Deep Space Wandering Fleet-Chapter 137 - 138 Bozeman Self-awareness
Chapter 137: Chapter 138 Bozeman Self-awareness
The most popular current theory about “self-awareness” is named “Bozeman Self-awareness,” which is a hypothesis derived from the concept of the Boltzmann brain.
Human observations of a low-entropy world originate from random fluctuations within a high-entropy universe.
Large fluctuations can create a state of very low entropy; although the probability of such low entropy is very slim, it still occurs on the vast scale of the universe.
Further deduction leads to the conclusion: It’s possible that these fluctuations could produce a brain, or a self-aware entity, and the likelihood of this happening is much greater than the chances of producing the low-entropy world humans inhabit and evolving a vast number of brains.
It can be calculated that the probability of fluctuations creating the human world is e^(-10^100), while the probability of fluctuating into a Boltzmann brain is e^(-10^28), a difference of over seventy orders of magnitude.
Taking this hypothesis even further leads to an explanation for the origin of human self-awareness.
At the same time, self-awareness can be divided into “Weak Consciousness” and “Strong Consciousness.” Devices like cameras and computers that can record the data of the universe’s operation also possess “self-awareness,” but they belong to the category of “Weak Consciousness.”
Those capable of deducting the cosmic system of movement through logic belong to the category of “Strong Consciousness.”
The observational behavior of “Weak Consciousness” and “Strong Consciousness” can impact the movement of the universe itself, thereby explaining peculiar phenomena such as causality inversion in certain microscopic fields, like the double-slit interference.
Therefore, the mystery of self-awareness might be hidden at the very root of the universe…
Well, Zhang Yuan just took these speculations as a bit of fun.
“Speculation within speculation,” with no way to be experimentally verified or further developed. Naturally, it can’t reveal the origins of self-awareness, so the concept of eternal life is out of the question.
Moreover, he discovered that human conjectures that can’t be experimentally verified seem to be increasing.
From the beginning with high-energy physics to condensed matter, then to the current life sciences, and on to biology; perhaps, even more, subjects incapable of further development will emerge in the future…
He instinctively felt a tremendous crisis brewing from the vast universe!
An invisible net delineated the forbidden zones that separate the extraordinary from the mundane.
Once outside these forbidden zones, people encounter the bewildering and boundless unknown, losing the ability to continue developing.
…
As time hurriedly passed by, the time for hibernation had arrived once again.
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Carrying that uneasiness about the future…
This time, Zhang Yuan was set to hibernate for 329 years, directly traveling to—the 31st century.
“Mr. Zhang, after examination, your physiological indicators meet the criteria for hibernation. I wish you a pleasant time travel journey.”
His life partner Lin Xuanyuan had entered hibernation a month early, leaving another nurse to bid him farewell, which made him somewhat embarrassed.
“You can record a message for your future self.”
“Thank you,” Zhang Yuan nodded, “…This awakening wasn’t too wonderful. On Earth, there’s a crisis in both the cultural and scientific developments. I just hope that when I wake up next time, Earth Civilization will have solved these crises.”
“Alright, I’ve recorded it… Do you have anything else you want to say to this era?”
Zhang Yuan said, “No, that’s all.”
“I wish you a safe journey, and I wish us good luck…”
“Let’s hope so.”
…
The Earth Era spaceship crawled slowly through the depths of space, as time flew past it like shooting stars.
One hundred years, two hundred years, three hundred years…
The era to disembark had arrived once again.
This time, there seemed to be a little accident.
“What? I overslept… by one hundred and fifty years?” Zhang Yuan lay on the hospital bed, looking at the atomic clock on the wall, his heart filled with astonishment.
“What happened? And that… the New Civilization History conference, did I miss it again?” he asked with a raspy voice, opening his mouth.
“Mr. Zhang, hello, it’s now the year 3234, the 33rd century. There’s been no big incident with the spaceship. In the past few big years, several batches of children were born on the ship, and many people’s wake-up times have been pushed back.”
“Accordingly, the New Civilization History conference has also been postponed,” said the nurse.
Hearing about the postponement of the conference, Zhang Yuan instinctively felt uneasy. Such conferences aren’t simply postponed at will; undoubtedly, something significant must have happened.
Moreover, he noticed fine lines of wrinkles on the face of the female nurse, as if she looked older than a typical astronaut.
“Lady… um, where is my life partner?”
“She’s still in hibernation. According to the wake-up queue, it will be about another half year before her turn. This incident is truly regrettable.”
Hearing that nothing had happened to Lin Xuanyuan, Zhang Yuan felt somewhat relieved.
“It’s alright, it’s alright. A delay of more than a hundred years isn’t so bad.”
A week later, Zhang Yuan was discharged from the hospital, taking deep breaths of the air before eating a Pu Pu Grass by the roadside.
It was a long-lost “big year”!
The cabin was no longer empty as in previous years. The moment he stepped out of the hospital, he smelled the strong scent of human society!
There were even a few teenagers around fifteen or sixteen years old running by, smiling and greeting Zhang Yuan.
“Sir, if you’ve just awakened, you need to undergo a psychological evaluation.”
“Oh… Thank you!”
During his hospital stay, through indirect questions and answers, Zhang Yuan had already roughly understood what had happened inside the spaceship to result in the current situation.
The first major incident was that someone had committed suicide due to severe depression!
This kind of mistake is hard to anticipate in advance.
The management had arranged for numerous psychological soothing measures and psychologists, hoping that everything would be peaceful. But not everyone is mentally resilient as imagined, and even the presence of psychologists doesn’t guarantee effectiveness.
For someone like Zhang Yuan, who could both work hard and be a homebody, possessing the world as long as he could study—He could entertain himself for a long time without issues in a small environment.
Even during the whole process, there were beautiful girls who actively volunteered to be a “life partner”…
Anyway, Zhang Yuan was enjoying his life quite deliciously.
But there are always other people who are sociable by nature, and they feel very uncomfortable living in a world of solitude.
They painfully endured the most difficult first waking period, but couldn’t survive the second or third, devoid of friends or a life partner, leading a struggling life.
Depression is a formidable disease, not only does it lead to personal misery, but it also has a certain level of contagion!
After several suicides, the management became aware of this, and for several big years, they arranged emergency psychological screenings, and indeed discovered quite a few latent mental illness sufferers.
