Is it the stupidity of fanatics to "mistakenly think that science is the pursuit of truth"? When I heard this, I was puzzled, and then I naturally asked, "Isn't science the pursuit of truth?" ”

"As I said, that's just what the White Pony said. Or you can think of it as Hakuko's violent arguments about science, so there's no need to take it too seriously. You can use this as a premise and continue to listen to me. Lieq continued, "Let's start with your question. When you were a child, did your Chinese teacher tell you that when you describe a scientist summing up the laws of nature from the natural world, it cannot be said that the scientist 'invented' the laws of nature, but can only say that he 'discovered'? ”

"Yes." I say.

However, human beings have not begun to summarize the laws of nature in modern times, and human beings have been trying to summarize the laws of nature based on their own experience since ancient times. However, from a modern perspective, looking back at the laws of nature summarized by the ancients, it is inevitable that it will feel far-fetched and full of flaws. Presumably, the ancients would not admit that they were 'inventing' the laws of nature, but do you think that the theories of the ancients were 'discoveries'? He asked.

"Of course not." I say.

"Our science has only really developed in modern times, and if human civilization can continue into the thirties and forties of the thirtieth century, people at that time will probably think that our theories are full of far-fetched and flawed elements. Based on this premise, can you still firmly believe that the laws of nature written in textbooks have been discovered, not invented? He asked.

I followed his words, "Probably not." ”

But even the future of the thirties and forties cannot say that their theories are discoveries, not inventions. In fact, when we say 'the law of nature has been discovered', we are tacitly assuming that there is some immovable law that objectively and truly exists in the infinitely changing natural world, and that the movement of matter is at the mercy of such metaphysical things. "So in many science fiction stories, there are weapons that can modify the laws of nature, even the universe on a mathematical level." Even many fantasy stories like to tell that the strong can perceive and control a certain avenue after entering the advanced realm, and then they can affect the world they live in from a metaphysical level. These science fiction and fantasy stories also have a major premise, that is, there is really something in the universe that transcends matter itself, hidden behind the scenes, and all matter is controlled by science fiction weapons and fantasy powerhouses. ”

"But does this have anything to do with the White Horse and the fanatics?" I asked.

"Hakuma is a materialist who believes that spirits and spirituality are just alternative matter and energy, and is indifferent to the question of whether there are real metaphysical things outside of matter. The fanatics, on the other hand, are different from the white horse, and in our words, he is an idealist, or an 'objective idealist'. He said, "The fanatic believers believe in those metaphysical things, and want to pursue and get in touch with them, and his means is science." But Hakuju told him directly in front of him that it was impossible for him to use science to reach that kind of field. ”

"Why?" I asked.

"If the objectively real 'laws' and 'avenues' are the end of the road of human beings summing up the laws of nature, then it is not an exaggeration to call them truths. But the purpose of science is not truth. "Do you know why scientists look for falsifiability, not verifiability, when summarizing scientific theories?" Suppose a scientist comes up with a theory that all cockroaches in the world are black, then in order to prove his theory, he must test all the cockroaches in the world one by one. But even if the first 100 million cockroaches he found were all black, others could still question, 'Maybe the next one will be white'. Because practice is the only criterion for testing the truth, in order to defend the correctness of the theory, he can only continue to look for it. ”

"Actually, cockroaches that have just shed their skin are white." I say.

"What?" He was stunned for a moment, and then continued, "Anyway...... No matter how many cockroaches there are in the world, there are finite, but the test scenarios of scientific theories are close to infinity. And no matter how many times a scientist tests his theory, it is close to infinitesimal compared to the nearly infinite total value, which means that any natural law discovered by a scientist is actually unverifiable. Therefore, scientists abandon the verifiability of theories in favor of falsifiability. ”

He continued, "Falsifiability is verifiability. If a scientist can't fully prove his or her conclusions, he or she should at least tell others how to test their theories. If others test and find that they agree with the theory, they should accept the scientist's theory. The more times a theory is tested, the more credible it becomes. Theories that are not falsifiable are not even science, they are just talking to themselves. ”

I thought for a moment and said, "According to what you said earlier, can't we even really prove the theory that 'a stone thrown will fall'?" ”

"Yes. In fact, any scientific theory we have is dubious, or unverifiable. "However, at least anyone can test the small matter of a stone falling to the ground, and it has been tested an astronomical number of times." We still can't confirm it, but we can trust it. And what about those cutting-edge scientific paths that are so complex that only a very small number of people are qualified to participate in? ”

"The fanatic pursues 'confirmation of theory,' or 'truth,' so science can't satisfy his needs?" I asked.

"That's right. Moreover, if it is the truth, it must stand an infinite number of tests. The problem is that even if he puts the truth in his hands, he will not be able to spend an infinite amount of time testing that what he has obtained is indeed the truth. After all, mortals cannot truly reach the truth. "But even so, he believed that the truth existed." In fact, it is not only him, but many scientists believe in God because of this......"

He goes on to say that many scientists believe in God not because they expect an omniscient and omnipotent Other behind the scenes of the universe, but because they expect a "standard answer" to the universe.

If the universe is compared to a puzzle and science is a guessing puzzle, then the party who is the guesser must always believe that the person who wrote the question has the right idea and the correct answer, so that he will have enough motivation and patience to guess.

Just as a qualified puzzle shouldn't be randomly rolled out of a face-scrolling keyboard, the universe shouldn't be born randomly by chance. How can it be?

The more cutting-edge scientists are, the more they can realize how precarious the edifice of theory is, and the nature of science is destined to make it impossible to get the truth of the universe no matter how much they speculate about the universe, and at most they can only come up with specious answers. Many scientists start out with curiosity about the world, unable to accept that the universe is a subjective synthesis of questions to which there is neither a question nor a standard answer. In order to combat this nothingness, some scientists will become materialists, and some scientists will devote themselves to the realm of idealism.

Fanatics believe that the universe is rational and that the universe operates meticulously according to some eternal and unchanging order that is beyond matter. And if we admit that matter only represents matter itself, then we are admitting that the universe is actually chaotic, and all order exists only in our own minds.

Although the natural world seems to outsiders to really behave as expected by scientists' theories, in fact, theories that have been summarized in the past have been overturned many times and will be overturned many times in the future. The universe is still a black box, and no one knows if there is a standard answer in the black box. Fanatics believe in existence and call it "truth", while others call it the Tao, God, the thing in itself, the Absolute Spirit, the Great True Spirit......

"Science is essentially a very utilitarian science, more concerned with being effective than truth and confirmation. The reason why science cannot be a religion is because science is a methodology that is always iterative. But the fanatic could not accept this, and he still defined his science as the study of truth, and became a fanatical believer in science. "Even Hakuma privately admitted to me that the fanatics were more intelligent scientists than him. At the same time, he despised fanatics as the stupidest scientists. ”

After listening to so much, I can't help but think that although Hakuma belittles fanatics so much, isn't the attitude of inquiring into the truth exactly what a scientist should have?

I then asked Le Q what he thought of fanatics.

"I don't care." "I have a lot of respect for those brilliant scientists, but once you step into the devil's path, your brilliant scientific talent will turn into a scourge. Whether it's a white horse or a fanatical believer, I won't let any of them go. ”

"But now the investigation is in trouble again." I say.

He nodded, "Since we can't directly access the secret knowledge in the minds of those demon warlocks that correspond to the dream circle through the 'gate', we can only think of other ways." Originally, I had pinned some hopes on the fact that our warlocks from the Liucheng Security Bureau would be able to reverse interpret the collective dream, but since it was the handiwork of a fanatical believer, it was unlikely that we would be able to parse it with the conditions on our side. ”

I thought about it too. Maybe...... Just maybe, I actually have a way to solve the "access control"! In other words, although I didn't think about it at first, I actually indirectly saw the situation when the "access control" was solved.

Then just reproduce the scene again.

Even if you can't say that you are 100% sure, you can give it a try.

"If you say...... I know how to solve the 'access control'? I asked.

"Do you have a way?" He asked, surprised.

"Do you remember the tricks?" I asked.

"Remember, you got the information from his memory to spread the knowledge of the cyber demon the night before, and gave it to me." He said.

"In the past, the Security Service was unable to obtain this kind of information because of the 'access control' that had been placed on the people concerned the night before. And the reason why the evil move did not have a 'gatekeeper' was because his spirit body fused with the demon, causing himself to become no longer himself, and the 'gatekeeper' also failed in the process. I said, "So, let's just repeat that premise." ”

Lie's eyes lit up, "You want to merge the demon warlock we captured with the demon?" ”

"Is there a demon in the Security Bureau? If not, can it be summoned now? I asked, "If you don't even have a warlock who can summon demons, let's choose one of the few demon warlocks we have captured and force him to summon." ”

"I won't talk about the moral and ethical issues contained in your plan, and I won't pay attention to morality and ethics in the way I deal with demon warlocks anyway." "The problem is that the ritual of merging with demons is rarely mastered by even true demon warlocks," he said. Besides, this is still demonic knowledge, in other words, forbidden arts, and unfortunately, our Liucheng Security Bureau does not keep this forbidden knowledge. Your plan doesn't work. ”

"No, we have it in the Liucheng Security Bureau." I say.

He frowned, "Where?" Wait, it's hard to ......"

"To be exact, I have." I said, "In my memories of the succubi and evil tricks I have killed in the past, I have secret knowledge of how to merge with demons. Although I have been storing it in the Siren Blade to avoid contamination of my mind, I have never looked at it carefully, but as long as I ......"

"No way!" He snapped, "You want to learn demonic knowledge?" Do you think I'll allow it? ”

"I just need to take that knowledge from dreams to reality." I say.

"In a dream? Do you have to enter a dream before you read a memory? He asked, "How do you bring it to life?" ”

"Memorize it first, then come back to reality, and then copy it on paper." I said, "Then entrust someone else to do the ritual." ”

"Even if you just understand the meaning of that knowledge, your spirit will be eroded, and you still want to memorize it all?" He looked at me with extremely stern eyes, "What else are you going to entrust to someone else?" Who are you going to entrust? ”

"Pick one of those captured demon warlocks and let him unleash it against his companion." I say.

He asked, "On what terms are you going to convince him?" ”

"Tell him this: if he obeys, let the other law enforcement warlocks kill him with pleasure; If you don't obey, leave it to me to kill 'slowly'. "I didn't intend to give the Demon Warlock a way to live in the first place," of course, this is just a threat, I won't really do that, at most I just take him to a place where his accomplices can't see him. Among several people, there is always one who will agree to this condition. ”

"You've thought it through, but I won't allow it." He said, "Or do you want to degenerate into a demonic warlock and be killed by me?" ”

"It's not going to be like that." I said, "I have a way to memorize demonic knowledge without polluting my mind." ”