The cocker spaniel brought by Meng Li was well trained, and after entering the store, he did not run around and bark, but lay quietly on the floor, sniffled, and looked at the back kitchen of the snack bar with big eyes, where the aroma of frying and frying wafted from there.

Zhang Zi'an took two sips of orange juice and stared at the letter arrangement on the napkin and thought silently.

Since he talked about science fiction, he remembered the one he had read before, so he said: "Mr. Meng, I wonder if you have read a very short fantasy called "The Book of Sand"?"

"The Book of Sand?"

This time it was Meng Li's turn to be stunned, and he was bending down to comb the cocker spaniel's hair. Cocker spaniels have excessively long hair, and they are naturally prone to curling and clumping at the slightest word, and need to be groomed frequently or they will look sloppy. In addition to studying, another job of the graduate students he took was to comb the dogs, and he often laughed at himself for playing cotton......

After Meng Li recalled it slightly, he was sure that the name was very unfamiliar, and he should not have seen it.

"Like I said, I rarely read science fiction, and I usually read books related to mathematics, after all, I have to live to learn all the time, and if I don't pay attention, I will be eliminated by the times. He laughed, "Is this Book of Sand interesting?"

"No, although it's called 'The Book of Sand', it's not a 'book', it's an ultra-short fantasy of only 2,000 words, written by the Argentine writer Jorge Borges, which is one of his masterpieces. Zhang Zi'an explained that this is a science fiction that he has seen for a long time, because it is short, incisive and shocking, and he still remembers it deeply.

"Oh?" Meng Li became a little interested, "In mathematics, simplicity is often beauty. This is only 2,000 words, but it can become a masterpiece of a writer? What is it about?"

Zhang Zi'an briefly described this fantasy to him while reminiscing.

At the beginning of "The Book of Sand", the ordinary protagonist lives in an ordinary house. One day, a stranger with a small suitcase arrived. The stranger is a salesman for the Bible, but the protagonist has several Bibles and is not interested. The stranger then took out another book, which was not a Bible, and had the Holy Book written on the cover.

After the protagonist opens the holy book, he finds that the page numbers of the holy book are very strange, not in order, but randomly arranged in random order, and the most important thing is that the page numbers of this holy book are endless, no matter how you turn it, you can't turn the beginning, you can't turn the end, there will always be new pages out of thin air, and it comes with illustrations like a dictionary.

The stranger said that he had bought the book from a village, and the seller called it the "Book of Sand" because it had no beginning or end like sand.

The book is obviously very eccentric, but the stranger is willing to sell it to the protagonist for a relatively low price, because he has long wanted to get rid of it.

When the protagonist gets this book, he also becomes its captive, and because he cherishes it so much, he never leaves it, and he hardly goes out of it, and because he has developed an incomparably strong interest in it, he studies it day and night, and he can't sleep at night, and occasionally falls asleep, and dreams of it.

Like the stranger, the protagonist realizes that he will be doomed if he continues like this, so he also decides to get rid of this nightmare.

Speaking of which, Zhang Zi'an learned from Meng Li and asked, "Teacher Meng, can you guess how the protagonist gets rid of this book?"

Meng Li was completely attracted by this bizarre story, stopped grooming the cocker spaniel, and tried to guess, "Is it also sold to someone else like a stranger?"

Zhang Zi'an smiled, "He used a smarter method - hiding trees in the forest." He secretly placed the book on a shelf in the National Library, which has a collection of 900,000 volumes, and tried not to remember which shelf it was, and then he didn't even go to the street where the library was located. ”

Meng Li patted the table lightly in admiration, "Sure enough, it's a good way! If you do this, that Book of Sand will not see the light of day, unless some unlucky person happens to pick it up with a 1 in 900,000 chance!"

Zhang Zi'an smiled bitterly - the unlucky guy is sitting in front of you, and he invited you to drink a glass of orange juice.

He remembered that when π first came to the pet store, he used to make a gesture of grabbing sand, and at that time he guessed that this meant the sand of the Ganges, but he was wrong?

"That's the end of the story?" Meng asked intently.

Zhang Zi'an nodded, "It's over, leaving a reverie-inducing ending." Mr. Meng, is this "Book of Sand" very similar to "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary"?"

Meng Li said: "It's really similar, but the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary is more rigorous and has a beginning." ”

Zhang Zi'an also admits this, after all, "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary" is a scientific hypothesis, and "The Book of Sand" is a literary fantasies, but they coincide in some aspects.

"Whether it's the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary or the Book of Sand, if they exist, they should be very precious, right? It can be regarded as the most powerful book on the earth? If there were other civilizations in the universe, would they come up with even more powerful books?" he asked.

He remembered that Xinghai had said that the Nameless Book was the most powerful book on Earth, but it was not the most powerful book in the universe.

Meng Li smiled: "Awesome? Of course it is." However, both books have limitations, and the limitation is that they are both written in English, limited by 26 English letters, and some things may not be expressed in 26 English letters. If a civilization in the universe had a more complete language system, their utopian "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary" would be even more powerful. ”

Zhang Zi'an nodded, which confirmed Xinghai's words.

"Mr. Meng, what would you do if you got this Book of Sand, or Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary?" he asked tentatively.

Meng Li was drinking orange juice, and suddenly stopped his movements when he heard the words.

"Either of these two books should not exist in reality, how can you get it?" he asked rhetorically with the rigidity of a science student.

"What if, what if you get it?" Zhang Zi'an emphasized.

"Well...... Meng Li thought for a while, "If I get the Book of Sand, I should also read it, as for whether I will be as addicted to it as the protagonist of the story...... I'm not sure, but it's probably possible, after all, the thirst for knowledge is something that many people have, but if you get the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary...... It's hard to say.,The words in it may be out of order.,Then even if I can't read it, I can't understand it.,Maybe turn it over to the country.。 ”

He said half-jokingly.

That's my other question. Zhang Zi'an ignored his little joke, but grabbed his words and asked further: "If the words in the Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary are arranged out of order, then how can you assert that it contains all knowledge and splendid articles?"

Meng Li groaned: "This is only theoretical, but this hypothesis is only an illusion after all, and it does not take into account the difficulty of reading......

Zhang Zi'an said again: "Teacher Meng, have you heard this sentence - I have an end in life, but there is no end to my knowledge?"

"Yes, even though I'm a math guy, I still know what to call for such a name. Meng Li smiled, "The meaning of this sentence is that life is limited, but knowledge is unlimited. But does this sentence have anything to do with the "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary" and "Book of Sand" we are talking about?"

"Yes, and it has a lot to do with it. Zhang Zi'an said with certainty, "Teacher Meng, do you know what the second half of this sentence is?"

"This ......" Meng Li was asked.

The first half of this sentence is so famous that it is often overlooked by the second half of it. Many famous sayings are like this, people take them out of context according to their own needs, and forcibly distort their original meanings, such as "parents are here, do not travel far" is often used to educate filial sons, but there is a second half of the original text of Confucius and his old man, "There must be a way to travel".

"The second half of the sentence is - there is no end with no end, and it is gone!" Zhang Zi'an asked and answered.

Meng Li chewed the second half of the sentence carefully, then compared it with the first half of the sentence, and said uncertainly: "I am not very good at ancient texts, and the second half of this sentence is to say that the pursuit of infinity with finite is bound to fail?"

"That's right. ”

"The words of the ancestors still have their philosophies to this day. Meng Li sighed.

"I think so too. Zhang Zi'an echoed casually. This is actually his introspection, and he has somewhat understood something.

That nameless book, whether it is the "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary" or the "Book of Sand", or the utopian book belonging to other civilizations in the universe, it is infinite, and people are limited, and seeking the infinite with the limited is bound to fail, so no single human being can read the nameless book. When he opened the nameless book and tried to read it, he made the mistake of "seeking the infinite with the finite".

The protagonist of The Book of Sand, due to his extreme thirst for knowledge, makes the same mistake by failing to understand that knowledge is infinite and that his time is limited.

Exactly: I have an end to my life, and I know no end;

Unless......

Meng Li also thought of this, "Limited people can't read infinite books, unless people are also infinite, there are countless people who read the "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary" at the same time, seeking infinity from infinity, and everyone extracts meaningful words at the same time, and concatemates them into entries and articles......"

"But how can there be an infinite number of people? He shook his head and sighed.

No, it actually makes sense, Zhang Zi said silently in peace of mind.

He knew why Xinghai could read the nameless book, because Xinghai had experienced countless cycles of life and death and had the attribute of "infinite".

Feimas has been experiencing the cycle of life and death with Xinghai for a long time in the mental image world, and has also touched the edge of "infinity", so it can see vague handwriting.

π can understand it, it must be because it also has the attribute of "infinity".

Only by seeking infinity with infinity can we understand nameless books.