an explanation is proposed by malyanov's friend and neighbor, the mathematician vecherovsky (вечеровский). he posits that the mysterious force is the universe's reaction to mankind's scientific pursuit, which threatens to destroy the very fabric of the universe in some distant future. his hypothesis is that of a homeostatic universe, meaning that the universe tends to conserve both its total entropy (a measure of disorder) and the capacity of regeneration of reasoning performed into it. the equilibrium between the two measures determines the structure of the universe at a given time. thus, the universe naturally resists attempts of rational beings of constructing supercivilizations. vecherovsky proposes to treat this universal resistance to scientific progress as a natural phenomenon which can and should be investigated and even harnessed by science.