This was probably the closest Lu Zhou had ever been to death.
This statement might be a little ambiguous, or to put it another way … This was the closest he had ever been to a dead person.
Apartment building 1 of the ILHCRC.
Police cars were parked downstairs.
An old man in plain clothes stood outside the police tape. The wrinkles on his face were squeezed together by self-reproach and sadness. He looked at his clasped palms and sobbed as if he was repenting.
"It's all my fault … I signed that piece of paper …"
Witten, who was standing next to him, patted Professor Wilczek's shoulder and spoke.
"You can't be blamed for this. A soul that is about to travel, no matter where he is, will eventually go in the same direction. I hope he can get the answer he is looking for on the other side of the world.
"As for us, whether it's life or the road under our feet, we have to continue."
Next to the two stood many ILHCRC researchers, as well as interns who followed their mentors to work and study here.
Many of them had heard of Professor Miro's deeds and the novel idea of "universe animism".
Even though most people disagreed, there were also a small number of people who thought that this theory seemed to make some sense.
Unlike the "gods" that ordinary people understood, Professor Miro's theory was more like a description of concepts such as "the universe is unreasonable" and "a disorderly higher consciousness dominates the laws of nature".
However, this sounded a bit scary.
If all of this was true, then physics was like studying the laws of a long series of irrational numbers, which didn't make much sense.
Looking at the room with the curtains drawn, many people whispered to each other.
"That's a bit scary …"
"Yeah."
"Professor Miro is an excellent physicist. I don't understand why he chose to end his life. If we discovered new physics, this would be something to be happy about. "
"Not entirely happy, at least my supervisor doesn't seem to be in a good mood."
"What is your supervisor researching?"
"Quantum lattice calculation method."
"My condolences."
"Is there a possibility that Professor Miro saw something scary?"
"Hey, don't be like this, this is the ILHCRC, not a haunted house in an amusement park. The collider is more than 300,000 kilometers away from us. Even if it was high-energy radiation, it wouldn't make sense. "
At this moment.
All of a sudden, the chatter stopped.
Through the crowd, a young man in a trench coat walked to the edge of the separation tape and stopped.
The policeman who was standing behind the tape to maintain order noticed him and quickly walked over to him. He said in a respectful tone.
"Hello, Academician Lu."
Lu Zhou nodded to him and looked at the curtained window.
He was not familiar with Professor Miro. He had only chatted for a while over coffee. He also heard that this professor seemed to have won some physics awards that he did not care about. He was considered an outstanding young scholar.
This incident undoubtedly had a negative impact on the ILHCRC.
Professor Miro died under the academic authority of the ILHCRC committee because he was excluded by mainstream physicists.
His believers even threatened to take over the "torch" from him and take revenge on the ILHCRC for his death …
After a moment of silence, Lu Zhou looked at the policeman and spoke.
"Can you briefly tell me about the situation inside?"
The policeman hesitated for a moment, as if he was considering whether it was a good idea to do so.
However, he thought about how Professor Lu's rank was probably higher than his superior's superior. Even if something went wrong, it would not be his responsibility, so he spoke.
"It was suicide.
"He overdosed on cephalosporin … and alcohol.
"As for more details, we are still investigating. The UA Embassy has been notified, and they will be responsible for contacting the family of the deceased … "
Lu Zhou nodded, indicating that he understood.
He continued to speak.
"Can I go in?"
Compared to the previous request, this request was a bit more difficult.
The policeman hesitated for a moment and did not immediately agree.
However, at that moment, Wang Peng took out a document from his pocket and handed it to him.
"The State of State Security has taken over this case."
After seeing this ID, the expression on the policeman's face froze for a moment. He then looked solemn.
"… I need to ask my superiors."
Wang Peng nodded.
"Go ahead."
…
Without waiting for a long time, Lu Zhou was allowed to pass through the cordon and enter Professor Miro's room.
Unlike what Lu Zhou had imagined, this physics professor's living space was very tidy. It was obvious that it had been cleaned within two days.
"This is probably the most bizarre case I've handled in the past two years …"
The slightly aged policeman looked at the white line drawn on the ground with a complicated expression and said, "Judging from his living condition, he is far healthier than the average person."
Lu Zhou didn't make any comments. He just walked into his study and opened a drawer.
For a scholar with a regular schedule, he would usually abide by a code of conduct. That was the thing he was researching, and it would definitely be within reach.
Sure enough, Lu Zhou found something that looked like research notes in his drawer.
He flipped to the title page of the notebook and read along the neat handwriting and formulas. Gradually, a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes.
This surprise didn't stem from the surprise of Professor Miro's academic attainments. In fact, no one in this world could bring him more surprises in this regard.
What surprised Lu Zhou was that he originally thought that Professor Miro was just caught up in the fantasy of "animism of the universe". He didn't expect this guy to actually establish a complete theoretical system for this conjecture … or rather, a religious program.
Simply put, in his theoretical system, "animism of the universe" was the core of the entire theoretical system. Further down was derived "the universe is the projection of the subjective behavior of a certain higher consciousness", "everything is the best arrangement", and "this kind of cosmic consciousness is not uncommunicable".
This seemed to be saying that the "spirit of the universe" in an abstract sense could be communicated in a certain sense.
This sounded like idealism.
Consciousness determinism was superimposed on the basis of God's creationism and cosmic animism.
If a materialist like Lu Zhou were to evaluate this, it would be a complete disaster.
However, it was worth noting that Professor Miro had gone through rigorous theoretical arguments for the animism of the universe. Even though this process incorporated a lot of psychological terminology and self-made words that only he could understand, at least it could be seen that he tried to use scientific thinking to analyze this theory.
However, when it came to the part about determinism of consciousness, that is, "the spirit of the universe can be communicated with", he seemed to have completely given up thinking about it. Instead, he tacitly agreed to it and wrote it down as a conclusion.
There was no doubt that this approach was not rigorous.
At the very least, he should add the words "maybe" and "maybe" in his argument.
After about twenty minutes, Lu Zhou finally flipped through the notes from beginning to end. He took a deep breath and closed it. He then looked at the police officer who came in with him.
"Can I take this notebook with me?"
"I'm afraid not." With an embarrassed expression on his face, the police officer said in an apologetic tone, "This is a relic of the deceased, and it is also part of the evidence related to the case. I'm afraid you have to wait until after the case is closed and negotiate with the family of the deceased before you can take it away. "
Lu Zhou didn't say anything. He nodded, then took out his phone from his pocket and turned on the video function. He flipped through the notes at a constant speed and took pictures of all the contents inside.
Strictly speaking, this was also not allowed, but the people standing next to them turned a blind eye to it.
After doing these things, Lu Zhou put away his phone and looked at Wang Peng.
"Let's go back."
Wang Peng hesitated slightly and asked, "Is it enough?"
"Is it enough?"
"Yeah." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "I think … I probably found the answer."
Walking out of Professor Miro's apartment, Lu Zhou followed Wang Peng and walked straight to the parking lot.
Witten happened to see Lu Zhou walking out of the cordon. He quickly squeezed out of the crowd and walked toward him.
"Did you find anything inside? Why did Professor Miro — "
Lu Zhou shook his head.
"There's nothing particularly noteworthy inside. Professor Miro doesn't have much research materials in his apartment. He doesn't seem like someone who would bring his work home."
Lu Zhou looked at the complicated expression on Professor Witten's face. He paused for a moment and continued.
"However, I did find a notebook in his drawer."
Witten quickly asked, "What does it say?"
"It's about his analysis of the latest ILHCRC experimental data, as well as his conjectures on the spirit of the universe, and the theoretical system built around this conjecture … It seems that he has been working on this during his vacation."
Witten took off the glasses on the bridge of his nose and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"This is really …"
Lu Zhou: "Regrettable, right?"
"Yes … It's not just regrettable, it's even more disturbing."
This kind of uneasiness permeated not only the ILHCRC headquarters, but it also permeated the hearts of every physicist. Most people didn't believe in the explanation of the spirit of the universe. They didn't believe that the theory they had studied for centuries was as useless as analyzing the law of pi.
Is there no belief in physics?
In fact, there is.
Just like the storm caused by the neutrino faster-than-light experiment.
Even if they couldn't figure out what went wrong with the Opella project team's experiment, most people could still make the judgment that it was a low-level mistake when they didn't understand the situation at all.
The ILHCRC was facing the same situation this time, but it was more fundamental.
Before the experiment began, countless people were praying, hoping that all of this was a mistake. They hoped that the new experiment results could cover up the "mistakes" of the past, and that the building of physics would return to the framework of the Standard Model, until the end of the world …
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Witten, who had fallen into silence. He thought for a while and spoke.
"I know you have a lot of questions right now, maybe … I mean maybe, I can answer some of them."
"… The theory of extra dimensions?"
"Yes." Lu Zhou nodded and said, "But it will take a little time."
"You don't have to wait long, at most a week … Soon, I will give an answer that is not perfect, but will probably satisfy most people —
"About the future of physics."
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