CHAPTER 497: CHAPTER 496: MACROSCOPIC ENTROPY AND INFORMATION ENTROPY

Around a hundred light-years from the Entropy Wall, the Wandering Star System slowly came to a halt.

With a diameter of 20,000 light years, the Wandering Star System is only a hundred light-years away from the Entropy Wall, which, from the perspective of the Universe, seems like a narrow abyss.

The reason for the sudden stop of the Wandering Star System was that the Entropy Dragon, responsible for patrolling outside the Orbit Zone, suddenly detected the presence of the Entropy Wall. Constant Star Lu Chen and the Wandering Alliance received the early warning from the Entropy Dragon and immediately slowed down and stopped.

"After our careful detection, it has been confirmed that there is indeed an Entropy Wall about a hundred light-years ahead!"

Following the warning from the Entropy Dragon, the intelligence department on Earth conducted a meticulous investigation and soon confirmed this information.

Previously, as the Entropy Wall was in an inactive state, its features were not prominent. Additionally, the Wandering Alliance did not detect it initially due to the distance, but fortunately, the Entropy Dragon has extremely sensitive sensors to Entropy Value, so it was the first to discover the existence of the Entropy Wall.

This time, the Wandering Alliance used the latest detection technology for confirmation. This detection technology is based on the energy level of the information amount carried by Source Material, a new technology mastered by the Wandering Alliance after becoming a level-five civilization. This technology is also more advanced than Space Microvibration Wave, because Information Particles are the basic quantum units in the fundamental Information Sea, whereas Space Microvibration Waves are merely basic interaction waves at the string layer. Whether for detection or hiding, the technical requirements are undoubtedly more challenging for Information Particles. It is somewhat similar to the difference between atoms and molecules; detecting molecular properties is definitely easier than detecting atomic properties, and consequently, the technology required to hide atoms is also more challenging.

"Entropy Wall? What is the Entropy Wall?"

Since it was the first time hearing this name, Constant Star Lu Chen was not quite sure what it specifically referred to.

He certainly knew what entropy was, but how entropy could form a wall seemed rather sci-fi!

A scientist responded, "Entropy Wall is a name we chose ourselves; whether its Creator uses this name remains unknown. However, the name does not change its essence. We call it the Entropy Wall because the wall ahead is composed of stable information entropy organized in a matrix, hence the name Entropy Wall."

"What specific threats or functions does the Entropy Wall have?" Constant Star Lu Chen asked further.

The scientist said, "Based on the information provided by the Entropy Dragon, and observing that this location is at the boundary between the Star Zone and the Cosmic Zone, we speculate that this Entropy Wall is there to hinder lower-level civilizations from entering the Cosmic Zone. As for how exactly the Entropy Wall hinders, further experimental investigation is needed to understand."

The method of experimentation by the Wandering Alliance was simple, using the Jump Engine to send a massive meteor crashing onto the Entropy Wall, then carefully observing the Entropy Wall’s reaction. As soon as the meteor hit the Entropy Wall, it immediately became activated. The meteor, which was already undergoing entropy increase, had its entropy increase rate swiftly enhanced, quickly shattering into numerous fine rocks, entering the final state of entropy increase, the heat death.

After integrating and analyzing the observed situations, the scientists of the Wandering Alliance finally reached a conclusion.

And after hearing the scientist’s explanation, Constant Star Lu Chen finally understood that the function of the Entropy Wall was to suppress entropy reduction and increase entropy increase.

Because Entropy Value is something possessed by every entity in the Universe, although "entropy" as a unit of measurement is an abstract concept in the macroscopic material world, in reality, the entropy changes at the macroscopic level, such as the simplest activities like dispersal of heat, actually correspond to changes in the amount of information at the underlying layer of the Source Material Information Sea. This was understood only after the Wandering Alliance became a level-five civilization and delved deeper into the study of Information Particles, and thus finally unveiled the mysterious veil of "entropy". And precisely because macroscopic entropy corresponds to changes in the underlying Information Particles, it can be said that the underlying Information Particles actually dictate the changes in macroscopic entropy, hence the commonly mentioned macroscopic entropy is actually information entropy. However, the information entropy here is different from the information entropy on networks; the latter is a change in virtual Information Energy, while information entropy in the Information Sea is a real energy change.

Perhaps after all this explanation, some might still be unclear. In short, the previously mentioned entropy (macroscopic entropy) and the currently discussed information entropy are essentially the same concept, just with more accurate descriptions as our understanding of the Universe deepens.

This is similar to a person’s lifespan and the number of cell divisions; lifespan is also a very abstract macroscopic concept, yet tracing it to the microscopic level reveals that the length of lifespan is closely related to the number of cell divisions. Thus, both lifespan and number of cell divisions are the same concept, similar to macroscopic entropy and information entropy, each being detailed descriptions at different levels.

After all, as is well-known, the Universe consists of four layers. The first layer is the macroscopic level where we exist, the second layer is the microscopic level (i.e., molecules and atoms), the third layer is the fundamental string level, and the fourth and lowest layer is the Source Material Information Sea level. Changes in the material structure of each layer are closely interconnected, and changes in one layer can affect the others.

...

"Green Star, when you previously flew out from the Cosmic Zone, was this Entropy Wall there?"

After understanding the basic principles of the Entropy Wall, Constant Star Lu Chen suddenly asked Green Star about the past situation.

Green Star responded, "No, I hadn’t encountered any obstacles before; it’s obvious this was set up later."

Constant Star Lu Chen said, "In the Universe, only Entropy Civilization would specialize in Entropy Technology; hence, it’s very likely this Entropy Wall was set up by Entropy Civilization!"

"According to previous intelligence, the goal of the Entropy Civilization is to eliminate entropy reduction civilizations in the Universe. Now, with the continuously deepening crisis of wave reflux, setting up such an Entropy Wall is indeed reasonable and time-saving!" Wandering agreed.

Green Star suddenly mentioned, "Speaking of which, the actions of this Entropy Civilization are strange. Previously near the Heavenly Nebula, the appearance of the Entropy Tree was also most likely orchestrated by Entropy Civilization, right? But why don’t they show themselves directly? Moreover, before we captured the Entropy Beast and left, we had sent messages proactively, but unfortunately, there was no reply. I wonder if this time, Entropy Civilization has deployed forces near the Entropy Wall?"

"Since we roughly understand the situation, let’s take action!"

Constant Star Lu Chen ordered, "As the crisis of wave reflux is deepening continuously, we don’t have much time to explore these issues. The communications department should immediately send friendly messages; if we can contact Entropy Civilization that would be best, there might still be a possibility for negotiations. If we cannot make contact with Entropy Civilization, then there’s no other way, just use weapons to break through the Entropy Wall directly!"

Since the Entropy Wall is a product of specially arranged information entropy, aimed primarily at affecting passing information entropy and not merely blocking the spatial layer, neither Space Wormholes nor Jump Engines can directly pass through the Entropy Wall, as both of these engine technologies operate at the spatial level, naturally unable to avoid the impact and damage to Information Particles during the transfer process.

This point was considered early on by the mighty level-five Entropy Civilization.

Otherwise, wouldn’t the painstakingly created Entropy Wall by Entropy Civilization be completely useless?