"What is success?" Singularity asked rhetorically. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Lu Ze paused for a moment, and without waiting for Lu Ze to answer, the singularity said: "If you think that as long as life is born in the virtual world, it is a success, then they have obviously succeeded, they have built a virtual world that is no different from the real world, and in it, they artificially create a cellular life that is no different from the real world, give it the appropriate conditions, and it can survive in this one-millimeter-sized virtual world as if it were in the real world." ”

After a pause, Singularity continued: "If you think that you have to give birth to a life 'naturally' to be successful, then they have failed. The birth of life is essentially the result of the collision of many molecules, and to have a bunch of various molecules 'exactly' collide to create a life, like if you throw a stack of playing cards into the air, and then they fall to the ground and then stack them neatly in a pile, arranged in order of suit and size. From the perspective of probability, it is obvious that the probability of the birth of life is infinitely close to zero. ”

Lu Ze nodded, in his opinion, the reason why life was born on the earth was that the entire earth was used as a sample space, and it took hundreds of millions of years before it was born by chance. With only a drop of water as a sample space, it is more likely that life will not be born until the end of the universe.

"Wait a minute." Tianhuo suddenly asked, "If life is really born like this, isn't that against the principle of entropy increase?" ”

Lu Ze smiled, obviously, Tianhuo belonged to the kind of person who didn't seek knowledge. Then Lu Ze explained: "The principle of entropy increase, that is, the second law of thermodynamics, is actually a statistical law of the irregular motion of a large number of molecules, so it is only applicable to systems composed of a large number of molecules, not to systems composed of a single molecule or a small number of molecules. ”

Tianhuo said: "However, as far as I know, life must constantly obtain low entropy from the outside world in order to maintain, otherwise it will die, and the earth can give birth to life because it can obtain a steady stream of low entropy from the sun's radiation, in such a one-millimeter-sized universe, where does low entropy come from?" ”

Lu Zedao: "Your statement is actually problematic, not because the earth obtains negative entropy from the sun to give birth to life, on the contrary, it is precisely because the earth gives birth to life that the entire earth can become a dissipative structure, constantly obtaining negative entropy from the energy of solar radiation." ”

"Dissipative structure?" He Ruiyin said curiously.

"An open system far from equilibrium, by exchanging matter and energy with the outside world, may form a new stable ordered structure under certain conditions, because this ordered structure requires a constant exchange of matter or energy with the outside world to maintain, hence the name 'dissipative structure'." A single-celled organism is a dissipative structure, and so is the entire Earth. ”

Lu Ze nodded, the theory of dissipative structure won the Nobel Prize more than a hundred years ago, and has important applications in physics, biology, economics, sociology and other aspects, and Lu Ze naturally has also understood it.

In fact, not only life and the earth are dissipative structures, but also a city and a society are dissipative structures.

The reason why human civilization has evolved into what it is today is also closely related to the theory of dissipative structure.

According to the theory of dissipative structures, if the system is pushed farther away from the equilibrium state, the system may evolve more new stable ordered structures.

Therefore, human civilization can continue to progress from primitive society, through slave society, feudal society, capitalist society and socialist society, and develop a splendid civilization.

Therefore, a hundred years ago, human civilization was able to quickly transition to the era of earth neural networks after experiencing the energy crisis, and then developed to the current era of dreams, instead of gradually moving towards self-destruction.

"I see." Tianhuo nodded, "For a microorganism, it only needs to constantly exchange matter and energy with the surrounding environment, and a drop of water is big enough. ”

"But what's the point of knowing that the probability of giving birth to life is infinitely close to zero?" Zhang Tianle suddenly spoke.

Lu Ze looked at the singularity, this question was actually what he wanted to know.

I only heard the singularity say, "What if it was really born?" ”

"What do you mean?" Lu Ze couldn't help but say.

"What if life was really born even when the probability was infinitely close to zero?" Once again, Singularity said, "What do you think that means?" ”

None of them spoke.

Lu Ze thought for a while and said, "Is it verifying the principle of anthropy?" ”

But Lu Ze immediately frowned again and said slowly, "That's not right...... The anthropic principle says that the universe is the way it is because only the universe is like this that intelligent life can be born, and the universe must have the qualities that allow life to develop in it. In other words, since human beings exist, the probability of the birth of life is 100%. And if life is really born in the virtual world, then the conclusion becomes: whether human beings exist or not, the probability of life in the universe is 100 percent...... Even if this universe is only one millimeter in size, it will not be able to give birth to intelligent life, but it will still give birth to life...... In other words, the birth of life is the basic law of the universe! ”

Singularity said: "You guessed it, this is exactly the problem they want to verify." In fact, this virtual universe has 'naturally' produced some dissipative structures, but these dissipative structures cannot respond to external stimuli and cannot reproduce, so they cannot be called life. If life is really born in the virtual universe, then the next thing the 'Pioneer House' has to do is to modify the initial environment in the virtual universe, such as only gas, etc., to see if life can still be born. ”

"How can life be born with only gas?" Tianhuo and the others were dumbfounded.

Singularity said: "Why is it impossible? The temperature difference of the gas will form a pressure difference, and if there is a pressure difference, a common wind will be formed, and in some extreme cases, a tornado will be formed, which is not a dissipative structure? ”

"But tornadoes aren't life, are they?" Heavenly Fire Road.

Lu Ze said, "How do you know that it is impossible for a 'storm' form of life, or even an intelligent life, to appear? ”

In fact, Lu Ze has seen similar descriptions in science fiction novels a long time ago, so he is not surprised.

Lu Ze sighed in his heart, and continued: "I really hope that they can succeed. ”

Although Lu Ze is not optimistic about whether the "Pioneer House" wants to use the virtual world to seriously determine whether the universe will definitely give birth to life, at least, this is indeed the first step to explore the ultimate problem of the universe. (To be continued.) )