Zhou You, in this life, has never driven more than the speed.

He is the kind of person who will always say "drive slowly, pay attention to safety" as long as he knows where his family is going to drive.

In the matter of safety first, he has always been strict with others, and even stricter with himself.

But at this time, the hybrid off-road was running wildly on the Rongyi Expressway at a speed of 16 per hour, and he broke the rules of life.

That's because he doesn't have a choice.

The car had just passed an entrance and exit along the way, and several cars were merging quickly and merging into the highway one after another.

Zhou You muttered: "More and more people are discovering that something is wrong, you have to hurry up, you fasten your seat belt." In any case, we have to get to Rongcheng before there is a complete mess. ”

Shen Ling slightly glued Zhou You's mobile phone to the dashboard cover under the front windshield with double-sided tape, looked at her own mobile phone next to her, and said, "En." After the intersection ahead, you'd better get off the highway. It will be the middle of the night, but the high-speed traffic is too large, and there has been a slight yellow congestion at the first two highway entrances, and it is estimated that there will be traffic jams on the next highway. Once there is a car accident, it will definitely be blocked and you have to take a small road. ”

Zhou You nodded, "Hmm." ”

He replied with his left hand, and reached under the driver's seat with his left hand, adjusting it a little further.

Zhou You shook his hand again and threw off the sports watch from his left hand, "Although there is no way to measure the height now, I definitely don't even have one meter six now." It has been less than half an hour since departure, and it is nearly ten centimeters shorter. The extent to which this shrinks and accelerates is not linear. ”

"I know. You wait. Shen Ling hummed, first put the seat down, then straightened her body as much as possible, clamped the top of the tape measure with her feet, and then pulled the tape measure out along her body, stretched it out to the top of her head, looked down at the reading, and said: "Although my measurement is not accurate, it is still more accurate than the estimate." ”

After speaking, she sat up straight again and opened her laptop, "You can tell me the accurate time and data of your previous height measurements, and I will enter them all into the form to find the pattern." ”

"Okay."

Ten minutes later, Shen Ling measured her own height again, entered the last data, and then put the formula on it.

Syllable! Tap the keyboard.

Shen Ling stretched out, "Calculate it!" ”

Zhou You shook his legs, and shook off some inexplicable dust from his trouser legs," he said. ”

Shen Ling first organized the language in her mind, and then said, "In fact, our height changes were not regular until this morning. The first thing you see is missing is only a tenths of a centimeter, but that's just a start-up signal. The real pattern has to be counted from this morning......"

Zhou You interrupted: "The process is too complicated, I just want to know the result now." When I went back to my hometown, I used to let my nephew sit in the driver's seat. He was less than one meter three tall at the time. Even if I adjust the seat to the front and highest position, I can only barely reach the accelerator pedal with his foot, but his view is almost blocked by the dashboard, so you can use 1.3 meters as the limit, calculate the time, how long can I last. ”

Shen Ling snorted, "In fifty-seven minutes, you will be below one meter three." ”

Zhou You's brows furrowed, "Then it's troublesome." It is still 280 kilometers away from Rongcheng. When you get off the highway and take the national highway, the speed can only reach 80 at most, and there are still 200 kilometers left, which is not easy to walk in the second half of the road. By the way, do you have a driver's license? ”

"Yes, but not very skilled."

"If you're not skilled, you can't help it, when I really can't drive, you just sit on me, take care of the steering wheel and watch the road, and I'll step on the accelerator and brake. You must notify me in time to slow down and brake. The speed of the vehicle must be controlled to less than 60, and there must be no accidents. ”

"Okay!"

Zhou You thought for a while, and then said, "There is transparent tape in the toolbox in front of you, and there is a USB charging cable. You take out the adhesive tape, and then put the charging cable with adhesive tape on the center console cover, and the position where the cable is pulled down should be through the air outlet of the car air conditioner. Remember to stick it firmly. ”

Shen Ling snorted, "Understood, you plan to climb up this rope in case we really become the size of a mouse, right?" ”

Zhou You: "Yes. ”

Shen Ling: "But what's the point?" I think we'd better stay in the car and wait for help. ”

"No, no, no one will come to save us, we can only save ourselves. My car can be controlled with a mobile phone, which is supposed to be used to move the car, and the maximum speed can only reach 10 kilometers per hour, but it can be used for emergency rescue. When the time comes, we'll sit on the dashboard and drive home on our phones. ”

Shen Ling Yile, "That's pretty good!" ”

"Also, you go to the back seat now, and my back seat can be folded down in four or six. You put the back seat on the side and there's a brand new drone in the trunk. Will it work, right? ”

"Yes. I also have one at home, but it's a bargain. ”

Zhou You: "Okay, you unpack the drone and install it." Then make a basket out of a paper box, and hang the basket under the drone with tape. The worktop is also taped to the basket. ”

Shen Ling: "Do you really think that our size will shrink to the level of mice?" ”

Zhou You shook his head, "It's just my guess, maybe it's more than that." ”

While gluing the charging cable, Shen Ling asked, "Then how much do you hope?" ”

"Of course, the smaller the better. Do you think, what would it mean if human beings on Earth had followed a completely different evolutionary path that seemed impossible, but existed, and that human beings were originally only the size of bacteria, and that they had the current level of technology and productivity? ”

Shen Ling said without thinking: "Then the human beings on the earth have set foot in space and become a starry sky civilization. The manned research ship to the Centauri should have set off fifty years ago. How nice that would be. ”

Zhou You nodded, "It's a pity that this is just an assumption that hasn't happened." Now the situation is different. I believe that the minimum body size that can be tolerated is to reduce the average height by half if we want human civilization to maintain the basic stability and integrity of the social structure without having to go through labor pains. With an average height of about one meter, most of the tools available to humans can still be used, and the combination of human strength and intelligence still has an absolute advantage in the face of other animals, such as rats and stray cats and dogs. In that case, we should be able to recover quickly. ”

"It's certainly ideal, but unfortunately we can't be so optimistic. I would rather think that the current shrinkage of human beings to the size of mice is the most pessimistic and unfortunate outcome. ”

"First of all, in that case, most of the tools of human production and life will become unusable. Stray cats, dogs, rats, and even larger lizards, as well as other wild animals pose a deadly threat to us. Social systems can quickly destabilize until they are close to collapse. Humanity will be forced to go through a painful process of reconstruction. A lot of people are bound to die in the process. ”

"Of course, I firmly believe that humanity will eventually survive this process and usher in a future that will be far more prosperous and brighter than it is now."

"If you continue to shrink, it will shrink to the size of only bacteria. There will also be a painful process of rebuilding, but I think that the combination of such a small size and human intelligence can be extremely enormous. Fifty years, if you give that kind of human another fifty years, you will be able to regain your dominance, and the colony ships flying to Centauri will set sail. ”

Shen Ling pondered for a moment, "What you said has some truth. By the way, yesterday we discussed the wisdom of mice. You said that humans must maintain a sufficient number of brain cells to maintain their current intelligence. Right? ”

"Yes."

"And what do you think of our current situation? Our bodies are shrinking, our head circumferences are shrinking, and there's no doubt that our brains are shrinking. But so far, I don't feel like I'm mentally declining. I've just done a quick math training mentally and there is no problem. This seems to be at odds with your judgment. ”

Zhou You shook his head, "Not necessarily." With the current level of human life science, we are not qualified to say that the cells in our body must be perfect structure. The essence of cells is actually microorganisms, and microorganisms can be large and small. The smallest bacteria, even smaller than viruses. No one has set a lower limit for the size of bacteria, and naturally no one has a lower limit for the size of cells. Maybe...... I mean, maybe, maybe the molecules and atoms that make up human cells are not necessary, they are redundant. This redundancy ratio may be particularly large! ”

"If we get rid of these redundant substances and let the cell evolve into the most perfect structure, then the size will also be reduced. Assuming that the proportion of redundant substances is really 95%, the volume of the reduced cell is naturally one-twentieth. So, I think that even though humans are getting smaller, the number of neurons is not necessarily decreasing. Oh yes, you touch your back. What did you touch? ”

Shen Ling reached behind her back and rubbed it, "Some dust?" ”

Zhou You: "Yes, dust. I speculate that this is the condensation of other elements other than carbon and hydrogen that make up the human body. If you look at the air quality test data of the car air conditioner, the humidity has been on the high side. You must know that I opened the outer circulation, and the windows are not closed, which is obviously not normal. This shows that our bodies are losing a lot of water. Also, although there is no way to measure it, I suspect that the concentration of carbon dioxide must be on the high side. ”

"Then according to what you said, the biochemical reactions in our bodies should be very violent," Shen Ling was stunned for a long time, "but I didn't feel thirsty, and I didn't have a fever." ”

Zhou You sighed, "This is the scary place. Obviously, this is a phenomenon that is completely incomprehensible with the current level of technology and knowledge of human beings, which is irrational but objectively exists. ”

Shen Ling snorted, "Yes, supernatural." Just like people in ancient times saw the aurora, and just like we look at dark matter and dark energy now, we can observe and perceive its existence, but no one knows what it is. ”

Zhou You: "Humans are turning into another species. I even think that there has been reproductive isolation between humans today and the humans of yesterday. ”

Shen Ling asked for the first time: "What about the inventory in the frozen sperm library?" ”

Zhou You's expression froze, and he turned his head to look at Shen Ling, "Something is wrong with you." ”

Shen Ling hurriedly coughed lightly twice to hide her embarrassment, "I just thought about it suddenly, and asked curiously!" ”

Zhou You shook his head, "I'm really not sure about this." But if those frozen sperm don't get smaller at the same time, they will all be invalid. But if it becomes smaller, there are many principles that cannot be explained. For example, frozen sperm is in an inactive state, and it is unknown whether it can be considered life. It is impossible to say whether the supernatural phenomenon that has led to the shrinkage of humanity will be included in it. ”

Shen Ling nodded, "That's right." However, I think that the inference about the change in cell volume that you are talking about will give you results very quickly, just by looking at it with a microscope. ”

"Of course, there must be a lot of scientists who are busy right now. But our own priority is to get home alive. When the sky falls, there is a tall man on top, so let's save ourselves first. ”

……

Fifty minutes later, Zhou You had to carefully pull over to the side of the road.

He was too short to drive a car.

It was seven minutes earlier than Shen Ling's estimate, but it was basically accurate.

At this time, their clothes and shoes were so loose that they could barely wear them.

Zhou You glanced at the central control display next to him, "It's a little faster than expected, and there are still one hundred and ninety-three kilometers to go." It's up to you. ”

As he spoke, he reached under his ass to remove the dust, and then slid down the driver's seat, reaching the brakes with the soles of his feet.

His view was completely blocked by the instrument panel.

Zhou You turned his head to look to the side, but saw Shen Ling on the co-pilot taking off his clothes and pants quickly.

Sensing Zhou You's gaze, Shen Ling turned her head to glance at it, and a trace of embarrassment flashed in her eyes for a moment, but she quickly covered it up.

She laughed: "The sleeves and pants are longer than the hands and feet, which is too obstructive and not conducive to driving safety." The short sleeves you wear on your upper body can still be used, but you can take off your pants too, and if your trouser leg hangs on the accelerator, then we will all die. ”

Zhou You was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "It makes sense, but it's not comprehensive enough." I've got to give you my short sleeves. ”

"No, this is called emergency avoidance, and I don't pay attention to these."

"No, it will distract me, and if you sit on it, it will be seen."

Three minutes later, Shen Ling put on Zhou You's short sleeves and sat on Zhou You's lap.

The two of them briefly agreed on the slogan, and tentatively drove the car forward fifty meters along the curb.

Shen Ling, who hadn't touched the car for a long time, finally became a little familiar, and gradually came to feel that she was about to let Zhou You speed up the car, but she heard a shout from below.

"Wait a minute!"

At the same time, the car stopped.

Shen Ling turned around, "What's wrong?" ”

Zhou You coughed lightly, "No, this won't work." ”

Shen Ling wondered: "I think it's good, try the speed first and see if you can mention sixty." ”

Zhou You pointed to the two pairs of pants, a shirt, and underwear on the co-pilot, "It's not a matter of speed, or your underwear and I are too loose, which will distract me." You take all the clothes and pants over there and put them on so you can sit taller and I can concentrate. ”

Shen Ling: "......"