The introduction to the prequel "Locking the Starry Sky" (see the work for the work) points out the worldview of the book. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Hawking said, "What is the fact that space-time appears to us to be four-dimensional, while M-theory is ten- or eleven-dimensional? Why can't we observe the other six or seven dimensions?"

One of the difficult problems encountered in the development of human physics: there is an irreconcilable contradiction between the macroscopic general theory of relativity and the microscopic quantum mechanics. In order to solve this contradiction and unify the two theories, physicists have put forward a variety of hypotheses.

M theory (superstring) is one of them.

This conjecture is based on assumptions and serendipitous discoveries, such as the fact that when we assume that space is 9 or 10 dimensions, we can unify general relativity and quantum mechanics relatively perfectly.

However, experimental physicists could not find another 6 or 7 dimensions in this conjecture. This is the background in which Stephen Hawking (who was once a proponent of Theory M) uttered this sentence. So, scientists who support Theory M generally agree that these dimensions are so confined that we can't observe them.

Theory M is still an unproven hypothesis for the time being, and in this book, I borrowed this hypothesis, and made some exertions and imaginations on this basis, so as to set up the worldview of this book.

In this book, the cosmic space where the earth is located is indeed 10 dimensions, but it is locked to 3 dimensions by a super civilization, and the curling up of the other 7 dimensions is not a natural phenomenon, but is realized by a scientific and technological tool. As for their purpose in doing this, it was mentioned in the prequel "Lock the Starry Sky": shielding the four-dimensional magic net, cultivating electromagnetic wave civilization, and constructing an electromagnetic pollution layer.

Going back, let's look at an extension of this worldview: in the setting of this book, the Big Bang is a process of dimensionality reduction of an extremely high-dimensional singularity, which is still occurring due to the existence of cosmic redshift, which is a sword of Damocles that can fall at any time for life living in this universe.

By the way, in the setting of this book, M theory is just a small conjecture of the earthlings about the universe in which they live, and it is only a drop in the ocean compared to the laws of the universe mastered by super civilizations.

Based on the previous two hypotheses (the high-dimensional universe and its origins), two supercivilizations appear in the book.

One is the Holy Third Federation, which rules the galaxy, the Light God Civilization as Donner guessed, and the Grave Keeper, the Dwarven Prophet, the common ancestor of the Earthlings and the Rands.

Let's start with the Holy Third Federation.

In the prequel, the predecessor of the Third Federation, the Holy Second Magic Empire is an interstellar civilization tens of millions of light-years away from the Milky Way. The Magic Web (the factory owner civilization that Donner guessed) is a technological tool they use in interstellar colonization.

In the chapter "The Last Century", the people of the Republic of Rand reverse-engineered it to create the Wisdom Web, which is obviously one of the prototypes of the Magic Web, and the Shenhai in this book is clearly the crudest terminal interface of the Wisdom Web.

Another component that makes up the Magic Network has also been reverse-engineered, and that is the Magic Grid power generation technology that has led to the rapid development of Lantexing Technology. The web itself can be thought of as a wireless energy network, but it is much more complex than just energy transmission, capable of directly converting matter and energy - in the book's setting, matter and energy are unified in a microscopic state, and the description of Donner's use of magic in the final battle outside of Coenas is based on this premise.

In short, the magic network is like a base station system, as long as it is in the magic network environment, the accessor of the smart network can call the authorized function at any time, that is, the so-called magic in this book. The key (magic model) that Downer is talking about, and that everyone is working on, is an open web interpreter interface.

The prequel "Lock the Stars" mentions the awakening of the magic web, which is a very cliché, nothing more than a cliché of artificial intelligence awakening, which is common in cyberpunk - this book can also be seen as a kind of transformation of cyberpunk.

Let's talk about the Holy Second Magic Empire.

Because of the catastrophe brought about by the awakening of the magic web, its survivors came to the galaxy and legislated to ban the development of technologies related to the magic web (obviously including artificial intelligence). It also took more than 10 million years to erect "star locks" around the Milky Way. Needless to say, Earth is inside the star lock, clues have been provided in the prequel, and a series of Donner's speculations in the text are based on this.

At this point, this civilization has finally locked its pace forward in the two directions of space and civilization development because of fear. Therefore, in the chapter "The Last Century", there is no generational gap between the Rand Republic under the Wesley Empire and the Holy Third Federation, otherwise they would not have been able to threaten them with the destruction of the Star Lock.

In the more than 1,000 years that this book focuses on, the Net's capabilities have far surpassed those of the Holy Third Federation that created it, but due to Starlock's stealth lens (mentioned in the prequel), the Nets did not find them hiding in the middle of the galaxy, destroying and corroding Starlock with Gene Ranch, and cultivating a signal relay station for itself (mentioned in the chapter on the Agent's Awakening) in order to run rampant throughout the universe.

In this contrast of strength, Downer, his family and friends, the Republic of Rand, and the Holy Third Federation have little solution in sight other than to meet the end of the world.

Only the peculiarities of the Rand star provide the only glimmer of possibility for the Donner.

Here we talk about the grave keeper and the genetic pasture that belongs to it.

According to the research results of the Femmon Academy of Sciences, a double helix structure has been found in the three-dimensional slice of the four-dimensional biological grave keeper, and the three-dimensional slice of the four-dimensional biological grave keeper can be cultivated in the laboratory, and a simple single-celled organism can be obtained.

This leads to an interesting conclusion: Rand is a genetic ranch for the Grave Keepers, as well as a genetic ranch for the Magic Web (Donner's guess factory owner civilization), with the former cultivating the descendants of the Grave Keeper's dimensionality reduction lineage, and the latter cultivating magical creatures and creating the Magic Net Relay Station.

If I have time, I might write a short story about the grave keeper's experience, something like "Lock the Starry Sky."

Now, let's talk about Donner's final choice.

First of all, he didn't fully know his situation. Let's list the information he has:

1. The civilization of the god of light, the maker of the dimensional lock of the solar system, the location is unknown, and the degree of civilization is unknown;

2. The magic web, almost everywhere, spreads throughout the universe;

3. The grave keeper, a possible ancestor of Homo sapiens, gave himself a hint of an iris logo.

Second, let's look at his approach. Based on the information available to him, he made the following decision:

1, left a letter for Wesley, asking him to threaten to destroy the dimensional lock at a critical moment in exchange for the protection of the Light God civilization. This is the last hope of the Rand Republic, but Donner did not directly leave this order, but let the Republic turn the threat of the invasion of the magic net into motivation for more than 20 centuries, climbing the science and technology book, only in this way, they can find the light god civilization, and then have the strength to threaten the other party.

2, he chose to set off for Iris Alpha before the magic net creatures completely surrounded the star field where the blue star was located. The premise of this decision was that he had already judged that the Light God Civilization was not an opponent of the Demon Net, and it was only a matter of lingering to cling to them. So, even if he didn't know what was on Iris Alpha, he had to give it a try.

3. At the last moment when the near-lightspeed ship is destroyed, Ricke, Lucia, and Una send Donner's reincarnation data towards Iris Alpha instead of huddling with him to meet death.

All of the above Donner choices are doing one thing, and that is to make one last effort when the end comes. This is by no means suicide, it is something more difficult and courageous than staying by the warm fire and waiting for death by the side of your family. He was lucky that all three wives understood him and calmly accepted his choice.

Finally, let's see what happened at the end.

With the help of the Gate of Time, Donner devours the magic web and is trapped in the middle of the black hole. The entire universe was gone, and the Holy Third Federation and the Rand Republic survived. Donner's followers, the children born to him and his three wives, and their descendants can continue to thrive in this universe.

This was supposed to be the ending in my outline.

However, I felt a little sorry for Donner, and maybe to make up for his guilt for the half-elf girl, and finally changed the ending and let him escape part of the black hole.

This Donner's doppelganger goes back in time, to the place where the story began. He said that he was going to the stars to get a key (the missing part of the magic web), but before that, he would accompany the half-elf girl for the rest of his life.

I think he might take her on a trip around Rant, or he might spend a peaceful life on his home island, or maybe he would meet Lucia and Una again.

Eventually, he may or may not find the formula, he may stay and become the supreme god in this universe, or he may walk out of the door of time, like a grass seed buried in the ground, burrow through the dirt, and see another world that suddenly opens up.

(It's a pity that the name "The Gate of Time" is not vague enough, and in my original setting, it should be like the mound of time in "Hyperion", without a clear and specific direction.) ps, there is a little easter egg, the secret phrase that Cynthia used to contact the dwarves, "The shrike bird flies over the Nordis Mountains", and the shrike bird is taken from "Hyperion")