In that era of excitement, human beings explored the way of life with a hundredfold fanaticism, and progress was inevitably accompanied by mistakes and mistakes. The Goldfish's "tail as the head" is one of the most dramatic scenes – fortunately, it doesn't end in tragedy.

——Excerpt from "A Hundred Years of Collecting Shellfish", written by Yu Leshui

1

Alex was right, his experimental ship carried too much hope, too much star. For this purpose, the global press launched a small news spacecraft, positioned above the "Goldfish". The news spacecraft has five camera satellites, which can be remotely controlled by the mother ship to adjust its position and attitude, so that the Goldfish will have a pair of eyes on the up, down, left, right, front and back of the "Goldfish" -- indirectly seven billion pairs of eyes -- staring at it closely. In addition, the Goldfish is equipped with enough cameras in the cabin to take close-up shots of the people.

At the moment, the "Goldfish" is in a synchronous orbit 36,000 kilometers above the surface of the earth, rotating at a synchronous speed of 3.1 kilometers per second. Relative to the synchronously rotating surface of the Earth, it is stationary, resting over the equatorial Halmahera space site. A total of four laser velocimeters are on the ground and on geostationary satellites facing it. When the spacecraft is ignited, if its altitude gradually increases as the speed increases, it means that the experiment has been successful. At this moment, it was dawn, and the sun had not yet appeared behind the earth, but it had already sprinkled a soft light into the space, and the curved earth was studded with bright gold edges. Judging from the camera lens under the spacecraft, the background of the "Goldfish" is a dark blue cosmic canopy, and hundreds of millions of small stars are embedded in the canopy, quietly rotating slowly. The Goldfish is about to swim in the dark blue sky, just like a whale in the blue ocean.

Alex and his assistant Ji Jichang are now on the Goldfish, and there are four crew members in the engine room - the engine room is just the customary name, referring to the fusion reactor on the spacecraft that has been miniaturized. There was still a lot of risk in this experiment, so Alex kept the number of people on board as small as possible. He Zizhou once had an argument with him about who would get on the ship to operate, but Alex refused with one sentence:

"I'm the first person in charge of the project, so I have to show the courage to sacrifice my life."

As a principle experimental spacecraft, the structure of the "Goldfish" is as simple as possible, and many equipment will be installed at a later stage, so in addition to the engine room, the huge spherical cabin is empty, and only one control station stands alone in the front of the cabin. In the footage of the simultaneous live broadcast, the two entered the cabin, closed the hatch, took off their spacesuits, activated the safety lock of the console, and prepared for ignition. The global live broadcast was co-hosted by Ye Zhiqiu, a famous Chinese male anchor, and Judy Turner, a famous American female anchor, and the host words were spoken in English, Chinese and Spanish. At this time, it was Ye Zhiqiu's magnetic baritone who was explaining:

“…… The teriona-electron-volt accelerator on board the spacecraft has been activated, and in about ten minutes, the first pair of protons and antiprotons will collide in the center of the fishtail at the rear of the spacecraft, converting space into a ten-millionth of a second of light pulse. Tens of millions of collisions per second will create a continuous stream of bright lights that propel the ship forward. At this moment, I have been commissioned by Mr. Alex to appeal to all of you to look at this experiment with peace of mind. According to theoretical calculations, the driving force obtained by the spacecraft is very small, because it is only driven by light pressure and not by working fluid jets, and it may take several weeks of acceleration to have obvious effects, and it may even fail completely. Of course, any failure will not stop humanity, but only slightly slow it down. Here, we sincerely wish the experiment success – and in the unlikely event that the results do not meet expectations, we ask everyone to take it as if they were to be taken seriously. ”

Judy immediately said, "But we believe it will work!" ”

"The ship is about to ignite, now start the one-minute countdown."

In the command hall in Sanya, China, the chief commander of the experiment, He Zizhou, gave the order for a one-minute countdown, and with the sound of the computer's even counting, hundreds of staff members stared at the screens in front of them, while the earth's seven billion pairs of eyes stared closely at the "Goldfish" hanging in space through each screen and through the cameras around the spacecraft.

“…… 5，4，3，2，1。 Ignition! ”

A soft white light appeared at the tail of the spacecraft for an instant. It is made up of ten-millionths of a second of light pulses, but the frequency is as high as tens of millions of times per second, so it appears to the naked eye to be continuous. The light reflects off the concave parabola of the stern, forming a horizontal and backward column of intense light. In front of countless TV screens around the world, the first wave of applause erupted in the first wave of applause, because they were already experts, knowing that as long as the light behind the spaceship could continue to exist, it was equivalent to winning the battle.

"Look! The spaceship is moving! Ye Zhiqiu and Judy shouted at the same time, and this passionate announcement flew to the world with the radio waves. True, the ship is already visibly moving. "The spaceship is moving, please refer to the background!" The scene cuts to the canopy captured by the camera below the ship. It is evident that the ship has increased the speed of a slide relative to the rotating canopy. Seven billion viewers burst into applause, it seems that Alex entrusted Ye Zhiqiu to make a declaration that was too cautious! He said that "it may take weeks of acceleration to have a noticeable effect", but in fact, after only ten seconds, the acceleration of the ship is already obvious!

Inside the "Goldfish", when the hull produced the first wave of soft shaking, Alex was also pleasantly surprised like the common people. They feel a tendency to fall backwards, very slightly, as if there is no acceleration, because the acceleration caused by the light pressure is too small. He glanced at the accelerometer, which showed the acceleration at this moment: 0.0002g, which corresponds to the excitation intensity at this time. But he soon discovered the anomaly: with the ground as a reference, the ship was clearly in motion—not forward, but backward, exactly in the opposite direction of acceleration! Of course, this is just an illusion, it is impossible for the ship to move backwards with the stern drive, and there are no cars and ships on the ship! He looked at the accelerometer again, and it was still positive. He used the intercom to ask the assistant in charge of monitoring on the ground:

"Report the spacecraft parameters now! Is it backing down?! ”

"Yes! The ship is visibly retreating! As of this point, the speed has dropped by 0.4 percent. ”[1]

Ji Jichang interjected eagerly: "Is there any abnormality in the attitude adjustment vent of the bow?" "The only possibility of negative acceleration is for the bow attitude adjustment nozzle to accidentally ignite and jet forward.

"Nope. They didn't start unexpectedly. "Ground assistant reports.

Alex cursed, what the! After a moment's thought, he reported to the ground command post: "Commander-in-chief, I will increase the intensity of spatial excitation, pay attention to the observation of motion parameters. ”

He Zizhou said: "Okay, if there is any abnormality, I will notify you immediately." ”

Alex gradually increased the power of the particle collider until it reached its maximum, and the luminosity of the ship's tail increased significantly, and the length of the beam of light dragged longer on the dark blue canopy, propelling the ship forward with greater force. The accelerometer display value has increased tenfold, and the two people on the "Goldfish" can already clearly feel the inertia of falling backwards, but the result is still so unbelievable. Observers on the ground nervously report:

“…… The ship's slowdown is getting worse! The speed of the ship has dropped by 1.6 percent. Note that due to the decrease in the speed of the ship, the height of the ship has already begun to decrease. The captain is advised to stop the experiment immediately! ”

The ship's state is unstable when the ship decreases its speed, and it will gradually fall to the ground in a long spiral, and the downward trend will intensify as the altitude decreases. Alex stopped firing, and in the midst of seven billion pairs of eyes, the white light behind the spaceship suddenly went out. At this point, the ship's position had already slid backwards over Halmahera, to the west of the island, and the altitude was slightly reduced. Then, the bow and stern of the spacecraft suddenly lit up with a blue light, which was the attitude adjustment vent at work. Driven by sixteen vents, the ship slowly increased its speed, crawled forward and climbed upwards, returning to its original state, where it hung silently relative to the rotating surface of the earth.

The entire planet fell silent, and seven billion viewers stared nervously at the motionless spaceship on the screen, staring at the slowly rotating canopy in the background. Alex on the spaceship and He Zizhou on the ground nervously discussed countermeasures in the intercom. The command post staff carefully checked all the observations, and everything was normal. But—like an invisible hand putting a minus sign on the ship, turning what should have been a forward motion into a backward one. Just then, the ground command post received a brief call from the deserted "Human Egg Island":

"Commander He, it is recommended to simply let the spacecraft try to fly upside down."

He Zizhou immediately replied: "Okay, thank you." ”

This contingency was obviously the only thing that should be taken, but - the point was that the situation was so incredible that the forward driving force actually pulled the ship backwards! Under the inertia of thinking, He Zizhou and Alex couldn't make a new decision immediately, and now Chu Tianle's words helped them get out of their hesitation.

Alex and Ji Jichang immediately began to adjust their postures. Blue flames erupted from the bow and stern of the Goldfish, both perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the ship, but the front and rear flames were reversed. So, with the ship's center of gravity as the axis, the "Goldfish" began to slowly turn around in space. After it had turned one hundred and eighty degrees and stabilized again in a horizontal position, Alex said, "The spacecraft cannot observe the front in the upside-down state, please pay attention to the ground observation station." ”

"Okay."

"Now I'm asking for a fire."

"Agree to ignition. I wish you success. ”

The ship ignites again. As a result, a strange picture was displayed on countless TV screens on Earth: the head of the "Goldfish" was backward and the tail was facing forward. A bright beam of light shot forward, which was supposed to be the force that drove the ship forward, and the picture should have shown the tail flame of the ship, but now it became the forward light of the train as it moved. The lights illuminate the way, but the road ahead is completely blind to the pilot - there are no mirrors on the ship. The spacecraft resisted the opposing light pressure and moved forward, gradually leaving the sky over Halmahera Island and flying in the direction of the sun. On footage, the spacecraft accelerated quite quickly, as it quickly moved away from the full pursuit of the news spacecraft (the latter had limited drive) and disappeared into the sun's light curtain, and now only the cameras in the Goldfish cabin can still send live images. The captain and his assistant had completely come out of the confusion, and at the moment they were beaming, clapping each other's palms in celebration.

There was also jubilation in the ground command post, people laughed easily, left their work positions and hugged each other, only the young commander-in-chief He Zizhou was still sitting in his chair at this time, motionless. As a conductor, he had carefully planned for the possible contingencies of the experiment, but the events turned out to be completely beyond his expectations, and fortunately it ended in a comedy rather than a tragedy. As for why the "Goldfish" was like this, he already had some idea in his mind at this time - in fact, at the American meeting, Barrow's speech had already implied this possibility. Ordinary people are all stuck in the fog at the moment, and they don't know why the "Goldfish" suddenly swam forward with its tail rushing forward, and it is swimming quite fast! This goldfish is really evil, it's really weird, but it shouldn't be a Chinese saying: lead and don't go, fight backwards. Either way, as long as you can swim, the most you can do is to install a few large inverted mirrors on the ship, and the captain has to get used to driving the boat backwards.

An hour later, Alex inside the spaceship told the command post:

"At the current rate of surplus[2]

If Goldfish wants to circle the Earth and reposition itself over the island of Halmahera, it will take about a week, and I can't wait. I would like to immediately convene a remote virtual meeting to discuss some of the theoretical and technical issues as soon as possible. In my opinion, before the Goldfish could proceed with the next experiments, there had to be a major change in the structure, because even the way it works has completely changed! Please prepare for the meeting as soon as possible, and note that the participants should include Mr. Barrow from the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the United States, and of course, the two hermits on the island of Eggs must also be present, and we need their wisdom at this critical time. I'm sorry to disturb Chu's retreat and Pauli's celestial enjoyment. ”

The work rhythm of the "Friends of Music" has always been as fast as "a frightened horse under the whip" (this is what everyone ridiculed Ji Renrui), and an hour later, the remote virtual meeting began. There were more than 40 people in attendance, including Chu Tianle, Pauli, Yu Leshui, the weakened Ma Shiqi, Ji Renrui, etc. Pauli was still lazy, sitting by the window and looking out of the house. Chu Tianle's presence attracted the attention of many acquaintances, because many people knew that he had been closed for several months, and even his wife had not been seen. There is some speculation about this in private. However, Chu Tianle's expression seemed to be normal at this time, and Yu Leshui also turned sideways and whispered a few words to him from time to time. Many people attended the conference with laser holograms, including Alex and Ji Jichang on the spaceship, the bearded Barrow in the United States, and He Zizhou in Sanya. Although it was only a holographic image, the attendees could also feel the joy of Alex, He Zizhou and Ji Jichang.

The moderator, Ji Renrui, opened the meeting, and Alex said:

"First of all, I want to pay tribute to Barrow. Chu, He, and I have long made the following predictions: There are two kinds of driving effects on the spacecraft formed by the annihilation of local space, and the two are opposite. One is the forward driving force of the light pulse; The second is the drag force on the spacecraft due to the flow of the surrounding space to the hole of space. According to our thinking at the time, the latter could be ignored. Mr. Barrow of the United States discovered the dragging effect of the second force and proposed at the expert meeting that it was a pity that our Xiaohe was too eloquent and easily persuaded Mr. Barrow, otherwise, the experiment of the 'Goldfish' would not have been as big as it is today. ”

The virtual Alex smiled and pointed to He Zizhou and Barrow in the virtual image, Xiao He smiled embarrassedly, and Barrow laughed to himself: "Don't poke my sore spot, I easily gave up an opportunity to leave a name in the history of science." ”

Alex continued: "The Goldfish's regression at the moment is a pattern of motion that has never been seen before in the universe, and I doubt that it can be dissected in the language of humanity as it exists, but I will try to explain it. The spacecraft's movement is completely independent of force, and in fact, there is no relative motion between it and its 'native space' at all. This sentence is tongue-twisting, isn't it? I've tried to illustrate it metaphorically—and it's hard to even use a metaphor, and the only close metaphor I can think of at the moment is a special mode of transportation that has been discussed in the scientific community: saturated steam pipes. ”

He briefly explained the basics of this type of pipe: "Driving in a vacuum duct eliminates wind resistance and allows for supersonic travel with relatively low energy consumption, but it is too expensive to build a huge vacuum duct. The solution is to replace the vacuum with saturated steam, which can remain gaseous when it exceeds the critical point of condensation, and when the vehicle moves forward in the pipe, the vapor in front of it is immediately liquefied after being pressurized, which is equivalent to our space annihilation, so that the vehicle moves forward without wind resistance. As the vehicle drives away, the steam becomes thinner, and the liquefied steam quickly vaporizes, returning the pipe steam to its original state. ”

Alex raised his index finger, "Notice that in this way of motion, the vehicle is immobile relative to the steam behind it, or the 'space' behind it, which we call 'native space', but the space outside of it, such as the pipe wall, is in motion, which we call 'non-native space'." The reason why our 'Goldfish' was able to retreat was because the local space at the tail of the fish was constantly eliminated, so a continuous hole was formed, and the space that continued to flow into the hole carried the spacecraft with it. So, I repeat it again: this is not at all the movement of an object with respect to space, nor is it completely independent of force; Rather, it is the movement of the 'local space' relative to the stationary space, and the spacecraft is simply carried away by the local space. "In the past, science fiction often described 'wormholes', saying that wormholes can connect warped spaces, but that was always just a fantasy. But today we have achieved a real wormhole, which is dug by hand in a straight space! It's just that it digs and sinks, and after the spaceship passes, the wormhole disappears and becomes invisible. He asked, "As Barrow pointed out at the last meeting, this is too complicated, I wonder if I can explain it clearly?" ”

Chu Tianle smiled and said, "I also found a metaphor. Back then, I gave the example of the Monkey King shrinking the land, and I also said that there are two ways to shrink the land, one is to dig a large piece on the road in front, and the other is to let the road in front of you shrink evenly. Do you all remember that? ”

Everyone smiled and nodded. One said, "Remember." At that time, you started from the point of 'uniform contraction of space' and argued that there is no reverse turbulence at the edge of the local contraction universe. ”

"But now the first method is used." The Goldfish's flight is to dig holes in the space ahead, not to dig a large piece, but to dig one at a time. In this way, the space behind it has been sliding forward, and the spaceship that is stationary in this space is also carried forward. This is also a kind of land shrinkage. ”

Even some of the participants who belong to the "liberal arts", such as crisis management expert Wu Zheng, paleontologist Ms. Wang Qingyin, anthropologist Ji Ruhai, psychologist Ms. Dong Yuexia, including Ji Renrui, who presided over the meeting, all keenly understood these "very winding" theories. This surprised Alex a bit and was also very happy:

"Everybody understands, so I'll move on. Although the towing time of the spacecraft was very short, only on the level of Planck's time—which He Zizhou persuaded Barrow with this reason—it was not a displacement caused by force, but a displacement of 'pure geometry', and the two displacements were completely different! displacement caused by a force, the magnitude of which is related to the time of action of the force; The purely geometric displacement, on the other hand, is instantaneous and completely independent of force and time, so the spacecraft eventually appears to be backward. Going backwards isn't a problem, we just need to – as we do now – turn the Goldfish upside down. He smiled bitterly, "The problem is that the parabolic reflective mirror that we have carefully made has become an obstacle to progress at this moment!" When the spacecraft moves forward with the local space, the light pressure driving force also causes it to retreat at a uniform acceleration in the local space, otherwise, the spacecraft will move forward a little faster. ”

The participants invariably looked at the spaceship on the big screen, at this moment, it was on the back side of the earth, and the fish-shaped tail of the spacecraft focused a strong pillar of light, splitting the darkness and reflecting the outline of the "Goldfish" on the black canopy. This bright light should have been the tail flame of the ship, so that would be intuitive. People couldn't help but shake their heads slightly.

"How to solve this problem? How can I modify the design of the ship? Alex's expression became solemn, "It's not easy, because you have to solve the theoretical level first." So I invited everyone to hold this meeting, and I also specially invited Chu Tianle, the main god, out of the mountain, just to sort out a clear context as soon as possible. ”

Chu Tianle said calmly: "Don't talk nonsense, what is the main god and not the main god." First of all, please share your thoughts and discuss them. ”

"Well, I think the main thing is two things: one, is there a speed limit to this movement? Second, if it can approach, or reach, or even exceed the speed of light, is there a relativistic effect on the spacecraft? ”

The room suddenly became very quiet, and the weight of these two questions was felt by all the participants. In fact, it is asking: is the theory of relativity no longer applicable to space voyages such as the Goldfish, which were carried out in a "purely displacement" manner? Chu Tianle smiled and went straight to the point:

"What do you think?"

"I don't think the movement of Goldfish should be limited by the speed of light, it is only limited by the technical level."

Chu Tianle nodded and said, "You talk about it in detail." ”

Alex said with a blazing eye, "You can make an analogy." In the original gently expanding universe, there were actually 'faster-than-light' celestial bodies, because compared to the Earth, the redshift speed of extremely distant objects has exceeded the speed of light. But this is only an illusion, the object is stationary relative to its 'native space', and the speed of light in relatively far space is caused by the expansion of space. Similarly, Goldfish can reach or even exceed the speed of light relative to non-native space! This does not violate the theory of relativity, as it is stationary with respect to 'native space'. The final conclusion is somewhat similar to a paradox: the Goldfish, which is stationary relative to its native space, can escape the cataclysmic region at the speed of light, or even faster. ”

Chu Tianle nodded, "Yes." In other words, under the premise of the existence of a supercritical dense vacuum, we can dig a wormhole in space to escape. ”

"Continuing with the analogy, those extremely distant objects that redshift faster than the speed of light have no relativistic effect because they are stationary to the local space. Therefore, even if Goldfish flies at the speed of light or faster—note that this speed is relative to non-native space—there will be no relativistic effect, no slowdown in the rate of time, no increase in mass, shortening in length, etc. The fact that we only felt the backward acceleration caused by the light pressure when the spacecraft started is a strong proof of this. ”

Chu Tianle nodded again, "I think you're right." ”

"In this way, it is a great pity that astronauts want to live longer than earthlings. Of course, there are also factors that are beneficial to navigation, for example, because there is no relativistic effect, the spacecraft's time lapse rate remains normal, and there is no need to worry about the speed of emergency response. Also, the mass does not increase with velocity, so the acceleration of the ship is not affected even if it is close to the speed of light. ”

Before Alex's words fell, Chu Tianle immediately said, "Wrong! It's back to the old frame of relativity, where you're wearing new shoes and going the old way. This is a purely geometrical displacement, which is characterized by velocity for non-native space, but there is no acceleration or acceleration phase at all. ”

Alex suddenly realized and said, "Yes, yes, I was wrong. It does not have an acceleration process at all, and there is no need to worry about the acceleration overload of the astronauts. ”

"Yes, there is no acceleration process, and there is no need for a deceleration process. If the spacecraft wants to stop, just stop it. As a result, ship designers no longer have to worry about the old problem - in the past, all ships had to slow down before reaching their target, but slowing down had to consume a huge amount of fuel, exactly the same amount as the acceleration stage. However, the new ship also has a disadvantage - it cannot maintain the inertia of speed when it is not powered, and it must be continuously excited, as soon as the excitation stops, the ship will turn to a standstill in an instant. Chu Tianle looked at everyone with a smile, "Did you say that?" ”

The venue was very quiet. The two of them paint a new picture of the old system of physics that would have to be completely upended in order to accept it. Chu Tianle motioned for Alex to pause so that everyone could have some time to digest it. In this moment, he called Alex (virtually) to his side and whispered something about it, and Alex kept nodding.

After a 30-minute silence, the attendees signaled to the presenters that they had digested and could continue. Alex and Chu Tianle discussed for a few more minutes, and then Alex said:

"Do you have any objections to these two hypotheses at the theoretical level?" The crowd shook their heads. "Okay, let's start talking about the technical aspects. From a technical point of view, there are two major difficulties, I will talk about them one by one. ”

"First, the second-order vacuum excited by the collision of particles of the 'Goldfish' is a sphere with a diameter of 300 meters, and continuous excitation forms a wormhole with a diameter of 300 meters. The space inside the wormhole is the spacecraft's 'native space', and the movement here is purely geometric and instantaneous. But outside of wormholes, everything is still governed by the theory of relativity and Newton's laws. Therefore, the size of the ship must be limited to the wormhole, otherwise, the 'outer part' will hinder the movement of the ship. But it is not the resistance in Newtonian mechanics, let's call it 'impedance'. He pointed to the "Goldfish" on the screen. "The scale of the 'Goldfish' is obviously too large, and now because of the low speed, the impedance is not obvious, but it is not possible during high-speed movement. There are two solutions to this problem, one is that the spacecraft is slimmed, but it will increase the curvature of the ring accelerator; The second is to try to increase the diameter of the wormhole, such as using multi-point synchronous excitation. At present, it seems that the two methods may have to be used together. ”

The participants listened attentively.

"The second point is how the spacecraft can reach and exceed the speed of light – relative to non-native space, of course. This depends on three aspects: first, the radius of the second-order vacuum sphere, because after each excitation, the forward distance of the spacecraft should be equal to it; Furthermore, the frequency at which it is excited, that is, the frequency at which particles collide, can be increased to 100 million times per second at the current state of technology, which is sufficient; Third, the premise of space annihilation is that it must be a supercritical vacuum. The three-state vacuum theory we created has already described the relevant process: after the annihilation of a spherical space, the sharp flow of the surrounding space turns itself into a vacuum; Then, due to the steady-state hypergenesis of the spatial unit, it reverts to a standard vacuum in Planck time; It is then reconstituted into a supercritical vacuum under the pressure of the surrounding supercritical dense vacuum. The first two processes are extremely short and can be disregarded. The third point will limit the excitation frequency of the spacecraft. Preliminary calculations show that reaching the speed of light near light is no problem, and it is even possible to exceed it. He thought for a moment and added, "But it's also possible that it can't be surpassed, maybe that light-speed limit spell will still maintain mana through some mechanism." ”

Chu Tianle nodded, "You're right, this possibility also exists, maybe what we think of as a technical limitation is actually a principle limit." But let's move forward and let practice prove the final results. ”

The venue was silent for a while, and the bearded Barrow got up and asked Alex, "That's it?" ”

"At the moment, Chu Tianle and I have these two points in mind."

"Then I'll take the liberty of adding a difficult point to you."

Alex looked at Chu Tianle and said with interest, "Thank you!" I'm going to say thank you before you get into trouble. Tell me about it. ”

"Just now, after the ship changed to tail and flew forward, can you see the scene ahead of the course?"

"Of course not. According to the original design, the fishtail was backwards, but now it is forward-facing, which completely obscures the view from the forward. We're now playing as a 'back-to-back' runner who has to rely on a ground observatory to guide us. However, if you open the observation window, you should be able to see it - since we have such a bright flashlight. Alex jokingly.

Barrow said calmly: "I'm afraid it's not just because of the fishtail's obscure. We already know that the advance of the spacecraft is due to the continuous annihilation of the space ahead, so can the light from the opposite side pass through the annihilated space? ”

Everyone was stunned! Yes, this is a completely new question, and no one knows the answer, but it is logically questionable. Chu Tianle was obviously shocked, and he nodded heavily at Barrow in appreciation. Barrow smiled back at him and continued:

"I'm afraid not. A space that recovers rapidly after annihilation will certainly interfere with the normal propagation of light, just as turbulence in water can affect a swimmer's line of sight. "So, can you fit a couple of mirrors far away from the side of the spacecraft to make it look past the oblivion space?" Figuratively speaking, they resemble several reversible car mirrors. Again, no. Because as you said earlier, the physical part of the ship must never go beyond the confines of the wormhole. That is, no observation device can look beyond the oblivion space. ”

Everyone was shocked by this conclusion, but after a little thought, many people nodded their heads again and again. Chu Tianle also nodded to Barrow again, and his admiration was overflowing. At this time, Pauli, who had been sitting by the window, beckoned, and someone next to him handed him the wireless microphone, and this guy who had always cherished his words only said a few words:

"Barrow is right, but not comprehensive. What about the sideways and backward line of sight? ”

The crowd was shaken again and pondered carefully. After a moment's consideration, Barrow said, "Pauli is absolutely right! I haven't thought about it yet. Such a wormhole flight is impossible to observe even sideways and backwards. He elaborated, "Alex just said that the spacecraft is relatively stationary with the local space, which is cylindrical, or more precisely, trumpet-shaped. It dragged behind the ship, and it wasn't too long, estimated to be ten hull lengths, as non-native space would soon erode it. There should be turbulence at all boundaries where light cannot pass through. ”

Pauli shook his head, "It's not turbulence, it's the interface." ”

Barrow thought for a while, and suddenly said, "Yes, it should be the interface." He complained, "Pauli, you fellow who pluralizes his words, can't you just say a few more words and make the problem clear?" ”

The participants laughed and focused their eyes on Pauli, who casually turned his gaze back out the window. Barrow continued: "Yes, this should be the essential reason, the local and non-local spaces are not in phase, and they will inevitably form an interface, not only light, but also any information cannot pass through, so you can't see the outside inside the ship, and you can't see the spacecraft outside. To use a figurative metaphor, this trumpet-shaped space is like a chaotic fish that neither emits light nor reflects and has no vision, quietly swimming through the dark depths of space. So," he looked at Alex with pity, "my captain, if you use this space-driven method, you'll have to close your eyes and hurry." You never know if there's a star in your way, a meteorite wandering through space, or an alien starship waiting to meet you. Even communication with the outside world is impossible, and radio waves and even neutrino waves cannot pass through the barrier of phase space. ”

Alex hesitated and said, "Won't it?" If you are right, then at this moment, when the Goldfish is moving in space-driven mode, the observers of the Earth will not be able to see the Goldfish, and the people inside the Goldfish will not be able to see the Earth. This could not be further from the truth. ”

Without waiting for Barrow to answer, Chu Tianle said: "No, that's because the excitation frequency of the 'Goldfish' is relatively low, and continuous excitation has not yet been formed. The 'Goldfish' is visible in the excitation gap, and the continuous picture creates a continuous field of view, just like the projection of a movie. I think Barrow's analysis is correct, if this kind of wormhole spacecraft forms a continuous excitation, it will be surrounded by an invisible cocoon and can only fly blindly. ”

Everyone was silent, and everyone didn't expect this brand new spaceship to get stuck on this issue. However, this problem must be solved, the ship must not be blindfolded, and even if it flies in a familiar area, it must always be aware of any danger ahead. The venue was silent for a long time, and Chu Tianle said:

"I have a vision, and everyone will see if it is feasible or not." His voice was not high, but the crowd immediately fell silent, their eyes focused on him, "I suddenly thought of an ancient technology that had been abandoned for many years. In the days of propeller fighters, there was a struggle about how machine-gun bullets could be fired across the propellers, and later engineers invented synchronization devices that allowed machine-gun bullets to be fired through the gaps in the propeller's rotation. Chu Tianle smiled slightly, "Of course, our spaceship has no propellers, only a cocoon shell that wraps around the hull. But we can take that idea and just change the horizontal time slice to the vertical one. The specific scheme is like this - but first I have to emphasize the two prerequisites of this technical scheme, first, the movement of the new spacecraft is pure displacement, can move instantaneously and stop instantaneously, there is no acceleration and deceleration phase. Second, the disappearance of the phase-space interface requires only a very short Planck time. With these two premises in place, we can deliberately abandon continuous excitation and instead make intermittent jumps, e.g., stop for ten microseconds every thirty microseconds. In these ten microseconds, look outward through the space that has returned to normal, and then use the resulting image as the basis for the next travel period. As long as the picture exceeds 25 frames per second, it will appear as a continuous field of view in the human eye. Of course, this will definitely affect the speed of the ship. We can be technically careful and try to reduce the time required for observation. He pointed in the direction of the "Goldfish" in the sky, "This is how the 'Goldfish' is actually seen here." ”

After a moment of silence, there was a sudden uproar. That's right! It's a perfectly workable solution, as simple as it is ingenious. But such a simple and ingenious method is extremely difficult to think of, and the discoverer must completely step out of the box of Newtonian mechanics and relativity, and throw away the concept of "inertia". It's such a powerful frame that it's become a fixture in the brain of almost every science believer. Everyone here has a first-class IQ, and with a little time, I believe that many people can come up with this plan, but Chu Tianle, a disabled person who relies on a wheelchair, is always one step faster than others in thinking. Barrow was very excited and admired, and walked over (in a virtual image) to hug Chu Tianle:

"I admire you very much, you simply solved this problem neatly."

Chu Tianle held the hand of the virtual image and said with a smile: "Then thank you for thinking of this problem first." ”

"That's nothing. As the saying goes, a fool's question cannot be answered by a hundred smart people. ”

"Oh my God! Are you a fool? The more fools like you, the better. However, don't rush to celebrate just yet, and think about whether there are any flaws in this plan. ”

Subsequently, everyone had an in-depth discussion, and no hard injuries were found. The key to this scheme is the ratio of the spacecraft's "travel time" to its "stationary observation time", but even in the most conservative estimates, the spacecraft can be close to the speed of light. He Zizhou suddenly said:

"Oh, by the way, the ship's radiation protection can also be removed. Since the spacecraft is surrounded by cocoon shells, there is no need to worry about the purple shift of space radiation, because the radiation in the front of the course is completely cut off by the annihilation space. Also, we thought about correcting the trajectory of the particles during the acceleration and deceleration phases, but now we don't need it. ”

Pauli and Barrow were inspired, reaching for a wireless microphone at the same time, and then began to humble each other again. Barrow laughed and said:

"Pauli, you speak first, you know that your speech is the briefest."

Pauli was no longer humble and said three words: "Anti-gravity." ”

Barrow smiled: "Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to say!" I am afraid that this kind of spacecraft has another function that all scientists are looking forward to, that is, anti-gravity. Because, since there is a barrier in phase space, the gravitational pull of non-native space cannot also act on the spacecraft, which is similar to the spacecraft having an anti-gravity device. ”

The participants nodded their heads, and the atmosphere in the venue became very excited. The new way the ship travels opens up new horizons, new frontiers, and has given attendees a taste of brainstorming before it translates into actual sailing. Host Ji Renrui said:

"I think the theoretical problem is almost over, and we can move on to the next topic - how to transform the 'Goldfish'."

The meeting was soon concluded. After circumnavigating the globe, the Goldfish was repositioned over the island of Halmahera for modification. The particle accelerator on the spacecraft was changed to a multi-point synchronous collision, expanding the diameter of the wormhole to 800 meters. The circular orbit of the particle collider is reduced, ensuring that the diameter of the ship's body is limited to the wormhole. In front of the ship, the original parabolic fishtail was changed to a convex fishhead, which only used to collect light energy. The place in which the bow was originally reserved for the heavy water tank protected from radiation has now been removed. An observation window is set up on the ship's convex fish head to provide the pilot with a forward view (in fact, an intermittent view).

The above changes are a lot of work, but the structure of the "Goldfish" is originally a building block, although there are many difficulties in the transformation, but it can definitely be realized. Goldfish will be upgraded from a principle experiment spacecraft to an industrial experiment spacecraft, equipped with corresponding equipment, and then will leave Earth to sail through the solar system to test the maximum speed it can achieve. It is estimated that the voyage will take several months and that a crew of 100 people will be needed, and the modification of the ship is subject to the above estimates. He Zizhou's work was suspended to assist Alex in the transformation of the "Goldfish".

Although the first experiment made a big oolong with "head as tail", but the crooked blow is right, and the human escape spacecraft has taken another step forward, and it is a historic leap, at least theoretically breaking the limit of the speed of light. This is like the example given by Ji Renrui, the original intention of the ancestors of the Indians was to track their prey on the ice, but they did not expect to get a continent by mistake. The atmosphere at the venue was good, and excitement replaced shock and confusion. Yu Leshui is also excited, she has always laughed at herself as a "liberal arts head", and it is difficult to keep up with the thinking speed of those "science heads". But today she felt that her mind was extremely sharp, and she understood all the subtle technical discussions in the meeting, and was even able to turn them into intuitive images with the imagination of a journalist.

Tomorrow's "Goldfish" will "glide" in the vast expanse of space without power, invisible to the outside world, like an invisible chaotic fish quietly swimming across the sea. If the observer had a discerning eye that could see the deep structure of space-time, he would see a strange sight of a collision of particles in front of the spacecraft that sparked a huge vacuum cavity, accompanied by a soft white light, and the surrounding space poured into the void. The flowing space enveloped the ship forward. The cavity of the vacuum is constantly stimulated, digging an endless wormhole in the space. The ship followed the cavern of the vacuum, moving forward as it moved forward. After the spaceship, the wormhole quickly disappears and returns to straight space.

This image subverts all theoretical prophecies, but it is also logically autonomous and convincing. The science fiction writer Kang Buming, who attended the meeting, whispered:

"Oh my God, I'm ashamed as a science fiction writer. Your discoveries surpass the most daring fantasies of science fiction writers. ”

There is another reason for Yu Leshui's excitement: the husband has completely come out of the autism state at the moment. He is born to be a tide maker in the sea of intelligence, and the more high-intensity intellectual combat he has, the more he can activate his competitive state. In such an atmosphere, Yu Leshui felt that she might as well ask her husband a more sensitive question. She touched her husband and asked softly:

"Tianle, you were in a bad mood some time ago, some people said that you may have estimated in advance that there is a dead hole in the three-state vacuum theory, and the 'Goldfish' will not succeed. Isn't that so? ”

Tianle looked at her and said calmly, "No, I didn't expect it. ”

"Then you ......" Yu Leshui shrewdly stopped, and she saw a kind of "black" from the depths of her husband's eyes. These two deep black lakes look calm, but Yu Leshui knows her husband too well, and the apparent calm can't deceive her. She knew that it was not appropriate to talk about this topic at this moment, so she naturally diverted the conversation.

2

To Yu Leshui's delight, after the meeting, her husband did not propose to return to "Human Egg Island", he said goodbye to Pauli, and the family prepared to take a helicopter back to their home in the mountains. Yu Leshui asked Liu Ye to make an appointment with He Zizhou, and Liu Ye happily agreed, jumping up and down to find Brother Yangyang. But after a while, she came back alone, and simply said: Brother Yangyang has something to do now, and he can't come.

When he arrived at home and placed the two disabled people properly, Ma Shiqi said: "Shui'er, Le'er, I won't participate in such meetings in the future." This time, I deeply felt that my intelligence had deteriorated, and I was just a decoration. ”

He spoke calmly, but deep in his calm was a deep melancholy. The Tianle couple was also very uncomfortable. But what the godfather said was the truth, he didn't put forward any opinions at this meeting, just being a passive listener. Godfather has always been a wise man with a sharp mind, but people will get old, and with the aging of the body, the fire of wisdom will become weaker and weaker, and this kind of ending is inescapable. And for an old man like him, who has long understood life, there is no need to lie about comfort. The two readily agreed.

After Liu Ye went home, she was ready to cook in a hurry, saying that her mother and sister-in-law were not allowed to interfere today, so that everyone could appreciate her cooking skills. Yu Leshui keenly saw that she was using excitement to cover up her emotional abnormality, and looking at her mother-in-law's eyes, she obviously saw it too. Yu Leshui knew that Liu Ye's abnormal mood must be related to He Zizhou, so he avoided Liu Ye and came to the courtyard alone, wanting to make a phone call to ask He Zizhou. As soon as I arrived at the hospital, He Zizhou's phone called:

"Sister Shui, how is Liu Ye's mood?"

Yu Leshui didn't answer directly, "What, you rejected her invitation?" ”

He's voice was a little embarrassed, "I know she's going to feel bad, but I don't want her misunderstanding to continue." ”

"You mean ......"

"Sister Shui, you know, I have been too familiar with Little Willow Leaf over the years, she is a cute and childish baby in my eyes, a little angel with white wings, and a dewy bud in the mountains. I'm so used to this image that I can't get it to convert. Especially...... Sister Shui, I'll just say it thoroughly, as long as I imagine adding a sexual factor to my relationship with Liu Ye, I will feel that I am heinous and should be killed. ”

Yu Leshui was amused. Yangyang's mentality is a bit bizarre, but it's not surprising. She once read a psychological survey: Israeli boys and girls have to live a commune for a period of time, and it is not easy for men and women who know each other to establish a relationship in the collective life, which is the opposite of the phenomenon of "childhood sweethearts" in China. This is actually due to an ancient human instinct that automatically prevents consanguineous marriages. Remembering that she had picked up Liu Ye to attack Brother Yangyang, she suddenly felt a little Meng Lang at that time. So, she jokingly asked:

"Do you already have a sweetheart?"

"Not really. Think about it, with Uncle Ji's whip pumping every day, how can I have leisure and leisure! ”

"You don't have to worry. There is nothing abnormal about the willow leaves, even if there is, I will comfort them. Well, I'll tell her for you, and you'll come back as you always want." ”

"Sister Shui, thank you."

She went to the kitchen to help Liu Ye work, and took the time to speak thoroughly, Liu Ye didn't say a word, but there was obviously a strong frustration and resentment in her emotions. Yu Leshui smiled and said:

Although Yangyang's mind is a bit weird, it is understandable, because he is used to the role of his brother. Actually, I have a good idea. Liu Ye didn't speak, but pricked up his ears, "It's a simple idea, but maybe it works - don't see him for three years, and then let him suddenly meet a mature lady who has become a stranger." ”

This sentence made Liu Ye suddenly shocked! She remained silent, but apparently lost in thought, and soon her mood returned to normal, and she began to talk and laugh. Yu Leshui thought playfully, it seemed that the eighteen-year-old young girl had already made up her mind to take the fortress in three years.

When the family had dinner, Ma Shiqi asked his wife with a smile: "You also had a one-day meeting, did you understand what was said at the meeting?" ”

Tianle's mother has always claimed to be an elm head, and she is used to hiding in the snail shell of her homely life, and never uses her antennae to touch the rational world outside the shell. But this time her answer was unexpected:

"Understand."

"Really? Tell me about the new wormhole voyage. ”

Tianle's mother really talked about it, and what was surprising was that she did understand! Although what she said was not absolutely accurate, the basic context was right, and even Barrow was right when he said that the principle of "very winding" navigation. When she finished speaking, she asked everyone nervously:

"Did I mean the number of paths?" Everyone praised her, saying that she was right, and praised her for being too smart. Tianle's mother bragged excitedly: "That's it, I also think that the older I get, the smarter I become." ”

Yu Leshui quickly glanced at her father-in-law, she was afraid that this sentence would inadvertently cause her father-in-law to be sad. She found that her husband also quickly glanced at his godfather, and she didn't know at that time that his husband's reaction was because of another thought, another inspiration.

I went to bed at night, hugged my weak husband in my arms, and said quietly: "Tianle, we have been discussing whether to have a child for so many years, and now I have made up my mind, I will get pregnant this year and use your sperm for in vitro fertilization." I won't repeat the truth, it's still Uncle Chu's words, since this gene can produce a genius like you, then even if it has pathogenic factors, it is worth keeping. ”

This time, the husband did not object, "Since you have made up your mind, I will not stop it, it is better to have a daughter, and the daughter will not inherit this disease." ”

"No, I don't want to deliberately choose, let it be left to God's will."

“…… It's good. ”

The two lay quietly for a while. Yu Leshui remembered her husband's autism some time ago, and remembered Ji Renrui's analysis of the reasons for autism. Now that the husband has unequivocally ruled out the second reason (predicting that the first test of the "Goldfish" will not be successful), then will it be the first reason (he discovered a greater catastrophe)? Yu Leshui didn't believe in this, but he didn't want to talk about it at this moment, so he brought up another topic:

"Tianle, after my mother talked about the principle of the new wormhole at dinner, I think it seems to have a strong touch on you."

Tianle's gaze looked into the distance through the darkness, "Yes. With her mother's level of intelligence and knowledge, she would not have understood it so thoroughly. ”

Yu Leshui heard his words, "You mean ......"

"I have a strong feeling that has been developing for a long time, and it is especially strong today after listening to my mother's words - in the last ten years, people's IQs generally seem to have increased dramatically, both in high-IQ scientists and in the general public. Don't you feel that way? ”

"Well, I've felt it myself. But I've always thought that maybe it's been with you big-headed scientists for a long time, and subtly made me smarter. ”

Tianle shook his head, "It won't be that simple. I myself have a strong feeling that my brain is far more useful now than it was in the past. Also, George told me a long time ago that he had studied the successful human egg breeding technology in a very short period of time, and he thought it was incredible, and it was like God's help. Maybe...... Let's not rush into speculation, I want to organize a large-scale IQ survey from tomorrow in order to draw an objective conclusion. ”

Yu Leshui said the conclusion for him first: "You mean that the dense vacuum accelerates the thinking speed of the human brain?" ”

Tianle was noncommittal.

"And as the vacuum continues to shrink, will the human IQ increase dramatically?"

"Let's not rush to conclusions first, let's talk about it after the investigation."

The two were silent for a moment. Yu Leshui couldn't hold back the joy in his heart, "With my intuition, this conclusion must be correct, because I have unconsciously learned your rational thinking. In particular, I've already tasted the joy of intellectual fighting! You know, when I was in school, although my science grades were reasonable, in fact, emotionally speaking, I rejected rational thinking, and I never enjoyed the pleasure of rational thinking. Now I seem to have changed. She smiled and added, "I feel closer to my husband." ”

Chu Tianle patted her back happily, "I'm also very happy." ”

Yu Le Shui said in reverie: "If the increase in IQ creates 10 million Einstein, Pol, Hawking and Chu Tianle, what would the world look like!" God is merciful, after all, and he has brought a catastrophe of destruction to mankind, but he has also given a most precious gift of all. ”

"Well, you're right."

Yu Leshui keenly noticed that her husband was a little absent-minded at this time, otherwise with his ordinary modesty and tranquility, he would not have tacitly placed him alongside the three scientific giants. He clearly had a lot on his mind. Although they were talking about a happy event, it did not dilute the shadow in the husband's heart. They didn't go on on on the subject, and it wasn't until years later that Yu Leshui knew what was going on her husband's mind on that night.

[1]

At this moment, the ship's velocity is still forward, but as long as it is below the rated synchronous speed, it will appear backward relative to the ground.

[2]

That is, the speed of the ship minus the theoretical synchronous speed.