Chapter 245

The Gliese have indeed known the existence of electricity. With some small Enlightenment Given by the "enlightener civilization", they have the possibility to jump directly from the stone age to the electric age.

Unfortunately, this step is very, very difficult.

For a whole hundred thousand years, countless capable people and wise men have launched attacks again and again, but no one has taken this crucial step.

Just because there is no oxygen

When I saw this, the voice of discussion in the conference room suddenly increased. There were doubts and curiosity. Some even questioned the correctness and reliability of the report.

"No technology was born? It took them so long to produce real technology? "

"Are the real technologies given to them by the second batch of aliens?"

The professor on the stage smiled meaningfully, as if he expected that all of you here would have such a response: "ladies and gentlemen, I have a question. If human beings are faced with this dilemma and have a certain amount of scientific thinking without oxygen, can they jump directly from the stone age to the electric age."

The crowd gradually became silent and began to think seriously.

"... it's incredibly difficult." Captain Zhao, sitting in front, shook his head gently.

The absence of oxygen means that there is no natural combustion phenomenon, which makes the development of science extremely difficult. In this case, it is almost impossible to smelt copper or iron on a large scale.

For human beings, the simplest way to make copper and iron is carbon reduction method. At high temperature, carbon is used as reducing agent to conduct redox reaction on metal minerals to smelt metal elements.

But this method requires a very high temperature. For Gliese without combustion, it is undoubtedly difficult to reach a high temperature of thousands of degrees

Unless we can find a natural active volcano and use the temperature of the volcano, we can have that little possibility.

But when Gliese encounter volcanoes, it's too late to escape. How can they risk their lives to make iron? They don't even know the so-called chemical reaction equation!

So, is there any other way besides carbon reduction? Of course: electrolysis! Most metals can be smelted by electrolysis, but electrolysis needs electricity first!

In other words, without combustion, it is impossible to enter the bronze or black iron age. Their scientific and technological progress can only stay in the stone age, and it is difficult to improve their productivity.

The development of science is gradual. Even if they have good scientific thinking, they also need experiments to support the proposed views.

Science is a methodology. After putting forward a point of view, if it is consistent with the experimental results, it can be considered correct for the time being.

If it does not conform to the facts, this view will undoubtedly be abandoned.

But the question is, how?

For a simple example, if you want to study biological cells, do you have to have a microscope first? If you want to have a microscope, you have to learn to burn glass and make lenses? But how to burn glass without fire?

Inventing new experimental tools is no less important for scientific research than putting forward new theories.

There are too many similar difficulties. Even under the guidance of the enlightener civilization, the Gliese have known that the magical natural phenomenon of "electricity" exists and can be transformed into great power. But how can we study electricity without iron, copper or even conductors?

The scholar sitting in front of Zhang Yuan turned his head and said, "in this case, there are two ways I can think of. First, I clearly know what electricity is. Just like us, we have mastered this knowledge. If we suddenly run to the stone age, we can jump directly into technology, bronze and black iron. "

Zhang Yuan shook his head: "no, I don't know why. The enlightener civilization only told them the existence of electricity, but didn't tell them the essence of electricity, let alone phenomena such as electromagnetic induction, so they can only grope blindly in the fog."

"Then, the second plan, with the strength of the whole country, gives priority to power research and relies on a large number of talents to attack these bottlenecks. The oxygen content of their planet is low. Iron, copper and magnets also exist in nature... It is still a little possible to rely on these natural materials. "

"Professor, your statement is too difficult and idealistic..." another expert questioned: "it can only be an authoritarian government... Such orders will be issued only when the dictator is crazy. There is no such possibility of a democratic government. The people have long been ousted. "

Listening to these comments, Zhang Yuan sighed: "that is to say, in that case, human beings will probably be stuck. There is no excuse. Knowing only the term electricity, how can they try to study what wires, magnets and electromagnetic induction? "

"Continue to deduce that in the universe, it is difficult for a planet without oxygen to develop real technology? This is... Very strange. "

"I thought of another way, bio smelting! The change of life is infinite. On the earth, some bacteria have a good accumulation of soluble metals under high temperature conditions. Maybe the creatures on some planets can smelt metal by themselves? "

"This probability is not absent, but it is very low. You can't ask the creatures on those oxygen free planets to evolve the ability of biological smelting... "

When he came to this conclusion, Zhang Yuan had to lament the good luck of mankind.

This condition is really a little harsh. There must be a few planets with a large amount of oxygen. Oxygen is produced by plant photosynthesis and cannot be born out of thin air. The active chemical nature of oxygen means that if it cannot be produced continuously, it will react with other substances and be consumed quickly.

Oxygen free planets are the majority.

Because of this, the productivity of Gliese civilization has been in the stone age. There is no way to separate natural elements chemically, and there is no way to study electric energy physically.

Lightning is the only natural phenomenon related to electricity that they can observe. Various physical models have been proposed one after another, and some even gave their lives to touch lightning!

However, what is the significance of all this when the production tools are still stone and wood?

This tragedy and the degree of difficulty are really difficult for outsiders to tell

"I don't know, I don't know anything... We know nothing about the world. It seems that a layer of darkness envelops our eyes and obscures our way forward. We know that electricity exists and that it can exert magical power. "

"But all the attempts were fruitless..."

From youth to middle age, and then to old age, the wise man exhausted all his efforts, but achieved nothing. He wrote sadly in his diary: "damn electricity, what is...!"

At this time, it has been... 30000 years since the enlightenment civilization left.

At the moment of seeing this paragraph, it seemed that something hit Zhang Yuan's heartstrings. As a scientific research worker, he often expressed such feelings?

The universe is so ruthless that it only needs a little catalyst to block a civilization.

Just because there is no oxygen.

There is no mockery. Compared with Gliese civilization, human beings have only a little more good luck. At least they have developed their own technology and penetrated the sporadic truth of the universe.

"Alas... The technology of earth civilization has been stuck for a long time. Is there something missing that we don't know? "

"Lack of some thinking, or the reason we don't know... Or something else..."

The evolution of history continues, not for the will of any life

In the case of fruitless long-term exploration, science has slowly lost its momentum of progress. Physics, chemistry, biology and medicine are in a state of great stagnation, and no one is willing to study these things anymore.

Mathematics is booming. Because mathematics does not need experimental verification and is not limited to productivity, as long as it is logical.

Year after year, ten thousand years after ten thousand years

Gliese civilization's science and technology tree began to produce serious deviation, mathematics took the lead, and other disciplines were in a mess!

A funny thing happened, and its mathematical level has even surpassed that of human beings! However, the tools used are still the most primitive tools such as stone and wood!