There are no other customers in the snack bar at present, and Uncle Li and his wife are sitting and chatting with each other, sighing and discussing the issue of revenue. At first, they were very enthusiastic about buying this restaurant, but they didn't expect that the business had not improved, and it was difficult to attract customers from other restaurants in the surrounding area.

When they saw Zhang Zi'an coming in with another guest, they hurriedly got up to greet him.

Before it was time to eat, Zhang Zi'an only needed two glasses of orange juice.

After serving the orange juice, they retreated.

If it weren't for the chance encounter with Meng Li in the library that day, if it weren't for Meng Li's prompting, Zhang Zi'an would not have found the nameless book from the vast sea of books in time, and then Meng Li left first, and he has been haunted by this question. Today, he met Meng Li again, and he definitely couldn't miss this opportunity to find out.

Meng Li didn't have a deep impression of the events of that day, and only remembered after being reminded by Zhang Zi'an, and said with a sigh: "It turned out to be that incident...... Is Store Manager Zhang really studying mathematics?"

"I'm a little interested. Zhang Zi'an said vaguely, "Mr. Meng, how did you know that the book was hidden in the reference book area?"

"Hidden in the reference book area?" Meng Li was stunned and corrected: "No, no, you misunderstood." I mean, if there was such a book about life, the universe, and everything, it would be in the reference book section — just hypothetically, a book like this can't exist in reality, right? Could it be that you actually found a book like that?"

The accent of his speech is placed on the words "assume" and "should".

"Not really, it's just a slip of the tongue. Zhang Zi'an said perfunctorily, trying to cover up the past, "Mr. Meng, is there any origin or source of this book? How do you conclude that it will be in the reference book area?"

Meng Li smiled confidently, "Assuming that such a book exists, I can conclude that it will not only be in the reference book area, but also that it should be placed on the shelves with various dictionaries." ”

it!

Zhang Zi'an was shocked!

It's amazing!

Meng Li was obviously not at the scene that day, but he seemed to have witnessed the process of Zhang Zi'an finding the nameless book from a pile of English dictionaries.

Zhang Zi'an became more and more curious, knowing that Meng Li intended to sell Guanzi, so he said cooperatively: "Teacher Meng, can you pinch the calculation and predict the prophet?"

"Where, how can I have that kind of ability. Meng Li restrained his smile and said, "Store Manager Zhang, I don't know if you've heard of Hyperebster?"

"What?"

Zhang Zi'an was stunned when he heard it, and he couldn't scour out the word from his memory even after racking his brains.

Meng Li explained: "Hyperebster, which translates into Chinese as the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary, is a thought experiment proposed by the famous mathematician and science fiction scientist Dr. Ian Stewart. What this thought experiment means is that suppose there is a dictionary whose contents are 26 letters, beginning with A and ending with an infinite number of Zs, like this—"

For ease of understanding, he took out a napkin, laid it flat on the dining table, and wrote on the paper with the marker pen he had with him:

A，AA，AAA，AAAA......

AB，ABA，ABAA，ABAAA......

AC，ACA，ACAA，ACAAA......

......

Z，ZA，ZAA，ZAAA......

ZB，ZBA，ZBAA，ZBAAA......

......

ZZ，ZZZ，ZZZZ，ZZZZZ......

Zhang Zi'an looked confused, but he found that the order of the letters seemed to be very similar to what he saw in the nameless book.

Meng Li pushed the napkin to him, put down the pen and said, "You know what this means? This means that the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary contains all possible letter combinations, and it also contains all English words, whether it is an English word that has already appeared, or a new word that will only appear in the next few hundred years or thousands of years, all in the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary." For example, zidecuz is not a word and is not currently included in any dictionary. Whoever writes the word will certainly be considered a misspelling, but perhaps one year in the future, the word will be given a certain meaning, and people will be surprised to find that the word has already been included in the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary...... Suppose such a dictionary really exists. ”

Meng Li drank a few sips of orange juice to moisten his throat, and by the way, let Zhang Zi'an digest his words.

Zhang Zi'an stared at the strange monogram on the napkin, trying to keep up with Meng Li's thinking.

After a while, Meng Li said: "Not only that, but since this dictionary contains all possible English words, these words may also form all possible entries—the answers to all the unsolved mysteries in history, all the people and everything in the world, can theoretically be found in this dictionary." These entries may go on to form every possible paragraph, from the first clumsy essay written by a beginner in English in some corner of the world, to the Declaration of Independence, to the English version of The Dream of the Red Chamber, to the complete works of Shakespeare, to the Encyclopædia Britannica, to all the books in English in the Library of Congress, to all the splendid essays written by a great writer in the future, who was not yet born......"

Speaking of this, Meng Li's tone changed, became very relaxed, and said with a smile: "But it's ...... Now you can understand that the content of this dictionary is infinite, there is a beginning but no end, and there are more letters in it than all the atoms in the universe, because the total number of atoms in the universe is finite, while the letters in the dictionary are infinite...... This book can only stay in people's imagination, it can never appear in the real world, even if all the time in the universe is exhausted, all the atoms in the universe are exhausted, it is impossible to finish this dictionary. ”

"My life has an end, but the book has no end......" Zhang Zi'an muttered.

"What?"

Zhang Zi'an's voice was very low, and Meng Li didn't hear it clearly.

"No, nothing. Zhang Zi'an waved his hand, "I'm just a little confused." ”

Meng Li nodded and picked up the orange juice, "It's normal, this is originally a thought experiment that few people know about except for mathematics, unlike Schrödinger's cat, which is well-known and talked about by the public...... So, when you told me that you were looking for a book about life, the universe, and everything, I immediately thought of Super Merriam-Webster. Actually, I'm joking with you, and in hindsight, I'm worried that I've misled you, and I'm afraid that you will believe it and find the wrong book, then my sin will be great...... By the way, which book were you looking for?"

Zhang Zi'an smiled, "It's actually a science fiction book, the third part of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy written by Douglas Adams, called "Life, the Universe and Everything." ”

"I see. Meng Li suddenly said, "I rarely read science fiction, no wonder I haven't heard of it...... What a shame!"