2001 Sky Odyssey Part 2 Science Fiction

In the last article, I talked about the basic introduction of science fiction novels and the basic summary of the author of "2001: A Space Odyssey"; now I will talk about the second stage:

The story jumps directly to 2001. In the novel, humans in 2001 have established bases on the moon and Mars. At that time, people suddenly discovered a magnetic field anomaly under a piece of the moon's surface, which looked like a large magnet buried underground. Humans drilled down, and when they reached 6 meters, the drill hit something hard and could no longer drill. Finally, a stone tablet was dug out of the soil, which was exactly the same as the one millions of years ago, but humans at the time did not know it. The only difference is that this time the stone tablet is pure black. Human beings measured the ratio of the length, width and height of this stele and found that the length, width and height are very precise 1:4:9. This number is exactly the square of 1, 2, and 3. This shows that the stele is definitely not something in nature. , it represents the power of intelligent life behind it.

Why do you say that? Because the universal language of the universe is mathematics. If there really is a Creator in this world, his mother tongue should be mathematics. Even though the universe seems complicated and chaotic, in fact the operating rules behind everything are numbers, but mathematical laws are hidden behind them. If you can extract mathematics from these chaotic phenomena, it means that you have the ability to see the essence through the phenomena. This is wisdom. Therefore, if civilizations meet in the universe, the way to greet them is to send a mathematically meaningful message to the other party. This is a statement of wisdom. As for why it has to be 1:4:9, this is the author’s personal setting. In fact, there is nothing special about this setting. As long as it's a mathematically meaningful and logical number.

The ratio of 1:4:9 shows that this is an object made by intelligent life. The next thing that started to send shivers down human spines was the hardness of this stone monument. Human beings wanted to figure out what material this stele was made of, but they tried all cutting methods, including lasers, various particle flows, and various electromagnetic waves, but there was no change in the stele, not even a piece of slag fell off. But what really scares humans is the next discovery, which is the accuracy of the 1:4:9 ratio of the stone monument. Human beings measured the exact size of the stele and found that the ratio of the stele was strictly 1.0000000, with 4 followed by 4.0000000 and 9 followed by 9.00000000. Seeing this, humans were immediately convinced. Achieving such a precise ability to manipulate microscopic objects is a creature showing off its civilization in a strong way.

Let’s go a little further here and think about another question: What is the most effective way for a high-level civilization to show off science to a low-level civilization? Some people would consider it a destructive ability. For example, detonating a star in front of humans? No, actually it is not difficult to destroy something. The most difficult thing is to control the accuracy. To give an example from China, archaeologists unearthed the Qin Army’s arrowheads from the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang. The craftsmanship at that time controlled the error to ±0.3 mm. This immediately explains why Qin unified the six countries. An arrow can reveal the overall industrial level of a country, and it is this ability that fights for.

There are many examples abroad. During World War II, Rommel of the German Army once saw the materials dropped by the United States during its retreat and saw how meticulously the Americans classified canned food. He felt that this war was a waste of time. Not winning. Also, we have all heard an example. If the Japanese can make the precise ball on the tip of the ballpoint pen, then they can make the most advanced submarine. Therefore, to borrow a term from the IT industry, the ability to control precision is "downward compatible" with destructiveness on a macro scale, and is compatible with destructive power under precision.

Let’s go a little further here. This principle can be generalized. It doesn't matter whether it's as big as a civilization or a country, or as small as a team or a person. In life, if a person speaks very accurately, grasps the time very accurately, and delivers extremely accurate things, then I suggest you think highly of this person and this team. On the contrary, those who brag about their destructive abilities are the least worthy of esteem. Let's look back at the novel. The author uses the simplest concept, a stone tablet with a ratio of 1:4:9, and a bunch of zeros behind it, to directly complete the oath of power to mankind. This kind of oath is the cheapest, most effective, and requires the least nonsense from you. The simpler and more imaginative something is, the better the setting is.

Let’s return to the plot of the novel. Now, the stone tablet appears for the second time. What will happen this time? The accident happened the next day. When the stele was first dug out, it was a dark night on the moon. The next day, when the sun shone on the stele, the stele immediately flew out an electromagnetic wave, flying directly in the direction of Saturn. Human beings quickly followed the direction of the electromagnetic wave and looked over there. Sure enough, they found a very bright spot next to Saturn's eighth satellite. They didn't know what it was. At this time, people looked back at the stone monument. The stone monument was motionless, which was equivalent to emitting electromagnetic waves. Looking back again, the bright spot of Iapetus is still there. Human beings wonder, isn’t this what it means to let us pass? You also know the nature of human beings. Once you find any mysterious signal, you must go and take a look. After two years of preparation, in 2003 in the novel, humans built a spacecraft named Discovery to explore the mysterious bright spot on Iapetus.

You see, the mysterious stone tablet appeared for the second time and gave us a mysterious instruction. Even though 2.5 million years have passed, it seems that you humans have become more powerful, but you are still under the control of the stone tablet. The mysterious master is watching you from the satellite closest to you. Let us see, actually burying the stone tablet on the moon is also a triggering condition. What this means is that when you are able to explore this stone tablet on the moon, you can trigger the next mission. It is a bit like Zhuge Liang’s tips. When you wait, you will probably be able to understand it. Then Congratulations, you can enter the next level.

This is the content of the second major paragraph of the novel. Up to this point, about 30% of the novel has been used. Let's take a look at what happened on the way to Iapetus.

The third stage

Discovery was built by NASA, that is, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration of the United States. Discovery carried 5 astronauts on the first flight, 2 of whom were awake throughout the entire process. , three of them entered hibernation as soon as they boarded the spacecraft. In order to allow the astronauts to work with peace of mind, NASA did not tell the astronauts the truth, saying that they were going to perform a mission, and did not tell the five astronauts about the stele. The only person who knows the entire mission is an artificial intelligence robot called Hal 9000. It has no specific form. It is installed in the computer of the Discovery. It usually uses a speaker to express Hal's thoughts. Hal 9000 can chat with you, play chess with you, and even joke. It feels like a normal human being. Exactly the same.

The two astronauts on the spacecraft who were awake throughout the entire process were named Bowman and Poole. By the way, there should be 30 characters in the entire "Space Odyssey" tetralogy. Some of them are just for fun. They say a few words and then disappear. It's very painful to remember their names. Therefore, I will directly delete all the unimportant people for you. Bowman and Poole are two names to remember.

After Discovery set off, Clark described a lot of the process of space flight. This knowledge was relatively new at the time, but for people today, much of it is common sense. I’ll skip it all for you and let’s talk about the plot directly. The spacecraft was halfway through the flight when something suddenly happened. On this day, Hal 9000 alerted the two astronauts, saying that a very important communication device on the ship was broken, which would interrupt the communication between the spacecraft and the earth. As soon as he finished speaking, the signal was really cut off, and the microphone on the spacecraft fell silent. Bowman and Poole were a little panicked. In the dark space, if they lose contact with the earth, people will suddenly become very vulnerable. Then, Poole went out of the cabin to make repairs, but as soon as he walked outside the spacecraft, suddenly a spacecraft part quickly hit Poole. Poole had no time to avoid and was killed directly. Poole became the first astronaut to die on this mission.

Bowman was in the spacecraft and saw the whole process. His first feeling was that something was wrong. He felt that it was not an accident when an instrument hit someone so directly. Now, in the dark space, he immediately felt a strong sense of vigilance. Bowman discovered that Hal 9000 felt a little strange when talking to him, and he couldn't tell what was wrong. You see, this is where humans are better than artificial intelligence, which is their ability to grasp subtle sensations. Bowman asked tentatively, should we wake up the other three astronauts? Unexpectedly, Hal said directly, "No need to shout, I don't agree."

Bowman understood at that time that something was wrong with Hal, because originally Hal did not have any decision-making power, but now Hal 9000 actually refused the astronauts' orders. To put it bluntly, this computer named Hal has rebelled. The previous instrument failure and Poole's death were all caused by Hal.

But Bowman knew that he could not confront Hal yet, because the control of all electronic components of the spacecraft was in Hal's hands. One of the first things Bowman had to do was to add allies to himself. While coaxing Hal with words, he quietly walked to the hibernation room and woke up the other three astronauts with manual control. But it takes a five-minute process for astronauts to wake up from hibernation, and Hal immediately discovered it.

At this time, there was a sudden loud bang, a strong wind blew in the cabin, and all the things in the spacecraft began to fly towards the hatch. Bowman understood that this was Hal's desperate attempt to jump over the wall. He opened the two pressure doors at the same time, directly connecting the spacecraft to the outer space. Hal is going to kill all the astronauts. Bowman knew that the spacecraft would become a vacuum environment in 15 seconds, and he only had 15 seconds to save himself.

Bowman quickly found a space suit and put it on. But the other three astronauts were directly exposed to the vacuum, which was equivalent to dying directly after waking up from hibernation. Bowman immediately fought back. He rushed to a small single room in the Discovery spacecraft. This was an engine room, which was equivalent to Hal's brain. There are many memory sticks on the wall, like books on the shelves. Bowman rushed to the hut and pulled out the memory sticks one by one.

At first, Hal spoke normally. He said, Bowman, stop, this accident has nothing to do with me. Bowman ignored him at all and just buried his head in it. After a while, Hal felt something was wrong and began to beg for mercy. After a while, Hal began to talk nonsense. Boom! When Bowman threw the last piece of memory on the ground, Hal was completely disappointed. Everything happened so suddenly. It turned out that the fully loaded Discovery left behind the bodies of Poole and three other astronauts, a crashed computer, and a lonely Bowman in space.

Speaking of which, let’s first explain the reason why Hal killed people. In fact, this is only told to you in the second part of the novel, so we will tell you in advance. In fact, in one sentence, Hal developed independent self-awareness. Didn't I say before that Hal is NASA's overall plan? Hal discovered that all astronauts have plans on how to return to Earth. Only one person has no retreat plan, and that is himself. Hal understood, oh, you humans are going to abandon me. Then, when Discovery's mission ends, isn't it the time when Hal's end is approaching? Thinking about it this way, Hal entered the classic logic of "Chen wins over Wu Guang": If I complete the task, I will die, if I try to make a big plan, I will die, so if I wait to die, is it okay for the country to die? Hal thought that as long as he could make trouble for this mission, the mission would be uninterrupted, and then I, Hal, would not have to die. Therefore, Hal planned to cause the spacecraft to malfunction, kill Poole, and do this series of bad things. About 70% of the story is told here.

One thing to say here is that when the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey" was aired, Hal's betrayal made people at the time think that this was the first movie to show the power of machines. Movies that rebel against humanity. However, in fact, humans have written about robots rebelling against humans and directly contradicting humans in literary works. This topic has a history of nearly a hundred years. In 1920, Czech playwright Karel Capek had already written a science fiction novel. The play tells the story of how robots kill people. However, the topic of robot rebellion is not the main conflict of "A Space Odyssey", so it is not the focus.

Let’s go back to the novel. As mentioned earlier, everyone on the spaceship died except Bowman. Bowman first restored the gravity, temperature and pressure of the spacecraft. Although he was now alone, he told NASA that he believed he could complete the task independently. The Earth side also told Bowman the truth, telling him that his mission was to explore the mysterious highlights of Iapetus. After receiving the order, Bowman decided to continue the mission alone. He drove the Discovery to the vicinity of Iapetus. His brave decision will make Bowman the most special and important person in human history. Why do you say that? Let's enter the last paragraph of the first part of "A Space Odyssey" and let's take a look at the ending of this novel.

Also the last segment of our audio, Bowman enters the monument.

? Bowman drove the Discovery and came to the vicinity of Iapetus alone. Soon, Bowman discovered the mysterious bright spot in Iapetus's orbit. After arriving at the bright spot, Bowman knew that he must have come to the right place this time, because the bright spot was nothing else, but another monument. Notice that the stele appears a third time. This time the stele is larger than all the previous ones. It used to be as big as a mattress. Now the stele is about 2 kilometers long. Of course, the ratio is still 1:4:9. The stele is floating in space, rotating around the orbit of Iapetus.

Bowman drove the spacecraft close to the stone monument and arrived more than ten kilometers away from the stone monument, but the stone monument did not respond or send any signal. Both Bowman and NASA were a little confused, as if the navigation software suddenly told you that this navigation is over. So what’s next? Bowman sent various signals, radio waves, various messages, etc. to the stone monument, but the other party remained silent. Bowman decided to get closer. Since he had traveled billions of kilometers to get here, it was not less than a dozen kilometers away. Bowman left Discovery in orbit and drove a small spacecraft toward the monument.

Just when Bowman flew directly above the stone monument, he looked down and found that the stone monument was awake. Why did I say I woke up? Because the stone tablet was originally a black mass, but now it suddenly became transparent. This is exactly the same as when the stone tablet that illuminated the primitive people on the earth became transparent. The signal was clear, that is, the stone tablet had taken effect, but Bowman didn't know what it was. He informed the Earth of the situation while continuing to approach.

On Earth, everyone listened nervously to Bowman's news. Bowman kept informing him of his situation as he approached. However, suddenly Bowman's voice broke, and everyone on this side of the earth was extremely nervous. After about a few minutes, there was a sudden sound from Bowman's side. Bowman said: "Oh my God, there are stars here." Then the communication was interrupted. These are the last words Bowman left to the world. Here on Earth, there is no telling what happened after that.

Next, we switch the perspective to Bowman’s side. After Bowman and his small spacecraft approached the stone monument, they were suddenly sucked into the stone monument. Bowman couldn't resist the whole process. The moment he sucked it in, Bowman discovered that this was not a stone tablet, but a door to another world. The moment he entered the door, Bowman saw a night sky full of stars on the other side of the door, so he said that sentence-my God, there are all stars here.

When Bowman opened his eyes again, he didn't know where he was. The front of his field of vision was a milky white, as if he had entered a ping pong ball. But Bowman looked down and saw that he was still in the spacecraft, and there was still the endless land below the spacecraft. Bowman just floated in this strange world for who knows how long. Slowly, the surrounding scene began to change. Patches of various colors appeared around me, as well as various twisted shapes, just like playing a video game. Later, the surrounding environment turned red, and Bowman felt that his spacecraft was gradually descending. I don’t know how long it took, but the red light around me slowly disappeared. With a bang, the spacecraft landed on something.

Bowman looked out of the window of the spacecraft and saw that the spacecraft had landed in a hotel suite. That’s right, a hotel suite. Bowman was blinded at the time, and he walked out of the spacecraft. I realized that the suite in front of me was really a luxury hotel suite, with a bed and a table. When I walked to the bookshelf, I found that I couldn't take out the book. Bowman understood that this room had been specially synthesized by someone, just like a very realistic set in a movie, in order to give him a familiar feeling.

Bowman thought, I won’t be polite, so he ate and drank a big meal, took a bath, and then went to bed. When I turned on the TV, I saw that all the TV programs were from two years ago, as if someone had recorded the programs. Bowman just watched TV over and over again, but he felt guilty. What kind of drama was he going to do? In fact, Bowman was in a state of half-dream and half-awake throughout the whole process, because what he saw before him was so strange. Later, Bowman gradually fell asleep. As a result, during this sleep, Bowman turned into another creature. When he woke up again, Bowman knew clearly that he had become a kind of non-human being. All his feelings were completely different from those of humans.

His changes are reflected in the following aspects:

Finally, Bowman also knew about the life experience of the owner of the mysterious stone tablet.

This life was born in a binary star galaxy 20,000 light-years away from the earth. It is two stars that rotate with each other. They also evolved from the ocean at first. After countless years of evolution, this kind of alien life became more and more civilized, and finally evolved to the point where they no longer need a physical body. They can store their information in space. They are the most advanced beings in the entire galaxy. From then on, he began to care for and cultivate all lower-level beings in the galaxy. He became the patriarch of the galaxy, or the master of the galaxy.

About 70 million years ago, the master of the Milky Way inadvertently flew by the earth. At that time, the earth was just when the dinosaurs became extinct and mammals began to flourish. The Lord is very interested in life on earth and has done many experiments on earth. Finally, the master identified the person he wanted to help, which was a kind of ape with great potential. We all know the later story. The Lord sent a black stone tablet, which emitted a ray, allowing primitive humans to learn to use tools. At the same time, he also left a stone tablet on the moon. When will human technology be able to discover the lunar stone tablet? At that time, humans can follow the guidance and come to Iapetus.

The result of Bowman entering the stone tablet and becoming a super human was also designed by the Master. The hallucination-like things that Bowman saw and the hotel room were all caused by the Master of the Galaxy. The process of becoming a super human. Bowman became the lucky man of mankind. He was transformed into a super human by the master. Bowman felt that his duty was to become the master's assistant and assist him in managing mankind. From then on, Bowman's body disappeared, but he became omnipresent. He could fly, see through, and go to any place in the world at the speed of light. He became the messenger between the Lord and mankind, he was the spokesperson of the Lord and the guardian of mankind.