“As for your question about whether species that leave the Milky Way ever return,” Buweiro continued with a smile, “once an intelligent species advances to an Intermediate Civilization—what your scientists classify as at least a Level-3 civilization—it will have fully mastered the physical laws of antigravity, gravity, electromagnetism, and space.
Energy ceases to be an issue, and breaking the light-speed barrier is no longer an obstacle. These civilizations venture out to explore the vast universe and, without special reasons, will not disturb weaker civilizations. If they take interest, they may only capture a few species for research purposes.
This is why Intermediate and Advanced Civilizations generally disregard weaker civilizations, including Earth and the Solar system, allowing most weaker planetary civilizations to develop peacefully. Advanced civilizations, in particular, focus on exploring the multiverse, making them even less likely to concern themselves with our remote and desolate Solar system. Hence, the ‘dark forest’ theory or fears of dimensional reduction strikes you read about in science fiction won’t occur.
Think about it carefully: if you were a billionaire, would you go hunting in the forest to feed yourself? Of course not. You would have ample resources to provide for your family and would have no reason to disrupt lives weaker than yours.”
Buweiro first explained the destinations of intermediate civilizations, which greatly reassured me. Then he continued:
“As for galactic empires, no matter how vast or powerful they may be, they are still empires. As long as they are unified monarchies formed by a species, they cannot escape the fate of rise and fall, survival and extinction—it is merely a matter of time.
Human empires in your history lasted anywhere from decades to centuries. Similarly, no empire in the Milky Way has lasted more than a billion years, otherwise it would have been promoted to the legendary God-Level Civilization. You asked why the vast and powerful galactic empires still collapse. The reasons are many, but I’ll explain a few fundamental principles to make it clear.
The First is external invasion, which is easy to understand. For example, the First Galactic Empire expanded excessively, provoking countless Advanced Civilizations in the Andromeda Galaxy. Eventually, it was crushed under the pressure of internal strife and external enemies. The colossal empire fragmented into pieces, though it still retained some desperate measures and bargaining power, deterring the Andromeda civilizations from enslaving the Milky Way entirely.
The Second Galactic Empire was ruled by its royal race for more than 60 million years. Over time, the monotonous and unchanging life in the Milky Way became tiresome for them. One day, they departed aboard spacecraft, taking the elite of all species in the galaxy to explore other multiverses, never to return. The vast empire became leaderless, plunging into an era of chaos and warfare, disintegrating into fragments.
The Third Galactic Empire tried to learn from the mistakes of the previous two. For the first 50 million years, things went smoothly. Even when the royal elite planned to leave the galaxy, they would make arrangements for successors before their departure. However, as time went on, the same flaws as before began to emerge. The ruling class exploited other civilizations more severely. Inequitable resource distribution, racial discrimination, judicial corruption, neglect of weaker species, and oppression of galactic citizens led to mounting public outrage.
The rulers of the Third Empire, confident in their superior technology, grew increasingly complacent and disconnected from the people. Unjust practices became rampant. Weaker species were disregarded, and a trend toward enslavement emerged, marking a departure from the earlier era of unity and shared development.
As a result, the civilizations of the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy—the Large Magellanic Cloud—secretly contacted the civilizations of the Triangulum Galaxy (M33), located 3 million light-years away. Together, they coordinated a surprise attack on the royal family. Other civilizations within the Milky Way seized the opportunity to turn against the empire as well. Within a few centuries, the vast empire also fell.
The Fourth and Fifth Galactic Empires met similar fates. The primary cause remained the emergence of exploitative ruling classes, which oppressed the citizens and lacked justice, fairness, and public trust, leading to their decline.”
Buweiro continued telling me his captivating stories as I listened intently, nodding along. He went on:
“Don’t assume that powerful civilizations or empires can endure forever. Without principles of justice and public trust, it is only a matter of time before they fall. This has always been true for ancient empires and remains so for modern civilizations. Otherwise, the universe would be filled with God-Level Civilizations.
Take, for example, human empires such as the Roman Empire, the Babylonian Kingdom, the Egyptian Empire and other ancient civilizations. Many had alliances with extraterrestrial civilizations at some point. After completing their observations, some alien civilizations left without interference, leaving these kingdoms to their own devices. Eventually, human rulers fell into decadence and extravagance, exploiting and oppressing their people, losing justice and public trust. This led to their eventual downfall, just like your current civilization is at risk.
An empire or nation, regardless of its level of advancement, is like a towering skyscraper. The common people are the bricks and tiles, forming the foundation of the entire structure. The capitalists are the beams, adding integrity to the building. The politicians are the load-bearing pillars and walls, supporting the entire edifice.
When exploitation and oppression arise, and justice and public trust are lost, the people’s foundation begins to weaken. This destabilizes the structure, causing the load-bearing walls to rot. As this process continues unchecked, the beams eventually falter, and the entire skyscraper collapses. The bricks and tiles fall away one by one until the whole structure crumbles into ruin.
Take a familiar example: in the late Qing Dynasty, your vast empire, with hundreds of thousands of troops, was hunted down like a lost dog by a coalition force of just over 10,000 soldiers. The main reason wasn’t a significant technological gap. Even with all the guns, bullets and artillery at that time were fired, and 50,000 Qing troops could not be killed. Where did the remaining Qing troops go?
The reason was that the imperial court had lost its credibility among the people, and in the process many people turned around and made things more difficult. The situation at that time was shocking and unbelievable to the Interstellar Alliance.
This incident further reinforces the realization that in any unified state, the power of the common people should never be underestimated. It seems that now, you might once again be heading toward a similar cycle of fate.
Alright, I won’t talk too much about the situation of national unification. If I say more, you won’t be able to publish it anyway. It’s enough that you understand. If you want to know more, you can gradually access the chip implanted in your brain in the future. It contains a wealth of information, including records of many past civilizations venturing into the vast universe or even the multiverse. These materials were obtained through exchanges with other civilizations. They can be studied and referenced, and you don’t need to doubt their authenticity.”
Seeing how captivated I was, Buweiro cleared his throat and playfully teased me:
“By the way, I have something to remind you. When you read the Alliance’s chip, you should read it in small pieces. Don’t put a lot of information into your brain at once. Otherwise, your head will be squeezed and you will become an idiot on the spot. At worst, your body will be blown up with enough force to destroy a city. After that, the massive amount of information will burn your flesh and blood into ashes, turning into countless data, symbols and programs, and then disappear.”
“What? Improper use could be that serious? Please, before I leave, you must teach me how to use mental telepathy to control the chip’s information flow. I don’t want to destroy myself—or worse, take an entire city down with me.”
Hearing Buweiro’s alarming warning, I was initially shocked and terrified, nearly jumping out of my seat. The thought of a single misstep causing my own destruction, along with the deaths of countless others, was horrifying.
But then I considered Buweiro’s teasing tone, and thinking that the technology of Interstellar Alliance would not allow this to happen, Buweiro was probably joking with me. After figuring it out, I smiled and sighed again:
“I didn’t expect that the human condition is more complicated than I imagined, and I didn’t expect that some politicians and capitalists are so selfish and ugly. For their own selfishness, they concealed so many truths, misled themselves, the country, and all of humanity. Aren’t they afraid that such mistakes and sins will be infamous for thousands of years after they are made public?
Well, let’s not talk about this anymore. With my status, expressing these feelings is purely groundless worry and unnecessary concern. Without the power to change anything, it’s useless to think about it further.”