Development of productivity started in 1981

Chapter 2 First Contact

Wang Jiankun fetched a bucket of water and went into his room. After washing, he got on the wooden bed and sat on the straw mat. He closed his eyes and his consciousness began to search. The pattern he saw in his dream during the day appeared again.

He stopped classifying the patterns in the distance because they seemed endless, so he tried to piece them together, but the shapes were irregular, so he gave up the idea.

Then he turned his gaze to the part that he had classified during the day, which had patterns with the outlines or shapes of spaceships or airplanes. These patterns seemed understandable, but they were all flat and had no three-dimensional sense.

After an unknown amount of time, his brain began to overload again, because these patterns contained a large amount of information, which was constantly washing over his brain without Wang Jiankun realizing it.

Because his brain was overloaded, Wang Jiankun could only open his eyes and look out the window at the starry sky. On a moonless night, the night sky was so bright, like millions of night pearls inlaid on the window.

After resting for a while, Wang Jiankun closed his eyes again to concentrate his consciousness, but this time what appeared in front of his eyes was no longer a pattern, but a small round ball, as smooth as a mirror, but without reflecting his shadow (Can the consciousness space reflect a shadow?).

Suddenly, a line of words appeared on the small ball: Where is this? Who are you? Wang Jiankun felt very amazed and wondered what this was.
He tried to answer and opened his mouth to speak, but the ball did not respond. Then he thought that the ball might not be able to hear him. So he thought that maybe he could write it, but how? He began to imagine himself writing his own name: Wang Jiankun. Unexpectedly, it actually worked. The three words Wang Jiankun appeared in the space.

At this time, the words on the ball changed again: Hello, Wang Jiankun! I am a supercomputer made by the Three-Body aliens. You can call me Zhizi. May I ask where this is?
When Wang Jiankun saw this line of words, his heartbeat quickened and his breathing became rapid. The three words "alien" and a question mark appeared in the space. The words on the ball changed to: It's not an alien, it's a supercomputer made by aliens. Then a line of words appeared on the ball, and a line of words also appeared in the space in front of Wang Jiankun.

Through text communication, Wang Jiankun roughly understood what was going on. It turned out that alien creations and some solar system fragments had traveled across time and space to his consciousness space. This space was 12-dimensional and could accommodate two-dimensional fragments and 11-dimensional creations.

Why did Zhizi tell Wang Jiankun all this so honestly? It turned out that it had tried countless ways to escape from this consciousness space, and it could not leave even if it rose to 11 dimensions or lowered to 2 dimensions.

Therefore, Zhizi guessed that this space is 12-dimensional, and currently only Wang Jiankun, a human being, can enter it. So it places its hopes on Wang Jiankun, hoping to help Wang Jiankun and the current world, improve their productivity and technological level, and ultimately increase the dimensional control ability to 12 dimensions to help it leave this space.

Wang Jiankun didn't understand many of the terms that Zhizi said. He could only understand the three dimensions of length, width and height. He couldn't imagine what 11th and 12th dimensions were like, what was dimensionality increase and decrease, and what was a two-dimensional foil. But he understood some of them because he liked to watch science fiction and had a basic understanding of supercomputers, artificial intelligence, and aircraft (although he had never seen the real thing, it didn't affect his imagination), and knew what those things were used for.

Wang Jiankun then conducted calculation tests on Zhizi, from simple to complex, such as calculating square roots, cube roots, and calculating pi.

Every time Wang Jiankun had just finished writing the question, Chieko would give the answer, and Wang Jiankun found that it was completely correct.

Especially regarding pi, Zhizi asked how many digits needed to be calculated, and Wang Jiankun said to start with 1 digits.

Chieko suddenly turned into a ball as tall as a house, covered with numbers. Wang Jiankun looked at the first 100 digits and found that they were exactly the same as those he had memorized, so he agreed with Chieko's statement that it was a supercomputer made by aliens.

Since the ball could communicate with him fluently, he recognized that it was an artificial intelligent being.

Zhizi also told Wang Jiankun about those patterns, and told him not to look at them for a long time, because these patterns contain a lot of information. When the two-dimensional foil turned the solar system into two dimensions, a lot of information from other dimensions was not lost, but was wrapped and compressed by the encapsulation force field. As long as a way is found, these patterns can still be upgraded.

Wang Jiankun's consciousness seemed to be able to influence the encapsulation force field. Zhizi guessed that perhaps when Wang Jiankun's mental power became stronger and he had a deeper understanding of the macro and micro aspects of the material world, then he might be able to upgrade the dimension of the fragments.

Tomoko asked, "What is your world like, and what galaxy is it in?"

Wang Jiankun wrote: "The Earth where I live belongs to the solar system. It is a planet with a rotation period of 24 solar hours and an orbital period of 365 solar days. It has a satellite called the Moon."

Wang Jiankun told Zhizi everything he knew about galaxies and planets, for example, Mercury is closest to the sun, followed by Venus, then Earth, and those farthest away from Earth are Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn; and Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are at the outermost reaches of the solar system.

As Wang Jiankun explained, a dynamic pattern of the solar system appeared on the big ball. Every time a planet or satellite was mentioned, it would be displayed immediately. And later, Wang Jiankun didn't need to say anything, Zhizi kept filling in the spheres or irregular objects, because for Zhizi, the earth was so familiar, he even understood it more thoroughly than the current people on earth.

Because the intelligent beings sent by the Trisolarans from another dimension had already understood the solar system thoroughly, paved the way for the colonization of the solar system, and later fought bravely with the people on Earth, surveying the entire solar system inside and out.

So after Wang Jiankun explained some of the situations, Chieko knew the location of the world she was in.

Wang Jiankun was shocked when he saw the images displayed on the big ball.

Because the solar system has never been seen from this angle, and the ball not only displays the picture, but also makes a dynamic pattern, and also marks the location of the solar system at the edge of the Milky Way. The solar system is slowly moving around the center of the Milky Way.

Wang Jiankun asked Zhizi what kind of technology this was, how could it be clearer than TV and could be controlled and changed, was it alien technology?

Tomoko said (from now on, communication will be by typing, and there will be no sound in the consciousness space): "This is just ordinary computer simulation display technology. Doesn't it exist in your world?"

Wang Jiankun replied: "No, our production team has not yet had electricity. Only slightly larger communes and towns have electricity. Televisions are only affordable for wealthy families. I only know of supercomputers, which are used for technical and scientific data. I have never heard that they can also display and manipulate patterns."

Tomoko said: "Is this world so backward?"

Wang Jiankun said: "It's not always like this. The Americans landed on the moon 12 years ago in 1969, and in April this year they sent astronauts into space using the space shuttle."

Tomoko said: "It turns out that the people on this plane are just stepping out of the cradle and taking a small step towards space."

Wang Jiankun said: “Is this just a small step?”

Tomoko said: "Of course, I will explain to you the development of aerospace in the two-dimensional solar system." Then Tomoko explained in text while using the screen display.

First, humans began to build earth-orbital space stations. As rocket technology evolved to be recyclable and reusable, the space stations became larger and larger, and more and more numerous.

Then the construction of a lunar orbital space station began, followed by a lunar base.

In 2025, humans landed on Mars and began to build a Mars base. Humans began to migrate to Mars. At the peak, the number of immigrants on Mars reached more than one million.

The rockets and spacecraft built are getting bigger and smarter, but the first spacecraft built were very slow and could not even fly to the edge of the solar system.

But then there was a leapfrog development. With breakthroughs in nuclear fusion technology, superconducting technology, and nanotechnology, the speed of spacecraft could reach 10% of the speed of light. Human beings began to develop the resources of the entire solar system and built a museum of human civilization on Pluto, the farthest planet from the earth.

Before the destruction of the solar system, humans built a curvature spaceship that could fly faster than the speed of light. Although there was only one, it only took two people out of the solar system.

Wang Jiankun was fascinated by the show and was full of yearning and admiration for the new era of exploration for mankind.

But there is also confusion: how could such a powerful technological advancement lead to extinction?
Then Sophon demonstrated the attack of the two-dimensional foil, and all matter in the solar system was two-dimensionalized. This is a physical rule weapon that can change the dimension of matter.

Wang Jiankun couldn't understand it, but he knew it must be very powerful. The atomic bombs and hydrogen bombs that the earth currently possesses are like the comparison between ancient swords and spears and today's atomic weapons in front of this kind of physical law weapon.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but worry. Will this plane be hit by the two-dimensional foil?

Tomoko said: "This is a certain probability, because if the civilization in the universe develops to a certain level, they will send out spacecraft for reconnaissance. Although the universe is very large, there are many civilizations, and there are always some civilizations that develop very quickly. If these advanced civilizations discover new civilizations, if they can destroy them, they will try their best to destroy or enslave the new civilization and obtain resources."

Wang Jiankun asked: "There should be a way to avoid this kind of attack, right?"

Sophon said: "Of course there are many options, such as self-castration, which reduces the speed of light in the galaxy where one is located, so that other civilizations can hardly find out, or even if they find out, they won't care, because after the speed of light is reduced, the civilization will not develop, and will never be able to reach the deep space of the universe. This is the most undesirable method. The best method is to develop, to increase productivity, to improve the level of science and technology, and thus to improve the level of civilization. Humans have this potential, because human science and technology have always been developing at an accelerated pace, and the more crises there are, the more step-by-step the development will be."

Wang Jiankun felt relieved after hearing these words. But he had a hunch that perhaps the arrival of these fragments and the intelligent beings was for him to lead mankind to develop productivity and technology, so as to achieve a civilization leap and be able to resist the attack of alien civilizations.

Wang Jiankun felt a sense of mission in his heart, and he must work hard and not waste this gift from another dimension.

Thinking of this, Wang Jiankun began to wonder where to start, and he also asked Chieko the question.

Sophon did not answer, because it was just an artificial intelligence, and the Trisolarans did not allow it to develop in the direction of technology. It was only good at intelligence gathering, basic calculation analysis, and summarization. In the consciousness space, it had no robot carrier and could not control the machine to manufacture.

Zhizi demonstrated and explained some of the production and living scenes of human society that he saw after arriving on the alien Earth.

Since the Internet era, human life and production methods have been profoundly changed with the development of information exchange methods.

Automation equipment is becoming more and more advanced, and with the subsequent development of artificial intelligence technology, it is entering the era of smart manufacturing and space manufacturing. There are many things that Wang Jiankun cannot understand, but he feels very impressed.

Lifestyles have also changed, especially with the development of mobile Internet. The lifestyle in cities and towns has undergone tremendous changes compared to before. More and more people stay at home, and their food and clothing can be solved through take-out and express delivery. They live in high-rise buildings, and travel by online ride-hailing vehicles, which are self-driving unmanned online ride-hailing vehicles.

Zhizi only showed this much. It said: "You may not understand what is shown later, and it will not help your current career. My suggestion is to start by changing small things, improve your own abilities, and then improve the productivity of your living circle, and move towards the stars and the sea step by step."

Wang Jiankun agreed with Chieko's suggestion, but put forward an idea, which was to cooperate with the country and tell the government about the matter.

Tomoko said, "It's best not to do this. You said you were cooperating with the country, but the people you were communicating with were still people, and they might be at a very low level. One of their reactions is that they might think you're crazy or have a brain problem, or they might run into someone who's serious and responsible, and then you'll lose your freedom because you don't have any ability to protect yourself right now. The best way is to improve yourself, the resources you have, your ability to mobilize resources, and your social influence. Then you don't have to worry about people wanting to cooperate with you or people coveting you."

Wang Jiankun thought about it and agreed that this was indeed the case. Considering his mother’s experience and the lifestyle of the production team he was in, it would be safest to first make use of this adventure independently.

Then he began to imagine how to do it and where to start. Although the country has begun to propose reform and opening up, there are still very large restrictions.

How can I make use of this adventure to meet the basic needs of food, clothing, housing, transportation, firewood, rice, oil and salt?

I thought about it for a long time but couldn't come up with a solution. The first things to be ruled out are firewood, rice, oil and salt. Firewood is not rare in rural areas. Rice and oil are both grains, which are under state control and any change is difficult. Salt is a state monopoly and there is no way to interfere.

Maybe we can only do some work on housing and transportation. For example, I recently heard from my grandfather and father that the production team is going to build a brick kiln. Also, the commune is going to widen and straighten the road from Fengshan to Lingjiao. These require technology and labor, and I may be able to provide some help for these two projects through Zhizi's ability.

Time passed by unknowingly, and Wang Jiankun fell asleep while thinking. After entering deep sleep, his brain began to receive the influence of some pattern-encapsulated force fields, transforming his body and giving him a special ability.

So what is this ability? Let’s read on.

(End of this chapter)