Chapter 129: The Eternal Second

"Yes, if my 8th layer dream is based on 80 years—"

"The result is the ratio you all calculated: 1,146,763 seconds in the eighth dream world to 1 second in reality."

"And what we are mainly calculating today is—the time gap between the internal universe and the external universe."

"If we say that the only dreams ordinary humans can identify are the seventh and eighth layers, then deeper dreams will exceed human cognition, making it impossible for us to distinguish the number of dreams."

Speaking of this, Jiang Zhe's expression suddenly turned serious.

"We cannot be so cautious!"

"If we are going to calculate, let's calculate the maximum number of dreams, the multi-layered dreams that exceed the limits of human cognition!"

"100 layers? No. 1,000 layers? No. 10,000 layers? No!"

"Since there is no concrete data support anyway, why don't we broaden our horizons a bit?"

"If we are going to calculate, let's calculate the limit of the numerical value: We have created a dream of 1x9 to the power of N layers!"

Hearing this, all the audience members and experts widened their eyes, their mouths agape.

In this way, the final value would reach a terrifying extreme!!!

Jiang Zhe narrowed his eyes, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly as he threw out a shocking answer.

"That would certainly be—in a dream of 1x9 to the power of N layers, it would eventually reach: Eternity in a single thought."

"And in reality, only 1 second would have passed."

"The ratio is—"

"[Dream World: Eternity in a single thought] to [Real World: 1 second]."

Eternity in a single thought...

These four characters were deeply engraved in everyone's minds.

As the layers of dreams gradually increase, the time within the dream will also grow exponentially.

Eventually, someone will be lost in an eternal dream, while only 1 second, or even less, has barely passed in the outside world!

The answer given by Jiang Zhe was also the answer calculated by Professor Hua Yunfeng, Old Feng, Professor Zhuang, and others.

Ultimately, there is always a limit value compared to the 1 second of the real world.

However...

Can this limit value really explain the entire universe and Professor Zhuang's dream?

After a moment of silence in the live broadcast room, the barrage exploded.

"Yeah, if we're going to calculate, let's be bold; eventually, there will be an ultimate eternity, or even time stagnation in the dream, where only 1 second has passed in the outside world."

"Calculated this way, the time gap between the internal universe and the external universe is far from a simple ratio; it's likely even more unimaginable."

"As far as I know, the currently theorized expected lifespan of the Observable Universe is: 1 trillion years. This 1 trillion years is the life of the Observable Universe; while the duration the unobservable universe can last... is probably not 1 trillion years."

"What do you mean? What does the unobservable and Observable Universe have to do with dreams?"

"It is related. Many galaxies are moving away from us; the universe is expanding outward at a speed faster than light, meaning some galaxies will leave our field of view forever. The lifespan of our Observable Universe is 1 trillion years, which means that after that day arrives, our Observable Universe will explode—whether the speed of the explosion is faster or slower than the speed of the universe's expansion is unknown."

"That's right, the order is like this—Observable Universe, Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, Pisces-Cetus Supercluster Complex, Laniakea Supercluster, Virgo Supercluster... The Observable Universe will last for 1 trillion years and then explode; the main consideration is whether the speed of the explosion is faster than the speed of the expansion of the universe's boundary... If the speed after the explosion is slower than the speed of light, it means that the unobservable universe is always extending outward, and even if our Observable Universe explodes, it is far from reaching the speed at which those unobservable universes are spreading."

"Right, right, right, that's how it is."

"Actually, that's wrong. The age of the universe is not over 10 billion years; with the development of technology, the age of the universe is constantly being updated. Not long ago, [HD 140283 star] was discovered, which allows us to estimate that the age of the universe is over 27 billion years... So many data points are wrong."

"..."

The audience discussed it tirelessly.

Everyone was performing quite professionally, providing extremely professional data.

To Jiang Zhe, these were indeed superfluous.

He pinched his headset, listened to the director's broadcast, then nodded and continued to explain:

"The audience is discussing this very well!"

"Yes, whether it is the Observable Universe or the unobservable universe."

"Their lifespans, in fact, don't have much to do with how large the gap in space-time ratio between the internal universe and the external universe we calculated is."

He held up a finger and explained with a serious face:

"Now, let's return to the dreams and reality of individual humans."

"There is always a layer of dreams where time will reach eternity in a single thought, while only 1 second has passed in the real world."

"Those [people] within the time of the limit dream, or even just the time, worldview, and objects constructed by the dreamer within the limit dream."

"Those people, events, and objects, to the dreamer, are just the dreamer's deepest dreams, or even just a single thought; they are even facts that occurred, a world born, within the deepest dream during the dreamer's inability to wake up!"

"Those people in the limit dream will never know what the real world outside their brains is like!"

"Inside that limit dream world—there is a dream Earth, a dream sun, a dream moon, a dream human civilization, and the dream human civilization, through the passage of time, develops into a dream modern civilization."

"The dream modern civilization has a dream Xia Country, a dream United States, and dream countries."

"Those dream countries may have experienced wars, or perhaps experienced scenes of bloodshed."

"Perhaps, in the dream countries, there is a dream you, a dream me, a dream him, all of the dream's social networks, and all of the dream's interpersonal relationships."

"But so what?"

"For the civilization located within the dream world, the people of the dream world—can they really realize that they themselves are just a dream world of the dreamer?"

"No, they cannot, absolutely not."

"Perhaps someone can, and that person is dream Jiang Zhe, and dream Jiang Zhe is popularizing science to the dream audience at the dream Suzhou TV Station, decoding the reality outside the dream world."

After saying this, he smiled slightly.

Little did they know, this smile, for the experts and the audience—produced an extremely terrified state of mind.

At this moment, everyone was dumbfounded, unable to forget it for a long time.

They could understand the meaning behind Jiang Zhe's words.

When a person in the real world has a dream with an extreme number of layers.

The time in the world within the dream is extremely long, so long that it is unimaginable to humans.

In that long dream—

One after another, dream people, dream objects, and dream worlds were born.

No matter how many years have passed within the dream, and no matter if those people in the dream die, are born, die again, and are born again...

Those people in the dream, to the outside world, do not exist—what exists is just a dream that a person in the real world cannot wake up from.

Just like those people in the dream, they can never peek into the real, real world witnessed by the dreamer.

When the dream world within the human limit dream shatters, that is, when the dreamer wakes up, the dreamers will suddenly realize—only a few tens of minutes, or even a few hours, have passed in the outside world.

Gradually, the barrage disappeared, and the expressions on people's faces remained difficult to recover.