Chapter 160: Is the Earth Flat?

In front of the camera, Jiang Zhe continued to talk eloquently.

"Nicolaus Copernicus's theory of the Mediocrity Principle has numerous arguments."

"In ancient times, our country believed that the sky was round and the earth was square, while scholars in the ancient West and Middle East believed that the Earth was the center of the universe."

"Let's use our country as an example first. The idea that the sky is round and the earth is square can be understood as our ancestors back then, due to underdeveloped technology, having to rely on conjecture, which led them to believe the sky was round and the earth was square."

"What is this like?"

"Hmm... the Flat Earth theory. Among current supporters of the Flat Earth theory, that is exactly what our ancient ancestors believed."

The Flat Earth theory was not unfamiliar to the experts and the audience.

The sky was round, like a pot lid covering the square earth.

Or rather, that the Earth is not a sphere, but a floor...

"Pfft, I kind of want to laugh; why are there still people who support the idea that the Earth is flat?"

"It's a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theorists believe that the world's space agencies are deceiving the public; they have also provided a lot of fabricated evidence, claiming that the sky is a pot lid and the earth is a floor."

"A floor, hahahaha, we live on a floor; then how do they explain latitude and longitude?"

"This... don't get hung up on it, Teacher Jiang is live-streaming; the Flat Earth theory was fine in ancient times; back then, people hadn't been to the Antarctic, and supporters of the Flat Earth theory even claimed that behind the Antarctic ice wall was a gateway to another world..."

"..."

It wasn't that the audience was mocking the understanding of their ancestors, but rather that even when facts were placed before them, those people still wouldn't believe that the Earth was not a sphere but a floor...

On screen, Jiang Zhe continued his explanation:

"Everyone, there's no need to get hung up on whether it's the Earth or a floor; it has nothing to do with today's topic."

"When Nicolaus Copernicus appeared, he rejected the [Sky is round, earth is square] theory — that all things revolve around the Earth."

"At the time, he speculated that the Sun was the center of the universe. He believed that all things revolve around the Sun. Well, we cannot say he was wrong, but at the very least, the planets in the Solar System do indeed revolve around the Sun."

On this point, the experts in the lecture hall nodded in agreement repeatedly.

When Nicolaus Copernicus proposed this concept at the time, he refuted the idea that the Earth was the center of the universe and that all things revolved around the Earth.

In that era, when he proposed this concept, the result was that he was burned to death.

And when Bruno proposed the theory of an infinite universe and a unified new theory, he was eventually ordered to be burned to death by the Pope.

Galileo Galilei, who supported Nicolaus Copernicus, died while under house arrest.

In other words, in that era ruled by religion, those foreign sages were all challenging the Bible.

The Bible holds that God created the world. Until this group of practical scientists appeared and challenged the authority of the Bible, most of them did not meet a good end.

The physicists and astronomers at the scene nodded one after another.

On this point, in order to rule the country, the ancient emperors of our country, although not as excessive as foreign popes, did not promote the development of scientific investigation.

It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty that firearms and related units like the Shenjiying appeared; if the ancient emperors had not been incompetent, and one emperor had promoted the development of scientific research nationwide, gunpowder could have been carried forward as early as the Qin Dynasty.

Thinking this way, the physicists and astronomers at the scene shook their heads and refocused their attention on the screen.

"As you have heard, the situation for scientists at that time was not good, and most of them did not meet a good end. It is a pity for those sages who contributed to all of humanity."

"Returning to the topic, 100 years later, Galileo Galilei used a telescope to discover the moons of Jupiter and the orbit of Venus around the Sun, verifying Nicolaus Copernicus's Heliocentrism, and finally vindicated Nicolaus Copernicus."

"Then later, in 1930, the United States astronomer Trumpler discovered that the Sun is not the center of the Milky Way Galaxy."

"Next, in the mid-20th century, the Russian cosmologist and nuclear physicist George Gamow and others, based on Hubble's Law, believed that the Milky Way Galaxy was located at the center of the constantly expanding universe."

"At the end of the 20th century, United States astronomer Geoffrey Marcy and others discovered that planets outside the Solar System were quite common, proving that the existence of planets within the Solar System was not an exception, but rather a quite ordinary existence."

"Therefore, Nicolaus Copernicus's Mediocrity Principle was proven by a series of astronomical discoveries — "

"The Earth is nothing but an ordinary planet among countless galaxies in the vast, boundless universe!"

Speaking to this point, Jiang Zhe showed a look of regret and shook his head, "Later on, more and more scholars, experts, and even some scholars unrelated to astronomy sincerely acknowledged that the Earth, where life was born, is an extremely ordinary existence in the universe!"

"When this theory was acknowledged by many big shots."

"One person took actual action and invested in a project called [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence], and that person was the United States entrepreneur Paul Allen."

"In order to prove that the Earth and humanity are just the most common phenomena in the universe, he invested in and launched the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence project."

"Later, United States astronomer Carl Sagan, who participated in the project, believed: 'In the Milky Way Galaxy, there are very likely thousands of civilizations in existence!'"

"But it is a great pity that, to this day, that [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence] has not found any recognized alien signals. Most of the suspected alien signals were actually either pranks by radio enthusiasts on Earth or electromagnetic waves emitted by some celestial bodies."

"When a series of big shots in the United States announced the failure of this civilization project, it caused many related scholars to sigh with regret."

"Their original intention was all for the sake of the fermi paradox to prove that humanity is very mediocre and the Earth is very mediocre."

"When the outcome came out, it dealt a blow to their long-held beliefs; the proof of the facts was even more of a blow to the Mediocrity Principle."

"However, later it was the turn of the experts who insisted on the Rare Earth Hypothesis, and they provided a possibility — that the Earth is actually not ordinary, and the reason why we haven't found alien civilizations at present is essentially because they are too far away from us, so they cannot be detected."

"And our country also only started searching for extraterrestrial civilizations around October 2024, led by our national officials; I hope there will be good news by then!"

"I will not judge the right or wrong of those predecessors for now; later, during the decryption moment, I will naturally provide an in-depth analysis of these."

Speaking to this point, Jiang Zhe paused for a moment to give everyone time to react.

At this moment, in the lecture hall.

Professor Hua Yunfeng and Old Feng nodded in thoughtful agreement without speaking.

They acknowledged Jiang Zhe's explanation; now that much evidence points to the non-existence of extraterrestrial civilizations, they have had to lean towards the Rare Earth Hypothesis as well.

And the astronomers, cosmologists, and physicists at the scene could not help but show looks of regret.

They knew in their hearts what Jiang Zhe was talking about.

Those scholars who were on the front lines and took actual action originally intended to prove that the Earth is ordinary and humanity is ordinary, but in subsequent extraterrestrial investigations...

They gradually discovered that the Earth does not seem ordinary, and humanity does not seem ordinary either.

If the Earth were ordinary and humanity were ordinary, why haven't we found evidence of intelligent civilizations on relevant exoplanets?

All the astronomers present knew that there is a very advanced method that could find extraterrestrial intelligent civilizations using only high-powered space telescopes.

Countries around the world capable of going into space have all taken action to a greater or lesser extent, but in the end, none have found any signs of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations.

Like Area 51 in the United States and the like...

In front of professional scholars, those are completely unworthy of being brought up.

Every time a series of riots and disasters occur in the United States, officials bring out Area 51, claiming that they have discovered alien flying saucers, to divert and appease the angry voices of the public.

What is the result?

Nothing at all!

...

Inside the professor dormitory building at Tsinghua University.

Professor Zhuang could not help but nod in agreement, "It is indeed as Teacher Jiang said; they wanted to prove that the Earth is ordinary, but the more they tried to prove it, the less ordinary it became; the more inconceivable it became!"

Beside him, Zhou Qing asked: "Teacher, what do you think? Is the Earth ordinary?"

Professor Zhuang pondered and gave an answer: "I don't know at the moment; I haven't researched in this direction."

It was not that he didn't know, but that Jiang Zhe hadn't given the answer in advance; if Professor Zhuang gave an answer in advance and it turned out to be inconsistent with the answer Jiang Zhe gave later, and Professor Zhuang couldn't produce concrete evidence in the end, it would be embarrassing!

In the livestream room on the mobile phone screen, the audience's comments poured in, and the comments quickly filled the livestream room.