184: Chapter 184: The first observation is not at the starting point, but...

As Jiang Zhe finished his series of statements, the livestream chat fell into a brief silence.

This scenario was too extreme—it wasn't asking how the universe began, but directly assuming all observers were eliminated, placing existence itself on the edge of a cliff, almost impossible to answer.

"My brain is fried. This is like deleting the administrator account and formatting the server, right?"

"Not just that, it's like even the hardware of the server is gone."

"I hereby announce that I will not sleep for the next 24 hours and will continuously observe my phone. I am going to renew the subscription for the universe!"

"So, did the dinosaurs go extinct because... the dinosaurs all over the world took a nap at the same time?"

"..."

Xiao Yu gasped, her lips slightly parted.

Her little brain tried to process the image: after Xiaoyu's brother committed suicide, everything returned to... what?

Not darkness, not the void.

The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she suddenly got stuck, her beautiful eyes darting around, completely not knowing what to say.

Inside the principal's office, the atmosphere was heavy.

Old Yu scanned Principal Fu, Wang Chongyang, and Xiao Wang; the three of them looked at each other.

Old Yu spoke thoughtfully: "From a teaching perspective, this question is out of scope. But from a speculative perspective... if observation is truly some kind of anchoring, then if the anchor is gone, where will the ship drift to? Perhaps there wouldn't even be the act of drifting."

Xiao Wang raised his hand: "Uncle Yu, does that mean... if we all lose our memories, and even the act of losing memory itself is forgotten, does the universe... reset?"

Old Yu said with uncertainty: "The closest feeling I can imagine... might be a deep, dreamless sleep. It's not seeing black after closing your eyes, but not even having the concept of black, not even having the consciousness that 'I am asleep.' It's like a blank videotape that has been muted and absolutely blacked out. There is nothing, not even the concept of 'nothing' itself."

Both in and out of his words, he was describing one viewpoint: [Nothing], there is nothing at all.

It made it hard to imagine that kind of scene!

On the other side, in Ouyang Baili's living room.

Professor Wu couldn't help but speak: "This is somewhat absurd. Observation is recording, not creation. The sun won't turn into the moon just because no one is looking at it; even if all observers in the universe disappeared, the universe would remain as it is. Physical laws are objective, not dependent on consciousness."

Ouyang Baili had something to say: "Old Wu, your point is objective in the macroscopic sense, but it is not objective in the microscopic sense—in quantum physics, if the universe has no observer, the universe has no result, only [possibilities]."

Speaking of this, he took a die out of his pocket and threw it into the air, "A die rotating in the air, before it lands and is observed, it is not facing any one side up; it is in a superposition state with all six sides up simultaneously."

"And our current universe is like a die that has already settled and shows [6]."

"What Xiaoyu's brother is doing is—if at this very moment, the eyes of everyone in this room looking at the die were closed forever, would this [6] still exist—or would it violate physical laws, start floating against gravity, and then turn into a perpetual motion machine, floating wildly in the air, turning back into that rotating, uncertain, blurry state?"

Li Mo and Professor Guan looked at each other and nodded, half-understanding.

What Professor Ouyang said was possible, but there was a premise—that there were no [observers] in the entire universe.

Then, the moment the die was thrown, if all observers in the universe vanished—then this die would float in the air forever, spinning wildly, never landing, and none of the six sides would land on the ground, because, there is no, any, person to observe!!!

Li Mo pondered for a long time and added: "So, the stable universe we perceive might itself be a result frozen by continuous observation?"

Ouyang turned his head to look at Li Mo, "Correct. The thought experiment of Xiaoyu's brother is very extreme, and it is precisely illustrating—there is something continuously observing the universe, but who is that thing? We don't know!"

"..."

At this moment, in Qingfeng Temple.

Celestial Master Zhang and Wang Chongyang shook their heads repeatedly.

"Can't he talk about something more grounded? It makes my study of Chinese classics useless here." Master Wang complained.

Celestial Master Zhang smiled slightly, "This is not my metaphysics, nor is it a topic for your Chinese classics to intervene in!"

Zheng Ming, who was on the side, frowned, "I still feel this has nothing to do with the first observer; it is a purely unverifiable conjecture. Who would know what the universe becomes after they die—it's fundamentally a case of dead men tell no tales."

"Correct!" Professor Zhang Qinian finally couldn't help but say, "This is sophistry! According to this theory, in the 13.8 billion years before humans appeared, the universe was in a state of chaos waiting to be observed?"

"Then dinosaurs, supernovae, galaxy collisions, all these cosmic histories are just [possible stories]—until the first Homo sapiens looked up at the sky, they instantly possessed a definite history?"

"This is an insult to all the solid evidence in archaeology and astrophysics. He is tearing out the scientific objectivity... by the roots, it's a doomsday carnival of idealism!"

Inside the big screen, on the living room sofa.

Xiao Yu recovered from her previous astonishment, "Brother, I can only think that everything will become unreal."

"After the brother in the thought experiment dies, that world would be like looking at the world through frosted glass."

"Or like waking up from a dream, I can't grasp anything. The sun, the moon, the floor, they would float up, losing weight, volume, and shape, but specifically, I don't know."

She honestly admitted it; this is a question that even top scientists are puzzled by.

Jiang Zhe nodded.

"You can't blame your brother for that. You were the one who insisted on hearing about the first observer. This topic is inherently very grand; even in the physics community, astrophysics community, and among quantum scientists, it's not a topic they discuss much. It's very, very difficult!"

Xiao Yu pouted and rolled her eyes at Jiang Zhe. Unwilling to admit defeat, she sat up straight, "Come on, I, Steel Rain, must understand! Who is the first observer!!!"

"Alright, then let's continue!"

Jiang Zhe looked at Xiao Yu, who was unwilling to admit defeat, and grinned.

"After the final observation terminates, it's not that everyone closes their eyes, but that the power is unplugged."

"In that millisecond when the brother in the thought experiment dies, the chandelier above your head, the moon outside the window, the next breath of air you take, the floor under your feet—they will be sucked into a non-existent black hole; in a flash, they collapse into a point without volume, and then this point itself also evaporates into thin air."

"No sound, no light, no process—it is simply that existence is directly revoked."

He paused for a few seconds, looking at Xiao Yu's brain-racking expression, and continued:

"Don't ponder it; it's very hard to understand—in fact, scientists all over the world currently have no way to describe this scene. Once it can be drawn, once it can be described, it means there is still something in the universe observing it."

"Only when it cannot be described does it feel right."

"Just like humans cannot describe colors they haven't seen, sounds they haven't heard, tastes they haven't tasted—that kind of fundamental difficulty!"

"Can you imagine a color in the world—a color that makes you happy, sad, want to laugh, want to cry, want to eat, want to fight, want to lie down, and want to dance? Can you describe it?"

As he finished speaking, Xiao Yu and countless netizens were stunned.

"This..."

Sure enough...

Humans cannot imagine colors, sounds, tactile sensations, etc., that are not in their genes.

"Alright Xiao Yu, back to our surroundings!" Jiang Zhe nodded slightly and continued: "After the brother in the thought experiment disappears, our sun, earth, Milky Way—all their attributes: position, shape, past, future—will all disintegrate at the same time."

"They don't turn into gas or dust; they turn into a probability mist that has no [is] and no [is not]—you cannot describe it."

"Why can't it be described? Because description requires concepts: for example, ethereal, transparent, white, liked, hated, pitch-black... but after the brother dies, the observers are gone, and these [concepts] dissipate along with them. And the sun, the moon, the Solar System—even the concepts of existence and non-existence will fail simultaneously."

"So there is no way to describe it."

Following this series of statements, the netizens in the livestream gasped one after another.

"Damn, that sent shivers down my spine!"

"This is no longer science; this is the ultimate philosophical horror movie."

"Brothers, I suddenly feel a heavy responsibility on my shoulders. I don't dare to close my eyes anymore."

"I actually feel it's a bit romantic, how is that? Does our universe exist because we look at it?"

"Wake up upstairs. Following this logic, mosquitoes are also observing the universe. Does the universe exist because of mosquitoes?"

"Don't argue. I'm thinking about how to explain to my dog that it is also one of the contributors to maintaining the universe's existence."

"..."

On the sofa, Jiang Zhe continued to push forward, "And this reality collapse will spread instantly like a chain of power outages—from the Solar System to the Milky Way, from the Virgo Supercluster to the borders of the observable universe. All structures, all historical trajectories, are erased one by one."

"Finally, even the singularity that it initially collapsed into—the theoretical starting point of the universe—will self-annihilate."

"Thus, space returns to zero, time returns to zero, existence returns to zero—returning to a state more fundamental than nothingness, before the absolute starting point of logic, a desert of meaning!"

Inside the principal's office.

Principal Fu, Wang Chongyang, and Xiao Wang looked at Old Yu with tangled expressions.

They really wanted to understand!

Old Yu just covered his face in pain: "Don't look at me. This touches the foundation of physics... If I could explain it, this year's Nobel Prize would be mine. No, I could go straight to collect the Universe Understanding Prize."

The three of them rolled their eyes at Old Yu and continued to look at the big screen in a daze.

"Brother!" Xiao Yu's eyes suddenly lit up, "Is that a mind-boggling scene—like the state before the Big Bang, where all possibilities exist?"

Jiang Zhe's eyes lit up when he heard this.

"Correct, it is exactly that state. You can even understand it as: after the last observer dies, the universe will change from a world with matter back to the state before the Big Bang, with no matter and no information."

"Then—after countless years, quantum fluctuations will give birth to a [singularity] again, and it will evolve again."

As the conversation turned, Jiang Zhe's expression suddenly became serious: "So up to here, you should understand—the key is not the question of who the first observer is."

"But rather—whether there is still an observer in the universe [continuously observing]."

"As long as there is one observation act happening, the reality of the universe will be anchored and unfolded—the sun and the moon will be there, motionless."

He took a deep breath and nodded slightly, "So now, Xiao Yu, follow this logic and dig deeper—"

"What kind of observer, or rather, what level of observation is enough to keep the universe from shutting down under any circumstances?"

"In this extreme thought experiment that only exists in logic, when only [I] am left as an observation node in the universe, [the brother himself] temporarily occupies the position of the [First Observer]."

"But this is like a marathon with only one runner—it explains the rules, but it is far from a real competition."

"The true revelation of this experiment is!!!"

"The First Observer is never a fixed identity, but a [behavior] with functionality."

"As the name implies, it is: whoever can maintain the ability to observe before the final judgment of the universe arrives, then that person sits on that throne."

"The past of the universe, the Big Bang of the universe, and all the living beings in the universe's past will continue to exist because of [them] at the moment of the universe's extinction."

Xiao Yu held her breath.

"So, Xiao Yu, now let's jump out of this thought experiment and look at the vast, real universe—"

"It depends on what kind of existence can penetrate all time, all disasters, and all the changes of the universe itself, remaining stable and never closing its eyes."

"What kind of civilization can eventually get that... ticket to being a Reality Sustainer."

As he reached this point, Jiang Zhe grinned.

"Have you already discovered the answer you wanted?"

"What kind of civilization can eventually get that... ticket to being a Reality Sustainer."

Xiao Yu's eyes went from initial confusion to shock, her pupils suddenly shrinking, as if pushing aside the fog, a light suddenly shone through.

She couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva and said excitedly:

"I've found it. The first observer of the universe, or rather, the civilization holding [Absolute Observation] in its hands, is not at the beginning of the Big Bang, but at..."

She took a deep breath, gasped, and said the mind-boggling answer word by word: "The end of the universe!!!"

"Bingo!!!"