A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 674 Trial
In Paris, Li Yu and Einstein first held several scientific seminars, and then held several cultural salons with Parisian characteristics.

The impact of science on art at the beginning of the 20th century was not small. The previous quantum theory was indeed not well understood by artists, but the theory of relativity, a "more philosophical" theory that explores time and space, had a great impact on artists.

Proust, who had just received France's highest literary award, the Prix Goncourt, organized a bureau and invited Li Yu and Einstein.

Einstein usually liked to communicate with the literary and artistic circles. A typical example was his friendship with Chaplin.

Li Yu is well-known in the literary and art circles because he has written the Star Wars series and the Alien series. Although they are popular novels, they are relatively well-known in the literary and art circles.

When the two arrived, Picasso, Joyce and Eliot had already arrived in advance.

Proust was famous for his poor health and suffered from asthma since he was a child. He said excitedly: "We were just talking about 'liberation from the order of time', and here you are."

Li Yu said with a smile: "To be liberated from the order of time, you have to at least enter the fifth dimension, but it seems like it can only be the plot of a science fiction novel."

Proust said: "Even if it is just a fantasy world, it is enough to soothe my soul."

Einstein said: "I saw your work while riding on the train."

"It's a pleasure," said Proust. "It's a pity that I can't read your work."

Proust had less than two years left in his life. At this time, he was working hard on writing "In Search of Lost Time".

Li Yu read this book when he was in school, but he really couldn't stand it. There were all kinds of long paragraphs, and the pages were not separated into lines.

The writing method of stream of consciousness is also relatively complex, such as this:

“Her dark eyes were bright and shining, because I could not and did not learn to objectively summarize a strong impression at the time, and because I was not, as people say, “observant” enough to draw conclusions about eye color. Such a concept that for a long period of time, whenever I thought of her, since she had golden hair, I would of course remember the shining eyes in my memory as dark blue: As a result, maybe if she hadn’t Such a pair of black eyes - which made a strong impression at first sight - I am afraid that I am not as fond of her pair of black eyes that I thought were blue as I was then.

When I saw her, my purpose was not to speak for my eyes at first, but to provide a window for my stunned and bewildered senses to watch. My eyes simply wanted to rush forward to touch and capture the body I saw, and to It swept away with the soul; then, I was very worried that my grandfather and my father might find this girl at any time and ask me to run to them and ask me to leave her, so my eyes unconsciously became begging. Cry for mercy and try to force her to notice me and know me! "

It is not easy to write a reading comprehension and central idea.

Although Master Jin Yong also liked long paragraphs in the past, they were all narratives rather than inner monologues, and it didn’t seem so entangled...

Einstein said: "You must concentrate on reading your novel, otherwise your thoughts will wander to nowhere."

Proust said: "And I really don't understand algebra, but I do like to talk to people about the theory of relativity. We seem to have the same approach in distorting time."

"Distorting time and space?" Einstein laughed, "It seems you don't understand it at all."

Proust was very fond of the theory of relativity and also described the perspective of time at the end of In Search of Lost Time.

Joyce said: "It is much easier to read several of Mr. Li Yu's books. Not only the Star Wars and Alien series, but also "Fractals and Chaos" and "Game Theory" can be read at least partially, and there is order in the chaos." The idea of ​​​​and the carp effect are very inspiring to artistic creation."

Li Yu smiled and said: "Sir, maybe it will also affect physics."

"Me?" Joyce felt incredulous. "Aside from writing something to entertain a few people, I don't know what else I can contribute to physics."

"You like to create new words, and physics is also creating new ideas." Li Yu said.

Joyce spread his hands and said: "I just feel that the vocabulary is not enough to express my thoughts, and it is a forced move."

Joyce also wrote about stream of consciousness, and his writing was obscure.

But he actually "created" an important term in physics: quark.

Many years later, Nobel Prize winner Gell-Mann proposed the quark model. As for the word "quark", he first thought of the pronunciation, but after looking through the dictionary, there was no ready-made word. Gelman happened to read a copy of Joyce's novel "Finnegan's Wake", which contained a word "quark" coined by the author Joyce to describe the cry of a seabird (dog in English). called bark, so he created quark).

Gell-Mann felt that this word was good, and it was exactly the same as the pronunciation he wanted, so he chose this word as the name of the new elementary particle.

It is said that "Finnegan's Wake" became popular because of it.

This book was only translated into China in 2012, much later than Joyce's other "Ulysses". Anyway, you can read a lot, and it is a book that challenges the reading limit.

Joyce created many words in the book, such as nine 100-letter words and one 101-letter word. The most famous one is the 100-letter word "lightning strike", which simulates the continuous sound of thunder and consists of ten words. Made up of the word "thunder" in many different languages.

Moreover, the popular consciousness article is very strange. There is a weight loss advertisement inserted on three consecutive pages in the book...

Eliot asked another question: "It is said that only 12 great people in the world understand the theory of relativity. Is it true?"

Einstein laughed and said: "It used to be 3, but now it's 12? I really don't know how to calculate it, but most people who have studied it should understand."

He would be asked this question countless times in the future.

Picasso suddenly asked: "What does that multi-dimensional space-time look like?"

Einstein said: "I cannot describe multi-dimensional space-time. I can only talk about the two-dimensional world that is lower than our three-dimensional world. For example, a two-dimensional creature crawling on a sphere will return to the starting point even if it crawls for millions of years. . And it never knows what’s above or below it.”

"It sounds very sad, that is to say, it is impossible for us to know what the four-dimensional world or even the five-dimensional world looks like?" Picasso asked.

"That's right," said Einstein.

"It seems that I have no way of knowing how people in the four-dimensional world can paint on a three-dimensional canvas." Picasso said.

"I guess it's a sculpture?" Elliot said.

"Where is the fifth dimension?"

"This... I don't know."

Einstein said: "This kind of problem may be more familiar to Li Yu, who wrote science fiction works."

Li Yu said: "It has exceeded the scope of human thinking."

Elliot smiled and said: "Then let's make a three-dimensional creature."

The past two years can be regarded as the pinnacle of the modernist revolution in European literature. Within one year, Joyce's "Ulysses" and Eliot's "The Waste Land" will be published. They are considered to be "destroying the certainties of 19th-century literature, just as Einstein revolutionized physics. The mechanical order and Newtonian laws that once governed classical physics, music, and art are no longer valid."

That night, everyone watched a performance by the Russian Ballet and attended the dinner.

It is really relaxing and enjoyable to chat and play with people who are engaged in literature and art.

But what happened next was less pleasant. The next day, Einstein told Li Yu with a telegram he had just received: "Professor Leonard and Professor Stark have gone to Munich, where they will hold a trial on the theory of relativity."

"If you want to try the theory of relativity, you must at least provide enough evidence." Li Yu was not worried.

Einstein said: "I'm afraid they don't care about the correctness of the theory at all."

"Wouldn't that be like the Inquisition trying Galileo?" Li Yu said.

"Fortunately, Professor Planck has also arrived in Munich and can maintain fairness." Einstein said.

The two immediately boarded a train to southern Germany.

Walking off the platform, Li Yu felt Germany's dilemma at this time.

Munich is already considered a strong city in Germany, but two years later, it still looks like it is in a state of decline. There are many beggars in ragged clothes on the streets.

Planck said: "Welcome two great young scientists to this city full of gloom."

Einstein said: "Professor Planck, what you said is too scary."

"It's not scary at all," Planck said. "I already regretted choosing here. I might as well choose a resort town. It was only that Professor Roentgen and Professor Sommerfeld strongly requested to improve the scientific atmosphere of the University of Munich again, so they decided to stay here." to Munich.”

On the way to the University of Munich, Einstein said: "There are already people in Munich who believe in Buddhism?"

"Buddhism? How come?" Plank said.

Einstein pointed to a flag on the street: "Look, isn't that the Buddhist swastika? It just feels a little crooked."

Planck said casually: "It may be a newly established party. There are dozens of chaotic parties in Munich. I heard that everyone is used to it."

Li Yu smiled bitterly: "This is not the Buddhist swastika."

"That's right!" Planck said, "Mr. Li Yu comes from the East, so of course I know him. But in the whole of Germany, I am afraid that only very few people know the swastika."

Li Yu said: "Maybe in more than ten years, the German people will know it, and the European people will also know it."

Planck laughed and said: "The Pope in the Vatican will never agree. Catholicism has been rooted in Europe for so many years, and even Protestants and Orthodox Christians can't tolerate it. How can other religions come?"

That's right, who would have thought at this time that this symbol would fly to the Reichstag in Berlin ten years later.

Just after the First World War, the German military set up a department to investigate the ideas of various small parties that had sprung up. Comrade Mustache was ordered to monitor a very insignificant small party called the German Workers' Party.

At that time, they were gathering in a tavern, clamoring about "Bavaria's independence" and the like. Mustache couldn't bear it on the spot, stood up and denounced him, and then said that they had been tricked by the Jews, and then gave an impassioned speech.

Seeing that this young man was so eloquent, the leader of the party immediately asked him to join the party with the number 555. In fact, the total number of people could not exceed 100. The number 555 was purely to sound good and to feel that there were many people.

Anyway, from now on, Pandora's box has been completely opened. Mustache will become the leader of this party and change its name to Sodium Crisp.

Since Leonard had to go to Prague next, Li Yu, Planck, and Einstein rushed directly to the venue.

Leonard and Stark had already been sitting on one side of the long table, with very serious expressions.

After Einstein sat down, he realized that he had forgotten his pen, so he asked Sommerfeld, "Can you lend me a pen?"

Sommerfeld took out a pencil from his pocket: "Can I take a pencil?"

"Thank you." Einstein accepted.

As the moderator of the meeting, Planck first said: "It is an honor for the scientific community to have so many Nobel Prize winners present at the same time. We should not be too demanding to convince each other, but treat it as a peaceful academic exchange."

Although he tried his best to heal the rift between the two parties, it was obvious that his efforts were in vain.

Einstein said to Leonard: "Mr. Leonard, your trial can begin."

Leonard said with an expressionless face: "Actually, I have never cared about the theory of relativity, which can be called a big scam, but now that it is so sensational, we have to consider its threat to the purity of German science."

The other party was so aggressive, and Einstein replied rudely: "I admire your status as a master of experimental physics, but you have not made any outstanding achievements in theoretical physics, and your refutation of general relativity is also very superficial. of."

"Mr. Einstein, please remember that without my invention, Mr. Roentgen would not have been able to win the first Nobel Prize." Leonard said.

"I even admit that this is the credit of Mr. Roentgen," Einstein said, "and this was nearly twenty years ago. I want to know, Mr. Leonard, if you dare to face scientific discussions and use scientific methods way against relativity?”

Leonard said: "It doesn't need to be so complicated. Everyone can see that the theory of relativity is based on equations, not experiments or observations. This fundamentally violates the simple conscience of a scientist, especially a physicist."

Stark added: "Yes, it can't be called physics at all."

This objection is actually exactly the same as that of many other non-theorists.

Li Yu smiled and said: "Many things obviously have to change with the times, even the mechanics of Galileo and Newton are no exception."

Leonard said: "Both of you are theoretical physicists, and you are basically denying past physics at a philosophical level."

"No," Li Yu said, "This is just change and progress. Even if it is a theory, it cannot be separated from experimental verification in the end."

Leonard didn’t quite buy it: “Don’t get involved in the chicken-and-egg issue.”

Li Yu said: "Theory is important from beginning to end, and I never want to be divorced from experiment."

Leonard said: "The problem now is that you want to use illusory equations to turn physics into mathematics. I will never allow it! You are simply traitors to physics! Why don't you just go to Hilber in Göttingen? special?"

Seeing that it was no longer an issue of relativity if the argument continued, Planck coughed, stopped their argument, and said with a smile: "It is a pity, given that so far the theory of relativity has no way to extend the absolute time required for this meeting, now The meeting must be adjourned temporarily.”

Planck made this joke very well, but everyone could see that his meaning was already on the side of the theory of relativity.

Leonard was bored and stood up and said: "Jewish science will eventually disappear in Germany. What we need is German physics. Purely theoretical, non-experimental abstract methods like relativity should be excluded! By the way, there is also that amazing thing. Disgusting relativism!”

After saying that, Leonard and Stark turned around and left the venue.

Parting on bad terms.