Chapter 89: Reflections in the Library_1

The division of a single hierarchy may not be applicable in the Three-Body universe.

Whether it's energy or rules, in this universe, the speed of light is a threshold for a civilization. Stepping into light speed means having a basic ability to save one's life, at least not being threatened by Two-dimensional foil and light particle strikes.

As for other methods of attack by advanced civilizations, Qin Ming still couldn't fathom, he could only rely on imagination; perhaps it would be rule weapons, death lines, or Gravitational Wave Weapons, field weapons, frame of reference weapons.

At that moment, Qin Ming suddenly thought of a civilization that had been wiped out by the Trisolarans in the original plot—the Magic Eye civilization.

A God Rank civilization that existed in a proton 9-dimensional universe, this civilization understood the rules of the proton universe almost to the level of gods. Right after the entire proton universe was forced into three dimensions, they were the first to detect the strike from outside the universe and manipulated the entire proton universe-formed Solar Lens to attack the Three-Body civilization.

A hint was revealed in the method of attack: the rules of the proton universe should be the same as those in the three-dimensional world.

The response of the Magic Eye civilization at the time was still debatable; the flow of time in the proton universe and the macroscopic three-dimensional universe might be vastly different. A second in the Three-Body World could be an eternity in the proton world, and the destruction process might be extremely slow for the worlds inside the proton.

No matter the process, the Magic Eye civilization was ultimately destroyed in an instant. Even though it could manipulate the entire universe for a counterattack, in the macroscopic three-dimensional world, it was still just a microscopic proton, too small in scale, and its counterattack against the macroscopic world was as futile as a mayfly shaking a tree.

To give an inappropriate analogy:

You, in sage mode, are formatting a hard drive, and after six times you still haven't noticed this folder.

Yet, after being formatted eight times, the folder was still able to harness the entire hard drive's capability to overload and arc, and through the webcam, it observed you sitting on the other side of the room and precisely controlled the electric arc to strike your head.

And in frustration, you smashed the hard drive with a hammer.

As to the situation of both sides at that time, Qin Ming could now only imagine from the few words and phrases in the original text.

Magic Eye civilization, a nine-dimensional God Rank civilization, possessed rules that were much more powerful than that of the Three-Body, yet fell due to its energy level.

The division into levels by rules and energy might not be accurate in the Three-Body universe.

The physical rules of each dimension might very well differ, just like when a person steps into a two-dimensional world, a two-dimensional footprint appears in the universe. Two-dimensional beings cheer this as a new discovery, but no matter how they study it, they only see a fraction of the whole; conjectures made to solve the problem cannot be proven either.

Because to prove a conjecture, one must conduct experiments in the three-dimensional world for it to succeed.

Therefore, the scientific theories of three-dimensional space might not be applicable in higher-dimensional spaces, but there are certainly commonalities, albeit not perfect.

Just like relativity and Newtonian mechanics, the emergence of relativity did not overturn Newton's classical mechanics, it simply perfected and encompassed it,

In three-dimensional space, relativity applies to both high and low speeds, but Newtonian mechanics is limited, applicable only at low speeds.

By the same logic, relativity is applicable in three-dimensional space but likely has limitations in higher-dimensional spaces.

Thinking this through, Qin Ming reached a conclusion:

The theoretical knowledge held by the God Rank civilizations, which have dimensionally reduced from eleven-dimensional space to the present, from the unlimited near-light speed of the Pastoral Age to the fixed light speed of three hundred thousand kilometers per second in three-dimensional space, should be the most universally applicable and objective laws of the universe, applicable from higher to lower dimensions.

In the Three-Body universe, the speed of light in the highest 11 dimensions is almost infinite. According to Einstein's mass-energy equation, E=mc², when the speed of light is infinitely large, an object's energy is also almost infinite, and so is its mass.

This clearly does not conform to logic; relativity should be encompassed by another theory at 11 dimensions.

Speaking of relativity, mass, and energy—in his previous life, he still believed that mass and energy were one and the same, merely manifesting in different forms, capable of being converted through the mass-energy equation. But now it seems quite possible that this is incorrect.

Mass is not actually equal to energy; the mass-energy equation, to be precise, is a formula that describes the relationship between mass and energy.

Nuclear fusion and fission release the nuclear power within atoms, simply transforming a portion of energy from rest mass into momentum. The result of this conversion is that the particles have particularly great momentum after the reaction, move very swiftly, and have immense destructive power.

Matter and antimatter annihilate into pure energy; take electrons and positrons, for example, which actually just become a pair of photons. Photons have no rest mass, so if the original electron and positron were at rest, then this is just the transformation of energy from rest mass entirely into momentum.

The opposite process, where pure energy transforms into mass—like when a pair of high-energy photons create an electron-positron pair under certain conditions—is simply the transformation of energy from momentum into rest mass.

Looking at the conservation of energy from another angle, it's essentially the conservation of momentum.

Energy and mass are both properties of matter, and properties are dependent on matter; energy and information cannot exist independently of matter and require matter as a medium.

Of course, rest mass is not the mass at rest but invariant mass, which reflects the Lorentz covariance of an object's mass.

When pondering the issue of rest, Qin Ming's thoughts leap from relativity to quantum mechanics.

Absolute zero, absolute stillness, appears to be non-existent at present, as it violates the uncertainty principle: an observer cannot simultaneously determine a particle's momentum and position.

Particles, in a sense, exist in space as probability cloud wave functions.

Electrons orbiting a charged atomic nucleus are not as described in middle and high school physics, circling in an orbit like Earth around the sun, but are instead randomly distributed in energy levels, existing in the form of a probability cloud. This is also the principle of quantum tunneling, which presents a probability of occurrence.

Theoretically, if all the atoms in a human body were to experience quantum tunneling, it would be possible to walk through walls. However, the chances are virtually none because, compared to microscopic particles, they have a much larger Planck constant.

While contemplating quantum mechanics, Qin Ming seemed to faintly touch upon an inspiration for how to sense Sophon surveillance.

The two pillars of modern physics, quantum mechanics, and relativity, have resolved the classical physics theories of ether and blackbody radiation's ultraviolet catastrophe, yet new theories bring new problems, casting dark clouds over modern physics.

Dark energy, dark matter, the neutrino effect, Hawking radiation from black holes, event horizons, the composition, and physical properties of neutron stars and even the sun—humanity has not yet understood these.

In the face of these issues, Qin Ming, based on his existing knowledge and his own understanding, proposed many conjectures and hypotheses in his mind. However, without experimental results to verify them, they remain but armchair strategies, castles in the air.

The conditions for experimentation are not currently met in the Three-Body World, as Sophons have blocked the particle collider.

Even if they hadn't been blocked, humans at present do not have the capacity. His conjectures and hypotheses would require experiments using one or more galaxies to yield results for proof.

This is an impossible task to complete before humanity steps into a light-speed interstellar civilization.