Chapter 58 Purpose and Information Carrying

Bai Yang turned his head and looked at the three people standing behind him.

Wang Ning stood in the middle. Bai Yang saw his face turn red, then blue and finally white like a traffic light. He raised his right hand and grabbed his chest with a painful expression.

He remembered that the heart was on the left.

Then he switched to his left hand, tightly clutching the shirt in front of his chest, his expression continuing to be painful, and he staggered back two steps.

Zhao Bowen and Bai Zhen quickly supported him.

"Old Wang, what's wrong with you?"

"I... I'm having a heart attack..." Wang Ning gasped.

"When did you have the heart attack?"

"From now on, I have it."

The three men left the room. Bai Yang sat at the table. Through the wall, he could faintly hear his father and the others arguing. At first it was a discussion, but later it was simply a quarrel. The sound could continuously penetrate the walls and headphones. Bai Yang vaguely heard "The propagation speed of electromagnetic signals is also the speed of light" - this is Zhao Bowen, "No one will believe you if you tell others!" - this is Wang Ning, and "It's fucking over" - this is Dad.

Dad Wang Ning and Zhao Bowen quarreled in the living room for half an hour, and suddenly they became quiet. They sat in silence for a long time, all wanting to speak but not wanting to. Finally, the three of them stood up at the same time.

"I'm going to the bathroom."

"I'm going to smoke a cigarette."

“I…I’ll go!”

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Bai Yang went downstairs to throw away the garbage and saw Zhao Bowen sitting on the stairs on the first floor of the apartment building smoking.

The light in the corridor was very dim and no lights were on. Lao Zhao just sat in the darkness silently, with only the red cigarette butt slowly flickering.

"Uncle Zhao."

Zhao Bowen moved aside and Bai Yang sat down beside him. They sat side by side on the steps, looking at the black green belt outside the unit door and the lights of the residential building opposite.

"Yang Yang."

"Um?"

"You have done a great job." Zhao Bowen smiled, "You may have changed the fate of all mankind."

"Don't make fun of me."

"No kidding, seriously." Zhao Bowen blew out a puff of smoke and held the half-burned cigarette between his fingers. "You have made a major discovery that is absolutely unprecedented and may never be repeated. If we were to make a list of the 100 most important people since the birth of mankind, you, Yang Yang, would definitely be on the list. The Qin Emperor, Han Wudi, Tang Taizong and Song Taizu would at most be listed with you, Bai Yang."

"Please don't embarrass me, Uncle Zhao." Bai Yang held his chin and stared blankly at the residential building opposite. The building was brightly lit, and behind every window was a safe and happy family.

Human civilization will be destroyed in five years. In this case, what is the point of listing the 100 most important people in human history?

Is it a summary of the dead person's life before he is buried?

"Would you like to give a speech to express your gratitude for the award?" Zhao Bowen asked.

"Thank you CCTV, thank you BTV, thank you Bilibili, thank you NGA, thank you Zhihu, Weibo, Baidu Tieba." Bai Yang said.

"good!"

Zhao Bowen clapped his hands.

The applause died down and silence returned.

Old Zhao put the cigarette in his mouth and took a long puff. The red hot cigarette butt suddenly became brighter in the darkness.

"It is no exaggeration to say that today may be the most important day in the millions of years since humans left Africa. We are witnessing history."

"But it's just an ordinary day." Bai Yang looked up at the sky.

"Any day in history is an ordinary day." Zhao Bowen smiled. "What may seem like a huge change to later generations is just a day of eating and sleeping as usual in the eyes of those who have experienced it."

“Is it always like this?”

“It’s always been like this.”

Old Zhao smoked in silence until only a butt was left of his cigarette.

"What are we going to do about this?" Bai Yang asked.

"We can't just sit there and wait for death. We have to find a way to change the future," Zhao Bowen replied.

"How to do it?"

"I don't have any clues for now." Zhao Bowen shook his head. "It may be difficult for us to solve this problem by ourselves, but when many hands make light work, the flames will rise high. Once I report this matter, the state machinery will start to move. Those messy top think tanks such as Tsinghua University, Peking University, Huawu University, Zhongke University and Social Sciences University will always be able to find a solution."

"Uncle Zhao, you are also a professor at Nanjing University."

"Deputy."

Zhao Bowen threw the cigarette butt at his feet and stepped on it hard.

"I'm still confused." Bai Yang said suddenly.

"What's the confusion?"

"Everything is confusing." Bai Yang patted his cheeks. "Why did all this happen? Why is there communication across time and space? Why did the time capsule fail to transmit? Was it really because someone dug it out?"

"I can't answer your first question either." Zhao Bowen said, "No one knows why this happened. I guess the problem is not with us, but with BG4MSR."

"Black Moon?"

"It's possible that the Black Moon caused it." Zhao Bowen nodded, "But we haven't found direct evidence yet to prove that it is the culprit for the hyperspace communication."

"Isn't this obvious?" Bai Yang asked, "It is the only object that is beyond our cognition."

"It is obvious, but before we find definitive evidence, it can only be said to be highly suspected." Zhao Bowen said, "As for the following questions, I have been thinking about them for some time and have come up with some unreliable speculations. They are all my thoughts. I can tell you about them. Anyway, I don't have to bear any legal responsibility for telling you."

"Uncle Zhao, tell me!" Bai Yang perked up. "It won't be a rumor if you tell me!"

"First of all, Yang Yang... do you think it is difficult to send a time capsule, a piece of time delivery, to twenty years later?" Zhao Bowen took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and took out another one.

He smoked more cigarettes today than he usually does in a week.

When Bai Yang heard this question, he was stunned for a moment.

"Disaster?"

"No, it's not difficult. In fact, it's not difficult at all." Zhao Bowen flicked on his lighter and lit a cigarette in his hand. "Old Wang's idea is right. It's not difficult to bury a time capsule. It's not difficult to send it to 20 years later. But why did we fail so many times?"

After asking this question, Lao Zhao took a deep breath.

"Because the world is destroyed and society is in turmoil," Bai Yang replied, "the capsules will be dug out."

"Yes, that's the reason. It's very likely that this is the reason. That's why we have to do a double-blind test to prevent someone from knowing what the capsule is and where it is at the same time." Zhao Bowen nodded. "But we have to learn to see the essence through the phenomenon, Yang Yang, and learn to extend a single case to the general field—"

Zhao Bowen picked up a stone from the ground.

"Yang Yang, if I throw this stone into the green belt at the entrance now, do you think it will survive for 20 years?"

Bai Yang was stunned.

Without waiting for his answer, Zhao Bowen revealed the answer himself, "It must be possible. We can just throw this stone into the green belt. As long as nothing unexpected happens and it is not too unlucky to be crushed by a car, it will definitely stay intact for 20 years. After all, no one will make a fuss about an insignificant stone."

Bai Yang nodded.

"But..." Zhao Bowen changed the subject, "If we want to send this stone to BG4MSR 20 years later and still throw it into the green belt, can we do it?"

"cannot."

"Yes, you can't. If you want to send the stone to BG4MSR, you must put it in a time capsule and follow the double-blind rule, otherwise it will fail. If you just throw it into the green belt, it will definitely not be delivered to the other party." Zhao Bowen asked, "Why are they the same stone, but the two results are so different?"

"Because in the first case, it doesn't have to be given to a specific person. No matter where the stone drifts to in the past 20 years, it will still be there," Bai Yang said. "But in the second case, it needs to be given to a specific person, which is much more complicated."

Zhao Bowen nodded, "What is the essential difference?"

Bai Yang hesitated for a few seconds, "The essential difference..."

"Don't rush to think about it. Let's look at the second example." Zhao Bowen still used stones as an example. "Let's pick up two more stones, a total of three stones. Let's throw these three stones into the green belt. Can they survive for 20 years?"

"Can."

"Yes, we can." Zhao Bowen said, "Then let's put three stones in a straight line in the green belt. Yangyang, can this stone formation be successfully preserved for 20 years?"

"No," said Bai Yang, "it will definitely be disrupted."

"Why are the same three stones giving such different results?"

"Because... in the first case, you don't have to worry about the formation. The formation is too easy to be disturbed and disrupted."

"Yes, but this is just the appearance. We need to see the essence. Only by seeing the essence can we draw inferences from one example and find other ways to deliver time slowly." Zhao Bowen nodded, turned his head and raised two fingers, "Yang Yang, now I want to introduce two very important concepts, one is called purpose, and the other is called carrying information."

(End of this chapter)