Шрифт:
Even over dark matter
the light mind reigns supreme.
Prologue
The motion of the solar system around the center of the galaxy is similar to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. However, the Sun and about four hundred billion other stars, as well as other objects in the system, do not revolve around a star, but around a supermassive object called a black hole. Such a strange name was given to them by the presence of their giant gravity, which does not allow even light to go beyond its limits. At the center of our Milky Way galaxy is just such a mysterious object. Such massive objects are theoretically at the center of all such structures. Their monstrous gravity, binding all the atoms of the system and counteracting its speed of orbital motion of the objects themselves, coupled with the gravitational influence of all on each other, hold in their orbits "tenants" of the common house called the galaxy.
The Sun orbits at a speed of about 230 kilometers per second, which is enough to prevent our star from being swallowed by a black hole in the center of the galaxy. The time it takes for our star to complete a complete revolution around the center of the Milky Way is called a galactic year. For each of the planets in our system, the year is different because of the different lengths of their orbits. Likewise, the galactic year is different for each star in the Milky Way.
For the Sun, a galactic year is 220-230 million Earth years. In other words, if we were to measure time by this galactic "clock," the Earth would be about 16 galactic years old, the Sun would have formed about 20 years ago, and the Universe would be only about 60 years old.
Counting from the Big Bang, the current "year" will end in 74 million years. So it's only the beginning of August.
If we look from the future to the past, the history of mankind is a kind of labyrinth, if we judge that the truth is "whatever happens is for the best". And how could it be, for we know of no other option. And now imagine that this very "for the best" is already a certain path, along the labyrinths of which mankind must pass to a certain goal. And again – may not pass. That is, not finding the right line, we get stuck, slow down, lose time and, if this time is determined by a timer, we may not make it in time. Not in time for a certain event to happen. For example, the largest asteroid is going to fall on the Earth or something else incredibly catastrophic is going to happen, and we have to achieve a certain development, create something, or be able to depart from the cradle of humanity, for example, to a near-Earth station or, say, to Mars. Why not. After all, global catastrophes have happened on Earth. For example, glaciation, ice ages could last up to 300 million years. Imagine that number. Perhaps some universal mind directs the development of civilization, and we must come to a certain goal. Perhaps we are led by God, perhaps by our own mind, perhaps by instinct, perhaps by no one. Just some probability of events gives one civilization to survive, while others are forced to perish. If there is natural selection in nature, why isn't there natural selection in global nature, that is, in the universe as a whole, relative to civilizations. After all, if every hundred years the Earth passed very close or very far from the Sun and global fires or general glaciation would occur as a consequence, then we would build a civilization with a different content. We would have developed other technologies, and we would have developed in a direction relative to this main problem. And if we are developing in the direction that we are, then we should draw the appropriate conclusions from it.
By and large, all inventions exist in nature, we only transform them for our understanding, perception and needs. For example, many in childhood played a game when two matchboxes are connected by wires and it is possible to "transmit" messages, vibrations. Sound, for example, echo or thunder, by itself, by the fact of its nature, speaks about the possibility of spreading to a great distance. And if we take into account the fact that our brain not only understands this world by consciousness, but also by some other structure of its own… For example, there are a lot of sound ranges that we do not consciously perceive, but they act on our organism, including the brain. Accordingly, if some complex life-support system folds the manifestations of nature necessary for the instinct of self-preservation into the understanding of our organism, including the brain, as useful, good or bad, harmful, then for the same life-support system there are responses, which we call conscious perception. That is, the roar of the leopard is dangerous, and the song of the nightingale is sweet. Accordingly, and our battle cry is perceived by comrades as strength and power, and for enemies – fear and wariness. And afterwards, in order to strengthen the mechanisms of self-preservation more and more, our organism, and most importantly – the brain, comes up with more and more new systems. Once it realized that it is better to make something out of improvised materials, such as stone, than to strengthen its paws and claws. And nowadays we fly into space, develop worldwide communication, cloning, atomic energy and much, much more. Consciousness systematizes the data received from the body, including through all senses, to increase our vitality and adaptation to the surrounding reality. Vitality and adaptation, also with the help of collected, systematized data, creating discoveries and inventions. It has always been a mystery, a difficulty, a dilemma – how to do it scientifically, how to do it technically? Mankind gradually came to understand the physical laws, including the transmission of signals through electrodynamics, for example, the discovery of Hertz allowed the invention of radio.
In the Future, we will recognize which version of the future we created in the past.
Chapter 1: The Pope's Revelation
For as long as I could remember, I had lived in the company of adults, as I later realized, employees of the secret research center where my father worked. My name was Rutra, but I rarely heard my own name, so I thought it was a title. Iris, or affectionately Iriska, was called Iris by everyone. I remember my mother sporadically, she was always away for a long time. I did not communicate with children, and there were none here, although many said that they would like to have the same child. My dad used to say: the technology is patented, get a license – and you're welcome.
When I started asking questions about why they didn't have children, my dad at first waved me off, put his finger to his lips, and then, when my questions became more persistent, whispered in my ear:
– There is no place on Earth, and people don't want to go there," he pointed his finger upwards.
I also often heard about a certain mysterious place of the Russian Academy of Sciences, which was located in a magical city called Moscow. What made them mysterious and magical for me was their conversations in low voices. I often overheard them. Nobody lived in this city anymore, though in the past there was no place for an apple to fall. Especially cautious they talked about the quantum monster, located in the Russian Academy of Sciences and commanding everything in the world. And even more cautiously they reasoned that allegedly this monster is the whole building of RAS and consists of water; the more water, the stronger it is.
I knew almost everything about the world, I dreamed about it, and in the form of a book or even an encyclopedia. This world, the one I saw in my dreams, seemed like a faraway wonderful country, where for some reason I was not allowed to go.
When I was 12 years old, I became more and more interested in it, and my uncle Gostomysl, whom my father called no other than Richelieu, asked me more and more often about the details of dreams. For some reason, after I recounted my dream, he would ask me what year it was, whether the borders of land and water converged with those on the globe? Then he would describe a circle in the air with his finger and the globe would appear there. I answered cheerfully that everything was the same. He smiled back and stroked my head. And once, during negotiations with my mother, she suddenly opened her jacket and showed me the inscription on her T-shirt "Mars 2020-2050, the anniversary of the colony", then quickly zipped up – and the connection was lost. Uncle Gostomysl broke into the room, took me by the collar of my shirt, came close to me and, looking intently and strictly into my eyes, asked me if I had lied to him about the content of my dreams.
When I told my father about it, for some reason he also looked at me carefully, put his finger to his lips, saying "be quiet," nodded and called me into the next room, and for some reason crossed himself. In the room, he turned on some kind of device, then asked me to rest my head and look into the lens of the strange apparatus, and he sat down at the computer. After a minute, when my head was in such a mess that I didn't realize whether I was really seeing the world or it was in my head, my father called me to him.
I saw and heard inside my head everything that was on the screen.
– You can now find out about everything that's out there… Just remember – and they know your thoughts.
"Can they read minds? How? – I pondered. – Father could have given the answer, but…"
– I did it on purpose. Don't say a word. The supercomputer whose name I put the clue in will calculate the number of atoms missing from the universe to equal Graham's number and take your signal," he said quietly and quickly.
If I could still reason about the first sentence and the second, the meaning of the last statement was not clear to me at all.
Dad suddenly grabbed his head, then fell down. I hugged him and shook his shoulders for a long time, crying. Two stresses were merging in my soul. My brain was bubbling nonstop with thoughts about the reality of the situation. The most amazing thing was that I began to realize: Dad was dead, and the world was completely different.
I hugged my father and fell asleep.....