Ke Xun’s question suddenly plunged everyone into confusion. Trying to explain a supernatural event using scientific theories seemed incongruous, yet the question was profound and unsettling.
If supernatural forces truly existed in this world, then was there any significance in scientific research? Was it possible that, as some scientists had once feared, if everything in the universe were genuinely random, unpredictable, or beyond the scope of natural laws, then science became a completely futile endeavor?
People who pondered this couldn’t help but shiver. Deng Lin clenched his teeth and said, “No, although I can’t explain everything I’m witnessing, I still believe in science. Unexplained phenomena don’t necessarily mean they’re beyond the realm of nature. It might be that our knowledge is simply insufficient. Our current knowledge is minuscule compared to the vastness of the universe. So, for things that are beyond our knowledge, they might be considered supernatural, but I believe that everything is part of the natural phenomena!”
Zhu Haowen nodded and explained, “Your perspective, in a way, is similar to Einstein’s viewpoint. The core problem of the debate between the two factions in the physics community is right here.”
“The orthodox faction, the ones who support randomness, believes that physical quantities in the microscopic world inherently contain a certain degree of randomness and can not be accurately predicted. All measurement results are considered only probabilistic. The orthodox faction argues that if we can’t predict even the quantum state of individual particles, how can we predict the macroscopic world?”
“For instance, this world contains many unpredictable events, like the outcome of a lottery draw, the wind’s speed and direction, tomorrow’s weather, and even the next roll of dice.”
“Einstein, on the other hand, believed that these phenomena aren’t truly random, rather, it’s because of our current limited knowledge. We have not acquired enough knowledge to be able to predict these outcomes.”
“Take lottery draws for example, as if we know the forces acting on each point of a lottery ball during a draw and the airflow’s speed and distribution, we can predict the results of the lottery balls. Or if we grasp the movement of each air molecule, we can precisely determine the future weather.
So, according to Einstein, there isn’t true randomness in the world. The idea of randomness results from our lack of knowledge and insufficient data.”
“And the reason these phenomena appear random now is that we don’t have enough knowledge to grasp them and lack a sufficient amount of data to support them. Therefore, in Einstein’s view, there is no true randomness in the world. The so-called randomness is merely a manifestation of insufficient knowledge caused by human’s cognitive limitations.”
“So, you mean,” Shao Ling turned to Zhu Haowen, “that what we have experienced might not necessarily be supernatural forces but rather another type of scientific phenomenon existing in this world, one that humanity has not yet understood, along with the knowledge related to it?”
“I don’t think so,” Zhu Haowen replied calmly. “The mechanical determinism, which Einstein’s idea represented, gave rise to fatalism in some people’s interpretations. Fatalists believe that, since Einstein claimed that everything in the universe, like machinery, follows certain rules and trajectories and the previous moment determines the next moment, it implies that the fate of every one of us has been predetermined. Everything is following a program scheduled in advance. Our life and death are also determined in advance. So, no matter how hard we try now, those who are destined to die will die? But I am not a fatalist. I don’t believe in fate.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“In fact, Einstein didn’t completely deny the randomness of quantum phenomena,” Mu Yiran said, “he just thought that the random phenomena of the microscopic world couldn’t represent the essence of the entire universe and that we should try to establish new theories to explain this randomness.”
“Dlu ygbatfgr,” Oeb De gjlrfv tlr tjcv, “P ralii vbc’a ecvfgrajcv kts kf agjcrlalbcfv ogbw ajixlcu jybea vlmf ab abqlmr ilxf dejcaew rbwfatlcu bg wfmtjclmr rbwfatlcu? Tbe uesr gfwlcv wf bo atf ofjg P tjv yjmx lc tlut rmtbbi ktfc P kjr lc ws qtsrlmr mijrr.”
“P atlcx Jtfcu Vtl wfcalbclcu ‘Gbfr Xbv qijs vlmf bg cba’ lr cba rbwf wfjclcuifrr ulyyfglrt. Lf wera tjnf j qegqbrf,” Ite Ljbkfc mbcalcefv, “joafg jii, lc atf tlrabgs bo qtsrlmr, rtbgais joafg Slcraflc eaafgfv atlr ojwber qtgjrf, atf kfii-xcbkc ‘Vmtgbvlcufg’r mja’ atfbgs kjr ybgc. Tbe rtbeiv xcbk atja Vmtgbvlcufg’r mja kjr qbrfv ys Sgklc Vmtgbvlcufg, ktb kjr jirb j wfwyfg bo atf mijrrlmji ojmalbc ilxf Slcraflc. Xlnfc atja atf qjlcalcu lr cjwfv joafg atlr atfbgs, P yfilfnf atfgf lr regfis j mbccfmalbc yfakffc atf akb.”
“I don’t understand the significance of this experiment,” Deng Lin frowned. “A cat that is both alive and dead is an impossible scenario in the real world.”
As he spoke, he subconsciously glanced at Qi Muhuan and Dong Yao, both of whom were still unconscious on the ground, their faces devoid of mouths, looking particularly eerie. When he mentioned the phrase “both alive and dead,” their semi-lifeless state made it even more chilling.
Deng Lin couldn’t help but shudder. He quickly retracted his gaze, and turned to look at Qin Ci, who seemed to have the most amiable temperament among the senior members.
Qin Ci looked towards Zhu Haowen: “I’ll let Haowen explain it. I wasn’t particularly good at science during my school days.”
“The significance lies in this,” Zhu Haowen continued from where Deng Lin had left off. “You’re aware that light possesses wave-particle duality, right?”
“So?” Deng Lin asked.
“Light has always been considered the smallest form of matter, being an electromagnetic wave with the property of particles,” Zhu Haowen explained. “The De Broglie hypothesis suggests that this nature of duality is not exclusive to photons; all microscopic particles possess wave-particle duality.”
“Considering that everything in the macroscopic world, including humans, is composed of a vast number of microscopic particles, you can say that humans and cats, by extension, also possess wave-particle duality.”
“Now, here’s the problem: the orthodox faction believes that quantum phenomena exhibit randomness and uncertainty. Without measuring them, you cannot determine their position, mass, or velocity. At this point, all possible states that they can appear in are entangled together or, in other words, can be understood as ‘superposition.'”
“Schrödinger, a member of the classical faction, proposed the cat experiment for this reason. Since the cat is also composed of numerous microscopic particles, then it should possess wave-particle duality and the so-called randomness and uncertainty as described by the orthodox faction.”
“Locking the cat in a box containing poison gas, before the box is opened, it’s equivalent to not being measured yet. According to the orthodox faction, the cat’s state is now ‘entangled together,’ in other words, a superposition of life and death. Only by opening the box, which means ‘measuring’ it, can we determine whether it is alive or dead.”
“However, as you mentioned, in the real world, even if a cat is locked in a box, it cannot be in a superposition of life and death. Such a state is impossible. Schrödinger used this example to satirize the so-called uncertainty of quantum phenomena claimed by the orthodox faction.”
The girl with shoulder-length hair asked, “So what’s the connection between this cat and rolling the dice?”
“Perhaps finding the connection between them will lead us to the signature,” Zhu Haowen said.
“Using rolling dice to determine the method to test us, does it represent the randomness of fate?” Ke Xun said.
“So, I believe that Cheng Shi is on the side of the orthodox faction,” Mu Yiran continued, “Ke Xun and I learned through visits to Cheng Shi’s neighbors and friends that he had a strong interest in physics during his school years. This interest also influenced his artistic style and conceptual thinking in his artworks. The reason we think that he supports the orthodox faction is that he used the randomness of dice rolling to decide how we are tested. And the name of this artwork is ‘Schrödinger’s Cat,’ which probably carries another deep meaning. I think this is closely related to finding his son, as far as I know…”
Mu Yiran was interrupted by a warning sound, and everyone quickly turned their attention to the large screen on the wall. There was a row of large black letters flashing nonstop: “Please roll the dice, 60 seconds countdown”.
Everyone was startled, and Wei Dong grabbed his hair. “Is it starting again? How long have we just rested? Is the time for each round of dice rolling also random?”
Ke Xun suddenly realized something and went to check on Dong Yao and Qi Muhuan, only to find that they had stopped breathing at some point, becoming two lifeless bodies.
Ke Xun took out his phone from his pocket to check the time, and the display showed nine in the morning.
“The time is wrong,” Ke Xun said, “Time inside this place is passing faster than outside. I feel that us analyzing the clues just now took no more than two or three hours, but the time on our phones is clearly following the time in the painting. It’s already been an entire afternoon and a whole night in the painting.”
“No time to think about why, there are only 10 seconds left,” Shao Ling said. “We must—”
Before he could finish his sentence, he saw that Fang Fei had already taken a few steps forward and placed her hand on the dice icon.
The dice spun rapidly and, after a while, came to a slow stop, revealing the number 4 in front of everyone.
Everyone became more alert and stared at the large screen in front of them. The dice icon disappeared, and new text appeared:
“Father, are all the theorems and laws always correct?”
“At least, within the scientific framework built by human cognition, what is defined as a theorem is deemed correct.”
“So, if one day humans make new discoveries that overturn previous theorems, does that mean the old theorems were wrong?”
“Yes, it’s not just the theorems, there are many other types of situations. For example, when Dad was young, people believed there were nine major planets in the solar system. However, in 2006, one of those nine major planets, Pluto, was demoted and redefined as a “dwarf planet.” The reason was that astronomers from the USA had consistently miscalculated Pluto’s mass. Its mass is lower than that of our Moon, and there are objects on its orbital path larger than itself. So, keeping it among the nine major planets was clearly inappropriate. This is a typical example of using new knowledge to overturn old knowledge.”
“So, Dad, personally, I believe, schools should teach us how to question and discover what is known and unknown in this world, instead of teaching us to unconditionally believe in things defined by people like “astronomers from the USA”, which could potentially be overturned one day just like the nine major planets.”
“Since everything happening in this world cannot be guaranteed to always and completely follow theorems and laws, then rote memorization, unquestioning acceptance, and using it for tests to determine a student’s worth and future, what’s the meaning of all that?”
“I think, the purpose of learning should not be to have a single exam to determine the direction of our lives and define our intelligence, but to teach us how to investigate and understand the nature of things, and, in a sober, objective, analytical, profound, and imaginative way, to contemplate and to create life.”
After this conversation between Cheng Shi and his son disappeared, new text replaced it:
“The World of Laws”
Thank you for the chapter!
Wow! I understood nothing (ㆁᴗㆁ✿)
All that info went through one ear, and out the other…😭
🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯