The Argo Goes West

129, Science Talk with Dr. Lao

Dr. Conrad Zelazny and Billy Chen were transported to a mortar-shaped bottom resembling an ancient Greco-Roman amphitheater. Conrad imagined the USS Enterprise transport room, but it was completely different. In front of them was a fan-shaped terraced flower bed with colorful flowers, and beyond that was the horizon where the blue sun was about to set. A one-way mirror, Conrad thought. A few months ago, a US-based spy satellite discovered an opaque dome in the caldera of Olympus Mons, the largest mountain in the solar system (72,000 feet!), but he couldn't see anything inside.

"Welcome." An oriental man with a musician's mustache stepped forward with a smile. "I'm Lao Zi Xiang."

Dr. Lao explained to Conrad what had happened. Discovery of ruins with a Mars helicopter, construction of a dome with a 3d printer, elucidation of a mysterious device named Ren Yi Men, and so on.

"This is Ren Yi Men."

Dr. Lao pointed out a nearby stone stand that looked like a Bible stand in a church. The board tilted diagonally and was divided into left and right halves. Above it lay an old-fashioned metal ruler and compass that Archimedes and Euclid might have used.

"Can I touch this compass?"

"Sure. Sure."

Conrad picked up the compass. It was neither heavy nor light, and seemed comfortable to use.

"What is this for?" asked Conrad.

"This table is like a drafting table. A compass and a ruler are used to draw figures on it."

"Isn't the drawn figure the polar coordinates of the two spaces you want to connect?"

"That's right. We used this device to bring materials from Earth to Mars. "

"In other words, you were making material transfer practical?"

"Yes."

"On doomsday," Conrad whispered, worried that someone else was eavesdropping. "Didn't your high-level government officials order them to be transported to Mars?"

"You guessed it," Dr. Lao readily admitted.

"Did you follow orders?"

"Calculating material transfer takes time, so I told them I couldn't do it right away. But they were in a hurry, so I had no choice but to do it. The result was a failure. We practiced Yu su ze bu da, which translates to 'hurry and fail'." 

Dr. Lao failed on purpose, Conrad thought. Where the Chinese Communist Party leaders were transported must be either the sulfuric acid oceans of Venus, or the scorching Mercury, or the all-consuming Sun.

"By the way," Conrad changed the subject. "What made you think this teleporter could transcend time?"

"Bai wen bu ru yi jian, A picture is worth a thousand words. The tip of a compass is the same as the tip of a pen. Could you draw a line on the board with a compass and a ruler?"

"I'll try." Conrad put the ruler to the board and drew a straight line with the compass.

"I drew a line."

"Then try pinching it with your fingers."

Conrad, half in doubt, pinched the line. The lines that Conrad thought were two-dimensional were three-dimensional, and he could pinch them like guitar strings.

"You just drew a straight line, but if you get the hang of it, you can draw quadratic parabolas, hyperbolas, and ellipses."

"So all of that can be made three-dimensional."

"It's more than three-dimensional. Look closely at the three-dimensional line you pinched. It should be spinning around its axis."

Conrad saw a three-dimensional line spinning clockwise.

"You know what I mean?" Dr. Lao asked.

"Do you mean that extra dimensions are collapsed in this three-dimensional line?"

"Correct," Dr. Lao nodded. "Adding the spin orientation, we see that the line has four dimensions. That's the limit of what we can perceive. Even if more dimensions are hidden, we cannot perceive them. Let's make an easy analogy. In a two-dimensional world with only depth and width, a circle drawn in a square cannot be taken out of the square. But adding the dimension of height turns the square into a box without a lid. We can easily take the sphere out of it. Not only humans but also monkeys can do it. By the way, what do the residents of the two-dimensional world think of us and the monkeys in the three-dimensional world? "

"They think it's God. God who can do miracles."

Dr. Lao quietly nods and looks overhead. The Martian night sky was similar to Earth's, but it didn't have just one moon. There were two moons, Phobos and Deimos. The Earth was supposed to be visible to the naked eye, but now it was not visible because it overlapped with the Moon. Dr. Lao mumbled. "I am very interested in how the universe looks to the people who built this device. They may be able to see the distortion of spacetime without understanding the theory of relativity. Even farther into the future."

Conrad also looked up at the night sky. The constellations were the same on Earth and Mars. Why did humans envision myths in the starry sky? thought Conrad. Moreover, connect the stars that are dots with lines...

"Did they have numbers?" Conrad asked Dr. Lao.

"They seem to have understood numbers in terms of magnitude, as the rulers have graduations, but there is no evidence of algebra."

"Their science consisted only of geometry. Geometry is also present in nature. Snowflakes, fern plants. so-called fractal geometry. Geometry is nature's gift from God. The mathematics that developed in ancient Greece was also geometry. However, we human beings could not explain with geometry alone, so we invented algebra. Zero, imaginary, complex, quaternion, and so on. Weren't they a last resort for human beings who can only perceive up to three dimensions to understand higher dimensions? For example, imaginary numbers are not needed for linear equations, but they are essential for quadratic equations. But they were able to perceive the higher dimensions, so they didn't have to. They didn't have to use algebra! "

Dr. Lao gave a vague smile that was neither affirmative nor negative.

"In any case, algebra is essential to us. We cannot operate this device without complex calculations."

"Calculations are quite troublesome, aren't you?"

"Yes." Dr. Lao smiled wryly."But there's no need to rush. There's no point in struggling. The world is over. From now on, we and you will remake the world, history, and a new relationship between the United States and China. "

Dr. Lao looked at Conrad again and said, "In China, there is a saying, Huan nan jian zhen qing, which means you see who your true friends are when you go through tough times together."

"Even in English," replied Conrad. "A friend in need is a friend indeed. We live in the same dimension, so you and I should be able to understand each other."