Wandering earth

Chapter 1 Chao Wen Dao

einstein equator
"There is a sentence I wanted to say to you a long time ago," Ding Yi said to his wife and daughter, "Most of my heart is occupied by physics, and I can only try to squeeze out a small corner for you. It’s painful, but there’s really nothing you can do.”

His wife Fang Lin said: "You have said this to me two hundred times."

Ten-year-old daughter Wenwen said: "I have told you a hundred times."

Ding Yi shook her head and said, "But you have never understood the true meaning of my words. You don't understand what physics is."

Fang Lin smiled and said, "As long as its gender is not female."

At this time, the three of them were sitting in a small car with a speed of 45 kilometers per hour, driving in a steel pipe with a diameter of [-] meters.The length of this steel pipe is about [-] kilometers, and it circles the earth once on the [-]th parallel north latitude.

The car is completely autonomous, and there is no driving equipment in the transparent compartment.Seen from the car, the steel pipe stretches straight ahead, and the car looks like a bullet running in an infinitely long barrel.The hole in front seems to be fixed at infinity, it looks like the size of a needle tip, and it doesn't move.If it weren't for the surrounding pipe walls passing by like turbulent water, they would definitely not be able to perceive the movement of the car.When the trolley starts or stops, you can see the astonishing number of instruments installed on the pipe wall, as well as countless equidistant hoops.When the car accelerated, they passed by in one piece on both sides, and they couldn't be seen clearly.Ding Yi told them that those hoops are superconducting coils used to generate strong magnetic fields, and the thin tube suspended in the middle of the steel pipe is the particle channel.

They are driving through the largest particle accelerator ever built by man.This accelerator orbiting the earth is called "Einstein's Equator". With it, physicists will realize the last dream of the giant on the shoulders of the giant in the last century - to establish a grand unified model of the universe.

This small car was originally used by accelerator engineers for maintenance, but now it is used by Ding Yi to take the whole family on a round-the-world trip.This trip was something he had promised his wife and daughter long ago, but it never occurred to them to take this road.During their sixty-hour trip around the globe, they saw nothing but straight steel pipes.However, Fang Lin and Wenwen were still very happy and satisfied. At least in the past two days or so, the whole family had a rare gathering together.

The trip was not boring. Ding Yi pointed to the wall of the pipe passing by outside the car from time to time and said to Wenwen: "We are driving through Outer Mongolia now. Have you seen the prairie? There are also sheep... We are in the Passing Japan, but just brushing its northern tip. Look, the sun is shining on the snow-covered Kunashir Island, and that is the first sunshine in Asia today... We are now at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, so dark, everything I can’t see it. Oh no, there’s a bright light over there, dark red. Well, I can see it clearly. It’s an ocean floor crater. Like a bonfire on a seabed plain. Wenwen, the continent is growing here..."

Later, they sailed across the entire territory of the United States in steel pipes, dived across the Atlantic Ocean, landed on European soil from the French coast, sailed through Italy and the Balkan Peninsula, entered Russia for the second time, and then returned to Asia from the Caspian Sea, crossed the Kazakhstan enters China.Now, they have completed the final journey, returning to the starting point of Einstein's equator in the Taklimakan Desert - the World Nuclear Center, which is also the control center of the Globe accelerator.

When Ding Yi's family came out of the control center building, it was already late at night outside, and the vast desert quietly stretched into the distance under the stars, and the world seemed simple and profound.

"Okay, our three elementary particles have completed an acceleration experiment at Einstein's equator." Ding Yi excitedly said to Fang Lin and Wen Wen.

"Father, how long will it take for real particles to travel such a large circle in this big tube?" Wen Wen asked, pointing to the accelerator tube behind them.The pipeline extended from both sides of the control center to the east and west, and quickly disappeared into the night.

Ding Yi replied: "Tomorrow, the accelerator will operate at its maximum energy for the first time. Each particle operating in it will be accelerated to the speed of light by the energy equivalent to a nuclear bomb. At this time, each particle will It only takes a tenth of a second in the pipeline to complete our two-day-plus round-the-world journey."

Fang Lin said: "Don't think that you have fulfilled your promise, this trip around the world is not counted!"

"Yes!" Wen Wen nodded and said, "Dad will take us outside this long pipe and walk along it when he has time in the future, to see the places we have been in the pipe. That is the real world. Travel!"

"No need." Ding Yi said meaningfully to her daughter, "If you open your imagination eyes, then this trip is enough. You have seen everything you want to see in the tube, and even more! Children, more importantly, the blue ocean, red flowers, and green forests are not the most beautiful things. The real beauty cannot be seen by the eyes, but can only be seen by the imagination. Unlike oceans, flowers, and forests, It has no color and no shape. You can only see this beauty when, with imagination and mathematics, you squeeze the whole universe into a ball in your hands and make it a favorite toy of yours..."

Ding Yi did not go home.After seeing off his wife and daughter, he returned to the control center.There are only a few engineers on duty in the center. After two years of intensive debugging after the completion of the accelerator, it is the first time that the place is so quiet.

Ding Yi went up to the roof and stood on the high open-air platform.Seeing that the accelerator pipeline below is like a straight line that divides the world into two, he has a feeling: the stars in the night sky are like countless eyes, and their gazes are all focused on the straight line below.

Ding Yi returned to the office below, fell asleep on the sofa, and entered the dreamland of a theoretical physicist.

He was in a small car parked at the beginning of Einstein's equator.The car started, and he felt the strong thrust of acceleration.He circles the Earth at the 45th parallel, round and round, like dice on a roulette wheel.As the speed approached the speed of light, the sharply increased mass made his body solidify like a metal statue.Realizing that this body already contained the energy of creation, he had a regal pleasure.On the last lap, he was pulled into a slip road and went into an odd spot.This is the land of nothingness.He saw the color of nothingness, nothingness is neither black nor white, its color is colorless, but it is not transparent either.Here, both space and time are still something to be created by him.He saw a small black spot in front of him, which expanded rapidly. It was another small car, and another self was sitting in the car.They collided at the speed of light and disappeared at the same time, leaving only an infinitesimal singularity in the boundless void. The seeds of all things exploded, and the energy fireball exploded wildly.When the red light permeating the entire universe gradually weakened, matter appeared like snowflakes in the cooled energy sky.It starts with tenuous nebulae, then stars and groups of galaxies.In this newborn universe, Ding Yi has a quantized self that can jump from one end of the universe to the other in an instant.In fact, he didn't jump, he existed at both ends at the same time, and at every point in this vast universe at the same time.His ego pervades space like a boundless mist, and a silvery desert of star grains burns within him.He is everywhere and at the same time nowhere.He knows that his existence is just a phantom of probability, and this polymorphic superimposed ghost eagerly looks around the universe, looking for the gaze that can collapse him into reality.Just looking for it, this gaze appeared.It came from two pairs of eyes that emerged from far away space, behind a silver curtain of stars.Those beautiful eyes with long eyelashes belonged to Fang Lin, and those eyes full of innocence and spirituality belonged to Wen Wen.These two pairs of eyes scanned the universe blankly, and finally failed to realize the existence of this quantum self.The wave function quivered like a breeze across a calm lake, but no collapse occurred.Just when Ding Yi fell into despair, the vast sea of ​​stars was disturbed, and the torrent formed by the stars was swirling and rushing.When everything is calm, all the stars in the universe form a big eye.That eye, which is tens of billions of light years in size, is staring at Ding Yi like the pattern of diamond powder sprinkled on the black velvet.The wave function collapses in an instant.Like a firework replay, his quantum existence is condensed at an insignificant point in the universe.He opened his eyes and returned to reality.

It was the chief engineer at the control center who pushed him awake.Ding Yi opened his eyes, and saw several physicists and technical directors of the nuclear center standing around the sofa where he was lying, staring at him like a monster.

"What? Have I slept?" Ding Yi looked out the window and found that it was already dawn, but the sun had not yet risen.

"No, something happened!" said the chief engineer.Only then did Ding Yi realize that everyone's surprised gazes were not directed at him, but because of the incident that just happened.The chief engineer pulled Ding Yi up and led him to the window.Ding Yi had just taken two steps when he was pulled from behind. Looking back, he saw a Japanese physicist named Seiichi Matsuda, one of the winners of the last Nobel Prize in Physics.

"Dr. Ding, if you can't mentally bear what you're about to see, don't take it too seriously. We may be in a dream right now." The Japanese said.His face was pale, and the hand holding Ding Yi was trembling slightly.

"I just woke up from a dream!" Ding Yi said, "What happened?"

Everyone still looked at him with that weird look.The chief engineer pulled him up and continued to walk towards the window.When Ding Yi saw the scene outside the window, she immediately doubted what she just said.The reality in front of him suddenly became more illusory than the dream just now.

In the pale blue morning light, the familiar accelerator pipeline across the desert disappeared, replaced by a strip of green grass stretching east and west toward the horizon.

"Let's go to the central control room again!" said the chief engineer.Ding Yi followed them to the control hall downstairs, and was shocked again by surprise—the hall was empty, all the equipment disappeared without a trace, and the place where the equipment was originally placed was also covered with grass. Grass grows directly from the anti-static floor.

Ding Yi frantically rushed out of the control hall, ran around the building, and stood on the grass belt that replaced the accelerator pipeline.Watching it disappear over the eastern horizon just as the sun was about to rise, he shivered in the cold morning desert air.

"What about the rest of the accelerator?" he asked the chief engineer, who was following pantingly.

"It's all gone. Everything on the ground, underground, and in the sea has disappeared."

"They all turned into grass too?!"

"Oh no, the grass is only in the desert near us, and the rest of it just disappeared. There are only empty supports left on the ground and undersea parts, and empty tunnels left on the underground part."

Ding Yi bent down and pulled up a bunch of grass.The grass must have looked ordinary elsewhere, but here it was very unusual.It has none of the characteristics of drought-tolerant desert plants such as tamarisk or cactus, and it looks full of water and green.Such plants can only grow in the rainy south.Ding Yi crushed a blade of grass, her fingers were covered with green juice, and a faint fragrance wafted out.Ding Yi stared at the grass in her hand for a long time, and finally said: "It seems that this is really a dream."

A voice came from the east: "No, this is reality!"

vacuum decay
At the end of the green grass belt, the morning sun has risen halfway, and its light dazzles people's eyes.In this light, a figure came towards them along the grass strip.At first he was just a silhouette with the sun disk as the background, and the edges of the silhouette were eroded by the sun disk, making him appear erratic.When the man got closer, people saw that he was a middle-aged man, wearing a white shirt, black pants and no tie.Even closer, his face could be seen clearly.It was an Asian-European face, which was nothing unusual in the area, but one would never mistake him for a local.His facial features are too straight, unrealistically straight, like a graphic symbol representing human beings on some public signs.When he came closer, people would not mistake him for a person from this world.He didn't walk—he kept standing with his legs together and straight, and the soles of his shoes were floating close to the grass.Two or three meters away from them, the visitor stopped.

"Hello, I appear in this shape for better communication between us. Whether you agree with my human image or not, I have tried my best." The visitor said in English, his voice was as standard as his face And no features.

"Who are you?" Someone asked.

"I am the adventurer of this universe."

The four meaningful words in the answer immediately embedded in the minds of physicists-"this universe".

"Are you connected with the disappearance of the accelerator?" asked the chief engineer.

"It was evaporated last night, and your planned experiment must be stopped. As compensation, I give you these grasses, which can grow and spread at a very fast speed in the arid desert."

"But what is all this for?"

"If this accelerator is really operated at maximum power, it can accelerate particles to 10^20 GeV. This is close to the energy of the Big Bang, which may bring disaster to our universe."

"What disaster?"

"Vacuum decay."

Hearing this answer, the chief engineer turned his head to look at the physicists around him—they were all silent, frowning and thinking about something.

"Need any further explanation?" the risk taker asked.

"No, there's no need." Ding Yi shook her head lightly and said.Physicists originally thought that the adventurer would say a concept that humans could not understand at all, but unexpectedly, what he said was something that the human physics community had thought of as early as the early 80s, but most people at that time thought that No more than a novel hypothesis, so irrelevant to reality that it is now all but forgotten.

The concept of vacuum decay first appeared in a 1980 paper in the journal Physical Review by Sidney Coleman and Frank DeLucia.Long before that, Dirac suggested that the vacuum in our universe might be a pseudo-vacuum.In that seemingly empty space, ghostly virtual particles appear and disappear in unimaginably short moments.This live drama of instant creation and destruction is endlessly staged at every point in space. What we call the vacuum is actually a boiling quantum ocean, which makes the vacuum have a certain energy level.Coleman and DeLucia's new idea is that they think that some kind of high-energy process may produce another state of the vacuum.The energy level of this vacuum is lower than the existing vacuum, and even a "true vacuum" with zero energy level may appear.The volume of this kind of vacuum may be only the size of an atom at first, but once it is formed, the adjacent high-energy level vacuum will fall to its energy level and become the same low-energy level vacuum as it.This makes the volume of the low-level vacuum expand rapidly, forming a spherical shape.The expansion speed of this low-energy vacuum ball will soon reach the speed of light, and the protons and neutrons in the ball will decay instantly, causing all the material world in the ball to evaporate, and everything will be destroyed...

"...a low-energy vacuum sphere expanding at the speed of light will destroy the Earth in 0.03 seconds, the solar system in five hours, the nearest star in four years, and the Milky Way in 10 years... Nothing can stop the expansion of the sphere, As time goes by, the entire universe is doomed," said RiskRunner.His words just connected to the thinking of most people. Could he see the thinking of human beings? !The adventurer spreads his arms in an all-encompassing gesture, "If we think of our universe as a vast ocean, we are fish in the ocean. The boundless water around us is so clear and transparent that we forget it Now I want to tell you that this is not sea water, but liquid explosives, and a single spark will cause a catastrophe that will destroy everything. As a space adventurer, my duty is to extinguish these sparks before they burn to dangerous temperatures. "

Ding Yi said: "This may not be easy. The universe we know has a radius of 200 billion light-years. Even for a super civilization like yours, this is an extremely vast space."

The risk taker laughed.This is the first time he laughed, and this smile was also featureless, "It's not as complicated as you think. You already know that our current universe is just the embers of the big bang fireworks. The stars and galaxies are just still a little bit warmer." It’s just hot and drifting soot. This is a low-energy universe. The high-energy celestial bodies such as quasars you see only existed in the distant past. In the current natural universe, the highest-level energy processes, such as massive objects Falling into a black hole, its energy level is also much lower than that of the big bang. In the current universe, the only chance for a creation-level energy process to occur can only come from the efforts of the intelligent civilizations to explore the ultimate mysteries of the universe. This effort will Focusing a large amount of energy on a microscopic point of view makes this point reach the level of creation. Therefore, we only need to monitor the civilized world that has evolved to a certain degree in the universe."

Makoto Matsuda asked: "So, when did you start to notice humans? The Planck era?"

The risk taker shook his head.

"Then Newton's time? No?! It can't be as far back as Aristotle's time?"

"Neither." The adventurer said, "The operation mechanism of the cosmic risk elimination system is this: it first monitors the worlds where life has appeared through a large number of sensors scattered in the universe, and when it finds that these worlds have the ability to generate creation energy When the civilization of super-level energy process, the sensor will send out an alarm. After receiving the alarm, risk hunters like me will visit those worlds to monitor the civilization in them. But unless these civilizations really want to conduct experiments on the creation level, we will never will interfere in any way."

At this time, a black square appeared on the upper left of the risk-taker's head, about two meters in square, as if a bottomless hole had been dug in reality.A few seconds later, a blue image of the earth appeared in the black space.The adventurer pointed to the image and said: "This is the image of the earth taken by the sensor placed above your world."

"When was this sensor placed on Earth?" someone asked.

"According to your geological chronology, it is the Carboniferous period at the end of the Paleozoic Era."

"Carboniferous?!" "That's... [-] million years ago!" Everyone exclaimed.

"Is this...too early?" the chief engineer asked in awe.

"Early? No, it was too late. When we first arrived on the Carboniferous Earth and saw slippery-skinned amphibians crawling in the native pine forests and swamps on the vast ancient land of Gondwana, it was really amazing." I broke out in a cold sweat. For quite a long time before this, the world may suddenly evolve technological civilization. Therefore, the sensor should have been placed here in the Cambrian or Ordovician at the beginning of the Paleozoic Era."

The image of the Earth is pushed forward, filling the entire square.The camera moves across the continents, reminiscent of a pair of vigilant patrolling eyes.

The adventurer said: "The image you are seeing now was taken at the end of the Pleistocene, 37 years ago. For us, it is almost yesterday."

The image on the surface of the earth stopped moving, and the eyes of those eyes were fixed on the African continent.The continent is on the night side of the Earth and appears as a large blotch surrounded on three sides by the brighter ocean.Evidently something on the mainland had attracted the attention of these eyes.The focal length is extended, and the African continent rushes forward, quickly occupying the entire frame, as if the observer is rushing towards the surface of the earth.The black and white colors of the land are gradually revealed in the darkness. The white part is the snow of the Quaternary Ice Age, and the black part is very vague. Whether it is a forest or a plain full of rocks can only be imagined by people.The camera continued to zoom in, and the snow field filled the frame, and the square displaying the image was now all white, which was the off-white color of the snow at night, with a dark light blue.There are a few eye-catching black spots on the snow field, and it can be seen quickly that they are a few figures, and then it can be seen that their bodies are a little hunchbacked, and their long shawls and messy hair are blown by the cold night wind.The image went black again, and a person's upturned face filled the frame.It was impossible to see the details of this face in the dim light, only his brow and cheekbones were high, and his lips were long and thin.The camera continued to zoom in, which seemed impossible to get any closer. A pair of deep-set eyes filled the screen, and there were some silver spots in the pupils in the darkness, which were the deformed starry sky reflected in it.

The image freezes, and a shrill cry sounds.The risk taker told people that the early warning system called the police.

"Why?" the chief engineer asked puzzled.

"The time this primitive man looked up at the starry sky exceeded the warning threshold, and he has shown sufficient curiosity about the universe. So far, ten such limit-exceeding events have been observed in different places, which meet the warning conditions."

"If I remember correctly, you said earlier that the early warning system will only call the police when a civilization capable of generating energy processes at the creation level appears."

"Isn't what you saw just such a civilization?"

People looked at each other in blank dismay.

The adventurer showed that characteristic smile and said: "Is this difficult to understand? When life realizes the existence of the mystery of the universe, it is only one step away from finally unraveling this mystery." Seeing that people still don't understand, He went on to say: "For example, it took more than 40 billion years for life on earth to realize the existence of the mysteries of the universe for the first time. But at that time, it was less than 40 years before you built Einstein's equator, and this process is the last. The critical period of acceleration is less than 500 years. If that primitive man gazed at the universe for a few minutes and saw a gem, then your so-called entire human civilization after that is just stooping to pick it up."

Ding Yi nodded as if realizing something, "That's true, that great stargazer!"

The adventurer went on to say: "I came to your world after that, monitoring the progress of civilization, like guarding a child playing with fire. The universe illuminated by the fire around him fascinated this child, and he desperately let the fire surpass you." The fire continued to grow, until now the universe was in danger of being consumed by this fire."

Ding Yi thought for a while, and finally raised the most critical question in the history of human science: "That is to say, we will never be able to obtain a grand unified model, and never be able to discover the ultimate mystery of the universe?"

The scientists stared blankly at the risk-takers, like a group of souls waiting to be sentenced on the Last Judgment Day.

"There are many kinds of sorrows in intelligent life, and this is just one of them." The risk taker said lightly.

Makoto Matsuda asked tremblingly: "As a higher civilization, how do you bear this kind of sorrow?"

"We are the lucky ones in this universe. We got a grand unified model of the universe."

The fire of hope in the hearts of scientists began to burn again.

Ding Yi suddenly thought of another terrifying possibility, "Could it be that the vacuum decay has been triggered by you somewhere in the universe?"

The risk taker shook his head, "We obtained the Grand Unification Model in another way. I can't explain it right now, but I may explain it to you in detail later."

"Can't we repeat it this way?"

The adventurer continued to shake his head, "The time has passed, and it is impossible for any civilization in this universe to repeat it."

"Then please tell mankind the grand unified model of the universe!"

The risk taker still shook his head.

"Please, this is very important to us. No, this is everything to us!" Ding Yi impulsively grabbed the risk taker's arm, but his hand passed through the risk taker's body without feeling.

"Knowledge sealing guidelines do not allow this."

"Knowledge sealing criterion?!"

"This is one of the highest principles of the civilized world in the universe. It does not allow advanced civilizations to pass on knowledge to low-level civilizations—we call this behavior the transmission of knowledge—low-level civilizations can only obtain knowledge through their own exploration."

Ding Yi said loudly: "This is an incomprehensible criterion. If you tell all the civilizations who yearn for the ultimate mystery of the universe with the grand unified model, they will not try to obtain it through high-energy experiments at the creation level, and the universe will not Is it safe?"

"You think too simply - this grand unified model is only for this universe, and when you get it, you will know that there are countless other universes, and then you will long for the super unified model that restricts all universes. And The technical application of the grand unified model will enable you to have the means to generate higher energy processes, and you will try to use this energy process to break down the barriers between different universes. There is an energy level difference in the vacuum between different universes, which will lead to Vacuum decay, destroying two or more universes at the same time. The transmission of knowledge through pipelines will also have other more direct adverse consequences and even disasters for the low-level civilizations that receive it. Most of the reasons for this are still beyond your comprehension, so the principle of knowledge sealing is It is absolutely not allowed to be violated. The knowledge mentioned in this criterion is not only the deep secret of the universe, but also includes all the knowledge that you do not have—assuming that human beings do not know Newton’s third law or calculus, I cannot pass it on to you either. "

The scientists were silent.In their eyes, the sun that had risen very high was extinguished, everything fell into darkness, and the entire universe suddenly became a huge tragedy.They can't grasp the magnitude of this tragedy for a while, and they can only be tortured by it for the rest of their lives.In fact, they know that the rest of their lives are meaningless.

Makoto Matsuda slumped on the grass and said something that later became a famous saying: "In an unknowable universe, my heart doesn't even bother to beat."

His words speak the voice of all physicists.Their eyes were dull, and they wanted to cry but had no tears.After an unknown amount of time passed like this, Ding Yi suddenly broke the silence: "I have a method that allows me to obtain the Grand Unification Model without violating the principle of knowledge sealing."

The adventurer nodded to him, "Tell me."

"You tell me the ultimate mystery of the universe, and then destroy me."

"I'll give you three days to think about it," said the adventurer.His answer was very quick without thinking, followed by Ding Yi's words.

Ding Yi was ecstatic, "You mean it's possible?!"

The risk taker nodded.

altar of truth
That's what the people called that huge hemisphere—the Altar of Truth.It is 50 meters in diameter, with the bottom facing up and the sphere facing down. It stands in the desert and looks like an upside-down hill from a distance.This hemisphere was built with sand by adventurers. At that time, a huge tornado appeared in the desert, and the tall sand pillars in the wind finally condensed into this thing.No one knows what the Adventurer used to aggregate the mass of sand into such a precise hemisphere, but it was so strong that it wouldn't disintegrate even if the ball was placed face down.But this placement made the hemisphere very unstable, and it visibly wobbled in desert gusts.

According to the adventurer, such a hemisphere was a forum in his distant world.In the ancient times of that civilization, scholars gathered on it to discuss the mysteries of the universe.Due to the instability of a hemisphere thus placed, scholars on the forum had to be careful to evenly distribute their positions, otherwise the hemisphere would tilt and the person on it would slide down.Risk takers have never explained the meaning of this hemispherical forum, and it has been speculated that it may imply a non-equilibrium and instability of the universe.

On one side of the hemisphere, there is also a long ramp made of sand, through which it is possible to walk up to the altar from below.In the adventurer's world, the ramp is unnecessary.In the ancient times before pure energization, his race was a creature with transparent wings that could fly directly to the forum.This ramp is specially built for human beings, through which more than 300 of them will walk to the altar of truth and exchange their lives for the mysteries of the universe.

Three days ago, when the adventurer agreed to Ding Yi's request, the development of the incident caused panic in the world.In just one day, hundreds of people made the same request.In addition to other scientists from the World Nuclear Center, these people also included scholars from all over the world.In the beginning, there were only physicists. Later, the majors of applicants went beyond physics and cosmology, and there appeared scientists of other basic disciplines such as mathematics and biology, and even scholars of non-natural sciences such as economics and history.Those who demand to exchange their lives for the truth are all leaders in their disciplines and among the elites in the scientific community, half of whom are Nobel Prize winners.It can be said that the essence of human science is gathered in front of the altar of truth.

In fact, the front of the Altar of Truth is no longer a desert. The grass planted by the adventurers three days ago spread rapidly. The width of the grass was twice as wide, and the irregular edges extended to the bottom of the Altar of Truth.Tens of thousands of people gathered on this green grass.In addition to the scientists who are about to die and reporters from the world's major media, there are also relatives and friends of the scientists.The endless persuasion and pleading for two days and two nights had exhausted them physically and mentally, and they were on the verge of collapse, but they still decided to make a final effort at this last moment.Joining them in this effort are numerous government representatives, including more than a dozen heads of state, who are also trying to retain their countries' scientific elites.

"Why did you bring the child?!" Ding Yi stared at Fang Lin and asked.Behind them, the unsuspecting Wen Wen was playing on the grass, the only happy person among the gloomy group.

"I want her to watch you die." Fang Lin said coldly.Her face was pale, her eyes stared blankly into the distance.

"You think this will stop me?"

"I don't hold out hope, but it will stop your daughter from being like you in the future."

"You can punish me, but child..."

"No one can punish you, and don't pretend that what's about to happen is a punishment. You're on your way to the paradise of your own dreams!"

Ding Yi looked straight into her lover's eyes and said, "Lin, if this is what you really think, then you finally know me from the deepest part."

"I don't know anyone, and now I only have hatred in my heart."

"Of course you have the right to hate me."

"I hate physics!"

"But without it, man is still a dull animal in jungles and caves."

"But I'm not much happier than them now!"

"But I am happy, and I hope you can share my happiness."

"Then let the child share it with her. When she sees her father's fate with her own eyes, she will at least stay away from the drug of physics when she grows up!"

"Lin, call physics a drug, and you know it from the deepest level. Look, how many things have you really learned in these two days? If you had understood this earlier, we wouldn't have the tragedy we have now."

At the Altar of Truth, the Führer tried to persuade the risk taker to refuse the demands of the scientists.

The President of the United States said: "Sir - may I call you that? The best scientists in our world are here. Do you really want to destroy science on Earth?"

The adventurer said: "It's not that serious. Another group of scientific elites will soon emerge and fill their positions. The desire to explore the mysteries of the universe is the nature of all intelligent life."

"Since they are both intelligent life forms, do you have the heart to kill these scholars?"

"It's their own choice. Life is their own, and they can certainly trade it for what they consider noble."

"You don't need to remind us of this!" The Russian President said excitedly. "Exchanging life for noble things is no stranger to human beings. In a war in the last century, there were more than 2000 million people in my country. People have done this. But now the fact is that the life of those scientists can not be exchanged for anything! Only they can learn that knowledge, after that, you only give them 10 minutes to survive! Their desire for the ultimate truth is over. To be a complete pervert, you know that!"

"It's clear to me that they're the only normal people on this planet."

The heads of state looked at each other, and then all looked at the adventurer in confusion, they did not understand what he meant.

Adventurer stretches out his arms to embrace the sky, "Life is but a small price to pay when the harmonious beauty of the universe unfolds before you at a glance."

"But they can only live another 10 minutes after seeing this beauty!"

"Even without these 10 minutes, just going through the process of seeing the ultimate beauty is worth it."

The heads of state looked at each other again, shaking their heads and smiling wryly.

"With the evolution of civilization, people like them will gradually increase." The adventurer pointed to the scientists under the altar of truth and said, "In the end, when the problem of survival is completely solved, when love disappears due to the alienation and fusion of individuals , when art eventually dies due to excessive delicacy and obscurity, the pursuit of the ultimate beauty of the universe becomes the only sustenance for the existence of civilization, and their behavior conforms to the basic values ​​of the entire universe.”

The heads of state fell silent for a moment, trying to understand what the adventurers had said.The President of the United States suddenly laughed, "Sir, you are playing with us, you are playing with the entire human race!"

The adventurer looked confused, "I don't understand..."

The Prime Minister of Japan said: "Human beings are not as stupid as you think. Even children can understand the logical errors in your words!"

The risk taker looked even more confused, "I don't see any logical error in this."

The President of the United States sneered and said: "In a trillion years, our universe must be full of highly evolved civilizations. According to you, this perverted desire for the ultimate truth will become the basic value of the entire universe. At that time, the entire universe Civilizations will unanimously agree to use ultra-high-energy experiments to explore a super-unified model that includes all universes, and will not hesitate to destroy everything including themselves in such experiments? You want to tell us that this will happen?!"

The adventurers stared at the heads of state for a long time without speaking, and their strange eyes made them shudder.Some of them seemed to realize something.

"You mean..."

The adventurer raised a hand to stop him from speaking, and walked towards the edge of the altar of truth.There, he said to everyone in a loud voice: "You must really want to know how we got this grand unified model of the universe, and now I can tell you."

"Once upon a time, our universe was much smaller and hotter than it is now. Stars had not yet appeared, but matter had precipitated out of energy to form nebulae that pervaded red-glowing space. Life had already Appeared, it was a creature composed of a force field and thin matter, and its individual looked a lot like a tornado in space. The evolution speed of this nebula creature was as fast as lightning, and soon produced heights all over the universe Civilization. When the nebula civilization’s desire for the ultimate truth of the universe reached its peak, all the worlds in the universe agreed to risk the vacuum decay to conduct experiments on the creation level in order to explore the grand unified model of the universe.”

"The nebular beings manipulate the physical world in a completely different way than life in the universe today. Since there is not enough matter to use, their individuals evolve themselves into what they want. After the final decision is made, some individuals quickly Evolve yourself as a part of the accelerator. Finally, millions of such nebula creatures line up to form a high-energy accelerator that can accelerate particles to the level of creation. After the accelerator is activated, the dark red nebula A brilliant aura of blinding blue light appeared."

"They were well aware of the dangers of this experiment, so they emitted the results obtained with gravitational waves while the experiment was in progress. Gravitational waves are the only information carrier that can survive vacuum decay."

"After the accelerator has been running for a period of time, vacuum decay occurs. The low-energy vacuum ball expands from the size of an atom at the speed of light, and expands to an astronomical scale in a blink of an eye. Everything inside evaporates. The expansion speed of the vacuum ball is faster than the expansion speed of the universe. Although it took a long time, it finally destroyed the entire universe."

"Long years have passed. In the empty universe, the evaporated matter slowly re-precipitated and condensed, and nebulae appeared again, but the universe was dead silent. It was not until stars and planets appeared that life re-germinated in the universe. At this time, the gravitational waves emitted by the long-destroyed nebula civilization are still reverberating in the universe, and the reappearance of physical matter makes it decay rapidly. But just before it completely disappeared, it was received by the earliest civilization in the new universe, and its The information in the belt was deciphered, and from this ancient experimental data, the new civilization obtained a grand unified model. They found that the most critical data for building the model was generated about one ten-thousandth of a second before the vacuum decay."

"Let our thoughts go back to the nebula universe that is being destroyed. Since the vacuum ball expands at the speed of light, all the civilized worlds outside the ball are outside the light cone horizon, and it is impossible to predict the arrival of the disaster. Before the vacuum ball arrives, These worlds must be attentively receiving the data generated by the accelerator. One ten-thousandth of a second after they received enough data to build a grand unified model, the vacuum ball destroyed everything. But please pay attention to one thing: the thinking frequency of nebula creatures is extremely high , One ten-thousandth of a second is quite a long time for them, so it is possible for them to deduce the grand unified model at the last moment of their lives. Of course, this may also be just a kind of self-consolation for us. It is more likely that , they did not deduce anything in the end. Nebula civilization lifted the veil of the universe, but they themselves were destroyed before they had a chance to glance at the ultimate beauty of the universe. What is more respectable is that they may have thought of it before starting the experiment. Such a result, but still decided to sacrifice himself to pass the data containing the ultimate secret of the universe to civilizations in the distant future."

"Now you should understand that the pursuit of the ultimate truth of the universe is the ultimate goal and destination of civilization."

The adventurer's narration caused everyone on and off the altar of truth to fall into long-term contemplation.Regardless of whether the world agrees with his last sentence, one thing is certain—it will have a major impact on the course of human thought and culture in the future.

The President of the United States first broke the silence and said: "You have painted a gloomy prospect for civilization. Could it be that all the efforts and hopes in the long process of life are for the moment when moths fly into the flame?"

"The moth doesn't feel dark, it enjoys at least a brief moment of light."

"It is absolutely impossible for human beings to accept such values!"

"This is completely understandable. In our universe, reborn after the decay of a vacuum, civilization is still in its infancy, and each world has its own way of life and pursues different goals. For most worlds, the pursuit of ultimate truth does not have supreme significance, and risking the destruction of the universe for this is unfair to the majority of life in the universe. Even in my own world, not all members are willing to sacrifice everything for it. Therefore, we I have not continued to conduct high-energy experiments to explore the super-unified model, and established a risk-removal system in the entire universe. But we believe that with the evolution of civilization, one day, all the worlds in the universe will agree with the ultimate goal of civilization. In fact, it is Now, even in a baby civilization like yours, some people have already agreed with this goal. Well, the time is coming, if you don’t want to trade your life for the truth, please go down and let those who want to do so come up.”

The heads of state stepped down from the altar of truth and came before the scientists to make a final effort.

The French President said: "Can it be like this, put this matter aside for a while, let me accompany you to experience another life. Let us relax, watch the night fall on the earth in the evening birdsong, in the silver Listening to nostalgic music under the moonlight, drinking fine wine and thinking about your loved ones... Then you will find that the ultimate truth is not as important as you think. Compared with the illusory and harmonious beauty of the universe you pursue, such Beauty is more intoxicating."

A physicist said coldly: "All life is reasonable, we don't have to understand each other."

What else did the French head of state want to say, but the American president lost his patience, "Okay, stop playing the piano! Can't you see what kind of irresponsible people this is? Can't you see what kind of liars this is?! They Claiming to research for the benefit of all mankind is actually just using the wealth of society to satisfy their own desires, to satisfy their perverted desires for the mysterious harmonious beauty of the universe. What is the difference between this and whoring with public funds?!"

Ding Yi squeezed forward, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a smile: "Mr. President, science has developed to this day, and finally someone has defined its essence more accurately."

Seiichi Matsuda next to him said: "We have long admitted this and stated it repeatedly, but no one has ever believed us."

exchange
The exchange of life and truth begins.

The first eight mathematicians walked up the long ramp to the Altar of Truth.At this time, there was no wind on the desert, as if nature was holding its breath.Silence enveloped everything.The rising sun cast their long shadows on the desert, and those long shadows were the only moving things in this frozen world.

The figures of the mathematicians disappeared on the altar of truth, and the people below could not see them.All listened attentively, and the first thing they heard was the voice of the adventurer from the altar—a voice that was distinct in the deathly silence.

"Please ask questions."

Then came the voice of a mathematician: "We want to see the final proof of Goldbach's conjecture."

"Okay, but the proof is very long, and the time is only enough for you to read the key parts, and explain the rest in words."

How the adventurers imparted knowledge to scientists has remained a mystery to mankind ever since.In images captured by a surveillance aircraft in the distance, scientists are all looking up at the sky, but there is nothing in the direction they are looking.One generally accepted theory is that aliens use some kind of thought waves to feed information directly into their brains.But the reality is much simpler than that - risk takers project information on the sky, and to those on the altar of truth, the entire earth's sky becomes a display screen, and nothing can be seen from outside the altar .

An hour passed, and a voice from the altar of truth broke the silence: "We're done."

Then the risk taker replied calmly: "You still have 10 minutes."

On the Altar of Truth, there were faint conversations of many people, only a few words could be heard clearly, but the excitement and joy of those people could be clearly felt, like a group of people who had been trekking through a dark tunnel for many years and suddenly saw the light at the entrance .

"...this is completely new..." "...how is it possible..." "...I used to intuitively..." "...oh my god, it's..."

When the 10 minutes were about to end, a clear voice sounded from the altar of truth: "Please accept the sincere thanks from the eight of us."

A bright light shone on the altar of truth.After the glare disappeared, the people below saw eight plasma fireballs rising from the altar, floating lightly to the heights.Their luminosity gradually weakened, from bright yellow to soft orange, and finally disappeared into the blue sky one by one, the whole process was silent.From the surveillance plane, only the survivors are left standing in the center of the circle on the altar of truth.

"Next batch!" he yelled.

Under the gaze of tens of thousands of people, another eleven people stepped onto the altar of truth.

"Please ask questions."

"We are paleontologists who want to know the real reason why the dinosaurs died out on Earth."

The paleontologists began to look up at the sky, but it took much less time than the mathematicians just now. Soon someone said to the adventurers: "We know, thank you!"

"You still have 10 minutes."

"...Okay, the jigsaw puzzle is matched..." "...I would never have thought of that in my dreams..." "...Is there anything more..."

Then the bright light appeared and disappeared, and eleven fireballs floated from the altar of truth, and quickly disappeared over the desert.

……

Batch after batch of scientists stepped onto the altar of truth, completed the exchange of life and truth, and turned into beautiful fireballs in the strong light and drifted away.

All is done in solemnity and serenity.Under the altar of truth, the expected parting of life and death did not appear.People all over the world watched this magnificent scene quietly, and their hearts were deeply shocked.Human beings are experiencing the greatest soul baptism in history.

A day passed without knowing it, and the sun had already set halfway on the western horizon, and the setting sun sprinkled a layer of golden light on the altar of truth.Physicists began to make their way to the altar. They were the largest group, with 86 people.Just when the group of people had just walked up the ramp, the silence that had lasted from sunrise until now was broken by a child's voice.

"Father!" Wen Wen cried and rushed out from the crowd on the lawn, ran to the front of the ramp, rushed into the group of physicists, and hugged Ding Yi's leg, "Dad, I won't let you become Fly away into a fireball!"

Ding Yi gently picked up her daughter and asked her: "Wenwen, tell Dad, what is the most uncomfortable thing you can remember?"

Wenwen sobbed and thought for a few seconds, and said: "I have been growing up in the desert, and I most... want to go to the zoo. Last time my father went to the south for a meeting, he took me to a big zoo over there, but just entered , your phone rang, saying that there is an urgent matter at work. It is a wild animal park, and children must be accompanied by adults to enter. I had no choice but to go back with you, and you never had time to take me there again. Dad, this It was the hardest thing for me. I cried on the plane back."

Ding Yi said: "But, good boy, you will definitely have the opportunity to go to that zoo in the future. Mom will take Wenwen there in the future. Dad is also at the gate of a big zoo now, and there are also magical animals that Dad wants to see in his dreams." things, and if Dad doesn’t go this time, he really won’t have another chance in the future.”

Wenwen stared blankly at his father for a while with big teary eyes, then nodded and said, "Then...then father can go."

Fang Lin walked over, took her daughter from Ding Yi's arms, looked at the altar of truth standing in front of her and said, "Wenwen, your dad is the worst dad in the world, but he really wants to go to that zoo."

Ding Yi stared at the ground, and said in an almost begging tone, "Yes, Wenwen, Dad really wants to go."

Fang Lin looked at Ding Yi with cold eyes and said: "Cold-blooded elementary particles, go and complete your final collision. Remember, I will never let your daughter become a physicist!"

The group was about to turn and walk away when another female voice stopped them again.

"Matsuda-kun, if you go up again, I will die in front of you!"

It was a petite and beautiful Japanese girl who was speaking. She was standing on the grass at the beginning of the ramp, with a small silver pistol pressed against her temple.

Seiichi Matsuda walked out from the group of physicists, walked up to the girl, looked her in the eyes and said, "Izumi, do you still remember that cold morning in Hokkaido? You said you were going to make a debut question to test whether I really love you." You. You asked me what would I do if your face was burned out of shape in the fire? I said I would be faithful to you for the rest of my life. You were disappointed when you heard that answer and said I wasn't real I love you; if I really love you, I will blind my eyes and let a beautiful spring stay in my heart forever."

Quanzi's hand holding the gun did not move, but her beautiful eyes were filled with tears.

Matsuda Seiichi continued: "So, dear, you know the importance of beauty to a person's life. Now, the ultimate beauty of the universe is in front of me, can I not look at her?"

"If you take another step up, I'll shoot you!"

Makoto Matsuda smiled at her and said softly, "Izumi, see you in heaven." Then he turned and walked down the ramp to the altar of truth with other physicists.The crisp gunshots behind him, the sound of brains splashing on the grass, and the sound of a soft body falling to the ground did not make him turn his head.

Physicists went up to the round top of the altar of truth.In the center of the circle, the adventurers greeted them with a smile.Suddenly, the sunset sky disappeared, the sunset on the horizon disappeared, and the desert and grass disappeared.The Altar of Truth is suspended in the endless black space, this is the night before the creation of the world, without a single star.The adventurer waved in one direction, and the physicists saw a golden star in a distant black abyss.It was too small to see clearly at first, and then gradually enlarged from a bright spot, and began to take on area and shape.They saw that it was a spiral galaxy drifting here.The galaxy grew rapidly, showing its majestic momentum.When they got closer, they found that the stars in the galaxy were all numbers and symbols, and the equations they formed constituted the rows of waves in this golden sea of ​​stars.

Slowly and majestically, the Grand Unified Model of the Universe moves past physicists.

……

When 86 fireballs rose from the altar of truth, Fang Lin's eyes went dark and she fell on the grass.She vaguely heard Wenwen's voice: "Mom, which one of those is father?"

The last person to go to the altar of truth was Stephen Hawking.His electric wheelchair moves slowly up the long ramp like an insect crawling on a tree branch.His limp body, which seemed to have been stripped of bones, slumped in the wheelchair, like a candle softened by the high temperature and about to melt.

The wheelchair finally drove up to the altar, and drove in front of the adventurers on the open circular surface.At this time, the sun had set for a while, scattered stars appeared in the dark blue sky, and the desert and grass around the altar were blurred.

"Doctor, your question?" the adventurer asked.He doesn't seem to show any more respect for Hawking than he does for others.With a nondescript smile on his face, he listened to the dull electronic voice of the loudspeaker in the doctor's wheelchair: "What is the purpose of the universe?"

No answer appeared in the sky.The smile on the adventurer's face disappeared, and a hint of imperceptible panic flickered in his eyes.

"Sir?" Hawking asked.

Still silent.The sky is still empty, and behind a few wisps of thin cloud on Earth, the stars of the universe are emerging.

"Sir?" Hawking asked again.

"Doctor, the exit is behind you," said the adventurer.

"Is that the answer?"

The risk taker shook his head, "I mean you can go back."

"You do not know?"

The adventurer nodded and said, "I don't know." At this time, for the first time, his face was no longer a graphic symbol.A black cloud of sorrow hung over the face, so vivid and full of character that no one doubted that he was a human being, and a most ordinary and therefore most extraordinary ordinary person.

"How do I know?" the adventurer murmured.

end
One night 15 years later, in the former Taklamakan Desert that has been turned into a grassland, a mother and daughter are talking.My mother is in her 40s, but the gray hair has appeared on her temples prematurely.From those weather-beaten eyes, apart from sadness, it is tiredness.The daughter is a slender young girl with starlight shining in her big and clear eyes.

My mother sat down on the soft grass, stared at the blurred horizon and said, "Wenwen, you applied for the physics department of your father's alma mater, and now you want to study for a doctorate in quantum gravity. Mom didn't stop you." You can become a theoretical physicist, and even take this subject as your only spiritual sustenance, but, Wenwen, please, please, don't cross that line!"

Looking up at the splendid Milky Way, Wenwen said, "Mom, can you imagine that all this came from a singularity with no size 200 billion years ago? The universe has already crossed that line."

Fang Lin stood up, grabbed her daughter's shoulder and said, "Son, please don't do this!"

Wenwen was still staring at the starry sky, motionless.

"Wenwen, are you listening to your mother? What's wrong with you?!" Fang Lin shook her daughter.

Wenwen's gaze was still attracted by the sea of ​​stars and could not be taken back. She stared at the stars and asked, "Mom, what is the purpose of the universe?"

"Ah... no—" Fang Lin collapsed completely, and sat down on the grass again, covering her face with her hands and sobbing, "Son, don't, don't do this!"

Wenwen finally looked away, knelt down to support her mother's shoulders, and asked softly: "So, mother, what is the purpose of life?"

This question was like a piece of ice, which immediately cooled Fang Lin's burning heart.She turned her head and glanced at her daughter, then looked into the distance and thought deeply. Fifteen years ago, in the direction she was looking at, there was an altar of truth.Even earlier, Einstein's equator passed through the desert.

When the breeze blows, ripples appear on the sea of ​​grass, like an endless sea of ​​turbulent people under the starry sky, singing silently to the whole universe.

"I don't know, how would I know?" Fang Lin murmured.

Published in the first issue of "Science Fiction World" in 2002

Received the 2002 (14th) Galaxy Award Reader Nomination Award
(End of this chapter)