596 Unique Landscape 2 in 1 (2/2)
”No, dragons are huge lizards!” Another one of them who touched the scales of the dragon argued. Before he became blind, he had once caught a lizard and felt its scales.
Most of the members in the Highest Council were amused after hearing the first guy's declaration, but they all became solemn after the second guy's reply. Douglas, Hathaway, and the rest of them who were more or less prepared nodded their heads.
”There's no need to talk about the answers of the other blind people now. I only want to ask one thing: are dragons bats or lizards?”
”Neither.” Hellen basically understood what Lucien meant but still replied carefully.
Lucien smiled, ”Therefore, light and protons are neither waves nor particles for me. The only thing that can be confirmed is that they are matter. Of course, I prefer to call them particles.”
”Neither waves nor particles?” Oliver frowned and asked, ”Are you suggesting that they are actually something else?”
Looking around in the conference room, Lucien said, ”We cannot see the electromagnetic waves including the invisible light, nor can we see the particles in the microscopic scale. When we study those aspects, we are like blind people. So we can only depend on the phenomena we can observe, instead of imposing the empirical definitions and concepts on them.”
”Take light for example. If we do not consider it as waves or particles in advance, we can describe it in such a way: this matter shows the obvious features of waves as well as the features of particles, its frequency is to a certain degree, and its speed is different in different mediums. It is not important what the matter that boasts such qualities is called. It can be defined as anything. As for why it shows both the features of waves and the features of particles and how the two categories of features are combined on it, that's what we should study on our next step. Everything must be based on experiments and actual phenomena.”
”We are arguing here before we have applied the conceptions and definitions of the past to the microscopic domain mechanically, which is the place closest to the truth of the world. I once said that our experience would deceive us. This is one of the examples. On the other hand, such deceptions are not only reflected in our studies but also in our interactions with other people.”
After saying that, Lucien looked around at the members of the Highest Council who had different expressions before he said solemnly:
”Only if we learn to temporarily abandon our previous concepts and depend on the actual phenomena and the experiment results can we 'see' the truth of the world in the microscopic domain.”
After Lucien finished his talk, the conference room was caught in a weird silence. Everyone thought about different things.
”But how are we going to study the microscopic domain if we don't have any concepts? We have to process and construct the experiment phenomena and results into a system.” Oliver agreed with him, but he was still very suspicious about it.
Lucien replied simply. ”With mathematical tools.”
”How do we know what mathematical tools to use if we don't know what it is?” Vicente did not quite agree with him.
”We can apply the previous conceptions and definitions that can be directly observed, to the experiment results, and cannot apply them to those which cannot be observed. However, we can run deductions based on the experiment results, propose speculations and hypotheses, and then testify them with strict experiments later.” Lucien expressed his opinion. He had formed and fortified the idea because of the influence of weird things such as magic, soul, and feedback in reality and his studies in the quantum theory.
”So, you are still guessing that electrons are waves? But there are no experiments that can confirm it.” Vicente went on. After a huge detour, they returned to the original subject.
Douglas nodded his head and said, ”I think that Lucien does have a point. We see an object when the light is reflected into our eyes on its surface. The magnifying magic is based on the same optical mechanism. However, light can interact with electrons and result in their 'transition', which means that their status is altered. Therefore, up until now, there is barely any way for us to directly observe the microworld, and we can only conclude based on the experiment results before we explain the conclusions. It's true that we cannot introduce too many previous concepts when we explain the conclusions, which will restrain and blind our minds.”
”However, the assumption that electrons are waves is still too impractical. At least, no experiments so far have any sign to prove it. They show the features of particles without any exception.” Oliver shook his head, and Hathaway, as well as the other grand arcanists, agreed with him. At the very least, the nature of particles was the obvious experiment result, and it was difficult to associate waves with the distinctive traces.
However, they also preliminarily accepted that the previous concepts could not be blindly applied to the microworld in arcana studies.
”Can we only see the truth of the world if we abandon the previous concepts?” Said Brook in mixed feelings. ”But since we have been learning arcana and receiving conceptions and definitions since childhood, it is possible that we apply the previous concepts to our studies without us knowing it. Besides, it is possible that introducing the previous concepts will make things easier.”
Douglas looked at his pocket watch and said, ”It's already late. Lucien has also expressed his opinion. You may talk in private.”
”Yes, I'll try to reconstruct the model in the new alchemy with the notion of electronic waves and build its wave function to see if I can resolve the problem and confirm the hypothesis.” Brook was rather interested in the direction as if he had found a way to reshape his cognitive world.
Oliver also nodded. ”I'll also put my thoughts into the concept of electron waves and try to establish their wave function. Let's hope we can get something.”
Hathaway didn't say anything. She was always silent if she could.
Vicente smiled at the Lord of Storm in a mocking smile, ”Old pervert, why didn't you say anything today? Did you not want to roar at him because he's your student? That's very unlike you, who has been very insistent in truth in the field arcana.”
It was not until he said that that the other members of the Highest Council realized that the Lord of Storm hadn't spoken anything so far! In the past, when such arguments took place, the conference room would definitely be swarmed with thunder, lightning, storms, and roars. Why was it so unusual today?
Fernando seemed to be holding something back. After a glance at Vicente, he glared at Lucien, ”Bring it out. They should be braced for the blast now.”
”Bring what out?” Lucien pretended that he did not know what Fernando was talking about.
”Bring what out?” The other members of the Highest Council were full of suspicion.
Fernando roared aloud all of a sudden, ”I knew you completed the experiment when you gave the remark! Bring it out! Show us what the truth of the world is, and how the previous concepts should be abandoned!”
”You think we can't take such a hit from a realm that is full of unknowns?”
The experiment had been completed? Oliver, Klaus, and the rest of them looked at Lucien in shock. Was it really completed? Then, didn't Lucien's attitude suggest… How was it possible?
Even the legendary sorcerers like Hathaway and Hellen, who were usually nonchalant, were more or less surprised, which finally made them look like human beings that were made of flesh and blood.
Douglas looked at Lucien solemnly, ”If you have completed it, just bring it out. Nobody here is so narrow-minded and stubborn.”
He added in his heart: that is, most of the supporters of the wave theory are not. The rest of them were more or less mentally prepared because the hypothesis seemed able to resolve part of the problems in the new alchemy.
Lucien looked at them in silence. After they all nodded in approval, he took a deep breath, before he brought out a huge monocrystal and established the magic circle casually, so that the image could be directly manifested.
Brook did not say anything. Raising his hands, he launched the electron currents.
Time seemed to be frozen. There was nothing but depression and silence. Soon, the magic circle glowed and displayed the classic image of the diffraction pattern of X rays!
In everybody's eyes, the image was so familiar and beautiful, but also so astounding and unbelievable!
”This is…” Many people exclaimed what was on their mind subconsciously.
BOOM!
Lightning was dancing, and thunders were rumbling. A black storm consumed the sky.
The dark magnetic field around was twisted, and the invisible electromagnetic waves were more disordered than ever.
Stars arose and emitted dazzling brilliance, twisting the space around them and releasing gravity.
White, black, gold, silver… Elements in different colors gathered into a tide that looked like an ocean.
In the peaceful and quiet land of eternal sleep, black tombs rose aslant, brimming with the stink of death.
The dark universe was vast and boundless. One planet perished after another, caught in the infinite waves of destruction.
Snowflakes fell down. The temperature of the whole room dropped by almost a hundred degrees. Transparent ice was everywhere.
All the extraordinary views surfaced and churned the conference room, congregating into a terrifying scene where light in different colors weaved and where destruction and death danced together!
BOOM!
In the illusionary sounds of thunder and destruction, they turned around and looked at Lucien at the same time, only to discover that Lucien was still standing there with his hands in the pockets of his double-breasted suit. He repeated what Brook said in an extremely low voice:
”Only if you abandon your original concepts can you see the truth of the world.”