Great Country Academician

Expansion abroad!

In the office, when hearing these four words, the old man sitting opposite and Chang Huaxiang beside him both flashed a hint of surprise in their eyes.

"Do you mean to learn the way of the United States?"

The old man looked over and asked Xu Chuan.

If one associates with expansion abroad, there is no doubt that the easiest thing to think of is the hegemonic means that the United States has used to plunder resources and land all over the world.

Simply put, it is to expand abroad and plunder the resources and economy of other countries to maintain its own rapid development and strength.

The United States has a long history of expansion abroad, with a complete set of methods and sufficient experience.

From the western expansion in the 19th century, the occupation of Hawaii and the Philippines, and the interference during the Cold War, these actions are often motivated by resource acquisition.

Since the end of the War of Independence, territorial expansion and resource collection have made the United States a superpower.

Including the Cold War between the Red and Blue sides in the 20th century, the United States incorporated its motivation for expansion abroad into the framework of anti-Sovietism to defend the concept of the free world.

During this period, the United States expanded its political, military and economic influence globally to curb the expansion of the Red and Soviet Union.

But in essence, it is also to strengthen the influence and expansion of the United States in the world.

Simply put, there are many ways to expand externally, including military means, economic and cultural infiltration.

And military intervention has always been a prominent feature of external expansion.

If they want to take the path of external expansion, this may greatly modify the original direction of the country's progress.

After all, they didn't take this path originally.

Across the sofa, Xu Chuan shook his head gently and said, "The external expansion I'm talking about is not to learn from the United States, but..."

As he said, he pointed to the top of his head.

"Space?" The old man quickly reacted and asked.

Xu Chuan nodded and said, "Well, space."

"Our situation is different from that of the United States. I believe you understand this better than me."

"Apart from other reasons, the huge population gap alone makes it difficult for us to go back to the path of the United States' external expansion."

"And the current development of military weapons technology also makes it difficult for us to follow the path of the United States as in the 19th century."

After a pause and organizing his words, he continued, "Let's talk about something outside the personal field."

"In my opinion, the external expansion of the United States is ultimately caused by the problems caused by the distribution mechanism, which makes it necessary to do so."

"Its own resources are actually enough to maintain the high welfare benefits of all personnel in their country, but the problem of the distribution mechanism means that not everyone can get corresponding benefits. "

"For example, there are 100 resources and 100 people. If everyone gets just one resource, then everyone can live well. "

"But the reality is obviously not like this. Among these 100 resources, 50, 60 or even more may be taken away by a small number of powerful people, such as 10 or 20 people. "

"And the remaining few resources are obviously not enough to feed the majority of people. "

"This means that the United States must expand outward and get 200 or even more resources before most people can have a resource. "

"I believe this problem also exists in our country, but the current situation should be better than that of the United States. "

The old man nodded, obviously agreeing with Xu Chuan's statement.

The problem of distribution mechanism obviously exists in every country, whether it is the United States or China, or the European Union, Japan and South Korea.

Let alone modern society, there are so many dynasties in ancient China, splitting and reuniting. In the final analysis, most of the time it is because the distribution mechanism has failed at the end of the dynasty.

The peasants at the bottom cannot even get the most basic resources to feed themselves, so they will naturally rise up in rebellion, break the original order, and redistribute resources.

In this process, the population will be greatly reduced due to the war.

When the population is reduced and the order is re-established, the resources or productivity will allow everyone to live happily again, until time continues to pass and the cycle repeats.

But after entering modern society, especially today when all countries have stored a large number of nuclear weapons, it is obvious that it is difficult for wars to break all old orders and establish new orders, and greatly reduce the population like in ancient times.

After all, once the Third World War breaks out on a large scale, the consequences can be imagined on the basis of mutual destruction.

And there is no war, but the problem of uneven resource distribution still exists. How to solve this problem?

The external expansion of the United States is obviously a suitable path for them.

By plundering the resources of other countries to meet domestic needs and create profits, the problem of uneven resource distribution can be solved.

And can they take this path?

Obviously, it is very difficult.

As Xu Chuan said, their population is too large.

If the real 1.4 billion population wants to satisfy the whole world through social welfare security, it may need to siphon the wealth of the world to do so.

The United States can occupy the top of the technology pyramid and hand over other less core technologies or secondary technologies to other allies for production.

But they do not have this condition, the population determines everything.

Take the shipbuilding industry for example. South Korea's shipbuilding industry is one of the pillars of their country's economy, and they also have a developed shipbuilding industry, so competition between the two is fierce.

If South Korea's shipbuilding industry can eat 10 shares to make itself full, then they have to eat at least 100 or even 1,000 shares to make themselves full.

This means that it is actually very difficult for them to follow the expansion path of the United States.

After all, their size is too large.

After thinking for a moment, the old man looked at Xu Chuan and asked, "Can space solve our problems?"

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "I don't know how to solve the problem of resource allocation mechanism, but I am certain that space has enough resources to support our continued development."

"I have played a game before, which contained a large number of alien races and a compact game plot. In the early days of development, the most important thing for players was the population. The population growth in the early stage was too slow, resulting in There’s no workforce available for a lot of positions.”

"In the later period, too much population will cause serious economic pressure to increase, administrative efficiency to decrease, scientific research to slow down, social instability and other problems."

"I think this game is just like our current earth. If the population is too small, it cannot develop. If the population is too large, there will be various problems. (PS: Stars makes money!)"

"The simplest way to solve this difficult problem is to obtain more resources."

"Needless to say, compared to the entire universe, or even the entire solar system, the resources on Earth are pitiful."

"If we turn our attention to space and develop the moon, Mars, and even other planets further away, then the problems we are facing now can be solved to a large extent."

"When we enter the space age, any large population will become a scarce resource."

A thoughtful expression appeared on the old man's face: "Does that mean we should set our sights on space development in the longer term?"

Xu Chuan nodded and said: "In fact, apart from these issues, we should also focus on space development."

"This is the path that any advanced intelligent civilization should take after it has sufficient capabilities, instead of fighting life and death with its fellow humans on the home planet to compete for the limited resources on the home star."

To me, it's like standing next to a Man-Han banquet and fighting for a few peanuts. "

Hearing this, the old man couldn't help but smile. He was obviously interested in Xu Chuan's description.

"Standing next to a Manchu and Han banquet fighting for a few peanuts?"

After muttering something subconsciously, the old man smiled and said, "I've written this down. I'll hold a meeting to study it when I get back."

After a slight pause, he looked at Xu Chuan and continued: "Besides AI intelligence and space development, do you think there are any other suitable research directions?"

Hearing this, Xu Chuan thought for a while and said: "Quantum computers, biotechnology, virtual reality technology, etc. are all important areas for future technological development."

"I may be in a hurry today and it is difficult to discuss it in detail. It is better to wait until the manned landing project is completed and I will find time to think about it seriously."

Hearing this, the old man nodded with a smile and said: "Then I'll thank you for the trouble."

Xu Chuan smiled and said: "This is what I should do, and it is also my honor. There is no hard work or trouble."

"To put it bluntly, being able to determine the direction of the future era is an opportunity that many people only dream of and dare not even imagine."

The old man smiled and was about to say something when he suddenly remembered another thing and spoke.

"Oh, by the way, there's one more thing."

As he spoke, he took out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Xu Chuan.

"This is a project plan submitted by the Space Administration and the Academy of Sciences some time ago. Take a look."

Taking the envelope with some curiosity, Xu Chuan opened the seal and took out the documents inside.

When his eyes fell on the report on the first page, he was stunned for a moment, looked at the old man in surprise, and asked.

"Expedition to Barnard's Galaxy?"

Hearing Barnard Star, Chang Huaxiang was stunned for a moment, and then looked over curiously.

The old man nodded and said: "This is a project plan made by the Aerospace Group, the Space Administration and the Aerospace Research Institute of the Academy of Sciences."

"They plan to launch a space shuttle to carry a probe to Barnard's galaxy to detect whether there are Earth-like planets suitable for human habitation there, and to examine various conditions on exoplanets."

While listening to the old man's introduction, Xu Chuan quickly flipped through the planning documents in his hand.

Barnard's Star, also known as Barnard's Star in English, is a very low-mass red dwarf star located near the beta star Ophiuchi, about 6 light-years away from the Earth. It was named in memory of the astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard. Named for virtue.

At the same time, it is also the closest 'single star' galaxy to the solar system.

But the interesting thing is that it is not the first star closest to the sun, the second closest star to the sun, or even the third closest star to the sun.

Because the first, second and third stars closest to the sun are all in the Centauri galaxy, which is also the galaxy where Proxima Centauri is better known to everyone.

This story sounds a bit like a certain great man who fired three shots in a row.

Compared to the Barnard Galaxy, the three stars of Alpha Centauri are closer to the solar system, and Proxima Centauri is only 4.24 light years away from the sun, which is the closest star to the sun.

The reason why the more distant Barnard Galaxy was chosen as the target of the expedition instead of the closer Proxima Centauri Galaxy is that the Barnard Galaxy is a single-star galaxy, which is more suitable for human expeditions than the Alpha Centauri Galaxy in all aspects.

First of all, a single star means more stability.

Although the three stars of Alpha Centauri are closer, the mutual influence between stars means that the surrounding planets will also be affected.

In the famous science fiction novel "The Three-Body Problem", the "Three-Body Civilization" four light years away was destroyed and reborn more than a hundred times because the three stars were running irregularly and were forced to flee from the mother star.

Although science fiction novels are all based on fantasy, even from a scientific perspective, Proxima Centauri is not very suitable for human habitation.

Because the planets found near it are too close to the mother star.

The other two, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, are in a state of binary interweaving and influencing each other, which means that even if there are planets around them, their orbits are likely to be in a state of chaotic operation.

The Barnard Galaxy is different.

The structure of a single star is similar to that of the solar system, and more importantly, three planets were found near it in the habitable zone for life.

It is worth mentioning that these three planets were calculated and confirmed by various parameters such as radiation fluctuations and gravitational lenses using the extended application of the Xu-Weyl-Berry theorem completed by Xu Chuan.

Of course, no matter how it is confirmed, there is no doubt that it is now more worthy of exploration than Alpha Centauri.

Judging from the plan in the letter, this project was divided into two parts by the Aerospace Group. The first part is earth exploration + unmanned exploration.

That is, various astronomical observation equipment and telescopes are used on Earth to investigate the Barnard Galaxy, and then an unmanned space shuttle carrying a large amount of detection equipment is launched to conduct field investigations in the Barnard Galaxy.

The second part is an expedition!

That's right. If the results of the first part of the survey meet expectations, the Aerospace Group plans to build a large spacecraft to carry 300-500 people to explore the Barnard Galaxy.

The entire project is planned to take 50 years, including some possible problems and technical breakthroughs that need to be solved.

If you look at the letter report alone, this is indeed a very tempting plan.

Expedition to the Barnard Galaxy six light years away!

This is simply the most inspiring and exciting plan ever.

PS: Please give me a monthly ticket~