When they saw me, they walked straight out. Grandpa Kong said to me with a smile: "Zhang Qicheng came to me last night to talk a lot about you and the current scientific and technological situation, and he couldn't wait to learn more about the specific situation, so he called you over early in the morning." ”

"Nothing, I'd love to talk to you too."

Grandpa Kong turned to Zhang Qicheng and said, "This son should be able to solve your doubts, we have not known the changes of the world for many years here!" ”

Zhang Qicheng nodded and said, "Yes!" They have all become frogs at the bottom of the well. ”

"Definitely! The frog doesn't know it's at the bottom of the well, and we know it! "Grandpa Kong's sudden words stunned me for a moment, fortunately, I also like ancient texts, otherwise I wouldn't be able to understand them if someone else came.

Zhang Qicheng patted me on the shoulder and smiled, "Do you understand?" Now you know why people call him Confucius! Those who are often full of mouths may also understand a few of us old ones! ”

After listening to me say that he could understand, Zhang Qicheng was no less surprised than me. After Grandpa Kong left, Zhang Qicheng and I talked as we walked.

"I studied basic physics, so I was a very young physicist at the time. You also know that the universe is too big, and the biggest obstacle that limits human exploration of space is speed, and we can barely reach the speed of light when we gather the wisdom and energy of the whole earth. According to my research, it is too difficult to increase the speed and the amount of energy required. ”

I nodded, humans had really made a huge effort to travel at the speed of light.

Zhang Qicheng looked at me, he should be very satisfied with my listening state, and continued: "I studied under Philpache to engage in the research of four-dimensional space, but my teacher has spent his life without any results, I am very confused now, very difficult, because some people say that our research direction is wrong, can you tell me whether the four-dimensional space is right, and now the maximum speed of the spacecraft is several times the speed of light."

"Four-dimensional space!" I looked at Grandpa Zhang, this is one of the few topics that have not been completely concluded in today's science and technology, although most people's views are not, but there are still a few people who insist on its existence, but even if it is a small number of people, I am afraid it is not the four-dimensional space in Zhang Qicheng's heart. The four-dimensional space in his mind was determined to be non-existent.

I couldn't bear to hit the direction he had been working in his heart and said, "There is no conclusive conclusion in the four-dimensional space, it may or may not exist. As for speed, the average galaxy ship is 365 times the speed of light, but there is a particularly large galaxy ship that is 1095 times. ”

"365 times!" The old man's eyes widened, as if he couldn't believe the speed.

"Isn't this speed amazing, it's just about the same number of days a year on our planet." I laughed.

"Yes! Oh, yes! It's magical. ”

"The faster-than-light spacecraft does not use curvature navigation technology, it greatly compresses space in a short period of time, and increases speed." The old man asked eagerly.

"Sail with curvature, close the space!" I smiled bitterly, I could answer a question vaguely without making the old man sad, but I couldn't open my eyes and talk nonsense, and I couldn't cater to him again in specific details.

"There is no such thing as curvature navigation as you know it, and it is nonsense to increase speed by compressing space."

"What!" The old man was visibly devastated and muttered to himself, "Is it wrong! Am I wrong! ”

"The desire to sail through the curvature of compressed space is just wishful thinking, a beautiful model that was conceived when conventional faster-than-light travel was not possible, but it was wrong." I said slowly, word for word.

I looked at the old man, and every word I said seemed to be knocked on the old man's heart, and after being knocked dozens of times, the old man's spirit was obviously much worse, and his eyes were more dull than before.

"Can't it be done? Isn't it possible to sail with curvature no matter how advanced technology is! After a while, the old man's eyes suddenly widened, and his spirit recovered a lot, and he asked almost angrily.

"In the twentieth century, there were some scientists on the earth who studied perpetual motion machines, but could it succeed? No, I can't. Because energy cannot be created in a vacuum, it has nothing to do with the degree of technological progress. In the same way, space is incompressible, and the road always has to be walked step by step, and it is precisely with the development of science and technology that this point is certain, and what curvature navigation and wormhole theory are not right. In fact, there is another problem that has plagued the scientific community for many years and has been solved with the progress of science and technology, that is, the question of whether time is reversible. ”

The old man's eyes were a little more intense than before, and I believe that his brain cells were running at a rapid pace, and he was staring at me for something he had never heard of before, even though it was not a profound theory in today's society.

"In a way, space and time do not exist at all, they are just tools used to scale one or a few specific physical phenomena. An important element of space is emptiness, because emptiness can contain matter, because emptiness gives power and scope to material activities. In order to measure the amount of matter it can hold and the extent of its activities, people have set a series of units, from millimeters, centimeters, and meters, to 1 astronomical unit, and light years, all of which are just units of weights and measures, with which we can compare the size and distance of objects. Such a reality does not exist, but how can a scalar unit used to facilitate the identification of a certain physical feature or physical phenomenon be compressed! Only matter, or at least physical phenomena related to matter, can be compressed or elongated, and space does not specify either of these characteristics. ”

I summed up what I knew about the empty orders and time in one breath and said it. The old man was listening like a little science student, and I was like a great physicist.

I glanced at the old man and continued: "In fact, the so-called curvature navigation and wormhole theory are just beautiful models that people hope to be able to exceed the speed of light and be able to cross ultra-long distances in a short time. In fact, even if there is a wormhole-like passage, it can allow a spaceship that cannot travel faster than the speed of light on its own power to cross a distance far beyond its own speed in a short period of time. It is said that this wormhole has brought two very distant local spaces closer, and it is better to say that it has allowed the spacecraft to reach a speed far beyond its own power, and has crossed a long space. And for some unknown reason, the people on the spaceship are unable to perceive the real speed and time, and have the illusion that they have been deceived by nature. ”

"Does a wormhole like this exist?"

"Based on what I've seen so far, no."

"Can you give an example of people having delusions about perception?"

"Isn't the sunrise and sunset on the planets a manifestation of human delusion, in ancient times people always thought that the sun had risen, but in fact it was like that! The shadow of the earth blocked the moon, and people thought that the moon had been eaten by tengu! ”

The old man pondered for a long time, sighed, and nodded. Then he asked, "Let's talk about the time!" What does modern science know about time, and can time be compressed? ”

"As I said, only matter, or at least physical phenomena related to matter, can be compressed or elongated, and time cannot be compressed. What is time, time is just a yardstick that people use to scale their physiological senses, or a ruler used to calibrate the movement of microscopic or macroscopic objects, and it always needs a reference benchmark. We are talking about a day with the rotation of the earth as the watch, and a year with the earth around the sun as the watch, which everyone knows. When we lose this watchpiece, we don't know how much time has passed. For example, when we wake up from sleep, we only know how much time has passed by looking at the watch, because we lose the benchmark of perception during sleep, but we can use the benchmark of the watch to know how much time has passed again. How can a tool that is just used for measurance, be truly compressed or inflated! ”

I paused to give the two old men a moment to think before continuing: "When a modern starship flies at 365 times the speed of light, the molecular motion of the organisms that make up the organisms due to the phenomenon of light change will drop to 1/365 of the original speed, and the perception of people will also be reduced to 1/365 of the original. This is also the reason for the age of age and the age of birth. You can think of near-light speed flight time dilation, it becomes slower. In fact, the outer world of the spaceship, the entire universe will not change due to your illusion, it is really a year, and you have also passed a year, but your perception has deceived you. Makes you think it's only been a day. If there is a camera in the light change that captures the whole thing, you will find that all the action is like slowing down in motion, but it is just that everything in the spaceship has slowed down compared to normal, and everything in the outside world is normal. ”

The old man nodded frequently, which should have lifted the knot in his heart. Seeing that I finished speaking, he laughed out loud: "It's wrong, it's all wrong, no wonder I can't get it all my life, it turns out that the direction is wrong, the more you work in the wrong direction, the farther you go wrong!" ”

I looked at the physicist and comforted: "Grandpa Zhang, you don't have to be sad, science has always been carried out in twists and turns or mistakes, and only after human beings have corrected one mistake after another, can science progress." ”

"Yes! That being said, when the goal you've worked so hard for in your life suddenly disappears or is shattered, it's hard for me to accept it. Let me be quiet! With that, the old man walked towards the lake, he walked very slowly, and most of his back did not change in my field of vision. Suddenly, he quickened his pace again, bent down to pick up something, and threw it far away.

"Ahh The old man suddenly shouted: "Liberated! Liberated! ”

I looked at the old man and didn't know if he was truly liberated. In fact, science only makes rapid progress after breaking down what we think is the truth, and when one of our common sense is determined to be wrong by a certain scientific theory, then our science and technology may make breakthroughs. Perhaps some of the points I am saying today will be proven wrong many years from now.

Grandpa Kong didn't know when he came back, he looked at Zhang Qicheng and said to me: "Actually, I have always disagreed with his research, but in this green star, which is far away from the earth and modern civilization, I can't bear to break his hope." But today it was broken by you. ”

"When one hope is shattered, another hope can be born!"

"Oh! You're right! ”

The two looked at Zhang Qicheng who was gradually walking in the distance, and the old and the young laughed. In fact, hope is everywhere, as long as you look for it, you will always find it.