Chapter 3 third chapter

Humans stopped using and researching engineering technology a long time ago. Only when certain conditions of the following equation are met, can engineering technology be used and developed: Available calories (calories)/population = lifestyle If the ratio of calories/population is large, such as 5000 calories or more, that is, per person per day When the calorie consumption is above 5000 calories, the lifestyle value is also great.In this case, human beings have excess energy. They will chisel out huge stone statues on Mount Rushmore, build huge factories, and produce huge cars to transport housewives a mile away to buy a small car. Little lipstick.In short, this kind of spiritual pursuit of a vulgar life with rich material enjoyment will appear.Another extreme situation is that the calorie/population ratio is too small, and the lifestyle does not matter, because life on the earth has ceased to exist and starved to death.

[①Located in the west of South Dakota, USA, there are huge heads of four outstanding American presidents, including Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, engraved on the rocks. ——Translator's Note. 】 Experiments have shown that when the calorie value on the left end of the above formula increases slightly, the lifestyle value on the right end will increase sharply after a period of time, but within the calorie range of 1000-1500 calories, the lifestyle value will show a steady state and will not increase change.The calorie/population ratio within this calorie range leads to a life that emphasizes spiritual pursuits and despises material enjoyment.At this time, art is delicate and exquisite, and human beings value the pursuit of inner life; and due to material scarcity, basic daily necessities must be distributed equally, which produces a delicate interpersonal relationship that respects traditional virtues.Such was the case with Japan under the dark rule of the Shogunate.The Japanese obtained their food for survival in the soil of the mountainside and their aesthetic pleasure in lichen and scraps of paper.

Delicacy and low art were typical of the period.During this period, the per capita calorie consumption of the Japanese was just in the range of 1,000 to 1,500 calories. After the earth was stolen by its symmetrical planet, the population was only 100 million, and the average heat consumption of villagers on the earth during this period was also in the range of 1,000 to 1,500 calories. Although there are still a few people who are doing calculations with pen and paper, scientific research has extremely declined.The cyclotron used for scientific research has long been shut down.The dam of the power station does not store much water, and the power generated can only maintain lighting for millions of families and cook food for babies.There was once a Byzantine who dedicated himself to science compiled an authoritative engineering encyclopedia (although he himself was not an engineer), with a total of 420 volumes, which described in exhaustive detail the famous buildings and their architects throughout the ages, including Giza ②The Pyramid and its unknown builders, the Great Wall of Qin Shihuang, the Gothic architects, Brunel who changed the face of England③, the designer and builder of the Brooklyn Bridge, Roebling and his son④, the designer of the Pentagon⑤ Grove S: Duggan, the designer of the American nuclear-proof bunkers (the product before the heat/population ratio dropped to the point where war disappeared), etc.Yet the encyclopedia writer couldn't even use a slide rule correctly.

[①The warlord who was in charge of the national power before the Meiji Restoration in Japan, ruled from 1192 to 1867 AD. ——Translator's Note. 】 【②A city in the northeastern part of Egypt, facing Cairo across the river. There are famous pyramids, sphinxes and marble mausoleum temples in the desert 8 kilometers away from the southern suburbs. ——Translator's Note. 】 [③British civil engineer and mechanical engineer (1806-1859), designed the first ship to cross the Atlantic and many famous railway and bridge projects. ——Translator's Note. 】 【④Father J·A·Roblin (1806—1869), son W. A．Roebling (1837-1926), both American civil engineers, pioneer in the design of suspension bridges, designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. ——Translator's Note. 】

【⑤The Pentagonal Office Building of the U.S. Department of Defense, located in Arlington, Virginia, is often used as a proxy for the U.S. Department of Defense. ——Translator's Note. 】 Since then, the size of the building has been reduced day by day. After the earth broke away from the original solar system, it experienced a series of vicissitudes in terms of crustal structure and climate.With the miniature sun's ups and downs, extinguishing and rebuilding alternately, the glaciers expand and retreat near the equator like a sine wave, while the heat/population ratio remains constant. When the heat value decreases, the population value also decreases accordingly.When the calories needed to survive are increasingly scarce, fewer and fewer people consume calories.

The earth in the 45th miniature sun era has no engineers. Even on symmetrical planets there are no engineers.The pyramids on the symmetrical planets and the pyramids on the summit of Sakya-Mata are not engineers either, they use a set of metaphysical principles based on division and propulsion. Pyramids have no decent academic system, and all their knowledge is limited to: any object is composed of parts, and it will move when pushed.If the maximum thrust still cannot be pushed, the object can be split into several parts, and then each part can be pushed one by one, so that the purpose of pushing the whole object can be achieved.Because of the use of atomic energy to split objects, they often split objects into 3×109 small pieces, and then carefully push each small piece.

Since today is Solar Reconstruction Day, the Pyramids sent a spaceship to the extinguished miniature sun using split-and-thrust technology.The spaceship carries four earth villagers who are used as intelligent components. They sit in meditation and die screaming in the meditation of "all things are related". After igniting the sun, the spacecraft roared back to the symmetrical planet.A flame jumped up from the miniature sun, gradually changing from bright red to orange, and finally to dazzling blue-white, spreading vigorously and burning away. When the sun was recreated, a grand celebration was held on the earth.

But not everywhere is partying.In Wheeling's Five Precepts Prison, Troppel waited restlessly for his execution.Boye, who had gone mad and killed the baker, was in his cell.Boye looked solemn, happily and contentedly composing his death hymn. "Talk to me!" Troppel snapped at Boy. "Why are we here? What did you do, why did you do that? What did I do? Why didn't I grab a stool and beat you to death?" If you saw me a few hours ago, you would have killed me too!" Boye, whose passion had been exhausted, did not return Troppel, but politely told him a famous maxim: "Sir, the art of living consists in substituting minor, answerable questions for important, unanswerable questions." problem. Come on, let's watch the newborn sun together."

Boyle turned and looked out the window.Tycho's blue flames were spreading across the scorched lunar surface into a raging fire. [①A ringed mountain range on the surface of the moon. ——Translator's Note. 】 After all, they grew up under the influence of a common culture, and Troppel couldn't help but agree with Boye's correction and fell silent.Gradually, Tropel became calm and thoughtful... The blue flame on the sun gradually grew from infinitesimal to large... filling the entire universe.In the flames, he lost his body, and emerged into the chaotic universe where heaven and man were one, intoxicated and intoxicated.The huge lotus flower of the Seven Treasures in the kingdom of heaven bloomed, and he melted into the flower, forgetting both things and me...

His eyes are slightly closed, his heart is like still water, and he has fully realized the Zen mechanism of "all things are related". He experienced the best of life. Twenty-five minutes later, when the entire miniature solar sphere erupted into nuclear fusion, Tropel's vision began to fade. As the cell warmed up gradually, Tropel tightened his body and carefully took off his torn overcoat so as not to make it worse and make him unable to wear it.Boyi carefully disassembled every seam on the clothes. His movements were decent, and the biceps and quadratus muscles on the shoulders and arms moved rhythmically, as if performing a pantomime.

After sitting meditation, Troppel looked at his inmate, and exclaimed silently in his heart: "Why?" Since he was a boy, this "why" has haunted his mind like a nightmare, crying like crying , he asked a thousand times.Only when he is in a state of meditation, he is willing to rest for a while.Although Troppel is notorious for his unrestrained behavior, some beginners still ask him for advice because he is good at meditation by the water.Staring at the still water and comprehending the Zen mechanism brought him a feeling of happiness, and he was happy to do so.He almost pities those who devote themselves to comprehending clouds, qi, and the like—although there is also a Zen mechanism in it—and never sit in the water to practice Zen.If one is lucky, a person can observe the nine stages of boiling water after a period of practicing meditation in front of the water, and may even sublimate quietly and feel the bliss of Zen enlightenment. But what happens to a person who fails in zazen—or is rejected by the gods, by the pyramids?What if one cannot meditate while sitting in meditation, resulting in schizophrenia instead?Can you finally get enlightenment from an important event (such as the re-creation of the sun), get inspiration and realize Zen?If that's the case, that person will go mad and kill people like crazy.Troppel thought. Boi went crazy.But Troppel did not, he was declared "son of the wolf" - for what reason, he did not understand, but he did not go mad and kill. But the punishment is the same.For all serious crimes, be it wolfishness or homicide, the punishment is the same: spine acupuncture and bone marrow dedication.When Troppel thought of this, he felt a creepy itching pain at the lower end of his spine.It was an itching pain I had never felt before, and unlike the inner psychological pain caused by the desire to gain the upper hand, this was a real physical pain. He is going to die. Harmein, the warden on duty at the Five Precepts Prison, was an old man. He looked approvingly at Boi, but sullenly at Troppel.It is generally believed that even for a wolf, his (her) basic dignity should be protected during the period from exposure to capture to execution.Under no circumstances should a jailer glare at a captured wolf or interfere with his pre-execution meditation.Even so, it was impossible to get the jailer to salute him. Troppel felt no guilt. He glared at the jailer Harmein so fiercely that the old man was so frightened that he just wanted to run away. He did the same with Boi, but what made him wonder was how this murderer could be so peaceful and relaxed! Troppel said fiercely to him, "They're going to kill us! Do you know that? They're going to stick a steel needle in our spine and suck the marrow out of our bones, and that's suffering, you understand?" They're going to suck us dry and drink our marrow. It's a living torture!" "We should make sacrifices." Boye gently corrected Troppel and said, "Could it be that smart as a wolf can't even understand the difference between killing and dedication?" A truly elegant conversation, even if it is true, requires the speaker to express it humorously, and the listener happily accepts it as a friendly joke.Otherwise, how can you talk about unpleasant things?If not, there will be unexpected consequences, or disputes, or fights, and someone will be hurt and pay the price. A smile flicked across Troppel's mouth, but it died down immediately, and the scowl returned to his face.They want to kill me, how can I smile at them!He wanted to be a refined gentleman, but tried his best to restrain himself. "I am not the Son of Wolf!" he growled in despair.Protesting was futile, he knew, and no one in Wheeling cared, or could do anything about it.Despite this, he protested: "Wolf, wolf, it's all nonsense! I don't know what a son of wolf is, and I believe no one knows. I only know that my words and deeds are in line with the law, and everyone howls at me What is it called the son of wolf. Ignorance, ignorance and violence are the criteria for judging the son of wolf by you people. But you cut down 3 people, and you should be punished; but I just picked up a piece of bread. There is a world of difference, but the same Be regarded as a dangerous element!" "A wolf will never know he's a wolf," sighed Boyle. "A fish might think it's a bird, and you obviously think you're a gentleman. Do gentlemen talk like you?" "But they're going to kill us!" "Then why don't you compose yourself a hymn of death?" Troppel took a deep breath, in great pain, as if something was gnawing at his heart. He was about to die, and it was unworthy of death.That was unfortunate enough, but it was not death that really gnawed at his heart and made him suffer. The balance of fate tilted, and this stupid sheep actually overwhelmed him, Troppel. Tropel's engorged and swollen adrenal glands — Boye's was the size of a pinhead — pumped out hormones.His blood boiled, his emotions aroused.Everyone is mortal, and he is no exception, but as long as he is alive, he cannot be overcome by others.Neither communication, argument, nor confrontation can be overcome.Give me victory or give me death.call me wolf?You can call it anything!Wolves, opportunists, cunning ghosts, gamblers, etc., don't care. As long as there is an advantage, he will seize it.It's in his nature. So he replied to Boyle: "That's right, I'm so stupid, I should throw this head away." Different people think differently.Some people dissect problems and analyze them one by one; others list facts and make analogies.Troppel is neither the former nor the latter, and his approach is judo-like.He doesn't want any power, weapons, tricks, etc., and gives them all to the opponent, who will bring them into the confrontation for him to use.Using the strength of the opponent to defeat the opponent and let the opponent throw stones and smash their own feet is Tropel's tactic (he admits that this is wolfish). Tropel thinks. He thought, he has a few things to do.The first thing is to make up your mind to admit that he is a wolf, and return yourself as a wolf.He can't sit around waiting for a lumbar puncture, he's going to get out.How to escape?The second thing is to have a well-thought-out plan.There are obstacles ahead, and they must be cleared first.Boye was one, and so was Warden Harmein of Five Precepts Prison. Where are the poles for climbing over obstacles?Gala, his wife Gala.He had her, and she would do all he wanted if he turned to her. Troppel went to the door and called Hamein loudly: "Watch! Watch! I want to see my wife, send someone to bring her here quickly." The guards could not refuse such requests from prisoners, and neither did Hamein.He replied gently: "Go and invite your wife now." He ran away while talking. The third thing is to buy time. Troppel turned to Boyle, and said indisputably, "Sir, since you've made the death hymn and I haven't, would you please do me the favor of being a step ahead of them when they come for execution?" Boyi looked at his cellmate benevolently and smiled self-deprecatingly. "Look, it's really a wolf, isn't it?" Boye said.You are right, Troppel is a wolf.It's just that Boi can't and won't refuse such a request from the wolf.