Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 374 Parity Non-Conservation (Free)

Luo Ji, with Tu Hengyu in his arms and Xiao Taixian holding Luo Zhenxing, walked together toward the dilapidated Qinghua Residence.

On the way there, Tu Hengyu asked Luo Ji, "Dr. Luo Ji, you were once a Wallfacer and a professor who studies the sociology of the universe. Now, with so many civilizations appearing, such as humans, the Trisolarans, dinosaurs, mushrooms, Eridanus, the Carbon-based Federation, the Risk Removers, and Li Bai, what are your thoughts on the current state of the universe?"

Regarding Li Bai, people of Tu Hengyu's and Luo Ji's caliber would naturally not readily believe the government's claim that Li Bai was an "immortal." They were basically aware of the truth about Li Bai—that he was a god-like civilization similar to the Risk Reliever civilization.

Li Bai disguised himself as a human and spent his days whispering to Luo Qing, doing who-knows-what.

"Oh, cosmic sociology, is that it?" Luo Ji smiled. "This field is so popular now, with countless experts and scholars emerging. Why did you think to ask me?"

As more and more extraterrestrial civilizations affect Earth, cosmic sociology has become one of the mainstream academic disciplines.

"I just feel that as the pioneer of cosmic sociology, you may have unique insights."

Luo Ji chuckled and shook his head: "I don't have any special opinions. In fact, whether it's a weak mushroom, a powerful carbon-based federation, or a god-level civilization with divine power, their core is the same. The sociological relationship between civilizations is also very simple:
The essence of spacetime is existence. Existence gives rise to power, power gives rise to movement, and movement gives rise to all things. Under the constraint of this overall attribute, the core purpose of all civilizations must be survival. From this, we can understand that all the contradictions in human society, and even all the contradictions that exist in various civilizations across spacetime, revolve around this ultimate contradiction.

In other words, it is the contradiction between civilization's subjective intention to create a perfect moral world and the objective reality that the material world is solely about survival; no civilization in the universe can escape this framework.

Tu Hengyu nodded: "You mean, all civilizations in the universe are trapped in this relationship: the contradiction between civilization and the universe?"

Luo Ji nodded: "Yes, once you understand this, you should realize that all the difficulties in reality are manifestations of this contradiction. There are only two ways to change this contradiction: either you hope that a mechanical deity like Luo Qing can change everything through violence, or you expect him to become a cosmic overlord whose words become law."

At this point, Luo Ji himself laughed.

Tu Hengyu also laughed.

"What's the second option?" Tu Hengyu asked.

Luo Ji: "The second method is that civilization must keep moving forward, keep developing, and develop again, at all costs. It should start by transforming every forest, then the entire landmass, then the planets, then the galaxies, and finally the entire spacetime and the entire universe, so that everything is in harmony with civilization and the will of mankind. This is the only path to a perfect civilization."

"A perfect civilization?"

"To put it another way, you can call it a super-god civilization, it means something similar. In short, it must transcend the inherent limitations of the universe. Don't we already have god-level civilizations like Li Bai and the Risk Takers? I've given this perfect civilization a new name: Super-God Civilization. How about that, isn't it cool?"

"Cool..." Tu Hengyu was surprised by the depth of Luo Ji's thinking, which had already reached the end of the super-god civilization. You have to know that human civilization is still stuck at the 6B level.

“But,” Tu Hengyu said, “I remember someone saying that technology has its limits. In a materialistic world, can any civilization really reach this point? Or rather, does human civilization really have this hope?”

Luo Ji smiled and said, "You've hit the nail on the head. This is exactly the question that Dr. Einstein is trying to answer, and it's also the answer that Luo Qing has been trying to figure out."

"The answer to this question is also one of the reasons why he voluntarily joined ETO. Unfortunately, the Trisolarans are just dehydrated worms and are not much more advanced than us. Einstein overestimated them... Look, we've arrived."

Tu Hengyu looked up and saw the Tsinghua Residence, which was just a stone's throw away.

And the target he had previously wanted to kill.

Einstein.

Upon seeing Einstein, Tu Hengyu felt a sudden dizziness... The over 290-year-old man before him seemed to look exactly like the historical Einstein...

Is it a coincidence?
Luo Ji paused for a moment: "The greatest physicist after Einstein is standing right in front of you. He is Einstein. Einstein is him."

Tu Hengyu whispered, "Isn't Ding Yi the greatest Einstein?"

Luo Ji smiled and said, "Dr. Ding Yi's most crucial research achievement is controlled nuclear fusion, which is in applied physics. He is still far from making breakthroughs in theoretical physics. If Ding Yi had independently developed the unified formula for the four fundamental forces, then he could indeed have surpassed Einstein to become the number one physicist in human history. But now... the answer given by the Risk Eliminator cannot be counted. At least Ding Yi is still second."

Tu Hengyu fell into deep thought.

Just as he stepped into the house, he discovered another familiar face that shocked him.

Ding Yi.

What's he doing here?
"What, you're allowed to carry Hongli and bomb Tsinghua University, but I'm not allowed to come here for a chat?" Ding Yi leaned against the doorway, looking at Tu Hengyu who had become completely obedient after being disciplined by Luo Ji, and mocked him a few times.

Ding Yi and Einstein were old acquaintances, and their friendship dates back to the end of the 20th century, which goes without saying.

Einstein, now seated in a wheelchair, seemed to have received Luo Ji's telepathic message and knew of Tu Hengyu's origins.

"Professor Einstein." Tu Hengyu was completely at a loss for how to address the other party.

"Oh... I'm sorry to have troubled you to find this place. Actually, I don't have much time left either. It's kind of you to do this. I'll send you some of my ashes in a while to cheer you up."

Upon hearing this, Tu Hengyu wished he could disappear into the ground.

"This must be Little Moss. Sit down. You're so young, why is your face as cold as stone? Don't put on airs here, you're not a robot." Little Moss, holding Luo Zhenxing, thought for a moment after hearing this, then found a corner to sit down, not wanting to disturb Tu Gong and the others' conversation.

"Old Ding, what are you doing here?" The last time Tu Hengyu saw Ding Yi was a year ago in the hospital room, in the days when the earth had just thawed.

"Let's talk about another Einstein with our Einstein. The more technology I learn now, the more I feel that there are some problems with Einstein's theory of relativity and his arch-rival Niels Bohr's quantum mechanics. Of course, it's just an intuitive feeling."

"Isn't there a standard cosmological model to verify this?" Tu Hengyu's statement refers to the unified formula of the four fundamental forces.

“That’s the problem.” Ding Yi gave a strange smile.

Tu Hengyu felt a chill in his body.

Luo Ji explained, "Ignore Ding Yi. Half a year ago, this guy was still researching four-dimensional fragments. I don't know what suddenly went crazy. He went to sit in front of his fiancée's grave for more than a month. During that time, he didn't eat a drop of water or a grain of rice. Even Shan Qing appeared to persuade him, but he couldn't be persuaded to come back. After that, he was like a madman, laughing like an idiot all the time."

Upon hearing this, Tu Hengyu pondered...

Ding Yi's fiancée, who was she again? Ye Wenjie's daughter, Yang Dong?
Tu Hengyu recalled the information that Little Moss had collected for him, trying to connect everything in his mind.

After explaining to Tu Hengyu, Luo Ji comforted Ding Yi, saying, "That happened two hundred years ago. According to our Qing Immortal, Yang Dong has probably been reincarnated twice already. You should also move on. The entire scientific community is pinning its hopes on you. Four-dimensional fragments, antimatter, strong interaction materials, warp drives, sophon technology—so many unknowns are waiting for you to research. Isn't that what you love most?"

Ding Yi's answer was only three words: "Not interested."

Luo Ji was momentarily speechless.

Tu Hengyu belatedly remembered that Yang Dong, Luo Ji, and Ding Yi were classmates at Tsinghua High School, as mentioned in the materials Xiao Taixian had provided.

At this point, Einstein finally spoke up: "Xiao Luo, stop asking Xiao Ding questions. If I'm not mistaken, he's only interested in theoretical physics now, not applied physics."

Upon hearing this, Luo Ji glanced at Ding Yi.

Ding Yi slowly nodded. He looked around, his gaze sweeping over Little Moss holding the child, over Einstein sitting in the wheelchair, and over the Foundation Establishment cultivator beside him, before finally settling on Tu Hengyu.

"Tu Hengyu, you have the lowest level of education here. Do you know what Professor Einstein's most famous research achievement is?"

Tu Hengyu glanced at the Einstein-like figure, struggled to recall the content mentioned on the title page of his high school physics textbook, and managed to utter five words.

"Parity is not conserved?"

"Very good, explain parity nonconservation."

This is really putting Tu Hengyu in a difficult position. He's just a computer scientist; how could he possibly know anything about these things?
The little moss's voice drifted over: "Parity non-conservation, in layman's terms, the core of this theory is that physical laws are not exactly the same in the 'mirror' and in 'reality.' The behavior of certain particles in the microscopic world breaks the common sense of 'mirror symmetry.'"

First, let's understand 'parity conservation,' which is what we originally thought of as the 'normal situation': when you look in a mirror, the you in the mirror and the you in reality are 'mirror image symmetrical'—if you raise your left hand, the person in the mirror raises their right hand; if you walk forward, the person in the mirror also walks forward, and your movements follow the same 'laws.' For example, 'raising your hand requires force' and 'walking requires taking a step.' In the physical world, we originally thought that the behavior of microscopic particles, such as emitting electrons and decaying, should also be completely symmetrical in 'reality' and 'its mirror image,' following the same physical laws. This is 'parity conservation.'

However, scientists later discovered something amiss: parity, as proposed by Dow and Einstein, was not conserved. For example, consider an atom called cobalt-60, which ejects electrons. If parity were conserved, the number of electrons ejected "up" in reality should be the same as the number ejected "down" in the mirror image. (Because of mirror symmetry, "up" in the mirror is actually "down" in reality.)
However, the experimental results show that in reality, more electrons are thrown upwards, while fewer are thrown in the corresponding direction in the mirror. This is equivalent to the 'electron throwing rule' being followed by the cobalt-60 in the mirror being different from that of cobalt-60 in reality. This is called 'parity non-conservation.' That concludes Little Moss's explanation."

Fantastic! Tu Hengyu's external brain is working its magic.

In response to the little moss's answer, Einstein slowly nodded. This was indeed the most important theory he and his friend had developed throughout their lives.

Luo Ji nodded in agreement. Although he had majored in astronomy two hundred years ago to save time, it didn't mean he was bad at physics... If he really wanted to pursue a career in physics, he might not be any worse than that Nascent Soul cultivator who majored in plasma science.

Ding Yi shook his head. "It's a fantastic theory, so fantastic that I recently discovered a problem with it."

"What's the problem?" Tu Hengyu asked.

“Our standard cosmological model, with its unified formula for the four fundamental forces, has no position where parity is not conserved,” Ding Yi said with a sneer.

"What...does this mean?" Tu Hengyu asked, puzzled.

"Could there be a problem with the standard cosmological model provided by the risk avoider? Is he lying to us?" Luo Ji frowned as well.

“No.” Ding Yi shook his head: “The risk-resolver’s theory is not wrong, the risk-resolver is not wrong, and even the standard cosmological model is not wrong. If we have to say what’s wrong, then based on the behavior of parity non-conservation, which has managed to keep a host of god-level civilizations completely in the dark, the problem is probably…”

Einstein suddenly spoke up: "Xiao Ding, that's enough."

"No, please continue. I'm listening, I've always been here."

Luo Qing's voice came from beyond the heavens, booming like divine punishment, penetrating the small room at infinite speed.

(End of this chapter)