Chapter 11 Chapter 11 The Complete Causal Chain

After rushing back to the 575th century, the space-time engineer Andrew Harlan discovered that it was already evening.He ran wildly along the space-time silo, and before he knew it, several physical hours had passed.He stared blankly into the darkening hallway, watching the night engulf everything. However, under the impetus of undiminished anger, he didn't let himself go for too long.He turned to private housing estates.He could find Twissell's room on the calculator's floor, just as he had found Finge's.He is not afraid of other people's attention and obstruction. At Twissel's door (on which the nameplate was clearly engraved) he felt the end of the nerve whip still pressed hard against his elbow.

Harlan rang the doorbell roughly.He kept pressing the doorbell with his sweaty palm, making a series of beeps.He could vaguely hear the bell ringing inside the door. He also heard light footsteps behind him, but he didn't pay attention to it.He was sure whoever it was would be pretending not to see him. (Oh, all because of his rose-pink Chronotechnician badge!) But the footsteps stopped, and the man said, "Technician Harlan?" Harlan turned around.The other party was a trainee computer engineer who had been assigned to this division not long ago.The anger in Harlan's heart increased a bit.This is not the 482nd century, here he is not just an ordinary space-time technician, he is the exclusive technician of Twissell; and those young calculators, all of them are looking forward to curry favor with the great Twissell, to his old man The dedicated technicians will also be more polite.

The computer said, "Would you like to see Twissell, Senior Computer?" Harlan became irritable and replied, "Yes, sir." (You idiot! What else could I be doing standing in front of someone's door and ringing the doorbell? Do I want to go in and buy groceries?) "I'm afraid you won't see it," said the calculator. "I have something very important to do and I have to wake him up," Harlan said. "Maybe," the other party replied, "but he's gone out. He's not in the 575th century division." "Where is he now?" Harlan asked impatiently.

The calculator's glance becomes a haughty stare. "I have no idea." Harlan said, "I have an important meeting with him early tomorrow morning." "I believe." The calculator said, obviously gloating, and for a moment Harlan didn't know how to respond. The computer went on, almost smiling: "You're a little early, aren't you?" "But I must see him." "I promise he will show up tomorrow morning." The calculator smiled even wider. "but--" The calculator had already walked past Harlan, carefully avoiding any physical contact with him, not even touching the hem of his clothes.

Harlan clenched his fist, then let it go.He watched the computer go helplessly, and found that there was nothing he could do, so he left slowly, almost unconsciously walking back to his room. Harlan couldn't sleep.He told himself he had to sleep.He tried to relax himself, but of course he failed.Various trivial details appeared in his mind like a revolving lantern. First up is Noi. He decided eagerly that they dared not hurt her.There was no way they could send her back to normal spacetime before they could calculate the impact on reality, which would take days, if not weeks.There was also the possibility that they might do what Finge had threatened him, teleport her to the scene of an untraceable accident.

He hadn't seriously considered the possibility.They didn't have to do it so violently, they wouldn't risk annoying Harlan with such a thing. (In the dark silence after the lights were turned off in the bedroom, when half-asleep and half-awake, when his thoughts were jumping wildly, Harlan felt extremely convinced that the full-time council would not dare to displease him, the space-time engineer.) Of course, a woman in jail may encounter other misfortunes, especially a beautiful woman from a century of extravagance... Every time this thought came up, Harlan always resolutely suppressed it.This seemed to be something more likely and more unimaginable than death, and he didn't dare to think about it.

He thought again of Twissell. The old man is not in the 575th century.Where had he been when he was supposed to be sleeping?As people get older, they need more sleep and rest.Harlan knew the answer: the full-time council must be meeting at this moment, discussing Harlan and Noy, and discussing how to deal with this forbidden space-time engineer. Harlan's mouth curled up.Even if Finge reported his rough play tonight, it wouldn't affect their decision in any way.His previous behavior was already heinous, and he didn't care about adding this.And his irreplaceable importance will not be compromised in any way.

And Harlan was sure that Finge would never sue.Admitting that he was cowardly when he was threatened by a space-time technician would have a bad influence on the performance evaluation of an assistant computer engineer, and Finge would definitely not do that. Harlan has always valued the fellowship of space-time technicians, but in recent years he has hardly been able to integrate into it.He was exceptionally promoted to become Twissell's exclusive technician, and now he almost assumes the role of a mentor, which makes him gradually distanced from other space-time technicians.However, there is a lack of unity tradition among the space-time technicians.Why is this so?

Should he go around the 575th century and the 482nd century to talk to other time-space technicians?Do they also have to avoid each other?Do they have to accept the lonely fate imposed on them by others around them? In his mind, since he could force the full-time council to make concessions regarding Nuoyi's matter, he can now ask for a higher price.Chronotechnicians to form their own organizations, to meet regularly - to form more friendships - to receive more kind treatment from others. His last thought was that he himself became a hero who promoted social reform, and Noy was by his side, and then he fell into a deep sleep...

He was awakened by the doorbell, which had been ringing impatiently for a long time.When his drowsy head cleared up a bit and he saw the little clock beside the bed clearly, he couldn't help cursing inwardly. God of time!He ended up oversleeping. He struggled to reach the button from the bed, and the surveillance window on the door became transparent.He didn't recognize the face at the window, but it was clearly someone high up. He opened the door, and in came the man wearing the orange badge of an administrative officer. "Harlan, the time-space engineer, right?" "Yes, Constable? What do you want me for?"

The administrative officer seemed unresponsive to his provocative question.He said, "You have an appointment with Twissell, Senior Computer?" "So what?" "I've come to inform you that you're late." Harlan stared at him and asked, "That's all? You're not from the 575th century, are you?" "I belong to Division 222." The other party replied mechanically, "Assistant Administrative Officer Abbat Lem. I am in charge of liaison arrangements. I did not use the computer array system to send you official announcements to avoid stimulating your emotions." "What's the arrangement? What's the thrill? What's it all about? Look, I do have an appointment with Twissel, and he's my boss. What's exciting about it?" A trace of surprise also flashed across the face of the political officer who had always been rigid. "Has no one told you yet?" "tell me what?" "Oh, at this moment in the 575th Century Division, there is a full-time Council panel meeting taking place. As far as I know, this message reached this location a few hours ago." "They're calling for me?" Harlan thought for a split second, of course they're calling for me.What else could they discuss but my business? Now he understood why the trainee calculator was smiling at Twissel's door last night.The computerist must have known about the symposium, and thought that the technician was so excited to see Twissell at the symposium that he couldn't sleep, so he ran to wait at Twissell's door, so he laughed.It was really funny, and Harlan couldn't help but feel a little bitter in his heart. The administrative officer said: "I just follow orders, and I don't know anything else." Then he asked with a little surprise, "Haven't you heard anything about it?" "The time-space technicians," Harlan said sarcastically, "are living cave lives." There were five people sitting beside Twissell!All are senior calculators, senior eternal people with more than 35 years of experience. If it was six weeks ago, if he could sit with these six people and participate in such a high-level luncheon, he would have been scared to death; speechless.Each of them appeared to be twice his height. But now they were his rivals, or worse, his judges.He didn't have time to be moved, he had to think of countermeasures. They probably didn't know it yet, but he already knew that Noi was in their hands.They wouldn't know unless Finge reported seeing Harlan last night.However, under the light of today's daylight, he was even more convinced that Finge would never expose his family scandal and make public the scandal that he was frightened by a space-time technician. Therefore, in order to make more effective use of this possible advantage, Harlan had better let the opponent make the first move, let the opponent fire the first shot and start a war. They don't seem in a rush either.The ingredients on the table were simple, and they watched him calmly across the table, as if he was an interesting specimen with his limbs spread out, lifted in mid-air by an anti-gravity force field.Harlan returned a desperate look. He is familiar with the names of every person on the opposite side; he has seen every person's three-dimensional image in the film explained by the Eternal Time and Space Foundation.These films are stored synchronously in each division of Eternal Time and Space, and every Eternal person above the observer level must learn. August Schinner, the bald one (without eyebrows or eyelashes), was without a doubt the one that most interested Harlan.First of all, his appearance is rather strange, the deep black eyes and bald eyelids are in stark contrast to his forehead, the real image is more eye-catching than the three-dimensional image.Secondly, there had always been a feud between Shenner and Tessel, and he had heard of it for a long time.Finally, Shinner didn't just stare at him, but began to ask a series of questions in a high-pitched voice. Most of his questions are unanswerable, such as "When did you first become interested in primitive times?" or "Do you find it worthwhile to learn, lad?" At last he seemed to settle back in his seat.He put his slate carefully into the document feeder, cupping his slender fingers in front of him. (Harlan noticed that there was not a single hair on the back of his hand either.) Shinner said, "There's something I've been wondering. Maybe you can tell me about it." Harlan thought: Well, here we go. He replied loudly, "Sir, I will do my best." "There are some people in the eternal space-time-I don't mean all people, or many people." He glanced at Twissell's tired face, and the others gathered slightly to listen. Very interested. Maybe you can tell me about it." "You mean the time travel paradox, sir?" "Well, if you want to put it in such a fancy word, yes. But of course, there's more than that. There's the question of the nature of reality, the question of macroscopic energy conservation of reality changing, and stuff like that. Now that we're in eternal spacetime, People who already know the mysteries of time travel don't have to be bothered by these questions. But your primitive people didn't know about time travel. What do they think about these things?" Twissel's grunt floated across the table: "Tricked again!" But Shinna ignored him and continued to ask, "Can you answer my question, Technician?" Harlan replied, "Primitive people don't really have much idea of ​​time travel, calculator." "Think time travel is impossible, huh?" "I think so." "Haven't you even guessed the possibility?" "Oh, so," said Harlan uncertainly, "I believe that in some street literature there is a certain degree of speculation. I am not familiar with this field, but I believe that there is a theme that often Appearing, someone will go back in time and kill their teenage grandfather." Shenner looked very satisfied. "Brilliant! Great! If we presuppose that reality is immutable, at least this story expresses the fundamental paradox of time travel, doesn't it? Changed. Am I right?" Harlan didn't answer right away.He couldn't see the purpose of the conversation, or what Shinner's real motives were, and it made him a little anxious.He said: "I am not fully sure to answer your question, sir. I believe that those people have put forward many conjectures, perhaps including the concept of adjustable evolution path of reality, or parallel time and space. I am not sure." Shinna's face darkened. "I am sure you are mistaken. You must have been disturbed by the modern knowledge you have learned, and your mind has become confused. No, without the actual experience of time travel, the variability of reality will definitely not appear in the human mind Medium. For example, why does reality have inertia? We all know that it does. The change behavior that adjusts to the development of reality must reach a certain level of magnitude before the change can be truly triggered. Even so, after the change The reality of reality always has a tendency to return to the original path in the process of evolution. "For example, suppose there is a change in the 575th century. The difference in the path of the development of reality will become larger and larger until a certain point in time, such as the 600th century. After this point, the deviation will gradually decrease until another point , such as the 650th century. From this point on, there is no longer any difference between the two realities. We all know this is the case, but who among us knows why? Intuition tells us that any change in reality will only make the reality evolve The path goes farther and farther, deviates infinitely over time, but it doesn't. "To put it another way. I've always heard people say that Space-Time Technician Harlan is a genius who can find the node of the smallest necessary change in any situation. I bet that he himself doesn't know how to make judgments and choices. "Think about how poor and helpless people were in primitive times. They didn't understand the reality of reality, so they were worried about some guy going back in time and killing his grandfather. Let's change the simpler and more likely event, Suppose a person goes back in time and meets himself..." Harlan asked loudly, "What happens when a person meets himself?" It was very rude for Harlan to interrupt a calculator.His volume and tone of voice made this rash behavior even more indecent, and all eyes of condemnation were turned on him. Shinna snorted coldly, and resumed his well-trained, deliberately polite tone.He returned to the topic he was interrupted, while avoiding directly answering the rude question: "Such phenomena can be divided into the following four situations. We can call the one who is earlier in physical time A; The one at the back is called B. In the first case, neither A nor B found each other, or did not take any actions that could obviously affect each other. In this case, they did not actually meet, and the consequences can be ignored. "In the second case, the later one, B, sees A, but A does not see B. This situation will not cause serious consequences. Because B sees A, he only sees what he already knows things, will not lead to new things. "The third and fourth cases are respectively, A sees B but B does not see A, and A and B discover each other. In both cases, the really troublesome point is that A sees B. One is in a relatively A person in the early state can see his future self. He will find that he can at least live to B's current age and make B's current behavior. And if a person knows his future, even if it is the most superficial understanding, He will also take some actions because of this knowledge, thereby changing his future. Then in the changed future, B will not go back to the past to meet A, or at least cannot let A see B. In the new reality , the old reality that was changed in the past can no longer appear. A can never see B. Similarly, in any situation that may lead to a time travel paradox, reality will be adjusted to avoid the paradox. So we can conclude In conclusion, the time travel paradox does not exist and will never arise." Shinner seemed very pleased with his statement, but Twissell stood up. Twissel said, "Gentlemen, I believe the time is nearly up." Before Harlan could react, the lunch meeting was over.Five of the six bigwigs got up and left the table, nodding to him as if their curiosity had been satisfied.Among them, only Shinner, in addition to nodding, stretched out his hand to him and added a gruff "Goodbye, young man". Harlan watched the men leave in bewilderment.What is the purpose of this luncheon?Most importantly, why is it mentioned that a person encounters himself?They didn't say a word about Noi.They were just studying him this time?To examine him from head to toe, and hand him over to Twissell? Twissel returned to the table, which had been cleared of cutlery and food.He was now alone with Harlan and, as if to emphasize the point, he had a new cigarette in his mouth. He said, "Now it's time to start, Harlan. We've got a lot to do." But Harlan would not wait any longer, nor could he wait any longer.He said directly: "Before we start, I have something to say." Twissell looked a little startled, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes piled up in a pensive look, and he flicked the ash off the cigarette butt with his fingers. He said, "You can say anything you want, but sit down first, sit down, boy." Temporal Technician Andrew Harlan was not seated.He paced back and forth along the table, trying to suppress the surging emotions in his heart, so that he would not open his mouth and talk nonsense with excitement.Senior computer laban tessel's weather-beaten head rocked back and forth with his nervous stride. "I've been researching the history of mathematics for the past few weeks," said Harlan, "from several records of different realities in the 575th century. It doesn't matter which reality, mathematics is always the same, it's going back and forth. No matter how the reality changes, the history of mathematics development is always the same. Mathematicians will change, and different people will always discover different theories, but the end result is the same-no matter what, I will always go to I have poured a lot of knowledge into my head. Are you surprised?" Twissell frowned, and said, "Should the time-space engineer spend his time on such a side door?" "But I'm not just an ordinary space-time engineer." Harlan said, "You understand." "Continue." Twissell glanced at his watch, and moved it a few times with his cigarette-holding finger, revealing an unusual nervousness. Harlan said: "There was a man named Vico Malanzon, who lived in the 24th century. You know, it was primitive times. He is most famous for successfully creating the first time force field in history. Of course Yes, this means that he invented the eternal space-time. Because the eternal space-time is just a super-large time force field, which opens up paths in all stages of ordinary time and space, and is not restricted by any period of ordinary time and space." "During the novice period, you have learned these lessons, child." "But no one told me that it was impossible for Vico Malanzon to invent the time force field in the 24th century. No one could have such an invention. Its mathematical theoretical basis did not exist yet. At that time, the most basic Lefeb Were’s equations haven’t been invented yet; they won’t be possible until the work of Jan Vermeer in the 27th century.” Senior Computer Twissell must be in a state of extreme shock at this moment, because the cigarette butt between his fingers has fallen to the ground, and the smile on his face has disappeared. He said, "Have you studied Lefebvre's equation, boy?" "No, I didn't say I could understand it. But it is the mathematical theory of the time force field. I already know this. And it didn't come out until the 27th century. I also know this." Twissel bent down to pick up the cigarette butt on the ground, staring at it suspiciously. "What if Malanzon invented the time force field by accident, but he didn't actually know the mathematical principles behind it? What if it was only discovered in experiments? There are many such things." "I thought about the possibility. But it took humans three centuries to figure out how force fields work since they were created, and no one was able to improve Malanzon's in any way until a mathematical breakthrough in the 27th century. Force field. This is no coincidence. In all respects, Malanzon's design used Lefebvre's equation. Either he learned this equation, or he derived it independently of Vermeer's achievements. Given this equation, which of the two possibilities is more reliable? If he introduced the equation, why didn't he announce it?" Twissel said, "You talk like you're a mathematician. Who taught you that?" "I read a lot of film materials." "That's all?" "Add your own thinking." "Without any advanced mathematics training? I've been watching you closely for several years, kid, but I really didn't expect you to have such a talent. Go on." "Without the time force field invented by Malanson, eternal space-time would never have been possible. And if Malanson hadn't learned the mathematics of the next few centuries, he would never have been able to invent the time force field. This is one of the doubts. And in the eternal time and space, at our moment, there is a novice who broke all the rules and was selected as an eternal man. He is overage and married. Now you are teaching him mathematics knowledge and sociology knowledge in the primitive era. This is Doubt number two." "and then?" "I think your purpose is to send him back to the ordinary time and space, to the primitive age before the beginning of eternal time and space, the 24th century. Your purpose is to let this novice named Cooper teach the Lefebvre equation To Malanzon. In this way," Harlan said emotionally, "my status as an expert on primitive times, my knowledge of primitive times, gives me a very unique position. A very, very unique position." "God of Time!" Twissell grunted. "Am I right, where is the problem? With my contribution, we can build a complete causal chain. If not..." He stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence. "You're pretty close to the truth," said Twissell, "but I can swear there's no—" He lost in thought, as if forgetting Harlan and the world around him. Harlan immediately interjected: "Just close to the truth? That's the truth." For some reason, he was absolutely sure of what he said, except that he was very eager for his speculation to come true. Twissell said, "No, not so much. That novice, Cooper, isn't going back to the twenty-fourth century to teach Malanzon something." "I do not believe." "You will believe it. You must see the importance of this matter. I need your cooperation to complete the rest of the plan. Tell you, Harlan, the chain of cause and effect is clearer and more complete than you surmise .much better than you think, boy. Rookie Brinsley Sheridan Cooper is Vico Maranson himself."