Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 1010 "Children of the Jianghu" (23)

Regarding the underground gasification technology in "Underground Fire"...

Is this technology actually accurate?
No one said it was bad.

Why did the protagonist focus on improving coal mining technology instead of developing new energy sources?

For example, could researching nuclear energy allow humanity to completely break free from chemical fuels?
Science fiction works only need to be logically consistent within themselves.

If we only consider things from the perspective of real-world technology, then there would be no science fiction!

You mentioned nuclear energy? Well, I could also say that 100 years from now, humanity might have completed the Dyson sphere project, making the power of the entire sun provide energy for mankind. Such a hypothesis is meaningless…

The so-called Dyson sphere is a theory proposed by American physicist Freeman Dyson as early as 1960.

He believes that planets like Earth have very limited energy reserves, far from sufficient to support the development of civilizations on them to an advanced stage.
In a star-planet system, the vast majority of energy—from the star's radiation—is wasted.

For example, all the planets in our solar system combined actually receive only about 1/109 of the sun's radiation energy...

Dyson believed that a highly advanced civilization would necessarily be able to surround the sun with a huge spherical structure, thereby intercepting most of the sun's radiant energy. Only in this way could the civilization be sustained for a long time and allowed to develop to a sufficient level.

The concept originated from Dyson's deep thinking about the development of civilizations and the use of energy in the universe.

He believes that as civilization progresses, the demand for energy will grow exponentially, and stars, as the most powerful energy source in the universe, will inevitably become the target of advanced civilizations.

From a scientific perspective, the construction of a Dyson sphere is based on maximizing the capture of stellar energy.

Taking the sun as an example, it releases about 3.8 × 10^26 joules of energy per second, while the solar energy received by the earth accounts for only about one 22 billionth of its total radiant energy.

Coincidentally, in 1964, Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev proposed the Kardashev index, a method for measuring the technological advancement of a cosmic civilization, which is based on the level and total amount of energy that a civilization can utilize.

One of the hallmarks of a Type II civilization is the ability to build and utilize Dyson spheres to collect energy from the entire star system!
Shen Yan continued the live stream: "The rhythm of 'Earth Fire' is very interesting."

The usual plot involves the protagonist overcoming various hardships, and finally, the story reaches its climax, the protagonist achieves their goal, and everyone is happy.

The pessimistic plot setting is that hope is gradually eroded, watching the goal drift further and further away, and finally a dramatic death.

"Underground Fire" is a hybrid of the two styles mentioned above. The first half follows the usual setup, culminating in the protagonist successfully igniting the coal mine and the entire system starting to operate.

Immediately afterwards, the fire spread, the gates of hell were opened, and the story entered a pessimistic phase, culminating in the penultimate chapter when the protagonist plunges into the mine and sacrifices himself to the flames.

The final chapter... jumps to 150 years in the future...

Technological progress inevitably involves countless trials and errors and sacrifices.

The protagonist of the story may just be one of the millions of idealists or pragmatists who dedicate themselves to technology.

But it is precisely these countless protagonists, through their successes and failures, who paved the way for the ultimate progress and breakthroughs in technology.

"In short, development problems can only be solved through development!"

"Many technologies initially caused a huge impact on human civilization, or at least social order, but in the end, they all became technologies that benefit all mankind. In comparison, those who discuss at the drop of a hat whether 'humanity will be destroyed by scientific progress' or 'humanity will destroy the natural environment and bring about its own demise' are really too petty."

"We haven't been discussing things like the awakening of artificial intelligence much lately... because the next step after the awakening of artificial intelligence is the birth of silicon-based life. Silicon-based life and carbon-based life are not even the same species, so there's no need to discuss whether they will replace each other..."

"Of course, some people say that artificial intelligence is not life, but an intelligent agent!"

"We were discussing recently whether, from the perspective of the universe, life is not important, but intelligence and development are. We are human, so we value life..."

"As for artificial intelligence replacing humans... I think humans have overestimated themselves!"

"From a temporal perspective, humanity is but a fleeting moment in the long river of evolution. For an intelligence that may think at the speed of light and have a lifespan of nearly eternity, the history of human civilization, spanning several thousand years, may seem as brief as a single instant!"

Carbon-based life is fragile and inefficient, requiring oxygen, water, and food. Silicon-based or purely energy-based intelligence wouldn't even consider our physical form!

"Just like you can't compete with a rock!"

At this point, Shen Yan added, "I was just sharing my thoughts; they haven't been scientifically verified..."

He was getting really into it... when a bunch of people in the comments section asked him to comment on Hu Xijin's critique of "Ash Is Purest White"...

"what happened?"

……

Okay, Hu Xijin has published an article criticizing "Ash Is Purest White," calling it a "film full of negative energy" and having "incorrect values," comparing it to a "spiritual porn film"...

Lao Hu is the editor-in-chief of the Global Times…

They're quite well-known!

Shen Yan roughly understood what had happened and then said, "I saw the movie 'Ash Is Purest White' when it was screened in Cannes... The beginning was not bad, but it went downhill as soon as it ended... From the time Qiaoqiao was released from prison onwards, the plot became loose and it felt like they couldn't make up any more of it, and the runtime was just stretched out!"

"News, pop songs, amateur troupes, video arcades... Jia Zhangke habitually uses a variety of materials in rotation, appearing every three minutes."

The three-part story, about traveling thousands of miles to the Three Gorges to "demand an explanation," is all self-repetitive.

Actually, many viewers watched "Ash Is Purest White" thinking, "How much worse can it get?" Unsurprisingly, it always manages to surprise you… "Mountains May Depart" was already bad, but I didn't expect "Ash Is Purest White" to be even worse!

"I've never liked Jia Zhangke and Lou Ye... They give me the impression of being stuck in the 1990s, only capable of filming one type of subject matter... They don't show any signs of the times..."

"However, there's no need to criticize it for being negative or having incorrect values! 'Ash Is Purest White' is a very mediocre film... We can criticize it from the perspectives of technique and story, but to immediately label it is quite low-class!"

"Editor-in-Chief Hu isn't in the film industry after all. He not only lacks aesthetic sense, but he also lacks basic logic. How dare he suggest learning from Hollywood movies and promoting positive energy? The two most politically correct things in Hollywood right now are criticizing the government and promoting LGBT issues. How can we learn from that?"

"It's not just the director who's stuck in the last century; many viewers' thinking is also stuck in the last century. Open your eyes and see the world..."

(End of this chapter)