Chapter 160: Civilization-Grade Ring-Shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility
Chapter 160: Civilization-Grade Ring-Shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility
Year 77 of the Human United Era.
After spending more time thinking, and using a sizable portion of the computing power from the Brain Intelligence Project as an aid,
Qin Yu, in that same year, one month after meeting with the Stuo Civilization delegation regarding the cooperative project on fundamental theoretical experimental research,
gave his specific input to the Stuo Civilization concerning the construction details of the fundamental experimental facility for both civilizations.
Qin Yu judged that this facility should have a diameter of at least 0.07 Astronomical Units (AU) to have a reasonably good chance of achieving the expected goal.
Considering redundancy, if the two civilizations truly intended to push this plan forward, it would be best for the facility’s diameter to reach 0.08 AU – close to twelve million kilometers.
Though at first glance, Qin Yu’s suggestion was only an increase of 0.03 AU over the Stuo Civilization’s original proposal,
a little calculation showed it would bring about a massive, temporarily incalculable increase in productivity consumption.
After another fifteen days, the Stuo Civilization agreed with Qin Yu and the Human Civilization’s suggestion.
The two civilizations formally decided to proceed with this cooperative project on fundamental theoretical experimental research.
They would jointly build a giant accelerating collider with a diameter surpassing 0.08 AU.
Moreover, the entire construction of this giant accelerating collider was to be completed as much as possible within thirty years, with a hard deadline of thirty-five years.
To achieve this, for the next thirty-plus years, both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization would devote fifty percent of their respective civilizations’ total productivity to building this giant accelerating collider and to this super-project.
Undoubtedly,
this was a massive gamble for both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization.
This unprecedented super-project, whether for Human Civilization or Stuo Civilization,
was different from Human Civilization developing the planets of the Solar System or Stuo Civilization building planetary fortresses.
Constructing this giant fundamental experimental facility would not bring immediate, tangible returns like other super-projects might.
In fact, it was not guaranteed to yield any direct benefits at all.
Most people in both Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization probably wouldn’t feel any concrete benefit from this super-project the way they would from gaining the resources of a new planet or the security of a planetary fortress.
Pure and simple, this was about seeking a far more distant horizon for the development of theory and technology.
Worse, even under these conditions, there remained a risk of failure, where the immense investments of both civilizations would all go down the drain.
The reason both civilizations were willing to take this gamble at this time,
apart from their genuine need for it,
was more crucially,
that even for a civilization, such a gambling chance was not something every civilization could encounter at any given time.
For the Stuo Civilization: during their long journey through space, civilizations willing and able to cooperate on such a super-project were exceedingly rare to find.
Most civilizations would hesitate endlessly before undertaking such a potentially civilization-crushing mega-project.
Only now, the Stuo Civilization happened to meet the Human Civilization – a rapidly developing civilization experiencing its first encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization, brimming with motivation to push forward.
If the Stuo Civilization missed this chance with Human Civilization, no one knew how long they might have to wait for the next such opportunity.
The situation was similar for Human Civilization:
This was their first-ever encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization. When the next encounter might happen was unknown, and whether the two civilizations could ever again establish cooperation of this scale and magnitude was equally uncertain.
Under these circumstances,
for Human Civilization, for Stuo Civilization, even though it was a massive gamble, they had to seize this one opportunity.
…
“Huaxin News Agency Report.”
“For the long-term development of Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization in the fundamental theoretical fields of physics, chemistry, and others, for the long-term future of both civilizations.”
“To achieve a breakthrough advancement of both civilizations’ science and technology levels to a higher stage.”
“Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization have recently officially decided to launch another major cooperative scientific research project.”
“This major cooperative scientific research project is the Fundamental Theoretical Experimental Research Cooperation, with the main goal being the construction of a giant accelerating collider.”
“This giant accelerating collider is projected to have a diameter exceeding twelve million kilometers. Both civilizations will jointly bear the productive resources required for its construction.”
“It is anticipated that, to complete the collider within the designated time, our civilization will, in the coming decades, devote at least fifty percent of its total productive capacity to this giant accelerating collider construction project.”
“Upon completion, this giant accelerating collider will be used for fundamental theoretical and basic scientific research such as high-energy physics experiments, microscopic high-dimensional space exploration, and super-heavy elements exploration. It aims to test the Grand Unified Theory currently proposed by both civilizations and attempt to advance both civilizations’ fundamental theoretical science to a whole new stage…”
Once this decision was finalized, it was naturally not concealed from the population within the Human Coalition zone.
After the Huaxin News Agency, on behalf of the HCC and the Negentropy Research Institute, broadcasted this news,
online communities across Human Civilization’s various settlements naturally became busy once again.
“…How much? Twelve million kilometers diameter? I feel like I have zero sense of scale for that size.”
“If you lined up a hundred Earths touching end-to-end, that would be roughly that long.”
“Is there even enough matter inside our Solar System to fill something that big?”
“The accelerating collider is ring-shaped, right? So it’s like… ‘hollow’… but still, the amount of material needed is insane?”
“…So now, do we all need to start saving resources?”
“Eh, forget it. The resources we use in daily life probably wouldn’t even make a dent for such a super-project… If anything gets affected, it might be some other big-budget research plans or projects currently running…”
Judging from the discussions among people online within the HCC at that moment,
it was clear that, at least for now, the vast majority of people weren’t opposed to the progress of this super-project.
First, force of habit played a part. Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization had already announced several important, large-scale cooperative research projects were underway.
This one just seemed even bigger in scale.
Second, given the now enormous total productivity the Human Civilization commanded at the stellar level,
even though this super-project, a first-of-its-kind fundamental science experiment, was slated to consume fifty percent of the civilization’s entire productive capacity,
as long as it didn’t noticeably affect people’s daily lives, studies, or research, most people wouldn’t really feel any significant change.
As some people discussed at the time,
within the HCC zone, the research resources accessible and consumed by the vast majority of people working on their projects were a relatively small amount.
This super-project to build the colossal experimental facility would primarily affect the Negentropy Research Institute the most, potentially impacting other large-scale research projects already underway there.
“Twelve million kilometers diameter… how big is that… After it’s built, during breaks between experiments, could they open it for tourism? I’d really love to see it. It must be totally mind-blowing.”
“Our own Earth wouldn’t even match its diameter… I can imagine standing in front of those high metal walls stretching endlessly into the distance on both sides, vanishing beyond sight… you probably couldn’t even perceive its curvature…”
“That still sounds incredibly impressive. There’s suddenly this kind of industrial and scientific romance… building something this vast, just to pry open the door to deeper secrets of the universe.”
The discussions continued.
And while people kept their eyes on this super-project to build the giant fundamental experimental facility,
construction had already effectively begun.
…
The research teams from both civilizations, during their communications, also gave a name to this giant fundamental experimental facility.
They called it ‘Civilization’.
It was a word whose pronunciation differed in each civilization’s language, but it existed and meant the exact same thing in both.
The construction site for the ‘Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility’
was finally determined to be just beyond Neptune’s Orbit, near a spot close to the Kuiper Belt.
From a purely spatial view, this location wasn’t particularly good.
It would have been better to put it on an orbit six million kilometers away from the sun, as that could have used solar energy to some extent.
But this was a joint science research project between the two civilizations.
Even with greater basic trust, they were still two different civilizations.
Letting the Stuo Civilization’s Interstellar Fleet fully enter the Inner Solar System to join in production tasks that used resources in human settlement areas
wasn’t a good choice at all.
Selecting the area beyond Neptune’s Orbit was based on the current standing places of both civilizations.
Luckily,
Human Civilization’s area, after years of growth, had slowly spread to Neptune’s Orbit.
On Triton, there were already some Smart Industrial Clusters owned by Human Civilization.
These Smart Industrial Clusters would keep growing in size as needed for building the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.
Smart Industrial Clusters from faraway spots like Mars, the Earth-Moon System, Saturn, and Jupiter’s Orbit
would also shift some of their production effort to the building of the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.
And for the Stuo Civilization,
with Human Civilization’s say-so, it would use raw resources inside the Kuiper Belt,
putting over half its production effort into building the huge basic experiment facility.
…
Human United Era 78.
It was the first year after Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization decided to build the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.
The size of the Smart Industrial Clusters at Neptune’s Orbit expanded quickly.
Because they needed to speed up building the Smart Industrial Clusters there,
large ships leaving from spots like Mars for Neptune’s Orbit increased in number.
Flight paths became busier: from the Earth-Moon System to Neptune, from Mars to Neptune, from Jupiter to Neptune, and even from the Asteroid Belt to Neptune.
Due to the plan to build the huge basic experiment facility,
Human Civilization, when finishing the building and development at Neptune’s Orbit as part of the Inner Solar System,
used a very different approach from how they built earlier planetary orbit spots.
They did not follow the old way of shipping resources out from Neptune, turning them into Intelligent Machinery, and sending them back to Neptune to grow the Smart Industrial scale and resource work.
They just used resources and production power from places like Mars, the Asteroid Belt, Jupiter’s Orbit, the Earth-Moon System, Mercury, and Venus
to fully cover and support the building of Neptune’s Smart Industrial Clusters.
At the same time, they set up the resource development zone at Neptune’s Orbit, built Stellar Cities, expanded the Smart Industrial scale, and created abilities for Smart Production to run on its own and grow by itself.
The resources taken from Neptune and the work done by its Smart Industrial Clusters were not used for far-off spots like before.
Almost all of Neptune’s Orbit resources and Smart Industrial output went straight into building the huge basic experiment facility.
The same thing happened with Stuo Civilization.
After getting Human Civilization’s nod,
other small Stellar Fortresses, aside from the main Planetary Fortress, had started moving to resource-heavy spots in the Kuiper Belt.
They dug up, collected, and worked on Kuiper Belt resources, and at the same time, grew their factories outside the Planetary Fortresses.
This was all prep for building the huge basic experiment facility.
Though, that year, both civilizations hadn’t yet officially started building the huge basic experiment facility,
just the early steps made the whole area from Neptune’s Orbit to the Kuiper Belt feel lively.
Of course, Stuo Civilization and Human Civilization couldn’t jump into building the basic experiment facility right that year.
…
The plan to build the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility
had been agreed on together by Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization.
But before that, Qin Yu set the total size of the entire basic experiment facility.
From its huge scale, they knew
the design job for this whole Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility would be really tricky.
At the same size,
the basic experiment facility might not be more complex than a Human Civilization Starship,
but its big form pushed up the total complexity by a lot.
Even basic experiment facilities,
with the same setup, might work fine in smaller ones Human Civilization built on Earth before,
but when put in this civilization-level facility stretching over 0.08 Astronomical Units (AU) wide, problems likely came up fast.
But fixing these problems
required Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization Researchers to team up on solutions.
Qin Yu took part in the design research for the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility.
Actually, he led the entire design work for it.
Like he did in the past, Qin Yu pointed out the design and research paths for each subsystem of the whole ring-shaped fundamental experimental facility.
Then each research team, following his directions, finished the research and design for their subsystem.
Last, all the design research for subsystems got pulled together for Qin Yu,
and Qin Yu suggested new ways forward. With him guiding, the whole research team moved ahead in their work.
This time,
it wasn’t just the research teams and Researchers in the HCC’s Negentropy Research Institute tracking Qin Yu’s directions to solve the doable problems in each sub-area.
Later on, the research teams and Researchers from Stuo Civilization helping with this design job
were also taking Qin Yu’s ‘orders’.
Because Academician Qin Yu always showed a clear, correct path.
When with him, people just had to stick to his pointed idea and walk a solid research line,
helping Academician Qin Yu handle the ‘small fixes’ in sub-areas – then the work took a big step ahead.
With Qin Yu in charge,
time shifted from Human United Era 78 to Human United Era 79.
Finally,
at the end of 79, with Human Civilization and Stuo Civilization putting in plenty of computing power and key Researchers from linked fields,
the design job for the Civilization-grade Ring-shaped Fundamental Experimental Facility was finished.
Proper building could start.