It suddenly occurred to Petru that he might be dreaming, as if this was not some bullshit island, not the cave where he was hiding in exile, but a philosophical debate class at some university. He simply shut up, just waiting for Su Huilan to say what he had to say, and in the end he could always talk about what he wanted to know and could understand.

The crow and the sound seemed to be dumbfounded, their eyes widened, and their heads were next to each other, snuggling up to each other without realizing it.

At this time, Aoki suddenly remembered the old willow tree in Liuying Lane, remembered the lifelong flower, and remembered the mulberry garden.

The weather on the island has changed, the rain outside the cave has stopped, a rainbow has been erected over the bay, and the sun shines through the misty fog and shines on the sea in the distance, shining with a white-gold crystal light.

Aoki took out his phone and looked at the time, it was in the Hawaii-Aleutian time zone, it was a hot summer afternoon, and Wuzhong was now in the middle of winter, and the sky should have just dawned, maybe there was still snow. Lifelong flowers have a habit of waking up early, and at this moment they have pulled up the roller shutter of the bar and are cleaning the snow at the door.

He seemed to see her straighten up in the cold wind, glancing to the far southeast, her hand holding the broom red from the cold.

The backpack behind his back was inexplicably heavy, and Aoki unloaded the bag and unzipped it to take a look. The first thing that caught my eye was the wicker that still had a slight green.

Thousands of mountains and rivers, everything is like a dream, only the greenery of this willow branch does not change.

Aoki didn't want the world to be a dream.

"Well, even if the spiritual power of seven billion people is unshakable, it can't prove your theory." Aoki stubbornly retorted, "What is the difference between dreams and reality when we are all in a dream and no one can wake up?" It's a paradox! ”

Su Huilan nodded and said: "You're right, there is no difference between dream and reality, and we don't know what the real reality is, but we should always look upwards for the truth." ”

"Looking for the truth?"

"Yes, just as scientists often say to pursue the truth, we just have to look for the truth."

"How to find it?"

"Have you ever experienced a dream within a dream?" Su Huilan asked coldly.

"A dream within a dream?" Aoki didn't understand why she was asking this.

"Oh, I almost forgot, you're a dreamless man." Su Huilan sighed, her expression was puzzled, curious, and a little envious.

Aoki said, "It's nothing, I don't dream, but I know dreams within dreams, but what does this have to do with finding the real world?" ”

"My team and I have been doing research on dreams within dreams for a long time. We have found that if a person dreams long enough, he will inevitably slide into a dream within a dream, and in a dream within a dream, if he is long enough, he will continue to slide into the next dream within a dream. ”

"Is there no end?"

"I'm not sure if there's an end, because when the dream slides into the third layer, it's hard to observe."

"Why?"

"Dreams are like a transparent soap bubble, and the tension of the spirit maintains its balance. The surface of the bubble reflects the world outside it, which is our memory. Conversely, our memories are refracted into the bubble and form our dream space. When this bubble exists long enough, an internal bubble will be formed within it under the action of certain forces. At this point, our consciousness will slide into the bubble inside, and the two circles will be completely tangent. ”

Su Huilan made two ball movements with both hands, and let go of one of the hands, "But the two circles are not concentric circles, nor are they superimposed by two layers of thin films, but the outer bubbles will be concave inward, a bit like the curvature of space near massive celestial bodies in the universe." Well...... Can you understand? ”

"I can't imagine it, but I can understand it." Aoki nodded and said, "And then?" ”

"Then, our consciousness will not feel the presence of external bubbles. The world outside the bubble needs to be refracted into our consciousness space through two membranes, just like two lenses, but one is a concave mirror and the other is a convex mirror. The curvature of space will make the refracted world real, and the more layers of refraction, the farther away the dream will be from reality. This is the reason why the content of a dream within a dream is more grotesque than a common dream and more difficult to remember when you wake up. ”

Su Huilan said that she was a little thirsty, and took a sip of the water glass on the table.

"The water on the island is so sweet!" She raised her glass and greeted Petru.

"When the dream slides into the third layer, the refraction of the memory has become unrecognizable, and the mental consumption of the dreaming conscious subject is extremely great. Such dreams are exhausting, and it's hard to observe what she's dreaming about, unless you forcibly interfere with her with mental power, but that's not observation. ”

"At present, we have not observed the dream after the third layer, which may be that the individual's dream does not meet the requirements of the fourth layer of memory refraction, or it may be that there is a problem with our observation method. However, the tension distortion of the three-layer bubble is already very complex, and the internal space has become extremely small, so we have reason to believe that once a person slides into the fourth layer of dreaming, it is likely that he will not be able to wake up. ”

"Why haven't I read this and you haven't published it?" Aoki asked.

"Regarding the observation of dreams within dreams, with patience, it is easy for people with lucid dreaming ability to observe, but it is difficult to express in a paper. And I didn't do this research for academic results, but to prove my own point. ”

Su Huilan said as she reached out and made a sliding motion.

"If individual dreams inevitably slide into dreams within dreams and deepen layer by layer, then how can group dreams be avoided? If this world is a dream shared by all human beings, can we think that if we experience enough time, we will inevitably fall into a deeper dream? ”

"There's an interesting analogy. There are different dimensions in the scientific and philosophical expressions of cosmic space-time, and human beings are in three-dimensional space-time. We cannot understand or even imagine the world of higher dimensions, and can only describe it in a mathematical abstract way, but this does not prevent us from yearning for it. However, many scientists, including Lester, believe that the universe has been constantly falling into lower dimensions—from five or higher dimensions, to four dimensions, and from four dimensions to three dimensions, and in each dimension, there are traces of some higher dimensions that have not yet been annihilated. ”

"Someday, our three-dimensional world will fall into a two-dimensional universe. Maybe we've fallen into it, but we don't know it, and now we're probably just living in a three-dimensional bubble on a two-dimensional plane. Even if it's just a bubble, it's big enough for us. ”

Aoki remembered his experience with Raven in the Dream Corridor, a zero-dimensional, or near-zero-dimensional space. The feeling of eternal loneliness is indescribable.

"Where will the universe eventually fall, zero-dimensional space?" He asked.

"I don't know." Su Huilan said, "No one knows, if it is zero-dimensional, it will probably be another beginning." ”

"Wait a minute,"

Aoki felt a little messed up in his mind, some drowsy mess was surging, like someone was stirring up a dusty garbage heap with a stick, and at the same time it was as if something was about to crawl out of the shell, filling the ear canal, eyes, and nose.

It's an old problem, and whenever he thinks of something, he does it.

He gasped, "You're trying to say that our world is fixed in a three-dimensional bubble through a dream?" ”