Did the world end today?

Chapter 123 This world is in big trouble!
Lin Xu and Jiang Xingye had an ordinary lunch.

It wasn't even a restaurant; it was just a packed lunch delivered by a nutritionist, eaten in an air-conditioned car.

But after the meal, he did feel much more relaxed.

Jiang Xingye always arrived just in time. Looking back, it seems that many times when I was almost on the edge of a cliff, she pulled me back.

The moment of being "pulled back" may not have been obvious at the time, but in retrospect, it was somewhat thrilling.

While eating their boxed lunches, Lin Xu brought up the old topic again, asking about "a crucial turning point in their relationship." Jiang Xingye's answer was always the same:
"I'll tell you when we become the closest revolutionary comrades."

So is this some kind of reverse proposal?

Lin Xu was both amused and exasperated by this answer, but he also knew that now was not the best time.

What? You haven't even confessed your feelings yet, and now you're already going to propose?
That's ridiculous.

However, it seems that their relationship is indeed developing naturally and smoothly.

Perhaps, there's really no need to rush.

After seeing Jiang Xingye off, Lin Xu drove to the coordination group office.

Along the way, he witnessed many "sudden" changes.

Construction is underway at numerous sites, and the infrastructure development in the entire Jinling city area seems to have been accelerated. Around Tianqiong Technology and the launch site, many workers are gathering like diligent ants, working hard for this project whose specific significance they do not yet know.

The world has begun to change.

It's right in my hands.

Lin Xu remained silent.

He looked down at the small model hanging on his backpack, where the six characters on it were clearly visible.

The stars will always be there.

She will remain, and the stars will not disappear.

Because the end of the world will eventually be resolved.

forward!

Lin Xu walked into the coordination group's office building and convened a brief meeting in his conference room.

All attendees were core members of the coordination group.

This includes Wang Yifan, who is mainly responsible for basic research in the field of high-energy physics; Chen Yixin and Qin Feng, who are responsible for overall intelligence coordination and scheduling; Zhao Shicheng, the representative of the Military-Civilian Integration Commission Office, who is responsible for scheduling and supporting various industrial departments; and He Que, the representative of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

The issue he wanted to discuss was very simple.

The key milestone has been reached, but what the next milestone will be is still undecided.

So, how should the coordination team proceed during this "window period"?

Lin Xu first reported on the major technological advancements he had discovered after the node and after seeing the new world, and listed the main directions that might drive the development of technology in the real world.

This includes quantum technology, gravitational wave detection technology, nuclear thermal liquid oxygen engine technology, artificial intelligence technology, and more complete and efficient industrial production technologies.

After listening to his introduction, Zhao Shicheng from the Commission Office spoke first.

"This is my opinion."

"Judging from the current characteristics, the 'future world' that Comrade Lin Xu saw must have gone through a stage of great development in productivity."

“The great development of productivity is certainly not only related to quantum technology and progress in fundamental physics.”

"It's a very simple principle: nuclear thermal liquid oxygen engines are clearly technology from the 90s, but because of the difficulty in manufacturing the equipment, the high requirements for materials, and the stringent requirements for processing precision, we have not developed it as a mainstream technology until now."

"And that world—let's call it the future world for now—has already achieved this."

"That means they must have made a breakthrough in the 'industrial system'."

"Therefore, I believe that the so-called 'node' is very likely related to breakthroughs in the industrial system."

"Of course, even if it's unrelated, starting from this angle is the safest and most profitable option."

Do you all agree with this viewpoint?

Although Zhao Shicheng was a representative of the Commission Office, he was originally involved in industry and had even worked in the Heavy Equipment Office, which had long been abolished, when he was young.

Therefore, it is understandable that his focus is on industry.

His views were somewhat personal—Lin Xu had expected this to be met with opposition, but to his surprise, everyone in the meeting room nodded in agreement.

Including Wang Yifan.

"I think Lao Zhao is right. Even the development of fundamental physics is definitely closely related to productivity."

"We need to build better experimental equipment, and we must also rely on stronger productivity."

"Therefore, I think it is a wise choice to spend some time laying a solid foundation first."

"I'll raise my hand first, what about the rest of you?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone raised their hands.

Lin Xu naturally agreed, and then asked:

"If we're looking for that 'node' from the perspective of upgrading the industrial system, what exactly do we need to do?"

"Or to put it more directly, what kind of technology do we need?"

"Three-pronged approach".

Zhao Shicheng replied:

"Energy, communication, and intelligence."

"Since Comrade Lin Xu's energy and time are also limited, let's not make it too complicated."

"Let me be a bit dogmatic."

"There are only a few technologies that can improve the level of industrialization and productivity to the greatest extent in a short period of time."

Nuclear fusion, room temperature superconductivity, quantum computing, advanced artificial intelligence.

"If we were to add one more, it would be a high-speed, low-latency industrial Internet of Things (IoT) system."

"Our subsequent technological exploration will focus on these areas. Do you all think this is feasible?"

"I have no opinion."

Wang Yifan answered first, but then immediately asked:
"What about time? How long should we set the timeframe for this development?"

"Last time, it only took us less than a month to advance the node, but this time it's a huge system engineering project. We can't possibly complete it in a short time, can we?"

"Moreover, we cannot yet conclude whether our predicted nodes are correct."

"Should we make a preset timeframe for this?"

"That depends on what Comrade Lin Xu has to say."

All eyes turned to Lin Xu. After a moment of silence, Lin Xu spoke:
"The situation is relatively complicated, and I cannot draw a conclusion at this time."

"However, let's set it for three years for now."

"How about we complete a comprehensive upgrade of our industrial system in three years, and then move on?"

"can!"

"no problem!"

One by one, the people in the conference room answered. Lin Xu paused slightly, then continued:

"However, we now have a question that needs to be verified immediately."

Quantum communication.

"In that world, people have already achieved quantum communication using action at a distance, which clearly violates the current objective laws of physics."

"I don't think they have any new technology."

"It's quite possible that the world has simply changed."

"so."

"Since their world has changed, has our world also changed?" An hour later, at the Delingha ground station in Qinghai.

Experimenter Zhang Lin sat in front of the computer, the screen displaying the self-test data of the single-photon detector.

Meanwhile, his colleague and fiancée, Yin Juan, sitting next to him, was conducting final checks on the Micius satellite that was about to pass overhead, preparing for a new round of entangled particle pair distribution experiments.

Actually, this is not a new job.

Back in 2017, they had already distributed entangled particles to two ground stations, Delingha and Lijiang in Qinghai, via the Micius satellite, and verified the action at a distance of entangled particle pairs through the Bell experiment.

This experiment brought the two of them considerable "achievements" and allowed them to obtain the "professional titles" they needed, enabling them to settle down peacefully at the ground station.

Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye, and they have long since been promoted to higher positions.

But today, these two old partners sat together again.

Nothing major happened; all Delingha Station needed to do was still a basic Bell experiment.

It was just a new ground station, Jinling Station, that was put into use. Out of a certain tacit romantic tradition, the two decided to carry out this experiment by themselves.

"Mozi is ready."

"Photon source self-test passed, emission system self-test passed."

"Mirror A and mirror B are in good condition."

"The aiming error is less than 3 micro-radians, and the aiming is stable."

"Jinling Station is ready."

"We are expected to enter the launch window in 1 minute and 30 seconds and prepare to conduct observations."

"Old Zhang, how's it going over there?"

"I'm fine here."

Zhang Lin answered casually:
"The polarization system is operating normally, and the measurement base switching time is less than 60ns, which is in very good condition."

"SNSPD is fine, dark count rate is less than 100Hz, perfect."

"One minute countdown, get ready to start the experiment."

Hearing his words, Yin Juan relaxed and leaned back in her seat.

From any perspective, this experiment did not put much pressure on them.

It's even just a routine operation, as simple as picking up a broom and cleaning your office.

Therefore, neither of them actually took the experiment too seriously; they simply preserved it as a routine "ritual."

After waiting quietly for one minute, the Micius satellite passed overhead, entering the launch window.

Yin Juan pressed the launch command, and the BBO crystal radiation source on the Micius satellite instantly began to generate entangled photon pairs. Through the optical emission and tracking system composed of two telescopes, it emitted more than 5.9 × 10 pairs of entangled photons per second to the Dehaling and Jinling ground stations.

The brightness of these entangled photon pairs is more than a dozen orders of magnitude higher than that of laboratory-level experiments, which is the basis for the successful completion of the air-to-ground experiment.

On Zhang Lin's side, as the entangled photon arrived, the single-photon detector immediately started operating and began to continuously record experimental parameters based on the real-time adjustments of the polarization system.

Ten minutes later, Micius left the launch window.

Almost simultaneously, under the analysis of the powerful computing system, the final results were also output to Zhang Lin's screen.

Yin Juan leaned closer to Zhang Lin and asked:
"How is the result?"

"very nice."

Zhang Lin pointed to the screen and replied:
"The S value is 2.43 ± 0.09, which is slightly higher than the data we measured in conjunction with Jinan Station and Lijiang Station."

"It's still quite far from the limit of 2.828, but the noise is too loud and the atmospheric environment isn't perfect either, so there's still some loss."

"But even this result is enough to prove the success of the Jinling ground station."

"Upload the results."

"With the success of this experiment, Jinling Station can now enter a stable operation phase."

"The addition of a new Jinling Key Distribution Center will also benefit the future development of encrypted communication."

Hearing Zhang Lin's words, Yin Juan couldn't help but smile, and said with a hint of teasing:
"Tsk tsk. You're thinking pretty far ahead."

"Speaking fluent official jargon—what, you've only just become an official and you're already indulging in your bureaucratic fantasies?"

"Pull it down."

Zhang Lin answered while casually scrolling through the mouse:

"I call this being concerned about the world's troubles before myself, and taking it as my responsibility to promote the development of science and technology in the motherland."

"Besides, if we outsource some of the key distribution tasks in the future, our station's workload will be lighter."

"That's true."

Yin Juan got up to go back to her seat to upload the results, but at that moment, she suddenly noticed that Zhang Lin's expression had changed slightly.

She stopped and walked back to Zhang Lin's side. Looking at Zhang Lin's furrowed brows, she asked:
"what happened?"

Is there a problem with the data?

Zhang Lin slowly shook his head, not answering immediately, but scrolling to the details page and carefully examining the data for a few seconds before speaking:
"I feel there's something wrong with this measurement result."

"Don't you think this combination of angles looks a bit odd?"

"This doesn't resemble a typical combination at all. It doesn't seem random; it seems more like a fixed pattern?"

"Fixed??"

Yin Juan was stunned for a moment.

"What do you mean? Are you saying the observation results are fixed, or that the results are fixed before the observation even takes place?"

"Of course it's the latter."

Zhang Lin clicked on the results details and continued to delve into the data received by each single-photon detector.

When the densely packed results were presented to the two of them, even Yin Juan immediately realized that there was a big problem with the results.

The results show a regularity.

Based solely on the data from the de Haling station, the measured angle data after single-photon polarization appears to be one approach.
A fixed loop?

500多次22.5度，500多次67.5度，然后又是接近500次22.5度！
The cycle repeated until the test ended, and the pattern seemed to remain completely unchanged.

To explain it in simple terms, it's like flipping a coin 1500 times in a row, and the results are always arranged in a straight line!
"There's a big problem."

Yin Juan took a deep breath and then said:

Are you sure there are no problems with the equipment inspection?

"I am 100% sure."

Zhang Lin's fingers began to tremble slightly.

He knew all too well what such a discovery meant.

This likely means that the "randomness" of single-photon monitoring results has been broken to some extent.

And once this randomness is broken...
That means that the action at a distance between entangled particle pairs has truly become a "controllable" action!

Humans have never been able to change the state of one particle to bring another entangled particle into an ideal, fixed state.

It's like throwing a leaf into a river. You only know that it will drift downstream, but you never know where it will eventually end up.

Now that randomness has been broken, it means that humans may be able to predict the end of a leaf in advance.

But this
How can it be? ?
Zhang Lin turned to look at Yin Juan blankly.

Yin Juan took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her emotions, and then spoke:
"We must report this immediately."

"Something serious has happened."

"If it's not Micius satellite, or if there's a problem with our ground stations..."

"That means something terrible has happened to this world!"

(End of this chapter)