Share: The hypothesis proposed in the book "Origin": Where did humans come from? Where to go?

Excerpted by Mr. Lee from "The Origin" (USA) by Dan Brown on June 23, 2018

I just finished reading Dan Brown's new work "The Origin", although this work is This novel is not a serious scientific work, but the most important scientific discovery revealed in the book, "Where do humans come from and where do they go?" is very revealing. The view of "going away" is quite consistent with my own understanding (see my essay "Technology is a "parasitic beast", and living with it is the necessary survival ability of human beings in the future").

The two major hypotheses are excerpted here for easy viewing.

(This article contains serious spoilers for the content of the novel. If you have not read the novel, please decide carefully whether to read this article).

"First of all," England said in a friendly and easy-going tone, "I just want to say that this theory has not been proven, it is just an idea." He shrugged modestly. "But I admit that if we could prove that this theory is correct, the implications would be far-reaching." For the next three minutes, the physicist spoke succinctly about his point of view. This idea—like most paradigm-changing ideas—is surprisingly simple.

If Langdon understood correctly, Jeremy England's theory is that the universe operates according to a single instruction. There is only one goal:

Simply put, after the universe finds an area where energy is concentrated, it will spread this energy out. As Edmund said, the classic example is putting a cup of hot coffee on the counter. According to the "Second Law of Thermodynamics", hot coffee will gradually cool down, dispersing heat to other molecules in the room.

All creation myths involve the infinite spread of energy and light, illumination A visual depiction of light and dark.

England believes there is a misunderstanding of how the universe propagates energy

What we know about the universe. Entropy and disorder," England said, so we might be surprised to see many examples of molecules self-organizing.

Some of the images that had appeared before appeared on the screen: tornadoes, rippling rivers, and snowflakes.

All of these," says England, "are examples of 'dissipative structures' - clusters of molecules that organize themselves into structures to drive the system to diffuse energy more efficiently.

England immediately gave an example. Tornadoes are nature's way of dispersing areas of concentrated high pressure. Nature transforms tornadoes into rotational forces that eventually dissipate themselves. The same is true for ripples on a river. The river first intercepts the energy of the fast-moving water and then dissipates this energy. Snowflakes dissipate the sun's energy by forming faceted structures that reflect light chaotically in all directions.

Simply put," England continued, "the purpose of matter's self-organization is to better dissipate energy. He smiled. "While nature promotes disorder, it creates many small patches of order." These small blocks are structures that gradually upgrade the disordered state of a system, so it is these ordered small blocks that enhance entropy. ”

England was right, examples like this were everywhere. Langdon imagined a thunderstorm cloud. When static charges organized the cloud, the universe created a bolt of lightning. In other words, the laws of physics Creating physical processes to dissipate energy. Lightning dissipates energy from clouds to the Earth, spreading the energy out and thus increasing the overall entropy of the system.

To effectively create disorder, you first need some sort of disorder. degree of order.

What would happen? The mathematical symbol for entropy flashed through his mind, thinking that it looked like the energy consumption of the Big Bang in all directions. scattered.

So what use does this have for us? "What does England say entropy has to do with the origin of life?" He walked up to the blackboard. It turns out that life is a very effective tool for dissipating energy

England drew a picture on the blackboard of the sun radiating energy to trees.

For example, a tree first absorbs strong solar energy, uses the sun's energy to promote its own growth, and then emits infrared rays, a form of less concentrated energy. Photosynthesis is a very effective entropic tool. The energy gathered by the sun is broken down and weakened by the trees, causing an overall increase in entropy in the universe. All living organisms—including humans—are the same. Living organisms consume organized matter as food, convert it into energy, and then dissipate the energy back into the universe as heat. Generally speaking," England concluded, "I believe that life not only follows the laws of physics, but that life began because of these laws.

Langdon felt a pang in his heart as he thought about the logic. Surprising because the idea seems simple: If strong sunlight hits a patch of fertile soil, the laws of Earth's physics will create a plant to help dissipate the energy. If sulfur vents deep in the ocean created a pool of boiling water, life would materialize in those places, dissipating energy.

"If Professor England's theory is correct, then the entire operating system of the universe can be summarized as a simple general instruction: spread energy!"

"Where do we come from?" He asked, "The truth is - we come from nowhere... We come from nowhere. We come from the same physical laws that created life in the universe. There is nothing special about us. We exist with or without God. We exist. It is the inevitable result of entropy. Life is not the center of gravity of the universe. Life is just something created and reproduced by the universe to dissipate energy."

The screen updated to a simple diagram. The chart describes the classification of organisms, the so-called "six kingdoms of life": Animalia, Plantarum, Protista, Eubacteria, Primitive Bacteria, and Fungi.

"But it wasn't until I identified this burgeoning new organism," Edmund continued, "that I realized that this organism had so many forms that we could hardly call it one. Species. From a taxonomic perspective, it covers too wide a range to be called an order, not even a door." Edmund stared at the camera lens and said, "That's when I realized that our planet is changing. Occupied by something bigger. So it can only be labeled as a new realm."

According to the predictions of some early science fiction writers, this new realm of life came into being with a dramatic change.

This is a non-living world.

These inanimate species evolved in much the same way that living things evolve, becoming increasingly more complex, able not only to adapt to new environments, but also to reproduce in them. In the process of adapting to new changes, some of them survived and some died, which is completely a mirror of Darwin's adaptive change. The development of these new species is astonishing, and now they have formed a whole new kingdom - the seventh kingdom, whose status is equivalent to the animal kingdom and other kingdoms.

"Five hundred million years ago," Edmund continued, "our planet experienced a sudden explosion of life - the Cambrian explosion of life. Most species on the earth almost overnight It was born in time. Today we are experiencing the Cambrian explosion of life in the "technical world". New technologies are born every day, and each new technology is evolving at a dizzying speed. Other new technology tools. The invention of computers has helped us create all kinds of amazing tools, from smartphones to spacecrafts to robotic surgeons. We are witnessing an explosion of innovation faster than we could have imagined. . We are the creators of this new world of technology."

...

"What you see here is a rare evolutionary process called 'speciality. Intracellular cell proliferation'.

Edmund said, "Generally, evolution is a process of differentiation, that is to say, one species differentiates into two new species." But sometimes, in rare cases, if two species cannot survive without each other, then the process is reversed...instead of one species diverging, two species merge into one.

"If you don't believe that humans and technology will merge into one," Edmund said, "then look around you."

A group of people quickly appeared on the screen Slide 1 - Some of the people in the picture are holding mobile phones, some are wearing virtual reality glasses, and some are adjusting the Bluetooth headsets in their ears; the runner has a music player tied to his arm; there is a "Smart speaker"; a child playing with a tablet in his crib.

These are just the original origins of this kind of ***. "Edmund said that we have now begun to implant computer chips directly into our brains, inject nanorobots that can live forever in our bodies and eat cholesterol into our blood, create prostheses controlled by our brains, and use genes such as CRISPR Editing tools are changing our genome. It's no exaggeration to say that we are creating an enhanced version of humanity." "Humanity is evolving into something different," he said. Hybrid - the product of the fusion of biology and technology. The tools that live outside our bodies today—smartphones, hearing aids, reading glasses, most pharmaceuticals—will be implanted inside our bodies in large numbers fifty years from now. Then we will no longer be Homo sapiens.

Behind Edmund, another familiar picture appeared - a one-way evolution diagram from chimpanzees to modern humans.

In the blink of an eye,” said Edmund, “we will be the next page in this flip-book evolution. At that time we will remember today's Homo sapiens as we now remember Neanderthals. New technologies such as cybernetics, synthetic intelligence, cryonics, molecular engineering, and virtual reality will completely rewrite the definition of "human". I know there are still some of you who believe that you, like Homo sapiens, are God's chosen species. I understand this news may make you feel like the world has come to an end. But I beg you, please believe me...the future is actually much brighter than you think. ”

Edmond described eloquently that in the future, technology will become very cheap and ubiquitous, and the gap between the rich and the poor will no longer exist. In the future, environmental technology will Providing drinking water, nutritious food, and clean energy to billions of people. In the future, with the help of genomic medicine, diseases like Edmund’s cancer will be eradicated, even in the most remote corners of the world. We can all use the powerful Internet to advance education. In the future, assembly line robotics will liberate workers from tedious work, allowing them to pursue more valuable things, and these things will bloom in areas that are still unimaginable. The most important thing is that in the future, breakthrough technologies will create a large amount of critical human resources, and by then there will be no need for humans to fight for critical resources.

“We are now in a different world. An ordinary period of historical peak. "Edmund continued, "In this era, everyone feels that the world is completely upside down, and everything is different from what we imagined. But uncertainty has always been a precursor to radical change; turmoil and fear have always preceded upheaval. So I urge everyone to believe in the human capacity for creativity and love, because once these two forces are combined into one, they have the ability to illuminate any darkness. "

"As we move into the uncertainty of tomorrow," Edmund said, "we will transform ourselves into something more powerful than we ever imagined. We have power beyond our wildest dreams. Until then, may we never forget Churchill’s wise words: ‘The price of strength… is responsibility. ’”

…

“I call it ‘praying for the future’. Edmund closed his eyes and slowly prayed with unusual calmness, "I hope our philosophy can keep pace with our technology." May our compassion keep pace with our strength.

May love, not fear, be the engine of change. ”