Chapter 209: Lao Tzu Makes His Appearance

At this moment, far away at Dabei University in the capital.

Professor Li Er, having been busy all day, had just finished his evening academic lecture.

Wearing a black Zhongshan suit and silver-rimmed glasses, the thin professor had just returned to the faculty dormitory building.

Once he stopped, he sat down in front of the sofa and watched the evening news, as he did every day.

He was none other than the author of the "tao te ching"—"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao"—and a gold-medal professor, Professor Li Er, also known as "Laozi."

Suddenly, a phone call came in.

He picked up the remote control, turned down the TV volume, and took a look. It was Professor Zhuang. He tapped to answer, "Old Zhuang, what's the matter so late?"

Professor Zhuang on the other end of the line was silent for a moment, then asked with feigned profundity, "Old Li, let me ask you a question; what is your take on Chinese Humane Consciousness?"

Professor Li Er, who had been looking sleepy, was jolted awake by the sudden question, his face filled with shock and disbelief.

"How is this possible, you old coot? How do you know about this? I recall this isn't your research topic!"

"Hehehe, judging by your tone, it seems you have some research on this?"

Upon hearing this, Laozi frowned deeply. "Chinese Humane Consciousness... this kind of mysterious and elusive thing, how on earth did you come across it? It wouldn't happen to be related to Carl Jung's [Collective Unconscious], would it?"

Opposite him, Professor Zhuangzi teased, "Old friend, first explain to me whether this Humane Consciousness exists. Once you finish, I'll tell you where you heard about this Humane Consciousness."

Laozi couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "I suppose you heard it from somewhere else."

"Alright then, Chinese Humane Consciousness is somewhat similar to Carl Jung's [Collective Unconscious]."

"That [Collective Unconscious] of Carl Jung encompasses the [Human Race] of Earth across the three dimensions of past, present, and future."

"Under certain conditions, some people can activate the memories of different people from the past, present, or even the future. To explain it using modern internet terminology—it's like some uneducated person suddenly getting into a car accident and then suddenly awakening with fluent, refined foreign language skills, including advanced knowledge in specific disciplines: it's just like a mathematician from India in the last century, I believe his name was: Srinivasa Ramanujan."

"Srinivasa Ramanujan?" Professor Zhuang Zhou asked, suddenly realizing. "I think I've heard of him somewhere."

Laozi nodded silently. "Of course you've heard of him. He was sponsored by G. H. Hardy from Cambridge University, who discovered Srinivasa Ramanujan's mathematical talent."

"Oh, right, right, right, I remember now. There really was such a prodigy. It's said he was a time traveler from the future; but that gimmick was just a complimentary title bestowed upon him due to his strange mathematical talent."

Laozi continued to explain, "Srinivasa Ramanujan came from a poor family, but he was gifted in mathematics from a very young age. His story is very long. It wasn't until later, when he was brought to the United Kingdom by Hardy to become his assistant, that he truly shone."

"According to what Hardy said—[His mathematics came from a certain goddess.]"

"Let me think."

After saying this, Laozi looked contemplative and quickly arrived at a conclusion. "I remember now. Most of the formulas in Srinivasa Ramanujan's dreams were related to his family goddess, the goddess Namakar."

"This goddess is the goddess of happiness and wealth in Brahmanism and Hinduism, traditionally considered to be the wife of Vishnu."

"Every day in his dreams, this goddess would tell Srinivasa Ramanujan mathematical formulas."

"When Srinivasa Ramanujan woke up in the morning, he would record the formulas he had noted down in his dream."

"The formulas the goddess listed for him had no detailed proof process, only the derived answers."

"Later, many big names in the mathematical world deciphered them and found that a portion of them had already been proven correct, and some were even verified in later research."

Hearing this, Professor Zhuang Zhou couldn't help but ask curiously, "The way you explain this sounds a bit like a certain TV host. What happened later? Were all those formulas correct?"

Laozi shook his head gently. "I'm not sure, but they should be correct. After all, those formulas were too advanced. Srinivasa Ramanujan passed away around 1920 at the age of about 33."

"I remember now, for example, the [Srinivasa Ramanujan Golden Ratio Formula] he proposed. It connected the circle constant π and the base of the natural logarithm e, while also containing the golden ratio."

"In 1913, Hardy at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom received a long letter sent by Srinivasa Ramanujan, which contained 120 formulas."

"After careful study by Hardy, he believed these formulas were correct, so he brought Srinivasa Ramanujan to the United Kingdom and began collaborating with him."

"Later, the two of them left a significant mark in the field of mathematics."

Speaking of this, Laozi couldn't help but sigh, "Take Srinivasa Ramanujan, his experience actually already proved it."

"Proved what?" Professor Zhuang asked impatiently.

Laozi sighed, "It proved that there are people who can connect to the Human Race Network."

Professor Zhuangzi frowned, "Wait, does this [Human Race Network] actually exist?"

"Of course it exists. Since Srinivasa Ramanujan was a religious person and a theist, he manifested that goddess in his dream's subconscious."

"In reality, the world is godless. Even if there are gods, they are not in human form, but rather supreme existences of certain order and rules, like the Heavenly Way, the Earthly Way, the Humane Way, as well as the [Wisdom Consciousness] of the [Earth's Self-Regulation Mechanism]. This [mechanism] is the manifestation of [consciousness]. Ordinary people find it difficult to understand that the Earth has consciousness."

"I've digressed. So, what Srinivasa Ramanujan actually connected to was this Human Race Network that encompasses Earth and even more distant galaxies. This network radiates from planets inhabited by humans to the entire universe, finally uniting all human races to conduct a kind of wisdom information sharing. This is the [Universal Human Race Network]."

"Of course, there is currently a niche theory in philosophy and psychology that says [Carl Jung's Collective Unconscious] is exactly what I described—this subconscious does not distinguish between past, present, and future, but rather blends the information of people from all three dimensions of time together."

"Srinivasa Ramanujan, living around 1920, was able to connect in his dreams to the human race of Earth in 2920, or even 3920. And the [goddess] in Srinivasa Ramanujan's dream was simply a person from the future communicating with him."

"But due to the laws of physics, humans cannot physically travel through time; they can only let signals and information appear in the past and present time-space."

"So, Srinivasa Ramanujan's experience actually involves too many things."

"To break it down, it can be divided into three categories."

"One: In his dreams, he encountered the [Universal Human Race Network], and human information sharing took place in his dream."

"Two: In his dreams, he encountered [people from the future who wanted to travel through time], and in the dream, the future person shared future mathematical knowledge with him, allowing him to leave behind valuable wealth for later scholars."

"Three: In his dreams, he unintentionally connected to the [Earth Human Race Network] which [ignores the past, present, and future] time nodes, and performed an [information download]."

Hearing this, Professor Zhuang Zhou couldn't help but ask, "Is there a possibility that Srinivasa Ramanujan really was just a mathematical genius?"

Laozi nodded gently. "I am not denying that possibility; it's just that his subsequent dream experiences were somewhat bizarre; his later experiences even directly verified the existence of the [Collective Unconscious]."

Professor Zhuangzi was silent for a moment, then gave his answer, "I think I understand. While he was a mathematical genius, it is also true that he connected to this [Human Race Network] in his dreams and directly obtained many formulas and answers from the network, but without any derivation process. It's like me going to a math website, looking around at a bunch of formulas I don't recognize, and then looking at the answers to those formulas; but in reality—I don't actually know how to do it, and I don't even know what these mathematical formulas are applied to, right?"

Laozi replied, "Yes, that's exactly it."

A voice of sudden realization came from the phone, "I see. But what does this have to do with [Chinese Humane Consciousness]?"

"Of course it has to do with it!"

Laozi looked displeased, then scolded, "This kind of human network is a [Earth Human Race Network] composed of the history, present, and future of every country in the world. The [human] in this term can include [the dead], [the living], and [the unborn]; and Chinese Humane Consciousness is actually a part of this [Collective Unconscious Network] within the long river of time and space."

"Besides this, there is also [Native American Consciousness], [Indian Consciousness], [European Consciousness], etc."

"Actually, it would be more appropriate to call it the [Chinese Human Race Local Area Network], so you can understand it."

The other side was silent for a moment, then asked again, "Is there any mention of this in the scientific community?"

Laozi shook his head gently. "There are niche theories, but currently no one is paying attention to these, and they don't offer much improvement to the scientific community."

"By the way, how do you know? I remember that the [Collective Unconscious] has already been rejected by quite a few colleagues. I didn't expect that you, old friend, would actually know the concept of [Chinese Humane Consciousness]."

Only to hear Professor Zhuangzi on the other end of the line chuckle, "That's a long story. The [Chinese Consciousness] you speak of and the [Chinese Humane Consciousness] I want to ask about might not be the same concept. What you just described should be called [Chinese Consciousness], not the [Chinese Humane Consciousness] I am asking about."

"Oh? Do tell!"

Laozi's eyes lit up instantly, and he became interested.

His long-winded explanation, had he actually explained it wrong in the end?

No, it wasn't that he explained it wrong, but rather that he was explaining a problem from a different angle.