Earth Era

Chapter 9: 200 Bytes of Knowledge

A light intensity detector is an instrument used to detect the intensity of light. It is not unusual to install a light intensity detector on a device that simulates the surface environment of the sun. After all, the luminosity of the sun's surface is very strong, and the change of luminosity also means the change of some physical processes, so the existence of a light intensity detector is quite necessary.

But it is a bit strange to have a light intensity detector with such high accuracy. Zhao Huasheng looked at the parameters in the instrument and calculated in his heart to draw a conclusion.

The conclusion is that this light intensity detector can detect the change of sunlight even the equivalent of a candle's luminosity. That is to say, even if the luminosity of the sun decreases to the equivalent of a candle, this instrument can detect it.

What concept is this? Even on Earth which is 15 million kilometers away from the sun, the sun's rays are too bright to look directly at. How intense is the sunlight on the surface of the sun? And how advanced is the instrument that can detect even the light of a single candle in comparison to the terrifying intensity of the sunlight? It's unimaginable. What Zhao Huasheng couldn't understand was what Li Qi was doing by installing such a powerful instrument here.

"Don't ask me, I don't know anything. Maybe the psychology research team can tell you what Li Qi is trying to do." Seeing Zhao Huasheng's confusion, Wang Tang spoke first.

Zhao Huasheng asked, "Maybe...the intensity of the sun's radiation and the luminosity changes on the surface of the sun are related? Li Qi noticed this by measuring the slight luminosity changes on the surface of the sun before any of us knew about the solar crisis? What kind of physical mechanism is behind this, and what does the luminosity change mean? Is anyone in the research department doing research in this area?"

"I have already reported the relevant situation, and someone will soon take over the relevant research and evaluate what the small changes in the luminosity of the sun before the solar crisis may mean in terms of physics. After all, such a high-precision optical detector implies many things," Wang Tang said, "But...don't have too much hope."

Wang Tang took a drag of his cigarette and said, "This instrument only simulates the environment of the sun's surface, it doesn't provide a real environment of the sun. Therefore, the data obtained here is of limited use." He then added, "I don't think it will help the study of the sun in the physical world, its only purpose is to help you solve the mystery of Li Qi."

"I understand," Zhao Huasheng said, "According to the current information, we know that Li Qi knew about the solar crisis at least a year ago, and at the same time, he started to pay attention to the weak luminosity changes on the sun's surface. So we have reason to believe that there is some connection between the two. I will think about it carefully."

"Good." Wang Tang stood up, flicking away the cigarette butt in his hand before patting Zhao Huasheng's shoulder, "Young man, do your best. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help."

As he said this, Wang Tang walked towards the door to leave. After his figure disappeared, his words still drifted back: "The materials you need will be faxed to you later; the person beside you has my contact information."

Meng Zuo said indifferently: "I have the contact information of anyone in the world. As long as you need it, I can provide it to you at any time."

Meng Zuo's position seemed very high, and his ability could be described as omnipotent. Allowing Meng Zuo to follow him around 24 hours a day... Zhao Huasheng was reminded of the importance the old man placed on him.

"I hope I won't let them down." Zhao Huasheng sighed secretly and then turned around: "Let's go, let's go back."

On his trip to the Stellar Physics Institute, Zhao Huasheng didn't gain anything other than more questions. But questions can be a good thing, as it provides the opportunity to answer them and make progress instead of being completely in the dark about how to start.

Later on, the information Zhao Huasheng needed was sent over through the computer.

The first batch of information didn't contain anything of particular interest to Zhao Huasheng. It was mainly research materials regarding the environment on the surface of the sun, which may be useful in the field of research but were of no use to Zhao Huasheng.

It was the second batch of information that caught Zhao Huasheng's attention.

"We checked all kinds of electronic devices that Li Qi had used before, including the computer, mobile phone, various network devices, storage devices etc. It was found that there was basically no information left in these things. It is obvious that Li Qi had thoroughly cleaned these things before he died, which led to our inability to restore the data from them. But perhaps due to Li Qi's negligence, or perhaps due to our luck, through our investigation, we found a damaged hard disk that Li Qi had used in a garbage recycling center."

"This hard disk was severely physically damaged, and under normal circumstances, we still couldn't restore the data from it. But the researchers at the Institute of Computing Science thought they could try. So we gave them the hard disk, and they worked continuously for two days and two nights before finally restoring about 200 bytes of data."

The symbol for a byte is Byte, 1KB is equal to 1024Bytes, 1M is equal to 1024KB and 1G is equal to 1024M. Two hundred bytes of data are roughly the same size as a text document with no more than five hundred words.

And this hard disk is a one thousand G high-speed hard disk. It may have stored a lot of data that is important for the whole human world and the whole earth, but those important data have been damaged, and the only data that has been restored is no more than five hundred words.

"From the surface meaning, it seems to be a conversation record between Li Qi and someone, but we can not know who that person is, nor do we know what the specific connotation of this record is, nor do we know if these records are helpful for your work. The restored data is as follows."

"The primary mission of life is survival. The essence of survival is to continuously obtain energy from the outside world to maintain its own operation. When it is inevitable to perish, life tends to preserve its own information, specifically, by reproducing its own genes.

I agree with the latter part of your statement about the definition of reproduction, but I don't agree with the first part.

Why?

The primary task of life is survival, but the essence of survival is not to obtain energy from the outside world to sustain itself, but to expel its own energy to the outside world to sustain itself.

Why is that?

Because life itself has a very high energy intensity."

And that's where the sentence ends. Maybe there was more to it, but that content disappeared from this world along with the damaged hard drive.

Besides this record, another one was restored that was significantly shorter and even more puzzling.

"Can you come out?"

"No, it's too cold outside."

"What would happen if it's too cold?"

"I will freeze to death."

These two records were all that was left. After reading them, Zhao Huasheng put down the materials in his hand and went to the window again. He opened the window, allowing the cool summer breeze to caress his body while he watched the people hurrying under the building, entering deep thought once again.

Does the living body itself have a very high energy intensity? Zhao Huasheng murmured to himself, "Compared to this, it can be said that the energy intensity of the living body is indeed high, but can it be used to release energy to maintain its existence? Humans, including other animals, are constantly losing their own energy, but does this have anything to do with the essence of survival?"

"Is there a necessary cause and effect relationship between the cold outside and "holding on" to survive? Who was Li Qi talking to? What kind of role did the mysterious person who was talking to Li Qi play in this incident?"

Zhao Huasheng felt that he seemed to be caught in a certain logical trap. Every strange thing he encountered since he took over this matter was so strange, and there seemed to be some hidden connection between these strange things. But Zhao Huasheng could never figure out what the connection between these strange events was.

Zhao Huasheng knew he was missing a key, missing a crucial point. As long as he could figure out this key point, all things would be connected and all doubts would be resolved. Through Li Qi leaving him the only relic, this key must only be in his possession. But what is it, and what could it be?

The white paper was left specifically for him? And the conversation they had while drinking together?

What was the connection between them?

No matter how he tried to figure it out, Zhao Huasheng couldnt. His gaze towards the window started to become scattered, and his hands gripping the railing started to form blue veins. Even his body started to tremble.

At this moment, Zhao Huasheng was even somewhat resentful of Li Qi, resenting why he had to take on all the doubts and questions by himself, why he couldn't just speak it out clearly instead of putting in so much effort to solve the puzzle. If he could solve it, then it would be fine, but he still had no clues.

Zhao Huasheng suppressed the rage in his heart and calmed down after a while. He didn't know when the sky became dark again and the weather got colder.

Zhao Huasheng sighed and closed the window as he walked out of the room and asked the empty living room: "I'm going downstairs for dinner, are you coming?"

Meng Zhuo walked out from the balcony again: "Yes."