Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
That evening, the Coro University forum was already filled with keywords related to the incomprehensible open elective course “Cosmology”.
Many students filmed the class and uploaded it to the the forum, their personal profiles, and even social media sites such as YouTube. The videorose to top of trending on Future 1.0, Weibo, and other major social media sites.
“Cosmology? This is certainly new!”
“Future Group is going to heaven!”
“Being next to the Sun!”
“Extraterrestrial civilization? This subject is so simple! It must be… Dark Forest! Ten thousand dollars for me!”
“It seems that the space colonization plan announced by Celestial Trade is not fake after all, and even the most obscure extraterrestrial civilization exploration has been established as a research topic. If it is not a one-way ticket, I would like to try it out.”
Compared to the heated debate on the Internet, many news media have also made similar headlines filled with clickbait on this issue.
Rich professor driving Lamborghini is teaching a course? Who made the university become a profit-orientated place?
Homework, and the reward is 10,000 USD! The most expensive homework in history!
The study of extraterrestrial civilization becomes a Celestial Trade project? Is it an illusion or the hope of conquering the starry night?
Unexpected information revealed in the class, more details of the Celestial Trade space colonization plan were exposed…
“Up to today at noon, the number of applicants for space volunteer immigration has doubled from the previous month. If we do not expand the space training base, I am afraid that the training facility will be jam-packed. Should we not temporarily close to the public?” Kelvin proposed.
“No,” Jiang Chen shook his head. “If you don’t have enough money, apply to the Finance Department. The initial stage of the space industry is a money-losing project. Don’t worry too much about this. As long as every penny is spent at the right place, you don’t have to be polite with me.”
“Yes,” Kelvin was relieved and nodded.
To be honest, his team was the only one that constantly lost money in the entire group, and the losses have been particularly severe. They were all spending billions of dollars! Although Jiang Chen has been telling him not to worry about money, and focus on building the space elevator, but to say that there is no psychological burden would be absolutely impossible.
After Kelvin’s departure, Jiang Chen set aside his work paper, opened the watch, clicked the mailbox, and browsed the assignments submitted by his students.
Perhaps because of the ten thousand dollar in reward, the assignment students turned in were all top quality! Especially Asian students studying abroad with inheritance to the academic culture easily wrote hundreds of thousands of words and cited dozens of articles. Finally, they wrote their own conclusions and attached a thank you note for the professor’s hard work.
While Jiang Chen was moved by their effort, he was also embarrassed.
It was his negligence that he should have told the students that they only needed to make a conjecture. There was no need to write a lot of proof at all. Because this kind of problem has never happened before, even if they referenced many other people’s literature, they could not conclude with an definitive answer.
He just wanted to take this opportunity to understand what opinions most people have on contact with aliens.
After all the papers have been searched, all the main ideas of each paper were outlined and sorted based on rules.
From a total of 1,173 papers, Jiang Chen surprisingly received 87 different perspectives.
Perhaps influenced by the political correctness common to western society, many students from the West, especially Western European students, put forward ideas that could be defined as Social Justice Warriors.
Some people proposed that special ecological protection zones be set up on Earth to accommodate these visitors. Or establish an embassy to resolve possible differences between the two parties through dialogue. Some people also said that setting up an extraterrestrial cultural reserve on Earth may not be appropriate. After all, it was not clear whether the other party is suitable for the atmosphere, and it may be poisonous to them. They should be placed on the moon, or Mars…
For students from Asia, the answer was more conservative.
That was, before we’tr certain that the other is here with good intentions, first suspect whether the other party is hostile.
This may be related to the fact that in the recent wars, Asia has been the victim of the aggressors. When it came to foreign civilizations, Asian civilizations were even more vigilant, and they were even more inclined to display its own weapons before throwing out the olive branch.
It has been suggested that no matter what intention the other is holding, we can “strike” first. If they are still alive, then we could consider contacting them. It has also been recommended that communication and dialogue are necessary, but the prerequisite is to show the other with force first. That was, sending a fleet to display Earth’s military power.
But there were also pessimists who suggested that if they can’t resist, they should build their own colonial ship to escape, at least let some people run away and stay away from the solar system to find new homes…
Some interesting points that were also identified include that since the other is able to conduct intergalactic travel, it proved that the other’s technological level is superior. Instead of trying to get in touch or confront it, it’s better to think about how to please the aliens. It is better to be a pet than a livestock.
Some female students didn’t even answer the question at all. They just posted photos of themselves without any Photoshop in the e-mail. They subtly asked “Are you free on the weekend?””Can you take me for a ride?”…
Looking at these points of view, Jiang Chen only smiled and shook his head somewhat helplessly.
Ignoring all the nonsense, the viewpoints could be divided into three categories.
Peace, Fight, Surrender.
After removing the papers without a solid argument, Jiang Chen found out that among these students, the people who supported surrendering accounted for 50% of all total papers, while the peace faction accounted for 30%, but only 20% thought of fighting back.
And among the 20% of people, some people’s points were also wavering.
After all, even the “dry dock” of spaceships – the space elevator has not yet been built, let alone spaceships.
Although many people were optimistic when they wrote the paper, on the day when Earth’s civilization and extraterrestrial civilization comes into contact, there will be spaceships, and there will be giant battleships and cannons. But they were uncertain as to how they would come into possession of these weapons…
“Is it too early?” Jiang Chen murmured to himself and fixated his gaze on the world map hanging on the wall.
If this issue was left to the United Nations to decide, what conclusions will they eventually reach?
Is it with hope to greet destruction, or is it to abandon unrealistic illusions to clash head on, or is it to fight with among ourselves first?
Everything is unknown.
He had the means to prove that the space colonization ship is on course. An astronomical telescope could do the job, since he knew the coordinates. However, he did not have the means to prove its aggressiveness, nor did he have the incentive to convince everyone that the space colonization ship was hostile.
He randomly selected ten papers with representative opinions and gave his evaluation. Jiang Chen then sent the money to the ten lucky winners’ accounts.
For these students, the money may be a lot, but it was nothing to him.
Although there were some regrets, judging from the present, it was not the best time to disclose the coordinates of Harmony civilization and the intelligence of the space colonization ship.
