Chapter 76: The Universal Law of Life

“Everyone, please tell me, what is life? How do we define it?” Hazel, the lead astronomer moderating the panel, opened the floor with this question.

The senior scientists in the auditorium immediately began murmuring among themselves.

Life was a profoundly mysterious concept. It sounded simple enough, but the scientific community had never agreed on a perfect, universal definition. Old World textbooks often defined it as any entity capable of reproducing and actively consuming energy.

However, most people relied on their own intuition. Did it move? Did it eat? Did it multiply? A vehicle consumed fuel to move, but it was inanimate. An advanced AI robot might be programmed to seek out power sources and build copies of itself, but it certainly wasn’t considered alive. That was the general consensus.

“An organic, naturally occurring, low-entropy entity that actively consumes energy and reproduces, that can tentatively be classified as life. At least, in a strict sense,” Jason mused to himself. This was the most widely accepted scientific view.

The exact semantics didn’t matter right now. Under this working definition, the Martian pathogen was unquestionably alive.

“Yes, the Martian pathogen is naturally occurring life,” Hazel continued from the podium. “Yet, the existence of this extraterrestrial microbe has struck a heavy blow to the scientific community…”

Listening to the heated debates around him, Jason finally grasped the core of their anxiety. It all came down to the Fermi Paradox.

Theoretically, given enough time, a million, ten million, or a hundred million years, humanity could expand across the entire Milky Way. Therefore, if an alien species had evolved millions of years before humans, they should have already colonized the solar systems. Their presence should be obvious.

To a human, a million years was an eternity. But on a cosmic scale, it was merely the blink of an eye. The universe was over 13.8 billion years old! It was highly probable that advanced civilizations had evolved eons before humanity even discovered fire.

Yet, aside from the inexplicable existence of the Noah itself, humanity had found absolutely no evidence of intelligent alien life.

This was the essence of the Fermi Paradox. It presented two conflicting realities:

* Intelligent life exists everywhere: Statistically, ancient alien empires should exist, and their traces should be visible across the stars. Yet, the sky is empty.

* Intelligent life is exceedingly rare or non-existent: Humanity is entirely alone, or perhaps currently the most advanced civilization in the universe.

Since the discovery of the Noah, almost everyone accepted the first premise. The ship was the pinnacle of a hyper-advanced civilization. It couldn’t possibly be a naturally occurring phenomenon.

This raised a terrifying question: if god-like alien empires existed, why was there no trace of them? Why did the universe appear so dead and desolate?

There had to be an explanation. And the scientists gathered here today were determined to find it.

“One common theory is that advanced civilizations exist, but they are incredibly rare, making them statistically impossible for us to detect,” Hazel explained. She adjusted her dark-rimmed glasses, her expression deadly serious.

“There are other hypotheses, of course. Perhaps these civilizations are deliberately hiding from us. Or perhaps the universe is a ’dark forest’, a predatory arena where civilizations instantly annihilate one another upon contact.”

“But none of these theories are entirely sufficient,” Hazel stated. “They don’t fully explain the absolute silence of the cosmos.”

Based on their current understanding of astronomy, the scientific community had long abandoned the idea that the Old World was special. Earth had just been an ordinary rock orbiting an ordinary star. In the Milky Way alone, there were roughly two hundred billion stars, and countless more planets. Millions of Earth-like planets had to exist.

Hazel brought up a classic Old World formula. “Consider the Drake Equation, proposed by the astronomer Frank Drake in the mid-twentieth century. It was designed to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in our galaxy.”

Old World scientists had once used this equation to calculate that there were anywhere from forty to fifty million advanced civilizations in the Milky Way. The legendary sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov had similarly estimated that there should be roughly 530,000 civilized planets in our galaxy alone, about eighteen advanced worlds for every million stars.

“But I believe these historical estimates are actually far too conservative,” Hazel stated grimly. “Because we drastically miscalculated the conditions required for the birth of life.”

Dr. Roman, Professor Thomson, and the other department heads in the front row nodded in grim agreement. They had clearly debated this off the record.

“We used to believe that life was a miracle,” Hazel continued. “We assumed the conditions for biogenesis were incredibly strict, requiring liquid water, a stable atmosphere, a perfect temperature gradient, and a magnetic field.”

“But then we found life on Mars! Yes, it’s just a primitive pathogen, but it is undeniably life!”

“If the spark of life is truly a one-in-a-billion anomaly, how could our single solar system be so impossibly lucky to host two life-bearing planets? And we haven’t even surveyed the moons of Jupiter or Saturn yet. What if they harbor life as well?”

The auditorium fell silent as the scientists absorbed the weight of her words. Jason frowned, his mind racing. If life was truly rare, it was like winning the lottery. How could one tiny, unremarkable solar system win the cosmic lottery multiple times?

Was humanity just exceptionally lucky? Or was there a darker truth?

Hazel eventually broke the silence.

“The simplest explanation is that our foundational assumption was wrong. Life isn’t a rare miracle… It is terrifyingly common.”

A murmur of shock rippled through the auditorium. The idea was deeply unsettling. Humanity had spent centuries searching for aliens, only to conclude they were alone. Now, they were being told that the universe was practically teeming with biology.

Yet, Hazel’s logical deduction was airtight. If life was incredibly rare, why would it naturally arise on a barren, unremarkable rock like Mars? The universe was filled with billions of planets exactly like it. Claiming that humanity was just “incredibly lucky” to stumble upon it was nothing more than arrogant self-deception.

It made perfect sense. If life was a universal standard, then finding it on multiple planets within the same system was completely expected.

“Professor Hazel, your reasoning is brilliant, and statistically, it’s highly likely to be correct. However, basic biology does not equate to intelligent civilization.”

The speaker was Arthur Lambert, the young prodigy from the Tesla Institute who had previously decrypted the Noah’s faster-than-light propulsion theories. He was brilliant, young, and notoriously blunt. “It’s entirely possible that the vast majority of life in the universe consists of primitive, single-celled organisms that never evolve sentience.”

“You are absolutely right, Arthur,” Hazel nodded in agreement. “Which brings us to the next phase of our discussion: if basic life is universal, is intelligence also universal?”

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