In a room on Level 3 of the dimly lit Reservation Temple, Andy is speaking to the leader of the site, Dr. Clark, again, but so far both sides seem to be talking to each other.

"Can you answer my question now?"

“......”

Dr. Clark was silent after a bunch of strange things, and for some reason, this time he became very strange compared to the last time he spoke fluently and clearly, and Andy didn't know why.

He is like a walkie-talkie with the wrong frequency at the moment, he can't hear other people's calls, he just says what he wants to say, and he doesn't care that what he says is broken, incomprehensible, or even unbelievable.

"You know what? I graduated from a prestigious university in SA, on the far east coast, somewhere where lobsters are abundant, and there I met many, many capable people, whose brains were more amazing than the other, compared to them I was a learning machine, not a human being with real creative ability, and when I understood the conclusions left by my predecessors, they had already stood on the basis of their predecessors and put forward their own ideas and thoughts, and at that time I was trapped in my ability, and there was no way to do it to the same extent as theirs. But lately I feel like I'm finally getting close to them. ”

"Let me ask you, what do you think our world is made of?"

Andy frowned, what kind of problem is this? Those difficult scientific or philosophical definitions are naturally ignorant if you haven't read a few books, Dr. Clark, as a person who could become the chief scientist of a military base before the war, is unimaginable what he studied and what results he has achieved in the more than 100 years after the war, he has become a ghoul without the limitations of his physical state, and the entire reservation is revolving around him, it can be said that he can do whatever he wants, in this case, He has been hiding in the darkness of Level 3 deep underground for 50 years, what is he doing?

Putting that aside, he still has to answer the question in front of him, Measles was unmoved by Dr. Clarke's ignoring Andy's question, but Andy thought for a moment and didn't make a sound, Measles was already looking at him with stern eyes, as if he was silently accusing him of why he didn't answer in time, what a double standard....

"I think it's probably material."

This is already the most formal answer Andy can find, and the alternative answers are "things", "things", "air, water, soil, and all kinds of other things that cannot be said to be visible or invisible", he is a NcR man, if he were a serious uncultured wastelander, he would only respond with rude ridicule and vile scolding when he heard this question, and they would reply that Dr. Clark's world is made up of fantasies in the brains of some nerd, just like the stupid guy who asks such a stupid question, although this answer is refreshing, But presumably measles will make the bastard who answered his father like this pay the price.

Dr. Clark looked subtle, not surprised.

"No... In fact, it is mathematics that makes up the world. ”

Then came Dr. Clark's one-sided lecture, and Andy couldn't interject at all, or rather, as a layman who couldn't even understand them, he had begun to get sleepy halfway through.

"We know the world by the sensory organs that convey to us the sensations of consciousness, the optic nerve transmits images to us, the auditory nerve transmits to us sounds, and the pain nerves transmit to us pain, and we have the ability to understand these feelings, that is, we have consciousness, because we have consciousness, so we can know the world, even if it is separated from something, we have a limited understanding of the world."

"So if you want to know the world one day, the first step is to be able to know our own consciousness, and only when we can fully know our own consciousness can we have the possibility of fully knowing the world, which is a necessary prerequisite."

"When you start thinking about it, you have to admit that all the 'truths' that we have so far recognized that we believe in are in fact one-sided, false things, and those realizations... It is possible that everything is wrong, even if you see it with your own eyes, and what you see is only some superficial illusion. ”

Andy was so confused that he grabbed his hair and tried to pick up.

"Uh... What you say makes a lot of sense, but I can see it very clearly when I look around now... If I could see more clearly by turning on the lights, and if I had to accept that all I saw was an illusion, I would have nothing to believe in, and wouldn't I be a madman? ”

"Crazy? How do you define a madman? Do you really know what the world looks like in the minds of madmen? Can you imagine how different the world in his mind is from the world in your head, who knows the world by the words of others and by his own touch? ”

Andy subconsciously imagined it, of course, he couldn't imagine anything, becoming blind means falling into a dark world forever, which only means a horror for people who have never been blind, and this horror even easily suppresses the desire to continue imagining, for a normal person, in the face of this horror, it will only be instinctive retreat.

"I want to. . . Even if there is a difference, it is because he lacks the ability to know, and if he regains the ability he lacked, the understanding of the world in their minds will become no different from that of ordinary people. ”

Dr. Clark nodded slightly, but let out a chuckle.

"You trust your eyes too much, let's do an experiment, you look at me now, first you move your head from side to side, then you don't move your head and just let your eyes move from side to side, what do you think is the difference between what you see in front of you? Do you feel that in these two situations, you or me, who is moving? ”

Andy did so for no apparent reason.

"If my head is swinging from side to side, I'll feel like you're moving with my movement too... But I know it's actually just me moving, and if I'm just wiggling my eyes, then both you and I will stay still, it's just that I'm glancing at you.. Probably so. ”

"That's right."

On the side of the screen where the image of Dr. Clark's mouth appears, a camera rotates twice.

"This proves that the sensory organ you rely on the most, your eyes, are nothing more than two organic cameras, and the image you see is projected on your retina, but your consciousness does not directly recognize this image, your consciousness only extracts information from this image to construct a model, and through your uninterrupted camera to continuously update the details of this model, so that you can understand the world in three dimensions through vision, a rough sense that can only transmit to you a two-dimensional image."

"You think you're looking at the world... In fact, you are just looking at a model world constructed in your brain, the construction of this false world depends on your senses, a rudimentary and one-sided copy of the external real world, and your consciousness keeps updating it in order to make the version of this world timeless, and you think that you are free to move in this world? No... Each of us is just an unconscious, prisoner locked up in our own minds. ”

Andy listened and listened, in his ignorance, he only felt five thunderbolts, no one had ever said such a subversive word to him, he subconsciously pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to refute Dr. Clark's remarks.

"You can't say that, can you? Even if it's really through an invisible wall, as long as we continue to understand the world and update the information in real time, then... In the end, there is no clear difference between knowing the real world of the outside world or knowing the real world of the outside world by knowing the false world in our minds. ”

"There is no noticeable difference..."

Dr. Clark repeated, then sharply criticized.

"Fallacy... There is a huge difference between the two, compared with the real world, the fake is the fake, just like the system program in the terminal has a large number of errors, and the false world we build in our minds is full of loopholes and frequent failures. ”

"We can't see light beyond the visible spectrum, we can't hear sound waves beyond the audible range, but don't they exist? Of course not, they do exist, but we have to use something beyond our perceptual organs to help us discover their existence in order to make subsequent observations and finally recognize them, which is the meaning of all the scientific instruments of the old world that have been invented and used continuously. ”

"In the real world that we can never see, radio waves, microwaves... And radiation, they're all over the place. ”

Andy tried to keep up with Dr. Clark, but he always felt like he was being carried over a pointless topic.

"But even if the so-called real world is more colorful than the one in our minds, all we can do is this, at least there is consistency in our understanding of the world, we can see anything in front of us and the image of this thing is highly similar in our minds."

"Highly similar?"

Dr. Clark asked sarcastically again.

"How do you know that I am very similar to the world as you see it? As I said before, when you move, you don't feel that you are moving, but the outside world is moving, indeed, for you who are squatting in the cell of your brain, what is moving is just that false world, you yourself have never moved, but your knowledge allows you to understand and correct the mistakes you have made, in fact, it is not the outside world that is moving, but you are moving. ”

What does this realization come from? Consensus is false, and we've pieced it together, this thing I call consensus falsehood, and it's something that we, the poor prisoners, have worked so hard to bypass most of the confusion barriers. ”

"This is the basis and results of scientific research, the consensus is false, or you can call it the objective material world, everyone's perception of the world has different subtle differences, if these differences are concentrated together, due to the accumulation of small amounts, the final distortion and resulting errors will be extremely serious, in order to avoid this situation and shield this individual difference to the greatest extent The distortion of the consensus falsehood to make it further close to the truth, people in the old world have thought of a way, that is, quantification, We use numbers to measure and record everything, to fix this volatile shadow with an immutable standard, and to try to find the truth in the false. ”

"Physics, the doctrine of describing the basic composition and interaction of all things in the world in mathematical language, has so far used it to build the tallest Tower of Babel... It avoids the inherent weaknesses of human beings that can lead to mistakes, the original cognitive route of human beings to the world is from the inside out, while in physics, this understanding is from the outside to the inside, and the difference between the two routes leads to the separation of the two, at this time, the most difficult point to expand human understanding has changed from reaching consensus falsehood to transcribing consensus falsehood into the false world we are really looking at, in other words, how to fully understand the consensus falsehood we get, and update our false world closer to perfection, even... Further. ”

Andy struggled to keep his eyes open to dispel the sleepiness and the boredom.

"Even so.... How does this explain that the composition of the world is mathematics? ”

Dr. Clark's lips furled, as if the fun part had just begun for him.

"If the conclusions that all scientists are pursuing are integrated into the 'ultimate' in physics that has been pursued by countless people, the super-unified equation that can explain all existence, everything has its own internal laws, which is the basis for our existence and understanding, but why does everything have its own laws? Laws are the opposite of chaos, and if there are laws in the world, then the starting point of the world must originate from some ineffable being's 'plan', and in this case, there must be an 'ultimate', a solution that can solve everything. ”

"It's a perfect description of the real world, nothing more, nothing less, as long as we get it, we can get out of it..."

Andy stared at the mouth on the monitor, he didn't even know what Dr. Clark looked like, and now he was discussing with Dr. Clark how to know everything, which was ridiculous, but given the measles on the sidelines, he couldn't say it directly.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Clark, I really don't understand what you're trying to say, can you use some... How about a simple and easy-to-understand word? ”

Dr. Clark shook his head, his tone firm.

"Nope! You are compromising towards falsehood, and the world can not only be described mathematically, but according to the 32 manifestations of its essence, its essence is mathematics! So all the words and descriptions other than mathematical formulas are unnecessary, even toxic and harmful, and once you try to use these things, they will completely occupy your body and mind step by step, and make you completely blinded by falsehood. ”

"When you look up at the sky, the bright light source, you only think of the meaningless word sun, but the real name of that thing is: a mass of matter bound by gravity containing 10 atoms to the power of 57, some of which are undergoing nuclear fusion."

"Two upper quarks and one lower quark make up protons, two lower quarks and one upper quark make up neutrons, and different numbers of protons and neutrons combine to form a steady-state bloon... It became the nucleus, there are 257 varieties of them, and in order to facilitate the renewal of them in the false world, we have to call them hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, helium atoms... Do you understand? These names are nothing more than labels used by human beings to easily update their false world, and they serve falsehood, so they are also false. ”

"And what about the truth? Truth is mathematics, mathematical formulas themselves exist in nature, human beings did not invent them, but discovered them, so mathematical formulas are the most real embodiment of the world, the more abstract, the more real, the simpler, the more advanced. ”

"In the microcosm, atoms don't have any properties, such as color, taste... What we see is not actually these substances, but rather a reflection of the relationships that occur when these substances interact with each other in the false world of the mind. ”

"How do you describe yourself, you are just a pile of matter made up of 10 particles to the 29th power, in the four-dimensional space-time, you are a pipe, but the internal structure of this pipe is extremely complex, the particles in your whole body are constantly moving and intertwined with each other, your self-consciousness is born from it, what are you? How do you perceive time? ”

"Patterns, patterns, one of the patterns is called memory."

"People in the old world used computers to simulate everything, such as the weather, although it was not always accurate, but it was not always wrong, which means that there is a possibility that the world can be perfectly predicted, and since this possibility exists, is the real world just a simulation in a higher dimension? Our cognition is a kind of fantasy, there is no time, there is no space, we are like several game characters recorded in a holographic cassette recorded in the terminal, among which there are countless different ones that we are neatly arranged under the dominance of a certain mode, but all of us have already been included in it, and the moment the simulation is launched, our fantasy begins to make us have an illusion. ”

"The illusion is that the real us exists."

Andy twitched the corners of his mouth, feeling that he understood part of it, and it seemed that he didn't understand anything from beginning to end, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was a madman's remarks, since Dr. Clark said that the simpler and more advanced, then the way he treated Dr. Clark's words at this moment might as well be advanced, as if he had never heard him talk about this nonsense.

"I see, Dr. Clark, can I ask you some questions?"