Chapter 30: Does the Universe Also Fight Against Death?

"Let's use an inanimate object as another example: a room."

"A room that was originally cleaned becomes messy over time because the owner died in a car accident after leaving the house, leaving no one to clean it. If it is never cleaned again for a lifetime, the room will eventually collapse, turning into a pile of dust after a hundred years, only to be replaced by a new building!"

"Now, everyone knows what entropy is!"

"As the name suggests, it is the progression from simple to complex, then to chaotic, and finally to disintegration, to be replaced by something new."

After these simple examples were explained, the bullet chat in the livestream room suddenly exploded.

"I don't know why, but I never listen when physics professors give lectures; yet when Jiang Zhe talks about this, I'm so interested!"

"Yeah, yeah, I hate physics the most, but with the way he explains it, I freaking understood it instantly!"

"Giving Jiang Zhe a thumbs up!"

"..."

As more and more people understood what "entropy" was...

Naturally, the number of people thinking deeply also gradually increased.

All sorts of strange questions emerged one after another.

But in the end, the question the audience cared most about was naturally the universe!

If the universe also goes from orderly to chaotic, what will happen?

It was at this moment that Jiang Zhe spoke up to explain again.

"At this point, many viewers will naturally ask: [What about the universe?]"

"Actually, it's very simple. Just extrapolate our previous tiny examples to the entire universe—that is, when the entropy of the universe reaches its maximum value, meaning it collapses at its most chaotic state."

"This state after collapse is called 'heat death' by the scientific community."

"In the state of heat death, there is no longer any energy in the universe that can sustain particle motion or life."

"To put it in layman's terms, heat death means there is nothing left in the universe; 99.999% of particles are gone."

"During this period of heat death, only some extremely sparse and cold elementary particles and radiation will remain in the universe."

"There is almost no interaction between these particles and radiation, so naturally, no structures or objects can form."

"At that moment, the universe will become a static, uniform, disordered, and lifeless space."

"By then, most scientists in the current mainstream scientific community believe that during the heat death period of the universe, no event can change the state of the universe, so this phase will last forever."

"That is: eternal darkness, eternal loneliness!"

Having reached this point in his narration, Jiang Zhe paused for a moment to give the audience time to digest it.

He was telling the public that everything would be exhausted, even the universe itself.

Because his speech ability had been successfully activated, the expressions of more and more viewers changed from curious learning to confusion and loss.

Everything in the world disappears; will the universe really become eternally dark?

Isn't this far too hopeless for all objects and people?

The expression on Jiang Zhe's face began to turn serious.

"Yes, I expect most people feel that this is far too hopeless after understanding it!"

"In fact, that is indeed the case!"

"Based on heat death, we can also discover the most fundamental meaning of our human lives!"

"Our eating, drinking, sleeping, marrying, reproducing... all these behaviors are acts of fighting against the increase of entropy."

"Because our human lifespan is limited, we naturally perform more acts to combat entropy within that limited life!"

"Women use makeup and skincare to fight skin aging; this is using chemicals to fight entropy, but it only changes the appearance and cannot change the aging of internal organs."

"Men work out to maintain health and strengthen organ capacity, elevating organs to another level, which is also a disguised way to increase lifespan. This is using one's own abilities to fight entropy and fight death."

"Because the elderly cannot engage in strenuous exercise to improve metabolism, they can only choose 'Turtle Breathing.' They do this to reduce the amount of oxygen entering the body to prevent organ oxidation, thereby increasing their lifespan. This is using what actions they can to fight entropy and death; refer to the animal: the turtle!"

"We Earthlings practice environmental protection—and by Earthlings here, I mean true environmentalists, not those 'people' who use the name of environmentalism to amass wealth!"

"We Earthlings care for nature also out of consideration for the safety of our own lives. This is our human race as a whole fighting against entropy and death."

"Therefore, the meaning of our existence as living beings is to fight against the entropy that increases every moment, facing despair again and again, and experiencing death again and again!"

Following this string of explanations, the entire livestream room suddenly fell silent for an instant.

The expressions on all the viewers' faces quietly shifted to astonishment.

Before watching the livestream, many people could not understand the meaning of life.

They lived like the walking dead, getting scolded by bosses at work for being useless, and getting called spineless by their wives after work; being lectured by teachers at parent-teacher meetings...

Even more cruel—seeing loved ones maliciously murdered or even humiliated, people still didn't think of ending it with death; at most, they would recover for a while and then live on with psychological shadows, just not living well.

Whether through small traces or large marks, these various human behaviors did not make the common people at the bottom yield to fate.

Essentially, this is all humans subconsciously fighting against death!

The questions that had troubled the public for years, or rather, the questions that had been unsolvable throughout history, were suddenly answered by Jiang Zhe's professional few words.

Then, the bullet chat in the livestream room was like a flood bursting a dam, impossible to hold back.

"Damn, I thought this livestream was just a gimmick, until you told me the meaning of existence. Only then did I freaking realize what I'm living for; I live to fight against damn death, that's right!"

"Teacher Jiang, I have been enlightened. I used to think a paradox was just a paradox, nothing worth learning. It wasn't until I watched your livestream that I deeply realized—paradoxes, philosophy, and even physics can truly let me see through the essence of the world and the true meaning of life!"

"Kneeling to Jiang Zhe, this explanation is so badass; 'facing despair again and again, and experiencing death again and again!'"

"Even if you haven't explained the conclusion of the Bootstrap Paradox yet, just based on the fact that you can see through the essence of the world, I'm hitting that follow button!"

This wave of explanation caused Jiang Zhe's image to instantly become tall and profound in the eyes of many new viewers.

It caused the audience members who already loved and liked Jiang Zhe to elevate him to a new level in their hearts once again!

There were excited bullet messages, and there were also pessimistic ones.

"So hopeless, we live just to fight the constantly increasing entropy and face death again and again."

"Is this really the true meaning of life? Can I really restart my life?"

"..."

These words sparked reflection among people of many different classes.

From birth to the end, the process in between for everyone is indeed a variety of ways to fight death.

No matter what they do, even if they are laughing, crying, in despair, or stubbornly living like the walking dead after despair, vowing not to end their lives.

In the final analysis, it is all ordinary people stubbornly fighting against the essence of life: death, and even more so, fighting against that invisible entropy!!!

All the watching leaders, Professor Feng, Professor Li, Professor Tang, and others could not bear to speak, for fear that their voices would disrupt the delicate atmosphere of the moment.

Everyone just held Jiang Zhe in even higher regard in their hearts.

To use simple physical thermodynamics to interpret the definition and meaning of life—he was likely the only one to ever do so!

After enough time had passed, Jiang Zhe on the screen finally spoke again:

"Since we humans are all fighting against the constantly increasing entropy and the death that could arrive at any moment."

"Then, what if we substitute humans for the universe?"

"Does the universe fight against the increase of entropy?"

"Does the universe also perform behaviors similar to humans to fight against the entropy that grows day by day within the [entire universe]?"

"Is the universe also fighting against death?"