309: Chapter 309: They've seen things from even further back!!!

"Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap!"

"This thought is too terrifying!"

"How did the Sumerians, and ancient people all over the world, know that stone could preserve things for ten thousand years?"

"This can't be explained by mere coincidence; there must be a common origin, right?"

"My scalp is tingling, it's really tingling!"

"A single question from the Bro has forced the entire archaeological community to re-examine why the ancients knew stone was immortal for ten thousand years!"

"I won't be able to sleep tonight, brothers!"

"..."

The bullet chat scrolled frantically as the number of online viewers surpassed twenty-five million. Even the temporary servers Wang Shulin had added began to lag.

"Damn it, I keep adding servers and it's still lagging?"

Amidst his shock, Wang Shulin hurriedly ordered, "Xiao Wu, keep adding servers!"

...

Gusu High School, Principal's Office.

Principal Fu stared blankly at the bullet chat, then turned to Old Wang. "Old Wang, what are they talking about? What have they seen? Seen what?"

Old Wang didn't answer.

He hesitated to speak, his eyes glued to the screen. His expression shifted from curiosity to shock, and finally to pure disbelief!

Xiao Wang's mouth hung open as a sense of lingering fear washed over him.

This wasn't some terrifying piece of knowledge, but a common, ordinary point that had simply never been noticed.

"Old Wang?" Principal Fu couldn't help but squeeze his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

Old Wang slowly turned his head and took a deep breath. "Principal, this question... we in the field of history have never looked into it deeply."

"The Sumerian Civilization, 6,500 years ago, carved cuneiform script onto clay tablets; clay tablets are made from fired natural clay, which is essentially a type of stone."

"Ancient Egypt, 5,000 years ago, carved hieroglyphs onto stone walls and steles."

"Our own Huaxia, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, carved characters onto oracle bones, bronzeware, and stone drums."

His eyes were full of incredulity. "Those of us in the industry always thought it was because paper didn't exist in ancient times."

"But the problem is, if it was just for recording, they could have used wood, animal hides, or silk; those things can last for decades or even centuries, which is enough."

"Yet they specifically chose stone."

"Why? Principal, haven't you noticed the terrifying point hidden within this?"

Principal Fu still shook his head in confusion.

Old Wang said with a serious face, "Because they knew that wood would rot, animal hides would decay, and silk would perish; only stone can last for a thousand years, for ten thousand years."

"This isn't something known by people in just one place or one civilization; ancient people all over the globe knew it!"

"But how did they, small-scale civilizations in the tribal era, know this?"

As his voice fell, the room lapsed into a long silence.

Principal Fu finally reacted, a flash of shock crossing his face.

...

Kyoto, University of History Faculty Housing.

Professor Chen Runzhi suddenly stood up from the sofa. "Old Qian, Old Liu, Old Wang, do you understand? Do you understand?"

Old Qian took a deep breath and said, "They... they had seen it."

"The Sumerians lived 6,500 years ago, and they knew back then that only natural stone slabs could preserve information for over ten thousand years. This knowledge didn't just appear out of thin air."

"The only possibility is that they had seen even earlier stone slabs; those slabs recorded information from an even more distant age. They saw that those stone slabs had been preserved for so long, and thus they knew that only stone would work."

Professor Liu Guangyi sat on the sofa, pressing his fingers to his temples as he analyzed, "From a geological and archaeological perspective, this isn't a guess; it's the only logical explanation."

"Think about it. The things ancient people made—houses, furniture, tools, weapons—were all made of wood, animal bone, and bronze. These things rot in decades and disappear in centuries."

"But for the medium of their recorded information, they specifically chose stone."

"Man-made materials wouldn't do; it had to be natural stone. Bricks are man-made and weather faster. So they chose granite, limestone, basalt—natural rocks whose geological ages are measured in hundreds of millions of years."

At this point, his gaze turned solemn as he looked at the other three.

"What does this show? It shows they had conducted comparative tests."

"They knew that man-made things and animal hides wouldn't last, and only natural materials could endure for a very, very long time."

Professor Wang Shouren couldn't help but sigh with emotion upon hearing this.

"This is actually a problem of reverse recursion."

"The Sumerians knew stone could last ten thousand years because they had seen earlier stone slabs, perhaps from 20,000 years ago."

"Then how did those even earlier people know?"

"Because those earlier people had also seen even earlier recording methods from before them."

"And how did the people before them know? Because they had seen the recording methods of the people before them."

"And so on, tracing back layer by layer."

"Tracing it to the very end, there must be a [First Person]. How did that person know stone could last ten thousand years?"

"Did he discover it by accident, or what?"

"If it was an accidental discovery, it proves there was an even earlier [First Person] before him."

Continuing his narration, Old Wang couldn't help but add, "The act of recording information on stone is the most thought-provoking thing in history. It is almost profound in its simplicity, yet incredibly complex."

As he finished, Old Chen, Old Qian, and Old Liu couldn't help but swallow hard.

Yes, it was precisely this point—one that seemed logical yet so heavily contradicted common perception—that terrified them!

...

Huaqing University, Physics Professor Dormitory.

The four of them looked at the large screen, silent for a long time.

...

Kyoto, Qingfeng Temple.

Wen Jingqiu looked at the large screen and spoke slowly, "That's because the Sumerians knowing stone could last ten thousand years wasn't a guess, but because they had seen it."

Zheng Ming looked at the professor. "Seen what?"

"Seen even earlier stone slabs." Wen Jingqiu narrowed her beautiful eyes. "Those stone slabs were carved with information from a much more distant era. They saw them, and only then did they know that only stone could leave things behind."

The smile on Celestial Master Zhang's face faded significantly. "Yes, it's a reverse recursion problem; tracing back layer by layer to the very beginning—how did that first person know?"

No one answered Celestial Master Zhang. After a long while, Professor Wen finally spoke slowly, "If one day, all 8 billion of us disappear, and tens of millions of years later, a new intelligent species unearths the outline of the Sphinx or the base of the Pyramids..."

"A small portion of them will also say that perhaps an intelligent civilization really did exist in history!"

"Will they also ask the same question: did ultra-ancient humans or even ultra-ancient civilizations from tens of millions of years ago really exist? And if they did, how did they know to carve information on stone and paint on natural stone?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Zheng Ming and Celestial Master Zhang exchanged a glance, both feeling an inexplicable sense of horror.

Just then, Xiao Yu's voice came from the large screen.

"Oh my god, Bro, they've seen it! They've seen natural stone slabs from even earlier!"

Seeing Xiao Yu's excited face, Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and then asked in return:

"Yes. And what happened after they saw them?"

Xiao Yu froze, as if doused with cold water. "They... they discovered the information on those earlier stone slabs and thus knew stone could last ten thousand years; then they also decided to carve their own information on stone."

"Actually, there's a reverse recursion problem here; once you recurse back, it becomes meaningless."

Jiang Zhe nodded. "For example, just like us people in 2026 who discovered the Sumerian stone slabs, we know they carved information on stone 6,500 years ago."

"Then suppose one day, our human civilization is about to reach its end; what do you think our modern wise men would do?"

Xiao Yu blurted out on the spot, "Our wise men would also know that no matter what high technology we have—hard drives, optical discs, chips—as long as it's man-made, the information ultimately won't survive. They would also carve information on stone to leave for future generations to observe."

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly, his face calm. "And after our human civilization disappears?"

Xiao Yu's beautiful eyes darted around as she began to imagine.

A thousand years later, ten thousand years later, a hundred thousand years later...

Future survivors, or humans in the even more distant future, would one day discover stone slabs during an underground excavation.

On them would be carved Chinese characters, English, and the most important information of the 21st-century era.

What would they say?

Xiao Yu's face looked a bit dazed. "They would very likely say, '[It turns out humans in the 21st century could only carve information on stone].'"

As she said this, Xiao Yu's heart trembled, and her mind suddenly cleared. "Just like we now say the Sumerians could only carve information on clay tablets."

Jiang Zhe didn't speak, just quietly looked at her.

Xiao Yu swallowed and couldn't help but continue: "But what the people of the future wouldn't know is that it wasn't because we only knew how to carve stone; it was because we knew man-made things simply wouldn't last!"

"All our digital information, all our knowledge bases, all our civilizational achievements would be completely annihilated under the power of time; in the end, the only thing that could remain is natural stone!"

Jiang Zhe gave her a thumbs up. "Not bad, exactly right!"

Xiao Yu took a sharp breath, her eyes flashing with excited and complex light.

"Through all this, what have you discovered?"

Xiao Yu was silent for a moment, her eyes unconsciously looking outside, seeing a sliver of moonlight, the vast night sky, and the twinkling stars.

"I've discovered..."

"That our human civilization might not actually be an accident, nor is it special."

"We are very likely just a new civilization after that 140,000-year blank period, nothing more."

Jiang Zhe smiled slightly and gave Xiao Yu a thumbs up.

"That being said, is it possible, Bro? Could we really be a civilization following a gap of over a hundred thousand years?"

As soon as this question was asked, countless viewers held their breath, staring intently at the large screen.

Jiang Zhe let the thought brew for a long time before slowly speaking: "Whether it's possible or not requires finding answers from history. Next, I will take you back one by one to the answers given by the history of ancient civilizations tens of thousands, over a hundred thousand, or even hundreds of thousands of years ago; at that time, you will naturally know if it's possible!"