341: Chapter 341: Mirage?

"But I can answer you."

Jiang Zhe nodded slightly, " 'My fate is determined by me, not by the heavens' and 'Following the heavens and responding to humanity' are not contradictory."

"Because the 'heavens' you speak of are not fate, but laws!"

"Laws?" Celestial Master Zhang frowned slightly.

"Yes. You cannot change gravity, you cannot change the speed of light, and you cannot change the second law of thermodynamics."

"These are the heavens; these are the laws."

"But within the range allowed by these laws, you can do many things."

"You can build airplanes to counter gravity, build lasers to counter light dispersion, and build refrigerators to counter entropy increase."

"You have not changed the laws; you have followed the laws and then used them to change your own situation."

"This is 'following the heavens and responding to humanity'—complying with the Heavenly Dao and responding to human affairs."

"The Heavenly Dao is not your enemy, but a tool in your hands."

Celestial Master Zhang's breathing quickened. "Then what about 'My fate is determined by me, not by the heavens'?"

" 'Determined by me' does not mean you can do whatever you want; it means—you can choose."

Jiang Zhe's gaze fell upon Celestial Master Zhang's face.

"The accumulation from your previous life determines your talent in this life."

"The choices you make in this life determine your starting point in the next."

"You cannot choose your talent, but you can choose how to use it."

"You cannot choose your starting point, but you can choose your direction."

Listening to this natural, Taoist essence, all the materialist professors except Celestial Master Zhang sat up straight, as if they were touching upon the Great Dao.

"Your Taoism speaks of 'inheritance and burden,' while Buddhism speaks of 'cause and effect'!"

"Let me translate that into plain physics: your past is stored in the zero-point field in the form of information, constituting your current initial conditions."

"Your present is written into the zero-point field in the form of choices, constituting the initial conditions for your future."

"You cannot change the initial conditions, but you can choose what to write."

"This!"

Celestial Master Zhang could not help but swallow hard. In the past, he had asked the late Old Celestial Master, but the Old Celestial Master's explanations were too complex and obscure.

He hadn't expected that the 120-year-old Old Celestial Master, who had studied for a century, would be completely incomparable to the 25-year-old young man before him in this regard!!!

At this moment, even the metaphysics enthusiasts in the livestream, the practitioners of the mystical arts, and even the metaphysical masters peeking from the think tank were filled with shock and astonishment, carefully savoring Jiang Zhe's words.

"It's too amazing!"

"Indeed. It's as if everything I've studied for fifty years has been explained by his few words."

"My God, this is a divine man, a true divine man. My grandson didn't lie to me; this is an immortal!"

"..."

After a long while, Celestial Master Zhang's body trembled slightly. "So, fate is not predetermined?"

Jiang Zhe, however, shook his head with a serious expression: "No, fate is predetermined—if you do not choose."

"If you just go with the flow, your future will be a linear extrapolation of your past."

"But if you make different choices at every node, your future will deviate from that line."

"When you deviate enough, your fate changes accordingly—this is similar to what you in Taoism call 'the general trend cannot be changed, but the minor trends can be altered'!"

As he finished speaking, the sound of gasps filled the room.

Celestial Master Zhang lowered his head and looked at his trembling hands. His eyes became much clearer. He took a deep breath. "I understand. Thank you, Mr. Jiang. I have attained enlightenment!"

At this moment, the number of viewers in the livestream was rising rapidly, as if the news of Jiang Zhe starting the broadcast had only just reached the viewers.

"Damn, this answer is absolute perfection!"

" 'Fate is predetermined—if you do not choose.' I will remember this sentence for the rest of my life!"

"So, changing one's fate means constantly making choices, and every choice rewrites the future?"

"Jiang Zhe uses physics to explain fate, and Celestial Master Zhang uses Taoism to explain fate, but the conclusion is the same: choices determine everything!"

"Isn't this the Quantum Delayed Choice we discussed before? The future self interferes with the present self, and the present self chooses the direction of the future!"

"Yes, yes, yes! The more satisfied you are now, the more your future dying self interferes with the present, and the better your luck—isn't this the scientific explanation of 'My fate is determined by me, not by the heavens'?"

"Celestial Master Zhang asked a great question!"

"So metaphysics and science are connected at the highest level?"

"The Tao is the zero-point field, fate is initial conditions plus choices. My brain is going to explode."

"This isn't a Q&A; this is writing a new worldview for humanity."

"..."

Jiang Zhe, of course, did not know what kind of uproar his words had caused.

He just tilted his head slightly, shifted his gaze from Celestial Master Zhang, and swept it across the others.

"I will give you all some time to discuss, and then you can choose the next person yourselves."

Inside the living room.

Professor Chen Runzhi turned his head back to look at Guan Jingming behind him with a surprised expression. "Listening online versus listening offline—the atmosphere is completely different."

Guan Jingming nodded without saying much.

Soon, the scene was buzzing with heated discussion.

James Thompson, as an archaeology professor, was just listening in. He looked at the two Professors Hans beside him. "You two old Hans, one of you is in astrophysics and the other in science and engineering; how do you see all this?"

Hans Wolfgang, the astrophysicist, was beaming. "He is simply a genius. Listening to him has cleared my mind. In this answer, I can hear the shadow and flavor of Feynman."

As he finished, James looked surprised. "Can he really be compared to Feynman?"

Professor Hans Mueller, on the side, smiled and said, "Of course, he is even better!"

"You hold him in such high regard!"

...

At this time, the operations department of the Gusu Dougu Platform.

Wang Shulin sat on the sofa, staring at the big screen in front of him.

He was trembling all over, eyes unblinking, the terrifying data reflected in his eyes!

Online viewers: 61,247,893.

It was still skyrocketing, as if fans from all over the country had just learned that he had started the broadcast, with no signs of stopping.

"Brother Wang!" A subordinate's excited voice came from the side. "Sixty million, it's reached sixty-two million!"

Wang Shulin swallowed hard.

He remembered that a month ago, the number of online viewers in Jiang Zhe's livestream was thirty million.

Having not broadcast for a month, he had expected the popularity to drop.

He had even prepared himself mentally, thinking that having twenty million on New Year's Eve would be good enough.

Who would have thought that after a month of no new content, the number of people would actually increase!

Sixty-two million, it had exactly doubled!

"It's too crazy!" He said, shocked. "Not only that, it's as if I'm listening remotely to a Taoist master explaining the Great Dao in plain words!"

"Just like that night over twenty days ago—when he used an apple to ask: 'Are the bugs born from the apple?!'"

"This is truly the Tao following nature, the Great Dao simplified!"

Behind him, more and more people crowded into the small office.

Twelve operations staff, plus the tech team, editors, graphic designers, and a few who were supposed to be on vacation today—everyone had come.

Some were standing, some were sitting on desks, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the big screen projected by the computer.

Soon, a girl said, "Look, he isn't intimidated at all in front of those big shots."

A young girl who had just started her internship six months ago was standing behind the crowd.

She whispered to her colleague beside her, "If only I could be like him one day!"

The colleague smiled, "You don't need to be like him. Just sitting here and watching him is enough."

Inside the big screen, the living room.

Jiang Zhe's gaze swept over the people present.

As soon as he finished speaking, a young man in a suit raised his hand.

He was Researcher Zhou, a researcher at a national-level laboratory in Kyoto, specializing in quantum communication.

He had originally wanted to ask about topics related to quantum physics, but Jiang Zhe had previously said not to ask about technical directions; he had left the materials for Xiaoyu, and if there were any questions in the future, one could just ask Xiaoyu!

He didn't want to waste the opportunity, so he asked about an interesting theoretical phenomenon.

"Mr. Jiang, I have a question."

"Our world is three-dimensional, but theoretically, higher dimensions exist."

"These dimensions cannot be touched, and according to the understanding of science students and practitioners—gravity is the key to penetrating dimensions."

"And the more microscopic, the higher the dimensions become!"

"In any case, these only exist in theory; after all, there is a certain gap between theory and reality. Can you talk about dimensions?"

As he finished, Ouyang Baili, Old Wu, and the other science scholars and professors' eyes lit up.

That's right, if we don't ask about technical difficulties, asking about theoretical difficulties is fine, right?

They all gave the young Researcher Zhou a thumbs-up; he had asked exactly what they were thinking!

Jiang Zhe remained expressionless, his gaze passing over the crowd to look at Xiaoyu at the very back.

Then he let his gaze fall upon the scholars.

To ensure that the tens of millions of viewers could understand, he found a suitable case. "Sir, do you know about a mirage?"

As he finished speaking, countless viewer comments began to flood the livestream.

"A mirage? What is this about?"

"What's there to say about this? Isn't it just a common optical phenomenon?"

"Wait, Jiang Zhe wouldn't mention this without a reason."

"There must be a deeper meaning!"

"..."

Researcher Zhou nodded repeatedly, but his brows furrowed.

What does a mirage have to do with dimensions?

Jiang Zhe explained unhurriedly:

"Mirages have been recorded all over the world from ancient times to the present."

"The 'Records of the Grand Historian: Treatise on the Celestial Offices' wrote: 'By the sea, the mirage vapors form towers; in the vast wilderness, the vapors form palaces.'"

"When ancient people saw towers and cities appear in the desert or on the sea, they thought they were celestial palaces, thinking they were miracles."

"Later, with the advent of modern science, people finally realized—a mirage is just an optical phenomenon."

"It is just light refracting through air layers of different densities, projecting distant scenery into the sky or onto the ground."

"Only then did we discover that it was not a celestial palace, not a miracle, just physics!"

He paused for a moment, and his tone suddenly shifted.

"However, if a mirage is just an optical phenomenon, then the scenery appearing in the mirage should be able to find a prototype in the real world."

"Distant cities, mountains, ships, etc., are only visible to people because of refraction."

Speaking of this, he nodded slightly, his eyes narrowing,

"Then why do some scenes that appear in mirages have no prototypes in the real world, and do not even exist in the world at all?"