He left the key to me before he left.
Now I’m the last Gaia to guard the tomb of our civilization.
When I die, our civilization will officially end.
There is still a “Flower of Memory” in my hand, and it has only a trace of energy left, but I think I may be able to leave something for myself…
Perhaps the latecomers will be confused as to why we went from prosperity to extinction.
I have thought about this question countless times, until I took this last Flower of Memory in my hand, I finally understood the problem.
It is not disaster, but despair, that destroyed our civilization.
When the apocalypse arrived, hundreds of millions of our people died in front of us.
Some died from the disaster itself, but more died from our vulnerability to disasters.
We have considered thousands of possibilities, including immigration to the still infant earth and flying to further galaxies to continue our civilization. I believe that we can survive on the unknown land, but in the end, we chose to leave a tombstone that still contained our last dignity.
Very unexpectedly, I felt somewhat liberated to have such an ending.
Maybe I have some regrets as I can’t smell the wonderful fragrance anymore nor can I sense the intoxicating spiritual rhythm anymore… But this is just a regret for my remaining 3,000 Mars days, not for our civilization itself.
There is no regret for our civilization.
Maybe this ending is not so bad after all?
In the last moment, we chose the most democratic way of voting to decide our own destiny.
It was probably the fairest vote we have ever had.
The result was a unanimous agreement.
Everyone chose to stay.
We placed the key on the spacecraft and watched it go.
Ironically, we obviously never placed hope in the cold starry sky. But at this moment, we imagined that one day there will be another spirit, or soul, to write our story in another language…
…
“Like a poem.”
Jiang Chen made an evaluation after reading through the memory.
“The popular narrative method of Gaia civilization was not in the form of words, but to communicate directly through the spirit. I believe that you have experienced that feeling, the feeling is not easy to describe with words, I just wrote it down based on my memory.” Amos shrugged. “But the most critical part is not the beginning, but the ruins he mentioned about.”
About the ruins?
Jiang Chen frowned slightly and looked at Amos.
“Why?”
“Their ruins are divided into three parts, part of which is the living area, which is the part you had seen. The second part, is the database which can be opened by the key, and the data inside is stored in a kind of flower called ‘Flower of Memory’.”
After Amos said that, he had a rare look of eagerness.
“If I didn’t guess wrong, that should be the thing we encountered! It can connect directly with the spirit of a person, and then directly input the knowledge stored in it into a person’s brain! God… I dare to say that if this is unearthed, scientists all over the world will go mad!”
Transfer knowledge directly through the spirit, or neural connection?
Jiang Chen’s eyes showed a moment of shock.
It works like this?
It was not like he did not see anything similar, for example, the virtual reality learning system readily available in the apocalypse could also achieve rapid literacy. However, the mechanism of this system was only to extend the time in the virtual reality system to allow the user to experience a deep sleep state of two hours or more in a real time of one hour.
In the deep sleep state, people’s knowledge acceptance would accelerate while the load on the brain would be reduced to a minimum…
However, a premise still existed for this particular learning method, that was, people must spend the energy to learn.
According to Dr. Amos’s description, the Flower of Memory could completely abandon the learning process, rather, it could teach through empowerment. It would be similar to the idea described in martial arts or Xuanhuan novels in the passing of power… You’re too weak? No worries, let me give you tens of thousands of years of cultivation!
“You mean, that Flower of Memory can turn an idiot into a scientist?”
“That is too much of an exaggeration. Even if ordinary people possessed the memories, it would be useless if they can’t digest them. However, if you let a scholar with a certain foundation, or at least someone with scientific thinking, touch the Flower of Memory, he or she undoubtedly will become the most knowledgeable person in the world! Because that person will inherit the knowledge of a higher civilization! Even if it’s only a part of it!” Amos gazed directly at Jiang Chen and his eyes bloomed with enthusiasm. “So, I’m confident to say that, this, once unearthed, will make scientists around the world go mad!”
No physical object could withstand more than three billion years of time, perhaps hadron materials could, but only one existed after all. Therefore, the Gaia civilization chose to store all the memories of its own civilization in the Flower of Memory. It doesn’t possess any physical existence, but rather used the spirit of an organism as a vessel.
But Jiang Chen grew more confused.
So, what is the Flower of Memory?
Why can it exist for more than three billion years?
Perhaps this question can only be answered when the ruins are uncovered.
Jiang Chen returned from his thoughts and exchanged eye contact with the zealous Amos. Then, he suddenly realized something and smiled.
“Don’t worry, after the ruins are unearthed, I’ll definitely reserve one for you,” Jiang Chen said with a smile.
He patted Amos’ shoulder and responded to his hope and fanaticism.
Amos looked gratefully at Jiang Chen.
“Thank you, I really don’t know how to thank you.”
“Don’t thank me, your contribution to Future Group is worthy of this reward,” Jiang Chen said.
Judging from the description of the Flower of Memory of the Gaia civilization, there must be more than one. After all, the legacy of civilization could not be simply inherited by one person, not to mention that a person’s brain could only hold so many things.
After all, it was a technology from a civilization that dug through the core of a planet and its advanced nature should not be doubted. While not all technologies could be beneficial to human, even the tip of the iceberg would be enough to allow a little-known scientist stand at the top of the field.
Therefore, it should not benefit any outsiders. Jiang Chen simply did not intend to disclose this at all.
As a distinguished researcher of Future Group, a part of the Flower of Memory should be his.
“Right, you said that the ruins are divided into three parts, what is the third part?” Jiang Chen continued.
“The third part is the specimen library.” Amos replied with a positive tone.
“The specimen library?” Jiang Chen frowned.
“Yes, and it’s a specimen library that was damaged,” Amos nodded. “If my guess is accurate, the Devil Worms we met on Mars escaped from the specimen library. Other than that, according to that memory, in dealing with the apocalypse, the Gaia civilization scientists synthesized an oxygen-producing fungus that can grow in extreme environments, but for some unknown reason, the project was never completed.”
“Therefore, the oxygen-producing fungus specimen we found on Mars is…”
“It may be an unfinished product. Of course, this is just my guess,” Amos shrugged. “They have been in disrepair. The spores of the oxygen-producing bacteria have spread from the specimen library to the outside world. They have adapted to Mars through the evolution of hundreds of millions of years and modified the atmosphere. Later, the species such as Devil Worms ended their hibernation, left the damaged specimen library and created the current underground ecosystem.”
“…that is to say.” Jiang Chen suddenly had a bad feeling.
“I’m afraid it’s not just Devil Worms and oxygen-making fungus. There are a lot of things we haven’t seen before,” Dr. Amos took a deep breath. “In fact, I thought it was odd, but how much luck does a food chain need to sustain through hundreds of millions or even billions of years of evolution?”
