Chapter 57 PART FIFTY-THIRD ON TIME

When I went in, he was lying on the table busy writing something.There are a lot of papers that have been written on the side. Me: "Hello." He didn't lift his head: "Wait a minute." I'm good." I thought in my heart that this time it might still be the result of failure. He is a very special patient.The medical history has been about five years, and he was an academician of a certain academy of sciences before, even if he is not highly respected, he is still an elite person.He is now in the hospital, and he is busy with work when he is not sick, and various people will come to see him - former colleagues and students.Moreover, part of his research is still published in some academic journals.This is the reason why I persevere in contacting him.Let me think about it though, how many times has he turned me down?A dozen times?So this old gentleman also tops the list of the most painful for me.Of course, there are other reasons, such as the need for confirmation from the patient's unit and...

Half an hour later, he was not at his desk, leaning slowly on the back of his chair, frowning and looking at me. He: "What do you want to know? What I do is too professional for you. You are a layman. There is nothing to communicate between us." To be honest, he stopped me, yes, what exactly do I want to know? Me: "Well... Maybe... I'm just curious?" His face softened a little: "It's understandable to be curious...can you get me a cup of tea?" Tea, coffee, and carbonated beverages are prohibited in the courtyard. After another ten minutes, he held a teacup and smiled.

He: "Aren't you a reporter?" I'm not." Him: "Curious writer?" I'm not." He: "You are not a doctor or a psychologist." I'm not." He: "Oh... well, I won't ask why you can sit in front of me. I want to know why you did this? You have used a lot of connections, right?" Me: "Hmm. Maybe I'm curious? I really want to know something I don't know, or something I haven't thought about. Can you understand?" He took a sip of tea slowly: "I understand, I understand completely. You remind me of a sentence I believe in."

What am I." He: "If you're going to get something you've never had, then you have to do something you've never done." Me: "That makes sense, who said that?" He thought about it seriously: "Forget it, it doesn't matter who said it, just remember this sentence." Me: "Well, I remember." Him: "Have you come into contact with many mentally ill people?" Me: "Is it okay? I have contacted a lot." He looked at me with interest: "What kind of things are there?" I mentioned a few, including the four-dimensional bug boy and the treasure of the town yard (the 'lost traveler' hadn't been seen at that time).

He nodded: "Well, it's very interesting." Me: "Are you familiar with that field? I mean astrophysics and quantum physics." He: "Not very familiar, but I know a little bit." Me: "Can you tell me?" He: "Yes, at least for the sake of this cup of tea." I smiled embarrassedly, it was just a cup of teabag. He still spoke slowly: "The problem of time is actually not a big problem. Time doesn't exist." me?" He: "Time is just a label, or scale, for us and human beings to feel about ourselves. And it is a consensus label. If there is no detailed label or scale, then many things will be chaotic. It can be as big as launching a war or launching a rocket, as small as Fry a dish and make an appointment with someone."

Me: "You mean to say that time is just a concept." He: "Yeah, it's just a concept. Time itself doesn't exist, it's just for us to mark some things. You can't brag about it: how was it a long time ago... right? With the consensus label, you can Very proud to say: 2 billion years ago..." I smiled: "That's true." He: "The so-called present is just that we are on a certain scale. Moreover, this scale is set by ourselves." Me: "A certain scale...you mean, can it be reversed?" He: "Why do you understand it this way? How can it be reversed?"

Me: "You mean..." He: "Let's talk about a fact that is misunderstood by the public?" I'm good." He: "There is a saying that if an object travels faster than the speed of light, time will flow backwards, right?" Me: "Is this not a misunderstanding? According to the theory of relativity..." He: "You stop first, let me ask you, do you understand the theory of relativity? This understanding is not just memorized, but can explain part of it." Me: "I can't, there aren't many people in the world who can explain it, right?"

He: "Of course few people can explain everything, but there are still many people who can explain part of it. What I want to do here is not to teach you the basics, but to tell you: When you don't really understand a theory Do not quote easily, or use it as evidence, or to refute. You must first understand clearly, otherwise you are likely to become a joke, because you are doing something you are not good at. And when you do not understand some issues , don’t explain indiscriminately, it can only make you look ridiculous and stupid. If you have to use the radio wave theory to explain quantum electricity, and use wireless transmission loss to look at quantum electricity, then you are ridiculous, you can only Proof of your ignorance and self-righteousness. Although both are transmissions, the concepts are different. You write a letter and you need the postal system, but you write an email and you don’t need the postal system. Although they are both called mail. Understand?"

Me: "Okay, I understand. I take back the sentence about the theory of relativity." He: "Let's go on to talk about time. In fact, superluminal speed is also a manifestation of speed, not any strange things will happen when it exceeds that limit. Suppose, if you see the earth from one light-year away, then you actually see What I’m talking about is the earth a year ago, so I don’t need to explain the basis, right?” Me: "No, a light year is a unit of length." He: "Yes, then what you saw was the scene a year ago. Suppose you are 365 times faster than light, or 3650 times, and you came to the earth soon, then what you came to is the earth a year ago? No Right? The earth you see is now, not a year ago."

Me: "I seem to understand." He: "Actually, it can be compared with archery. A person shoots an arrow at you, and the arrow reaches your eyes. If you move quickly, you will see the arrow hanging in the air at most. If you reach the archer at superluminal speed In front of you, the arrow will return to the bow? Isn’t that right? The arrow is no longer on the bow, and it has already shot to the position you were just now. Your high speed, at most, caused you to see a stationary the world, not against the current." Me: "I understand. What you mean is: Assuming that there is a super-light speed, in fact, the super-light speed will consume time. Even if it is only one ten thousandth of a second, it will be consumed and there is no way to reverse it."

He: "Yes, the so-called reversal of time faster than the speed of light is just a fantasy that the public likes very much. In fact, the concept of reversal of faster than the speed of light can be seen through philosophical analysis. Is it true that the whole world is for a person to go faster than the speed of light? Reversal? This idea is too subjective. In fact, as a theory, the theory of relativity is to show that if there is speed, it can ignore the problem of time, and it is only a hypothetical phenomenon in physics.” Me: "Well, it's like this... From this point of view, you support the multi-universe theory for the concept of traveling through time and space?" He: "I didn't say that, and I am skeptical of the parallel universe theory and the superstring theory that is popular now. This is not my personal problem, but these two theories have their own basis, but they are very The evidence is obviously insufficient, and it can't explain some other problems. So I still take a wait-and-see attitude. And I'm not a professional in this field, I just know something." Me: "Understood, not in one field." He: "I also pay attention occasionally. Because there are many majors, there will be a lot in common to a certain extent." Me: "That's true, but it seems that these are also popular or not." He: "If you talk about the scientific world in general, it is actually similar to the film and television industry and the entertainment industry. There are some hot topics every year. Yesterday it was quantum, today it is celestial bodies, tomorrow it is superstring theory, and in a few days it may be biology. The computer is gone." Me: "I agree with what you said, but there are always people doing things, whether to pay attention or not, in fact, there are media or government inducements." He: "Well, it's actually related to technological achievements in a certain field." Me: "So on the issue of time, is there any result? Or do you know something?" He: "Continuing what I said earlier. Since time is a man-made scale and irreversible, there seems to be no problem with the causal issue of time. But this is not the case. Causal issues are often not inevitable, such as the weather. Change. The Americans have done countless experiments. Under the same environmental simulation, the simulated climate is completely different. Why? It is a micro factor, but is the micro factor enough to cause such a big change? The result is yes. Then a new discipline was derived—nonlinear dynamics, which is chain effect. But chain effect is actually studying inevitability, but problems still arise now, we can’t do all the observations to test this theory, so what should we do?” I followed this train of thought carefully and thought: "That's right...then what should I do?" He: "The problem comes back to time. Time is actually a scale tool we have created, but what if this tool is wrong? Or should this tool be eliminated?" Me: "Ah? That's impossible, right? If you change this concept now, many things will be completely messed up. Isn't it just a change in the relevant research field? Don't let the public follow suit." He nodded: "That's right, that's the attitude now. But it's not a problem of change, it's a problem caused by the root cause. The basis of our current time is based on where we are - on this planet. For example The year, month, and day are all based on revolution, rotation, and climate change in the four seasons. If there is no such thing, there will be no support for time. We can only think of other ways. Is there actually a way? Surely there will be , It still depends on what we plan to formulate on the basis of.” I was stunned: "You mean, time is actually in our own hands?" He: "That's it. Time doesn't exist. It's just our attitude and vision. In fact, there is no time." For the next few days, I felt a little disheartened, and I couldn't tell what was wrong.Maybe it was his last sentence that messed with me.Although I recovered later, I couldn't help looking at the issue of time with a very complicated mentality—even if it was a concept that was settled long before I was born. When I later told this to my friend who is a psychiatrist, he was noncommittal, but told me not to think too much about it.And remind me not to forget the video of the patient's illness. I still remember that—the patient was tied to the bed, shouting hoarsely: "Let me go! Let me go! I'm Einstein!!"