Chapter 151: Different Energy Technologies

Just as Qin Yu and the head of the related research team at the Negentropy Research Institute 011 Lab had expected,

the life extension technology of the Stuo Civilization held some value, but not as much as it appeared to have on the surface.

The Stuo Civilization’s life extension technology might allow Stuo individuals to live up to eight hundred years old,

but it obviously couldn’t be applied to individuals within Human Civilization.

However, because the Stuo Civilization’s life extension technology had been shared with other civilizations they’d encountered before,

some of the life extension techniques from those other civilizations, which were closer to the fundamental mechanisms of the human body,

offered more inspiration to Human Civilization and the Negentropy Research Institute.

The exchanged life extension technology and subsequent research

were still handed over to Research Institute 011 at the Negentropy Research Institute.

But, the insights gained so far from the Stuo Civilization’s related life extension technology

weren’t yet enough to achieve a new breakthrough in Human Civilization’s own life extension technology.

It could be foreseen that in the short term, this technology exchange might not bring much direct impact.

Perhaps only years later could the insights and research results gathered now become part of a new journey in human life extension technology research.

Qin Yu did not directly participate in this particular research.

As for the Stuo Civilization,

the situation under this life extension technology exchange was probably similar to that of Human Civilization.

Based on subsequent communications and feedback from the Stuo Civilization themselves,

the life extension technology from Human Civilization also hadn’t enabled their long-lived individuals to significantly extend their life expectancy any further.

…

66 HUE (Human United Era).

After the previous several technology exchanges,

further technological exchanges and trades between Human Civilization and the Stuo Civilization

began to become frequent and comprehensive.

Both civilizations compiled a list of technologies from their respective fields that they considered suitable for exchange and provided it to the other civilization.

In doing this, the slightly less technologically advanced Human Civilization actually gained more benefits,

simply confirming the existence of certain technologies was itself a valuable piece of information.

In the technology list provided by the Stuo Civilization, researchers from various fields within Human Civilization and the Negentropy Research Institute spotted more than one such example.

Human Civilization hadn’t even begun exploring in some areas mentioned, unsure if certain technologies were truly possible,

yet they saw them listed by the Stuo Civilization.

Even if Human Civilization didn’t choose to trade for these specific technologies, their very existence pinpointed research directions for Human Civilization.

The Stuo Civilization, with experience interacting with multiple civilizations, naturally knew this, but implicitly allowed Human Civilization this small advantage,

as it was unavoidable in the exchange process.

Moreover, although the Stuo Civilization was stronger overall,

Human Civilization, also a Stellar Civilization by the Stuo’s standards according to the reference, provided its own list containing similar items:

technologies already achieved by Humans but whose feasibility the Stuo Civilization wasn’t sure about.

Both sides sifted through the list provided by the other.

They found technologies where a mutual consensus could be reached and exchanged those.

In fields where both civilizations had achieved a certain level of research progress,

they prioritized swapping technologies within the same domain.

The gap between their research levels in specific technologies served to elevate both sides’ related fields simultaneously.

For fields where one civilization held expertise and the other had no significant research at all,

the exchange became far more complex.

Especially for technological trade between civilizations, finding a universal equivalent was difficult.

It was also hard to fully measure the value a specific technology held for the other civilization.

Thus, negotiations occurred on a case-by-case, technology-by-technology basis.

However, the desire from both civilizations for technological exchange was quite clear,

so, fundamentally, even trades involving fundamentally different technologies usually succeeded.

This was mainly because, while stronger, the Stuo Civilization didn’t possess an overwhelming advantage over Human Civilization.

Had the Stuo Civilization been a Galactic Civilization by their own standards,

there would have been little reason for them to engage in technology exchanges with Human Civilization at all.

…

For Human Civilization,

the aspect they found most fascinating within the Stuo Civilization was its ‘Genetic Memory’.

As a naturally occurring feature of Stuo reproduction,

Genetic Memory had inevitably been the subject of extensive research over their long history.

Human researchers in related fields were deeply curious about the content, methodologies, and findings of this Stuo research.

Even better, for Human Civilization, would be if the Stuo Civilization permitted direct research on the Genetic Memory ability of individual Stuo by humans.

Because Genetic Memory clearly involved things fundamental to brain science, even the self-consciousness of intelligent beings.

If the secret of the Stuo’s Genetic Memory could be unlocked, many related problems could be solved, or at least a clearer path forward found.

Even Qin Yu’s ongoing, yet only indirectly incremental, work on enhancing human intelligence levels might gain new approaches.

It was a pity though.

Research on this topic

was clearly too sensitive for the Stuo Civilization.

It touched upon the too-deep, fundamental mechanisms of the Stuo intelligent species’ biological structure.

Handing such information over to Human Civilization, or any other civilization, was just too dangerous for them.

Even with the considerable foundation of trust built between them so far, both civilizations hadn’t reached a level where they could trust each other with their survival.

Therefore, this related research, the workings of the Genetic Memory mechanism,

was absent from the technology list provided by the Stuo Civilization.

Finally,

during this period of time,

after Artificial Intelligence and Life Extension Technology,

the next major technology exchanges between Human Civilization and the Stuo Civilization

came from the fields of energy and propulsion technology.

For any civilization, these were probably the two most important areas within a civilization.

The former directly determined how big a civilization could grow and to what level it could develop.

Everything running and everything produced in a civilization needed enough energy to support it.

The latter directly decided how much territory a civilization could rule and how big a civilization it could keep running,

and even decided whether the civilization survived when facing an enemy civilization.

In fact, Stuo Civilization’s ranking of civilization levels mostly relied on differences in these two areas.

The reason why

the two civilizations chose to have a technology exchange in these two areas at this time

was first,

by this year,

it had been twenty years since Human Civilization first discovered signs of Stuo Civilization,

it had been eighteen or nineteen years since Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization first communicated using radio signals,

and Stuo Civilization’s Interstellar Fleet had been parked in the Kuiper Belt for nearly ten years.

During this time, the two civilizations had many meetings, exchanges, and collaborations,

went through several big stages in their interactions,

and had gotten to know each other to some extent; they could predict the other civilization’s actions more now,

and had built some trust.

Second,

both civilizations needed to get better in these two areas,

and there was a strong need to swap and share technology.

Besides,

while energy and travel technologies greatly affected both civilizations’ overall progress,

in the short term,

with both civilizations wanting to talk more than to start an Interstellar War,

even if these technologies helped each side develop some,

there was no big immediate threat.

At least, even by now, neither civilization had shared any how-to on Interstellar War weapons like Electromagnetic Railguns or Laser Weapons.

Qin Yu definitely joined in the process of swapping these two technologies.

After all, on Human Civilization’s side, it was probably hard to find a Researcher who was better than Qin Yu in these two fields.

Also,

since Stuo Civilization arrived,

besides doing more work on Strong Artificial Intelligence before,

even when the DT04 Electric Propulsion System was ready,

most of the time Qin Yu led research teams,

he guided the Researchers at the Energy and Power Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute to study the Electric Propulsion System again.

After first meeting another Extraterrestrial Civilization,

this was probably Human Civilization’s most urgent research need.

If nothing else, if Human Civilization’s Starships could go fast enough,

at least if they couldn’t win a fight, they could flee into deep space, giving themselves more time and space.

Right now,

Qin Yu was still very curious about Stuo Civilization’s energy and travel technologies.

Because the technology areas were so important,

even with all the reasons that made the two civilizations agree to swap these technologies,

they were still very careful when they actually did it.

They spent about a whole year

before Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization roughly finished exchanging energy ideas back and forth,

and Stuo Civilization’s energy tech files all ended up with Qin Yu.

First,

from the earlier tech exchanges,

it was clear Stuo Civilization was quite advanced in bio-technology.

This might have to do with Stuo Civilization’s natural environment,

or with how during their long travels, they had met many different ecosystems, living forms, and living things’ inner workings.

But Stuo Civilization’s energy tech development also had some ties to bio-technology, which surprised Researchers at Human Civilization’s Negentropy Research Institute.

In energy matters,

Human Civilization had already been lucky: when Human Civilization’s Controlled Nuclear Fusion research got to the Helium-3 Fusion stage, there was enough Helium-3 on the Moon for Human Civilization to use.

But Stuo Civilization was even ‘luckier’ in this way.

The key material Human Civilization first used to build a Controlled Nuclear Fusion device was made by their own scientists.

For Helium-3 Fusion tech, it was the same; Qin Yu worked directly on materials research and ‘found’ the right stuff using Computational Materials Science.

For Stuo Civilization, this key material lay right on the surface of their home planet – it was natural, super tough against heat and neutron blows, and worked perfectly,

making it much easier for Stuo Civilization to first achieve Controlled Nuclear Fusion technology.

If Human Civilization’s first Controlled Nuclear Fusion success was thanks to Strong Artificial Intelligence controlling the system,

Stuo Civilization’s first Controlled Nuclear Fusion win came purely through materials luck.

Normally, back then, Stuo Civilization shouldn’t have had the right way to process that key material,

but as luck would have it, another ‘life form’ on their home planet could handle it,

letting Stuo Civilization shape the important material early on using a ‘bio-smelting’ method.

Then they used that material to build their Controlled Nuclear Fusion devices.

The Researchers at the Energy and Power Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute didn’t know what to say about such luck.

They could only note that civilizations that could travel far through space and grow from a planet

surely had some special advantages.

By now,

Stuo Civilization’s energy tech couldn’t stay at the early stage.

It had reached a level like Human Civilization’s Helium-3 Fusion Reactor, maybe a bit ahead.

The stuff they used wasn’t Helium-3 but something else that fused at around the same temperatures.

That home planet key material was still in Stuo Civilization’s current energy devices,

but they could make it themselves now instead of digging it up from their home world.

Looking at the differences between Stuo Civilization and Human Civilization’s energy tech,

this energy tech swap was a great thing for both sides.

One had achieved Helium-3 Fusion without that natural material.

The other had reached the same fusion energy level without using the same material or tech as Human Civilization.

So when the two civilizations shared each other’s energy know-how, what good would come of it?

In year 67 of the Human United Era (HUE),

after both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization knew the other civilization’s energy tech,

and blended the other’s tech into their own,

they built new energy devices for their societies.

These new gadgets were still a version of Controlled Nuclear Fusion,

but the hottest core zone inside the fusion reactors could now run at over twice the heat as before, steadily and safely.

Before, Human Civilization’s Helium-3 Fusion Reactor core reached about 100 million degrees; now it was charging toward 300 million.

Even though it could still be called a Helium-3 Fusion Reactor,

it could fuse not just Helium-3 but also trickier stuff that needed more heat, letting it make more energy.

At the same time,

Stuo Civilization did something similar,

and in the same year, finished building and testing their next-gen fusion device.

Basically,

because each civilization’s energy journey helped inspire the other,

in this swap,

both made a step toward the final goal in the Controlled Nuclear Fusion path: Heavy Nuclear Fusion Technology.

So,

Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization decided to push on without stopping.

After teaming up for theory research,

they started a real tech cooperation project together.

The “Heavy Nuclear Fusion Research Project”.

Experts in energy from both sides began,

starting from their energy skills now,

to aim for even better and smarter Controlled Nuclear Fusion energy tech.