Chapter 167: Extremely Special

At this moment, inside the lecture hall.

Many veteran astronomers at the scene looked at their own students with disdain.

Their students had also watched programs by other science popularizers who imitated Jiang Zhe, which had swayed the opinions of some.

"Look! Little Liu, this is what Jiang Zhe calls professional!"

"Look, Make-up Artist, you were still saying that the Moon is monitoring the Earth; look at him, this is what professional means. You've made a fool of yourself, haven't you?"

"Graduate students should study something useful, not alien spaceships. Studying alien spaceships is one thing, but you even researched that the Moon is an alien spaceship. That is ten, or rather, nine parts ridiculous!"

"..."

One cannot blame them; after all, the second most popular science program currently is from the Kun City television station.

No one knows what kind of host they recruited—he also has the surname Jiang—but while the program content he puts out is somewhat engaging, it cannot be considered high-brow.

Under the scolding of their professors, those undergraduates and graduate students scratched their heads in embarrassment and turned away, pretending nothing had happened.

Just then, Jiang Zhe's voice came from the big screen once again.

"Next, the prerequisite for the birth of life is naturally a star."

"The light of this star cannot be too weak, nor can it be too strong."

"If it's too weak, it's too weak; if it's too strong, it's too strong, and in the end, nothing will emerge. Either the organisms freeze to death, or they burn to death. Therefore, our Sun is very gentle to us in the habitable zone."

"After that, there is the size of the star; it cannot be too large, nor can it be too small."

"Once it is too large, it will cause tidal locking for our Earth. If our Earth always faces the Sun with one side, then that's the end of it!"

"After that, there must be a rigid condition; for life to be born, there must be a super-large planet outside this planet to take the damage for it, just like Jupiter near our Earth."

"There are simply too many conditions like this!"

Suddenly, Jiang Zhe seemed to have thought of something. "Oh, right, there is another crucial condition: the Solar System must be in the habitable zone of the Milky Way Galaxy."

"Just like the Earth is in the habitable zone of the Solar System, the Solar System must be in the habitable zone of the Milky Way Galaxy."

Speaking of this, he picked up a whiteboard, on which the Milky Way Galaxy map had already been drawn.

A white dot of light, with four [legs] rotating clockwise nearby.

"Our Earth is in the zone between the legs in the bottom right corner of the Milky Way Galaxy. This is the [Habitable Zone of the Milky Way Galaxy]. In the bottom left, top left, and top right corners, there are also Milky Way Galaxy habitable zones. Our Earth resides in the bottom right habitable zone."

The audience leaned closer to the screen to examine it carefully.

They discovered that there was indeed a gap between the [legs] of the Milky Way Galaxy, and there were a total of 4 [Habitable Zones of the Milky Way Galaxy] in the entire Milky Way Galaxy.

"If our Earth were on these 4 legs, it would almost instantly be annihilated by a supernova, which is a star that can explode at any time!"

"The Milky Way Galaxy is actually similar to the Solar System; it has habitable zones and non-habitable zones."

"Being too close to the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, there are a vast number of massive celestial bodies. Even if the Earth were lucky enough to be in the center, it would soon be absorbed by the massive celestial bodies."

"Or, due to it being too bright, the Earth would have no night, only eternal day!"

"Another point is that it won't do if the Earth is too far from the Milky Way Galaxy; because our Earth has a huge iron core. The further away, the lighter the matter, making it difficult to form heavy metals, which will be unable to support the physical reactions required to gather into an iron core; it cannot form in the distant regions of the galaxy!"

Having said this, Jiang Zhe paused for a moment to give the audience time to react.

Witnessing this, the audience patted their chests in secret relief; if they were truly in those zones, humanity would likely not exist.

And just as Jiang Zhe said earlier, the Earth is indeed very special!

This also made more people unable to help but develop a thought: the fermi paradox is very likely correct—there are no aliens in the universe!?

Just as people were holding this thought, Jiang Zhe presented the next possibility.

"Everyone, having listened to this point, perhaps you already have thoughts in your minds."

"I have only mentioned ten cases, and it has already shaken your thoughts about there being no aliens in the universe."

"Then please, hold onto this mindset and think about what comes next."

"If we say that these 10 conditions I have described, including the dozen or so that I haven't mentioned yet—if each condition has a one-in-ten probability in the universe..."

"...and we combine one-in-ten with the next twenty-something prerequisites and calculate it, we will eventually get this number!"

After saying this, he raised the whiteboard again.

On the whiteboard was written an astonishing: 1 in 10 million trillion!

"As you can see, the probability of our Earth appearing in the universe is represented by this number: 1 in 10 million trillion!"

Jiang Zhe feigned a curious expression. "I believe you don't have much of a concept of this. Let's take an example: there are at least 100 billion stars and planets in our Milky Way Galaxy, and at most 400 billion. Let's just calculate with 100 billion stars and planets."

"The data obtained shows that the probability of our Earth being born in the Milky Way Galaxy is: 1 in 100 million!"

"That is to say: it would require 100 million galaxies the size of the Milky Way Galaxy to potentially give birth to 1 Earth!"

Hearing this, the audience couldn't help but swallow hard.

They didn't know what to say. With the comparison between having no data and having data, they were astonished to discover that the Earth was actually this special!

No matter if you look at it standing up, lying down, or prone, the Earth does not look mediocre at all!

Even looking at the entire universe, although the probability is small, when calculated in the end, the entire Observable Universe must surely have many, many planets and humans like the Earth!

Yet now, it just happens that none have been found, which is even more intriguing!

"And these are just rough estimates, and some conditions for other planets don't even have a one-in-ten or one-in-a-hundred chance."

"It is precisely [Liquid Water]!"

"And the data I have provided is generally accepted."

Having said this, Jiang Zhe's expression suddenly became serious, and he raised an index finger.

"Actually, there is one more crucial question!"

"That is: if our Earth were to deviate from this Milky Way Galaxy even a little bit, we would be unable to observe the appearance of the universe."

"Because for planets on the four rotating [legs] of the Milky Way Galaxy, if there were people there, their observations of the universe would either be hindered by an atmosphere that is too thick, making it impossible to see outside clearly."

"Or it would be too bright outside, making it impossible to see further out through this brightness!"

"If there were humans on those planets, they would have absolutely no concept of the universe; they would look up and say: [Oh, isn't the universe just gray and hazy? What is there to look at?], or: [Oh, isn't the universe just bright and glaring? It makes me unable to sleep every day.], and so on."

"Naturally, once there is no thought or desire to explore the outside, those hypothetical humans would, in all likelihood, have no thoughts about the universe."

"Just like those animals that might be cats or dogs, they have absolutely no curiosity or desire to explore the so-called heavens; they only rush about for [Survival] every day; unlike us humans; once we are free from worries about food and clothing, we begin to explore all kinds of possibilities."

"From this point of view: our human appearance in the natural world is actually [Very Natural]!"

"This means: since the conditions on Earth are all met, there is no reason for humans not to appear on Earth; it is as if we came about [By Natural Progression]."

"On Earth, we humans are the only ones capable of exploring, thinking about, and understanding the universe; simple animals like those are unable to understand the universe."

"After we humans began to develop a desire to explore, we slowly discovered the vastness of the universe, the emptiness of the universe, and the various natural laws operating within the universe."

Speaking of this, Jiang Zhe suddenly smiled and asked a rhetorical question: "May I ask everyone, what are the natural laws of the universe? You should all know, right?"

Natural laws of the universe?

For many, this was the first time they had heard of it.

They had never realized that the universe actually had laws?

But soon, the live stream chat was flooded with comments.

"I know, I know. The natural laws of the universe refer to the various laws and principles in natural sciences such as physics, chemistry, and biology, including but not limited to the law of gravity, the laws of thermodynamics, optics, and so on."

"So this is the natural law of the universe?"

"Yes, this is the natural law of the universe. It actually also refers to the operating laws of the universe."

"Just like our astronomers being able to use physical laws to calculate very, very distant stars and the mass of stars from far away; this is the universe that we humans can understand how it operates; like cats and dogs, they wouldn't even understand a quadratic equation, let alone the universe."

"I see. But I feel like Jiang Zhe has a hidden meaning!"

"By the way, why would Teacher Jiang ask this?"

"I don't know, I just feel like there's something fishy!"

Those who understood Jiang Zhe saw the clues in Jiang Zhe's words at first glance.

The result was just as the audience thought; Jiang Zhe suddenly grinned and gave an ethereal answer: