Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Finding Results

Trevize felt completely in disbelief.He had woken up from that strange euphoria—now he suspected that the euphoria that had occurred before and after landing had somehow been injected into him by this man standing before him, calling himself a robot. Trevize was still staring ahead.Even though he had absolutely clear mind and undisturbed heart at this moment, he was still amazed and overwhelmed.He speaks in a state of astonishment and answers in a state of astonishment, so that he hardly understands what he is talking about and hardly knows what the other person is saying.Because he was busy looking at this obviously human figure, trying to find clues that he was a robot from his behavior or conversation.

The message that Bliss had just detected, Trevize thought, belonged neither to humans nor to robots, but to what Pelorat called "new things."This is of course good, because it diverts Trevize's thinking to another more instructive channel-it's just that this channel is now squeezed into the dark corner of the mind by other thoughts. Bliss and Ferron had wandered off to explore elsewhere, and although it was Bliss's idea, Trevize noticed that it seemed to be the result of a quick exchange of glances between her and Daniel.Ferron had refused to leave, wanting to stay with the figure she insisted was Ginby, but Daniel just uttered a word solemnly and held up a finger, and she obediently walked away.Now, only Trevize and Pelorat remained where they were.

"They're not Foundation people, sir," said the robot, as if that said it all. "One of them is Gaia, and the other is an outsider." The Handler led them to a tree where there were some simple chairs, Trevize said nothing the whole way.The robot first greeted the two base personnel to sit down, and when he also sat down with the same movements as normal people, Trevize asked, "Are you really a robot?" "Really, sir," said Daniel. Pelorat's face looked joyful, and he said: "In ancient legends, a robot named Daniel was mentioned in many places. Did you choose this name in memory of him?"

"I'm the robot," Daniel said. "That's not a legend." "Oh, that's impossible!" said Pelorat. "If you were that robot, you would be thousands of years old." "Twenty thousand years old." Daniel said in a calm tone. Pelorat seemed at a loss, so he looked at Trevize, who said with a little anger, "If you are a robot, I will order you to tell the truth." "I don't need to be ordered to tell the truth, sir, I have to. So, sir, you are now faced with three possibilities. First, I am human and I lied to you: Second, I am A robot, programmed to believe it's 20,000 years old, isn't; and third, I'm a robot, and I'm 20,000 years old. You have to decide for yourself which one to accept."

"Continue to talk and we will find out." Trevize replied sternly. "Having said that, it's hard for me to believe this is the interior of the moon. Whether it's the light—" he said, looking up.The light overhead was just soft, diffuse daylight, though there was no sun in the sky at all, and the crickets couldn't even tell whether there was a sky or not. "——or the force doesn't seem real, the surface force of this world should be less than O.2g." "Actually, the normal surface force should be 0.16g, sir, but the force here has been amplified. Your spacecraft can produce a sense of force, whether it is in free fall or accelerated, using this artificial force .Other energy needs, including light energy, are all supplied by force. However, if it is convenient to use solar energy, we will use solar energy. The materials we need are all supplied by lunar soil, except for light elements—— Such as hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, these are not available on the moon. In order to obtain light elements, we have to capture a comet once in a while, and only one in a century is enough to meet our needs."

"I don't think the earth can provide any resources." "Unfortunately it is, sir. Like human proteins, our positronic brains are sensitive to radiation." "You keep using plural pronouns, and this mansion in front of us seems very grand, beautiful, and exquisite—at least from the outside. So there should be other creatures on the moon, humans? Or robots?" "Yes, sir. We have a complete ecology on the moon, which exists in a vast and intricate cave. However, the intelligent creatures here are all robots, each of which is similar to me, but you will not see any of them. As for This mansion, which is only for my personal use, is completely modeled on the inside and outside of my residence 20,000 years ago."

"You have very good memories of that residence, don't you?" "One hundred percent, Your Excellency. I was born in the outer world of Aurora, and lived there for a while—how short a time is that for me now." "That's the one that has..." Trevize stopped suddenly in the middle of speaking. "Yes, sir, that is the world with many wild dogs." "You know about that?" "Yes, sir." "So, if you lived in Aurora in the first place, how did you end up here?" "Your Excellency, in order to prevent radioactivity on the earth, I came here at the beginning of human colonization of the galaxy. I came with me at the beginning, and there was a robot named Jiska, who can perceive and adjust the human mind."

"Same as Bliss?" "Yes, Your Excellency. In a way, we didn't succeed, and Jiskar even ceased to function for some reason. However, before dying, he managed to equip me with his abilities and bring the whole galaxy, especially the earth. , leave it to me to protect." "Why Earth in particular?" "Partly, because of a man named Elijah Belle, a man of Earth." Lorat interjected excitedly: "He is the cultural hero I mentioned, Glenn." "Cultural hero, Your Excellency?" "What Dr. Pelorat means," said Trevize, "is that this man is a combination of many accomplishments. He may be a composite of many real historical figures, or he may be a fictional character at all."

Daniel thought for a while, and then said in a quite calm tone: "That's not the case, Your Excellency, Ilya Bailey is a real person, and he is not a complex. I don't know how your legends describe him, but in real history Without him, the galaxy might never have been developed. Inspired by him, I tried my best to save the world after the earth became radioactive. My robot companions are scattered all over the galaxy, and they affect human beings in a timely and gradual way. .. I had instigated a project to renovate the earth's soil, and a long time later, another project to try to renovate a world belonging to a nearby star, which is now called Alpha. Neither of these plans A real success. I have never been able to adjust the human mind completely at will, because those I have adjusted, there is always a possibility of harm. I am bound by the three laws of robotics, get it-and still do it to this day."

"Uh--" Even an ordinary human or an ordinary robot, totally lacking in Daniel's psychic powers, would be able to perceive the doubt that this single tone represents. "The First Law," he said, "is this, Your Excellency: A robot shall not injure a human being, nor shall a human being be harmed by inaction. The Second Law is: A robot must obey the orders of a human being unless it contradicts the First Law." Command. The third law is: In the case of not violating the first law and the second law, the robot must protect its own existence. Of course, I describe these laws to you in approximate language. In fact, it is our positron complex mathematical configurations in brain circuits."

"Do you find the laws getting in the way?" "It must be so, Your Excellency. The first law has no room for rounding, and almost completely prohibits me from using psychic powers. In the process of dealing with galactic problems, it is impossible that every step will not cause harm. There will always be some people or many people. Therefore, as a robot, I must choose the least harmful course. However, because the situation is too complicated, I have to spend a lot of time to make a decision, and even if I have a decision, it is impossible to be absolutely sure." "I can understand," Trevize said. "Throughout the long history of the galaxy," Daniel said, "there have been natural and man-made disasters, and I have tried to mitigate the harm caused by these disasters. At certain times, on a certain level, I have achieved something, but if you If you are familiar with the history of your galaxy, you will know that my successes are not many, and my influence is not far-reaching enough." "I know that." Trevize said with a wry smile. "Jiska and I have figured out another law of robotics that goes beyond the first. We call it the 'zeroth law' because we can't think of a better name. The content of the zeroth law Yes: A robot shall not injure humanity as a whole, nor allow humanity as a whole to come to harm by inaction. This naturally implies that the First Law must be amended to read: A robot shall not injure a human being nor, by inaction harm to human beings. And the second and third laws must be similarly modified." Trevize frowned. "But for human beings as a whole, what is harmful and what is not harmful, how do you decide?" "That's right, sir," said Daniel. "Theoretically, the Zeroth Law can solve our problems; in practice, we can never make up our minds. Human beings are concrete objects, and the harm done to a person is not difficult to estimate." Judgment; human beings as a whole are abstract concepts, how should we deal with them?" "I don't know," Trevize said. "Wait," said Pelorat, "you can transform the whole of humanity into a single organism, such as Gaia." "This is exactly what I am trying to do, Your Excellency, the creation of Gaia was planned by me. If the human being can be made into a single organism as a whole, it will become a concrete object, and then there is a way to deal with it. However, The work of creating a superorganism is not as simple as imagined. First of all, unless everyone sees the superorganism more important than themselves, it is absolutely impossible to succeed. Therefore, I had to find a suitable mental model, and I searched for a long time After that, I thought about the law of robots." "Ah, so the Gaians are all robots. I've suspected that from the beginning." "In this matter, your suspicion is not correct, Your Excellency. They are all human beings, but in their brains, the concept equivalent to the law of robots is deeply imprinted. They must respect life, truly respect—even if To do this, there is still one serious flaw. A human-only superorganism is unstable and impossible to build. Other animals must be added—then the plants, and then the inorganic world. The smallest truly stable superorganism An organism is actually a complete world, and only the world is large enough and complex enough to have a stable ecology. It took me a long time to understand this truth, and it was not until the last century that Gaia was fully developed and ready to The goal of the Gaia galaxy is moving forward. Even so, it will take a long time. However, it may not be as long as it came, because we already know the rules." "But you need me to make the decision for you. Don't you, Daniel?" "Yes, Your Excellency. The laws of robotics do not allow me, or Gaia, to make decisions that pose a risk to humanity as a whole. On the other hand, five centuries ago, I thought that the great difficulties of building Gaia could never be overcome , so I settled for the next best thing, helping humanity develop the science of psychohistory.” "I should have guessed that a long time ago." Trevize muttered, and then added: "You know, Daniel, I'm beginning to believe that you are indeed twenty thousand years old." "Thank you, Your Excellency." Pelorat said, "Wait a minute, I think I've figured out something. Are you part of Gaia yourself, Daniel? Is that why you know there are wild dogs in Aurora? think?" Daniel said, "In a way, sir, you're absolutely right. I do have a connection to Gaia, but I'm not part of it." Trevize raised an eyebrow. "It sounds similar to Compron's situation, which is the world we visited first after we left Gaia. Compron insists that he is not part of the Base Federation, but has some kind of connection with the Federation." Daniel nodded slowly. "I think the analogy is apt, Your Excellency. By being in touch with Gaia, I am able to know what Gaia knows—for example, through Gaia's incarnation, Bliss. However, Gaia has no way of knowing what I know , so I can retain freedom of action. It is necessary for me to maintain this freedom of action until the Gaia galaxy is realized." Trevize stared at the robot for a moment, then said, "Are you using your telepathy, through Bliss, to intervene in the events of our journey; so that we can act according to your ideals?" Daniel sighed strangely like a human being. "I can't do much, Your Excellency, and the law of robots always binds me tightly. However, I still reduce the burden in Wat Baoqisi's heart and take a small amount of extra burden on myself. In this way, she Only when Aurora's vicious dog and Solari's outsider can make a decisive decision and reduce the damage I have suffered. In addition, I have influenced two women through Bao Qisi, one in Complon and the other On the New Earth. I made them feel good about you so you can continue your journey." Trevize smiled, half a wry smile. "I should have known it wasn't my fault." Daniel ignored the low self-esteem in this sentence. "On the contrary, my lord," he said, "you played the part you wanted. Those two women were attracted to you from the beginning, and I only enhanced their existing impulses-under the strict restrictions of the robot law, That's the best I can do. Because of these constraints, among other factors, I had to go through a lot of trouble to get you here, and only in an indirect way. Several times, I almost lost you. " "Now here I am," Trevize said. "What do you want me to do? Are you sure I made the right decision by choosing the Gaia galaxy?" Daniel's usually expressionless face now looked a little desperate. "That's not the case, Your Excellency. It's not enough to just make a decision now. I have brought you here in the best way within my current ability, because of a matter that is countless times more urgent than this——I am about to die." Bin Xu because Daniel made this matter so commonplace; or maybe because he was already 20,000 years old, his death did not seem like a tragedy to mortals who were doomed to live less than five-thousandths of it. Arouse Trevize's sympathy. "Dead? Will the machine die?" "My existence may cease, sir, call it whatever you want. I am old, and none of the beings who lived throughout the galaxy at the time of my acceptance of consciousness are alive today, neither organic life nor robot .Not even myself can be immortal." "How to say?" "No physical part of my body, sir, has not been replaced, not just once, but many times. Even my positronic brain has been replaced five times under different circumstances. Each time, the original brain All the content is etched into the new brain, not even a single positron is spared. The capacity and complexity of each new brain is many times higher than the original positron brain, so it provides more memory space and enables us to Can make decisions and actions more quickly. But—” "But?" "The more advanced and complex the positron brain, the less stable it is, and the faster it ages. Compared with the original one, my current brain is 100,000 times more sensitive, and the capacity is 10 million times higher. But my first A brain lasted for 10,000 years, but the current one is rotten after 600 years. The precise record of every memory in the past 20,000 years, coupled with the perfect recall mechanism, has completely filled this brain. Now, My ability to make decisions declined precipitously, and my ability to test and influence my mind at hyperspatial distances declined even more rapidly. And I could no longer design a sixth brain. Further miniaturization would inevitably encounter testing The barrier of inaccurate principles; and the result of increasing complexity is bound to collapse almost immediately." Pelorat seemed utterly bewildered. "However, Daniel, even without you, Gaia can certainly continue to develop. Now that Trevize has made a decision to choose the Gaia galaxy... "But this process took too long, Your Excellency." Daniel still did not show any emotion, "No matter how many unexpected difficulties I encountered at the beginning, I had to wait until Gaia developed successfully. And when I found Trevize Sir - a man who can make a decisive decision - it was too late. But don't think that I have not managed to prolong my life, I have gradually reduced my activities and saved my ability for emergencies. When When I could no longer rely on active actions to maintain the isolation of the Earth/Moon pair, I turned to passive approaches. After many years, the humanoid robots I worked with were called back to the base camp one by one. One last mission before their return, It is to take away the earth files of each planet. Without the help of myself and other robots, Gaia will lose the most important tool for building the Gaia galaxy, so for a long time in the future, the Gaia galaxy will not be able to be established .” "And when I made the decision," Trevize said, "you already knew it all." "I knew it a long time ago, Your Excellency." Daniel said, "Of course, Gaia didn't know about it." "So," Trevize said angrily, "what's the use of playing this charade with me? What good is it anyway? After I've made my decision, I'm running around the galaxy, looking for Earth and what I think The secret of punishing the earth”—but didn’t know that secret was you.And I did that to find evidence for my decision.Well, I'm sure, I now know that the Gaia system is absolutely necessary - looks like I was wasting my time.Why can't you let the galaxy develop freely, and let me be free too? " Daniel said, "Because, sir, I've been looking for a solution, and I've been holding on to it in hope. Now, I think I've found the answer. I've given up on trying to get another positronic brain because it's impractical. Yes, on the contrary, I am going to merge my brain with a human brain. A human brain that is not affected by the laws of robots will not only increase my brain capacity, but also bring my abilities to a new level. I lead you here , it is for this reason." Trevize looked horrified. "You mean, you plan to incorporate a human brain into yours? To deprive that human brain of its independence to form a dual-brained Gaia?" "Yes, Your Excellency. Although this will not make me immortal, it may give me enough time to build the Gaia galaxy." "And you brought me here for this purpose? You want me to sacrifice my independence and become a part of you, so that you can ignore the three laws like me, and still have my judgment? Can't do it !" Daniel said, "Yet you just said that the Gaia system is absolutely necessary to the well-being of humanity..." "Even so, it will take a long time to build, so I should be able to maintain my independence for as long as I live. Conversely, if it is established soon, the entire galaxy will lose its independence. In contrast, I A personal loss is a drop in the ocean. But I will never lose my independence while the galaxy as a whole retains itself." Daniel said, "That's as I expected, then. Your brain is not suited to be merged with mine, and it would be more helpful anyway if you retained your independent judgment." "When did you change your mind? You said you lured me here for the merger." "Yes, and I achieved this goal by using all my abilities that were not as good as before. After all, what I just said is: 'I brought you here for this reason.' Remember, in the galaxy In standard language, 'Your Excellency' not only means singular, but also plural, and I mean all of you." Pelorat froze in his seat. "Really? Please tell me, Daniel, the human brain and your brain are merged, can you share all your memories? All the memories of 20,000 years, all the way back to the age of legends?" "Of course, sir." Pelorat took a deep breath. "That would fulfill a lifelong dream for which I would give up my independence. Please give me the right to share your brain." Trevize asked softly, "Where's Bao Qisi? What about her?" Pelorat only hesitated for a moment. "Bliss took it easy," he said, "she'll be better off without me anyway—after a while." Daniel shook his head. "Your offer is very generous, Dr. Pelorat, but I cannot accept it. Your brain is too old to last another twenty or thirty years at most, and even if merged with my own, it cannot extend its lifespan. .I need another candidate—look!" He pointed and said, "I called her back." Baoqisi was walking briskly towards here happily. Pelorat jumped up like a cramp. "Bao Qisi! No way!" "Don't panic, Dr. Pelorat," Daniel said. "I cannot use Bliss, or I will merge with Gaia, and as I have explained, I must be independent of Gaia." "But in that case," said Pelorat, "who..." Trevize looked at the small figure running behind Bao Qisi, and blurted out: "This robot only wanted Feron from the beginning, Janov." Bao Qisi walked back with a smile, obviously in a very happy mood. "We can't go beyond the confines of this territory," she said, "but everything here reminds me of Solari, and of course Firon is sure that this is Solari. I asked her if she didn't expect Daniel's appearance to be similar to that of Ginby. Different—Jinby is covered in metal, after all. And Feron said, 'Come on, not necessarily.' I don't know what she meant by 'probably'." She looked towards Feilong who was standing not far away. Feilong was playing the flute for Daniel with a serious expression. Daniel nodded frequently in time.The sound of the flute reached them too, so thin and clear and beautiful. "Did you know that when we left the spaceship, she took her flute with her?" Bliss asked. "I guess for a while, we couldn't get her away from Daniel." The one who must answer this sentence was stare silent, Bao Qisi suddenly became nervous, looked at the two men and said, "What's wrong?" Trevize pointed at Pelorat, as if to say that he was responsible for the explanation. So Pelorat cleared his throat and said, "Actually, Bliss, I think Feron will stay with Daniel forever." "Really?" Baoqisi frowned, as if she was about to walk towards Daniel, but Pelorat grabbed her arm. "My dear Baoqisi, you can't go. Even now, his ability is stronger than Gaia, and if Feilong doesn't stay, the Gaia galaxy will never be realized. Let me explain—Glenn, if I If you say something wrong, please correct it at any time." Listening to Pelorat's narration, Bao Qisi's face became more and more ugly, and finally showed an expression of almost despair. Trevize, trying to appeal to reason, said, "You can see it, Bliss. This kid is an Outerworlder, and Daniel was designed and manufactured by an Outerworlder: this kid was brought up by a robot and grew up in the A territory as empty as this place, ignorant of everything outside. This child has the ability to transform energy, and Daniel needs to use this talent, and her lifespan is as long as three or four centuries, which may just happen to establish The time required for the Gaia galaxy." Bliss blushed and said tearfully, "I guess the robot planned our trip to Earth. He also sent us through Solari on purpose so he could bring him a baby." Trevize shrugged. "Maybe he just plays by ear. I don't believe his ability is still so powerful, and he can turn us into obedient puppets at a distance from hyperspace." "No, that was planned. He made me feel strongly about the child and made sure that I would take her with me and not let her be killed. He also knew that although you are not sure about taking her with you. Things always show anger and boredom, but in order to protect her, I will not hesitate to conflict with you." Trevize said, "You did that, I think, probably because of your Gaia morality, and Daniel could make it a little bit stronger. Well, Bliss, there's no better ending. If you can Take Ferron away, where are you going to take her so that she can be as happy as she is here? Are you going to take her back to Solari and let her be mercilessly murdered? Take her to some crowded world, Let her die of illness? Take her to Gaia, make her heartbroken because she misses Jianbi? Take her wandering in the galaxy forever, let her think that every world we encounter is her hometown Sola Leigh? Also, can you find a replacement for Daniel to build the Gaia system?" Baoqisi was too sad to speak. Pelorat stretched out a hand to her, looking a little guilty. "Bliss," he said, "I offered to have Daniel's brain merged with mine, and he refused because he said I was too old. How I wish he would, if it would keep Feron with you .” Bliss took his hand and kissed it. "Thank you, Pei, but the price would be too high, even for Feilong." She took a deep breath and forced a smile. "Perhaps, when we get back to Gaia, we can find a place in that global organism for my own child—I'll put 'Phiron' in the child's name." Now, Daniel seemed to know that the matter was settled, and he was walking towards them, and Feron bounced around beside him. Then, the kid started running, running in front of them first.She said to Bao Qisi: " Bao Qi Si, thank you for taking me home to reunite with Jianbi, and thank you for taking care of me on the spaceship. I will never forget you." After finishing speaking, she threw herself into Bao Qi Si's arms , The two hugged each other tightly. "I hope you will be happy forever." Bao Qisi said: "I will always remember you, dear Feilong." Then she let go of her reluctantly. Feilong turned to Pelorat and said, "I want to thank you too, Pei, thank you for letting me read your film book." Then she hesitated for a while, without saying anything, stretched out her slender and beautiful palm to Trevize, Trevize held for a moment before letting go. "Good luck, Feron," he murmured. Daniel said: "I would also like to salute all of you and thank you for your efforts. Now you can leave at any time, because your exploration is over. As for my own work, it will also be over soon, and it will be successful. " But Bliss said, "Wait a minute, we still have something to do. We don't know yet whether Trevize still believes that the ideal future for humanity is Gaia galaxies, not a huge mixture of isolated objects." Daniel said: "Just now, he has made it very clear, ma'am, he has decided to support the Gaia galaxy." Birkis pouted. "I'd rather hear him say it—what's your decision, Trevize?" Trevize said calmly: "How do you want me to decide, Bao Qisi? If I decide to oppose the Gaia galaxy, you have a chance to get Feron back." Bliss said: "I am Gaia, I must know your decision and the reasons behind it. This is to know the truth, there is no other purpose." Daniel said, "Tell her, Your Excellency, that Gaia knows your mind is undisturbed." So Trevize said: "My decision is to support the Gaia galaxy. I have no doubts about this." Bao Qisi was silent for a while, and the time could be counted from one to fifty at a normal speed, as if to let this message spread to all parts of Gaia.Then she said, "Why?" Trevize replied: "Listen to me. I knew from the beginning that there were two possibilities for the future of mankind—either the Gaia galaxy or the Second Empire planned by Seldon, and I think these two possible futures are mutually exclusive. Unless, for some reason, the Seldon Plan is fundamentally flawed, there will be no Gaia galaxies. "Unfortunately, I know nothing of the contents of the Seldon Plan, except for the two postulates on which it is based. The first postulate is that the population involved must be large enough that the whole can be regarded as a randomly interacting Individuals can thus be dealt with statistically. The second postulate is that humans cannot predict the conclusions of psychohistory before the goal is achieved. "Since I have decided to support the Gaia system, I feel that I must be subconsciously aware of the loopholes in Seldon's plan, and the loopholes can only be postulated, because that is the only part of the plan that I know. However, I can't see There is no problem with those two postulates. So I try to find the earth, I don't think the earth is so completely hidden for no reason, I have to find out the purpose of its hiding. "I didn't really expect to get a satisfactory answer after I discovered Earth. But I was cornered, and I couldn't think of any other way—but I was driven, perhaps, by Daniel who wanted a Solari child. "Anyway, we finally made it to the vicinity of the Earth, and flew over the moon. It wasn't long before Baoqisi detected Daniel's mind, which, of course, he deliberately opened to Baoqisi at the time. She described this mind as not fully human. , not quite a robot. Now it seems that this statement makes sense, because Daniel's brain is far beyond any robot, and it is not just a robot mind, but it is still different from a human being. Pelorat put it Called 'something new', this statement triggered something new in myself, a new idea. "Just as Daniel and his companions figured out the more fundamental fourth law of robotics a long time ago, it occurred to me that there is a third postulate of psychohistory. It is so much more fundamental than the other two that no one used to bother to mention it. to it. "Listen, there are two known postulates that refer to humans, and both are based on an unstated postulate: humans are the only intelligent species in the galaxy, and therefore only the actions of this creature are responsible for the development of society. and the process of history. This implicit postulate can be summarized as follows: There is only one intelligent species in the galaxy, namely modern Homo sapiens. If there is anything new in the galaxy, if it is an essentially different intelligence species, whose behavior cannot be precisely described by the mathematics of psychohistory, and the Seldon Plan would therefore be meaningless. Do you understand?" Trevize desperately hoped that others would understand what he said, and was so excited that he almost trembled all over his body. "Do you understand?" He asked again. Pelorat said: "Yes, I understand. But being a faultfinder, brother-- "What? Go ahead." "Humans are the only intelligent species in the entire galaxy." "Where's the robot?" Bliss said, "Where's Gaia?" Pelorat thought for a moment, and then said in a hesitant tone: "In the history of mankind, since the disappearance of the people from the outer world, robots have never played an important role. And Gaia has never played an important role until recently. .Robots are created by humans, and Gaia is created by robots—and since both robots and Gaia are restricted by the three laws, they have no other choice but to submit to the will of humans. Even though Daniel struggled for two Tens of thousands of years, even though Gaia has developed for such a long time, as long as the human being Glen Trevize said a word, the countless efforts of both of them would be ruined. From this, it can be seen that human beings are still the only ones in the galaxy. to seek intelligent species, so psychohistory remains valid." "The only important intelligent species in the galaxy—" Trevize repeated these words slowly. "I agree with that. But we talk about the Milky Way all the time, so it's hardly noticeable that it's not well thought out. The Milky Way is not the Universe, and there are many other galaxies in the Universe." Pelorat and Precious moved uncomfortably.Daniel listened attentively, with a serious expression showing some peace, and one hand slowly stroking Feilong's hair. Trevize continued: "Listen to me. There are Magellanic Clouds near the Milky Way, and no human ship has ever been there. There are many small galaxies beyond, and the huge Andromeda Galaxy is not too far away. , which is larger than our Milky Way. In addition, there are billions of galaxies in the universe. “我们的银河中，只发展出一种有能力建立科技社会的智慧物种，但我们对其他星系了解多少？我们这个星系可能是个特例，也许在某些星系，甚至所有其他星系中，存在着许多互竞的智慧物种，彼此间一直在明争暗斗，而每一种我们都毫无概念。大概因为他们忙着彼此斗争，因而无暇顾及其他，但假如在某个星系中，某种物种取得了领导地位，而有时间考虑侵入其他星系的可能性，那又会怎么样？ “就超空间而言，银河只是一个点——整个宇宙也是如此。我们从未造访过其他星系，而且根据我们的了解，也没有其他星系的智慧物种来过我们的银河——但这种局面也许有一天会改变。若有侵略者来到，他们必定能找到挑拨人类内斗的方法。长久以来，我们的敌人都是自己人，我们习惯了这种自相残杀。处于如此四分五裂的状况，我们必将被侵略者完全征服，或是被尽数消灭。唯一真正的防御战略，就是形成无法由内部突破的盖娅星系，遇到侵略者来犯时，我们才能发挥最大的力量。” 宝绮思说：“你描绘的情景非常可怕，我们还来得及建立盖娅星系吗？” 崔维兹抬头向上望，视线仿佛穿透厚层的月岩，直达月球表面与星际空间；彷佛努力想要见到无数正在不可思议的鸿蒙太空中缓缓运动的遥远星系。 他说：“据我们所知，在古往今来的人类历史中，从未有其他智慧生物侵犯我们。这种情形只需再持续数个世纪，也许只要人类文明历史万分之一的时间，我们便能高枕无忧。毕竟，”讲到这里，崔维兹突然感到一阵痛心的忧虑，但他强迫自己置之不理。“此时此刻，似乎还没有敌人潜伏在我们之间。” 菲龙——这个懂得转换能量、雌雄同体的异类，此刻正望着他，眼神深不可测。崔维兹并未低头迎向那对出神的目光。