Chapter 158: The Fermi Paradox

Friday, 7:50 PM.

Jiang Zhe arrived at the Television Station on time and sat backstage, preparing for the broadcast.

Professor Hua Yunfeng and Old Feng from the Beijing University of Science and Technology, as well as Professor Zhuang from Tsinghua University, were also waiting in front of their televisions on time, ready for the broadcast.

They were very curious about Jiang Zhe's popular science topic for the day.

They had refreshed the official website several times before confirming that Jiang Zhe had not revealed the live broadcast topic in advance at all.

This made every one of Jiang Zhe's broadcasts feel like opening a blind box for the experts and fans.

At this moment, in the live broadcast room, the number of viewers, originally numbering in the hundreds of thousands watching the news broadcast, suddenly surged, quickly rising to 5 million and still climbing rapidly.

"It's starting, it's starting! Was there any preview of the content today?"

"No. The news broadcast was just about the recent events in Su City."

"Lately, the case clearance rate at The First Police Station in Su City has increased significantly; things like drug dealers, organized crime gangs, and even cases of collusion between officials and businessmen have been uncovered."

"Oh? How did that happen?"

"I don't know, but there's a rumor going around that it was the blueprint from Jiang Zhe's last episode that did the trick."

"Wait, you mean they built that kind of black technology that controls human thought and then used it to interrogate criminals?"

"I don't know if it's true. If it were, the Su City authorities would definitely have taken action, but there hasn't been a word from them."

"Interesting. If this is true, it won't be long before police across the country might do the same."

"Also, also! Something incredible happened at the 300 Hospital; a second lieutenant came back from the dead. It's being called a medical miracle."

"Besides that, there's more! My cousin is in the fire department. Seven nights ago, a guy wearing a mask came by to 'deliver warmth.' It's said that after the firefighters drank the water, they were full of energy. It wasn't just a regular energy drink; it was some kind of mysterious water that actually makes people stronger."

"I've heard of these things. It's actually very strange. Miracles seem to happen over and over again wherever Jiang Zhe is. I'm numb to it now."

"Is there a possibility that the Mysterious Person actually exists? That the resurrection is also real, and that these are all actually Jiang Zhe?"

"This... it's possible, but it shouldn't be."

"..."

In fact, besides this, the local residents of Su City had heard about the things happening in the city.

There were just too many strange things!

Like the haunted house being bought by someone, the Mysterious Person jumping off a building to save the police, the second lieutenant coming back from the dead, the sudden spike in Su City's case clearance rate, and the internet celebrity girl getting her company shut down by officials after offending a passerby...

These things just didn't seem normal no matter how you thought about it. In the eyes of the public, it felt like an invisible hand was always covering Su City!

Soon, at 8:00 PM, Jiang Zhe's image appeared on television screens and mobile phones.

As usual, he was wearing a suit, dressed very appropriately, with a smile on his face.

"Happy Friday, everyone. Welcome to the decryption program on time."

"Today, I bring you one of the most difficult paradoxes in the history of science: the [fermi paradox]!"

As soon as the opening remark fell, it instantly stunned the experts, leaders, and the public.

Professor Hua Yunfeng looked interested: "Oh? Is he finally going to talk about this paradox?"

Old Feng looked incredulous, "This paradox has left a profound mark of the unknown on both astronomy and biology."

Professor Zhuang had just been drinking tea, but upon hearing this, he immediately put down his teacup, lay back on the sofa, and adjusted to a comfortable position, "I want to see how you break down the fermi paradox!"

At this moment, in the live broadcast room, with the official start and the appearance of the fermi paradox, the number of viewers abruptly soared to the previous peak: 10 million.

"Damn, it wasn't a wasted wait!"

"Starting with a trump card! Can this paradox even be broken?"

"Seven days of waiting wasn't in vain. The fermi paradox—where on earth are the aliens, or are we the only humans in the universe? Either answer is hard for people to accept."

"..."

The audience was incredibly excited.

When he wasn't broadcasting, there was no news, but as soon as he started, he dropped a bombshell.

If he could explain it clearly today, he would likely make another massive contribution to astronomy!

On screen, Jiang Zhe smiled. He knew that this paradox had not been deeply investigated in this world; for instance, the formulas for calculating the number of extraterrestrial civilizations had not been spread.

This was the reason he dared to discuss the paradox today.

"Let us first understand the emergence of the fermi paradox."

"The initial idea for the fermi paradox was not proposed by Fermi."

"It originated from an unpublished manuscript written by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in 1933."

"He wrote a sentence in the manuscript—"

"We humans deny the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations because if extraterrestrial civilizations really existed, two things should have happened."

"One: they should have visited Earth; two: they should have sent us some signals of their existence."

"In 1933, this question did not form a paradox; it was just a simple hypothetical deduction, which is [whether aliens actually exist in the universe]."

"Because, based on the fact that astronomers had not yet discovered extraterrestrial civilizations and Tsiolkovsky's theory, the conclusion astronomers at that time should have reached was [there are no extraterrestrial civilizations in the universe]."

"As time passed, until 1950, when Fermi was talking with his colleagues, they discussed the question of where extraterrestrial civilizations were."

"They also thought that if aliens existed, then humans should have already discovered them."

"But unlike Tsiolkovsky, Fermi performed simple calculations after the discussion and proposed that the probability of extraterrestrial civilizations existing is very high."

"Therefore, this question became a paradox."

"After Fermi passed away, the content I just mentioned was published by his colleagues, and thus the [fermi paradox] was formed."

"This is the origin and cause of the [fermi paradox]."

As the series of words fell, the experts and the audience were not unfamiliar with it.

The core of the fermi paradox is: do aliens exist? If they exist, then where are they? Why haven't astronomers discovered them until now?

With the development of technology, humans can currently observe the Observable Universe over 90 billion light-years away, yet they have not discovered any extraterrestrial civilization...

Consequently, this proves a terrifying possibility: in the universe, it is very likely that there are only humans on Earth, and no extraterrestrial civilizations!

Only a small portion of astronomers were disdainful of this paradox.

In the eyes of these astronomers in the lecture hall, the scientific technology at that time was simply not advanced, and the fermi paradox was actually just a conjecture casually proposed by the then-famous Fermi.

They could not understand why Jiang Zhe would discuss this paradox in this episode; it was a conjecture that could hardly even form a paradox, and it was completely unnecessary!

In the lecture hall, many astronomers shook their heads one after another.

"In this episode, Teacher Jiang probably won't be able to top the previous ones."

"Yeah, 'Plate Tectonics' hadn't even become a mainstream theory back then."

"And astronomers back then hadn't discovered the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall; many people didn't even know how big the universe was!"

"It seems our country had just been founded then. Although the United States, Europe, Germany, and Russia were places where scientists frequently emerged, any graduate student today with their current knowledge could travel back and crush the shining stars of that era."

"Let's watch first and see how Jiang Zhe breaks down the fermi paradox!"

Just as these astronomers were feeling disdainful, Jiang Zhe spoke again to explain.

"Perhaps those who are observant have already noticed."

"To this day, 74 years have passed since the fermi paradox, and the perspective of that time is completely different from the modern perspective."

"Let's see what happens when we look at the paradox of the big shots from the last century with modern eyes."

"Let's first talk about the scientific environment in 1950—"

"'Plate Tectonics' had not become a mainstream theory at that time."

"At that time, there was no way to use isotopes to measure the age of the Earth."

"Scientists at that time did not know the complete chain of evolutionary theory."

"Scientists at that time didn't even know that the Moon was formed by a giant impact on Earth."

"Scientists at that time hadn't even discovered neutron stars!"

"A series of scientific immaturities leads us to a conclusion: Fermi's lack of knowledge in astronomy, geography, and physics at that time led him to produce a very advanced yet immature conjecture about extraterrestrial civilizations without sufficient knowledge."

Speaking up to this point, Jiang Zhe smiled, "Today, I will take everyone to deeply investigate the fermi paradox."

"Before breaking down the fermi paradox, we must deeply understand the following two theories."

"The 'Mediocrity Principle' and the 'Rare Earth Hypothesis'!"

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately piqued the curiosity of the massive audience.