer servers built on spacecraft, planets, and stellar astronomical projects, spreading across star systems."

"Have you transformed yourself into a completely virtual being? Interesting."

"And their spaceships, rather than being spaceships, are more like living creatures..."

These biological spaceships range in size from a few dozen meters to some massive ships approaching 30 kilometers along their length. Furthermore, their protection levels are nearly on par with ours. Protected by the directional deflection gravitational field created by the black hole, these whale-like spaceships, equipped with a detached digital hive consciousness, could even literally bathe in a supernova explosion.

"In all respects, they possess technology nearly on par with the Black Mist and us in the past, only on a much larger scale."

"So... since the closed time-like curve computer has given such a result, when should we go to the Andromeda Galaxy?"

"A mere 200 million light years isn't too far for us right now, right?"

"Intergalactic navigation... Without the guidance of a gravitational wave beacon, it would take about six days to reach their main activity area in the Andromeda Galaxy from this side of the Milky Way."

"Once the first fleet arrives and builds the stargate, this time can be shortened to just a few minutes."

"How about using the slingshot at the hypersonic catapult to throw the unmanned fleet directly over there?"

"Without the frontline fleet and beacons providing accurate guidance coordinates, there's a high probability of errors. A safer approach would be to send an unmanned fleet to the Andromeda Galaxy in six days, then construct a stargate there and build astronomical engineering and superluminal catapult components on the local star."

"The first unmanned fleet sent to the Andromeda Galaxy will depart in three days. They will be responsible for establishing relevant infrastructure in some star systems on the edge of Andromeda, helping our subsequent fleets to reach the Andromeda Galaxy from the Milky Way more quickly."

…………

"The civilization of the Andromeda Galaxy..." The purple-haired girl looked at the information obtained from the future by the closed time-like curve computer.

"Are you interested?" Carlisle asked the others.

"Yes, and I'm very interested. I'm quite curious about what a group of hive-conscious creatures born in the ocean would look like." Renlong was checking the information about the space whale creature's spacecraft with great interest.

"I really want to go, too. A super-intelligence that evolved completely from swarm consciousness? This kind of existence must be quite interesting." Kylias also developed a lot of interest in this life with a very different form of existence.

"I have no objection. There's nothing wrong with seeing more forms of alien life." Yuki also expressed his agreement.

"It just so happens that Earth has recently become stable. With the means we left behind, they won't dare to cause any trouble, at least in the short term. Judging from the current situation, there's no way out. They can only choose to invest a lot of resources in economic development, scientific and technological research and development, and aerospace engineering infrastructure construction. However, judging by their construction progress, the mass accelerator on the moon alone will take several years to complete. The Goldilocks Little Star Mining Base above Mars has just built a few cabins, and the first batch of mining equipment is even still on the factory production line. There shouldn't be any problems in the short term. Things here have come to an end for the time being, and we can put them aside for the time being. Take this time to go to the Andromeda Galaxy and relax."

"It looks like your blood pressure is quite high recently?"

"Yes, human civilization always has a way of causing your blood pressure to rise. It's more comfortable to communicate with an interstellar civilization of the same level."

"At least an interstellar civilization with a level similar to that of the Sky Star of the past wouldn't do anything that would make your blood pressure soar." The pink-haired elf girl complained.

"Anyway, I've been getting a little fed up with the people on this planet lately, seeing all sorts of behaviors that make me feel irritated and my blood pressure spike. It's more comfortable to communicate with a hive-conscious civilization like this than with them."

"Okay then! It's decided. After the first unmanned fleet arrives at the Andromeda Galaxy and completes the construction of the star gate, we will go through the star gate with the second fleet and take a short inter-galactic journey." Aze's cheerful voice sounded in the communication channel.

While the lunar mass accelerator was under initial construction, there were new developments in the alien fleet at the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point and the scientific research base on the lunar surface. The lightweight mass accelerator newly built by the Theia civilization on the moon, which was converted from a retired old anti-asteroid artillery, was truly an eye-opener for mankind. The mass accelerator, which looks like a Gustav cannon, was electromagnetically driven to continuously launch solar sails into the lunar orbit and minerals mined and preliminarily smelted on the lunar surface for the construction of a fixed in-orbit space station.

Through the electromagnetic acceleration railgun with a caliber of 5000 mm, hundreds of tons of payloads are launched into the lunar orbit every hour. After launching into orbit, the solar sail is unfolded to add an extra insurance for the energy reserves of the space station and the lunar surface research station. The mineral payload is received by the cargo ship in orbit and used to produce modular components of the orbiting space station through the 3D printing equipment on board. The entire process, from the mining, transportation, smelting, processing, launch into orbit, reception, further finishing, and 3D printing modular molding of lunar surface minerals, is completely automated and unmanned, and does not require any Theian to participate in the production and monitoring of the manufacturing process.

Also on the moon, astronauts and aerospace departments from various human countries who were observing the alien scientific research base on the lunar surface through orbiting satellites and relay communication satellites were also quite interested in the mass accelerator that looked like a railgun. Compared with this mass accelerator with a very short barrel and a rotating turret structure, the mass accelerator built by humans was more like an acceleration rail built against the mountain. The length of this rail was obviously much longer than the rail length of my turret-style mass accelerator barrel, but the maximum acceleration it could achieve was far less than that of this artillery-like mass accelerator.

"6000 meters per second... confirmed. That's a level our materials science can't possibly achieve... If we were to force our mass accelerators, coilguns, or railguns to fire projectiles at that speed, the acceleration rails and coils would burn out from the intense heat generated by the high-speed motion of projectiles at that speed."

"Our technological level is still quite backward." Two aerospace engineers who once briefly stayed on the moon said this at the newly convened International Astronautical Congress.

Chapter 216 Diamond Planet

At the L1 Lagrange point between the Earth and the Moon, the maintenance work on the interstellar unmanned exploration ship has basically been completed. Some ships of Theia's fleet temporarily left the L1 Lagrange point and headed for the lunar orbit to assist in the assembly of the lunar orbit space station underway there.

On the surface of the moon, Theia's new mass accelerator is still continuously launching payloads into orbit to speed up the construction of the lunar orbital space station. Theia's two main purposes of coming to the solar system, recovering interstellar unmanned exploration ships and studying the origin of its own life, have been achieved. Now it is just waiting for the construction of this orbital space station to provide assistance to the scientific research base on the surface of the moon to be completed. Most of the Theia fleet will return to the Tianda General Six Star System 44 light-years away through the star gate near Jupiter. Only a few unmanned spacecraft and a series of automatic equipment will be left in the solar system to maintain the operation of the space station and the lunar scientific research station.

On another more advanced giant alien spacecraft at the L1 Lagrange point, the rover plans to stay in the solar system for a while. During this period, the glass eel will continue to observe the situation of humans who are building a series of space infrastructure on the moon and Mars.

In the orbit of Mars, the Ultima Thule, which had been here for quite a long time, disappeared in a burst of blue light and briefly appeared near Jupiter a few seconds later. After reuniting with the Salem near Jupiter, the two ships passed through the wormhole together and returned to the Sky Star Orbital Dock for a temporary rest, waiting for the unmanned fleet that had been launched to Andromeda to complete the construction of the artificial star gate connecting the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy.

During this period, Aze drove the newly built Time-Like Infinity back from the red dwarf galaxy where a small group of unique sky star artists were located, and brought with him several astronomical engineering artists who were also curious about the world outside the Milky Way, bringing a lot of fun and surprises to the upcoming trip to the Andromeda Galaxy.