parentshiftbook Chapter 21: Daily Talk
Chapter 21: Daily Talk
The Decameron, Night Three: The Seeds of Division.
Located 350 meters underground at CERN, near the main control center of the LHC "Eye of the Abyss" 7th generation collider, which is already sealed off on the fourth underground level, this is the largest emergency security fortress.
This place is deeper than the previous safe room and is directly connected to the quantum information synchronization system of the collider's main ring. The walls are covered with real-time updated visual light streams of particle tracks. When the four of them explored this area, they encountered some old friends.
Professor Chen Dunli: A leading figure in high-energy physics in China, Yao Chong's doctoral supervisor, and the host of the last conference. Slender and dressed in an old-fashioned Zhongshan suit, he carries a huanghuali walking stick, his ring finger still tapping it. He is the founder of "Cosmic Ethical Physics," and thirty years ago, he subtly warned in a paper that "consciousness and physical constants may have non-local coupling."
Dr. Karl Stark: Chairman of the CERN Council and head of the "Eye of the Abyss" project. Of German descent, with impeccably styled silver hair and a sharp suit. A staunch pragmatist, he firmly believes that "science should serve the expansion and continuation of human civilization" and holds the most severe criticism of the theory of "consciousness pollution."
Shen Ruozhi: Researcher at the Center for Quantum Information, ETH Zurich, specializing in quantum decoherence and the maintenance of macroscopic quantum states. Calm and sharp, she is one of the few who can keep up with Yao Chong's mathematical derivations. She has collaborated with Rajev on a "collective consciousness decoherence model" and has also worked on projects with Liu Pan.
The Third Night: The Collapsed Tower of Babel.
The atmosphere inside the fortress had never been so tense.
Dr. Stark stood in front of the control panel, with a holographic projection of the "Eye of the Abyss" status screen behind him, which was frantically alarming.
Professor Chen Dunli sat on an old sofa in the corner, closing his eyes to rest, his cane resting on his knees, looking out of place with the surrounding high-tech atmosphere.
Shen Ruozhi was quickly checking the abnormal data of the quantum error correction code imported from the collider synchronization system.
Stark slammed his fist on the control panel, interrupting the previous discussion: "This is utter nonsense! Yao, Liu, I understand the immense pressure, but to blame the collapse of a physical system on 'social moral decay'? This is a regression of mysticism, a shirking of scientific responsibility!"
Liu Pan stood his ground, saying, "Doctor, we didn't assign blame. We tried to build a correlation model. Before the collapse of the 'Eye of the Abyss' main control system, we tracked over 100,000 cases in our lab database that were related to social emotions and localized physical anomalies, and the correlation coefficients—"
Stark: "—It could be a spurious correlation caused by a third variable, or some unknown physical phenomenon affecting the human brain, creating the illusion that 'society is getting worse.' What we need is a physical solution, not social criticism!"
Yao Chong's voice was calm but firm: "Doctor, what if the medium through which the 'unknown physical phenomena' are influenced is the collective consciousness of humanity itself? What if our field of consciousness is a 'measuring instrument' for some kind of high-dimensional physical parameter, and our collective fear, greed, and anger are unconsciously and continuously pushing the reading of this 'instrument' towards the threshold of destruction?"
Chen Dunli, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke, his voice aged yet clear, quoting an ancient text: "The Book of Rites, Record of Music, says: 'The movement of the human heart is caused by external things. Moved by external things, it takes form in sound.' Conversely, if sound, as a kind of information, is aggregated to a certain degree, can it also 'take form in things'? Yao Chong, what is the 'consciousness-constant coupling coefficient' you derived after introducing the nonlocality correction of quantum information theory?"
Shen Ruozhi looked up and quickly rattled off a string of numbers: "If we use von Neumann entropy to quantify the 'ordered malice' of the consciousness field and perform quantum mutual information analysis with the local fluctuations of the fine structure constant... during the 'Oxford Street incident' and the 'Good assassination incident,' the correlation peaks exceeded the explanatory range of any classical stochastic model. This is not an illusion, Dr. Stark; this is data."
Stark's face turned ashen: "Dr. Shen, even you are supporting this...mysticism?"
Shen Ruozhi: "I support falsifiable models. Currently, Dr. Yao and Mr. Liu's model can explain more anomalous data than 'pure physical accidents.' Especially..." She pulled up a waveform, "This is the aggregated spectrum of global major social media sentiment indices received from the geostationary satellite network 0.3 seconds before the 'Eye of the Abyss' collapsed. It is mirror-symmetric in the time and frequency domains with the 'unknown interference pulse' detected inside the collider that caused the control system logic to malfunction. The interference comes from above us, from human society itself."
The fortress was deathly silent.
Even Stark was speechless for a moment.
Just then, the fortress's quantum-encrypted communicator—the only still-functioning external connection in the area where the waterlogged and unwaterlogged areas met—began to crackle with static, intermittent shouts mixed with explosions and shrieks: "...This is the remnant of the Geneva Joint Command...We have observed...physical erosion following the topology of social networks; in conflict hotspots and rumor centers, the spatial distortion rate is five to ten times higher than in peaceful suburbs. Repeat, physical collapse is spreading along our social networks..."
Communication abruptly stopped.
Rajev muttered, "...'Frequency bands' propagate along the connection. Malice flows along the channels we've established."
Elena's face turned pale: "So our previous secure room was breached... because we were constantly arguing, complaining, and being afraid on the internal network?"
Chen Dunli slowly opened his eyes and looked at Yao Chong: "Chong'er, you saw it, didn't you? It was the observation method you always mocked as 'metaphor' from the pages of the 'Zhouyi Cantongqi' in my study."
Everyone looked at Yao Chong.
He took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind.
"Yes, teacher." Yao Chong's voice was filled with exhaustion. "At the very moment when the global emotional peak of the 'Oxford Street incident' resonated with the LHC anomalous signal... I 'saw' it. Not with my naked eye. It was some kind of... direct mapping at the cognitive level."
Liu Pan suddenly looked at him: "You too...?"
Yao Chong nodded: "Brother Pan, when the information tsunami of the 'Goode assassination incident' swept across the global internet, you experienced the same 'cognitive overload' and 'visual reconstruction.' We're unsure whether it was a mutation or the awakening of some kind of potential. We saw... the 'texture' of the world becoming diseased."
Yao Chong's description: "In my eyes, the deterministic physical laws present themselves as a precise network of silver geometric structures. Now, large areas of this network are 'rusting,' 'breaking,' or being blocked by viscous dark matter. The 'perpetual motion phenomenon' in the East District storage room is, in my view, a structural network that has knotted itself, forming an infinitely looping logical deadlock. This is not energy movement, but the death of the meaning of movement—'the abyss of stagnation.'"
Liu Pan's description: "I saw halos of connection, meaning, and emotion. Now, the golden threads representing 'trust' and 'commitment' are breaking off in large numbers, while the scarlet and dark gray mists representing 'anger' and 'anxiety' are multiplying wildly along the remaining connections. When the 'Guardian' system activated forced coordination just now, what I saw was not a net of light, but nerve cords with suction cups that were trying to pierce and stitch together the boundaries of our individual consciousness—'the entangled net'."
Shen Ruozhi's breathing quickened: "The macroscopic manifestation of quantum decoherence? Or... the solidification of a pathological form due to the 'collective collapse of wave functions' caused by direct observation of consciousness?" Her professional instincts were fully activated.
Stark initially disbelieved, then erupted in fury: "Hallucinations! Stress-induced mass hysteria! You're scientists, not psychics!"
Chen Dunli tapped the ground lightly with his cane, drawing everyone's attention. "Dr. Stark, the Tao Te Ching says: 'Vague and indistinct, yet within it are images; indistinct and vague, yet within it are things.' Science and metaphysics are inherently blurred at their boundaries. Whether they 'see' is not the primary concern; the primary concern is whether their descriptions are consistent with Dr. Shen's data, external reports, and the predicament we face."
He looked at Yao Chong and Liu Pan, his gaze as deep as an ancient well: "Now that you have 'seen,' you bear a responsibility. This responsibility is not to promote mystery, but to use these 'eyes' to find the cracks in the blind spots of the data, to verify or refute our model. For example, now, use your 'vision' to see where the weakest 'connection' in our fortress is? Where is the most dangerous 'structural deadlock'?"
Yao Chong and Liu Pan exchanged glances and focused their attention.
A few seconds later, they pointed in different directions almost simultaneously.
Yao Chong: "Three meters below the main energy interface, there is a network of silver wires in the main structural stress frame... There is an expanding, self-consuming 'ring'. Once it breaks, the geometric stability of the entire fortress will collapse in a chain reaction starting from that point."
Liu Pan pointed at the crowd: "The light connecting us... is becoming fragile, constantly polluted by the remnants of the 'Guardian' system's protocols and our mutual fears. But the most dangerous... are Dr. Stark and you, Elder Chen."
Everyone was stunned.
Liu Pan said with difficulty, "Dr. Stark, the threads of 'authority,' 'responsibility,' and 'distrust' that connect you to the outside world are too thick and taut, almost materializing. They are unconsciously radiating a 'pressure field' around you, eroding the rational aura of others. And Elder Chen..." He looked at the old man, "You... have almost no threads of 'emotion' connecting you to the outside world. You are like a perfect 'consciousness black hole,' calm, but also... incomprehensible and unpredictable by the 'connection.' From the 'web's' perspective, you may be an 'outsider,' or you may be... a 'blind spot.'"
Shen Ruozhi immediately operated on the data panel: "The stress point Yao pointed out is indeed a marked 'non-classical stress accumulation zone' on the structural model, but the traditional sensors show normal readings! The 'pressure field' described by Liu... the environmental biosensors inside the fortress show that the air ion concentration and microbial activity around Dr. Stark are indeed abnormally suppressed!"
Scientific data began to be cross-validated with previously collected esoteric descriptions of "Awakened Vision".
For the first time, Dr. Stark's anger was replaced by shock and hesitation.
Chen Dunli then revealed an extremely faint, inscrutable smile.
Outside the fortress, the rumbling sounds of collapse, originating from both physical and social levels, could be faintly heard.
"So," Chen Dunli slowly stood up, "how can we, the few of us in this new Tower of Babel—those who cling to reality, those who see illusions, those who believe in data, and those who stubbornly hold onto their own opinions—find a way to survive using this mixed 'vision' and knowledge, instead of just arguing here about who is right and who is wrong?"
He looked at Yao Chong: "You see the knot in the structure. Can you untie it?"
Looking at Liu Pan, he asked, "You see the pollution in the connection. Can it be purified?"
Finally, he looked at Stark: "Doctor, you see a divide. Can it be overcome?"
The third night was spent in doubt.