Throne of Magical Arcana

Chapter 654 - Dice

Chapter 654: Dice

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The projection of the Atomic Universe was deep and profound. Elements were dissecting and particles were gathering all the time, presenting a superposition of destruction and creation. It did not collapse even when it was faced with the Thunder Hell but created a bizarre view inside the narrow library together with it.”

Fernando was briefly stunned. “You’re almost level-three legendary... The feedback of the real world because of the probabilistic explanation of the wave function?”

He still remembered Lucien’s solemn face when he declared that ‘determinism must die’.

“Yes.” Lucien nodded his head and took out two papers. “Together with ‘A Probabilistic Explanation of the Wave Function’, they constitute the foundation of quantum mechanics. That is the basic law of the microworld.”

“‘A Heuristic Narration on the Uncertainty Principle’, ‘The Commutative Principle of Waves and Particles’...” Veins bulged out of Fernando’s forehead when he read ‘uncertainty’, which reminded him of ‘probability’, a concept that should be sent to hell!

“...A pair of non-commutation values cannot be determined at the same time. If you know one of them accurately, the other will definitely be uncertain. For example, if you completely grasp the speed and mass of an electron, you will lose track of it and cannot discover it at any location...”

The first paper was on matrix mechanics that Fernando was familiar with. However, apart from a mathematical interpretation, Lucien also gave specific arcane significance as a response to the arcanists who had been criticizing matrix mechanics for its lack of actual significance.

However, Fernando would rather the arcana significance did not exist!

That was because it denied their effort to explore the world again. In the end, we will never learn the specific information of an electron no matter how hard we try? Grasping one’s quality accurately will inevitably result in the uncertainties of the other quality?

The uncertain, probabilistic microscopic particles were the cornerstones of the matter that constructed the whole world. So, matter was also uncertain and probabilistic? Made of matter, were people uncertain and probabilistic, too?

It was almost the most absurd and hilarious theory?

Thinking for a moment, Fernando said gloomily, “It is caused by observation? Microscopic particles are too small and can easily be disturbed, so all our observation will cause them to change. That’s why we cannot grasp the value changed by the other value when we determine it?”

He could more or less accept such an explanation, because it would mean that the two values could still be measured, and the world would still be observable, not full of probabilities as Lucien described!

Thinking for a moment, Lucien sighed, “My conclusion is inferred through mathematical approaches based on the premises. That is to say, nothing else is involved. So, the uncertainty principle is an intrinsic quality of the microscopic particles that has nothing to do with observation methods. As for why they show such a quality, we will still need to work on it.”

Fernando’s face had blushed a long time ago. The veins on his forehead were protruding, and the wind blew even faster. The dark and depressing atmosphere had completely blocked the bright rays of light.

Finally, he managed to contain himself and began to read Lucien’s last paper. The first part of the paper made him feel better, because it was the tale that Lucien described before, about the blind who touched the dragon! Since the microscopic particles could not be perceived for real, they could only be described by the experiment results, even though the results were contradictory to each other.

However, Lucien then described the uncertainty principle as a fundamental law caused by the wave-particle duality with the notion: when the particle feature was more obvious, the wave feature would be gone, and vice versa. They were also a pair of non-commutation values.

The three papers constructed a self-consistent logic explanation that revealed the law of matrix mechanics and the microscopic domain, but such a law was definitely not something Fernando would like to see!

Boom!

Thunder that was countless times louder than just now burst out. Fernando stared at Lucien in the eyes, with electric arcs bouncing in his pupils. The terrible view of arriving chaos even appeared in his left eye.

Lightning struck the library and destroyed the bookshelves.

“If the initial statuses cannot strictly determine the subsequent development of matters, and if the microscopic domain is full of uncertainties, our world will be even more chaotic and disordered than Abyssal Maw. It’s impossible for us to live and consider!”

A torrential rain poured down, but it was eclipsed after it entered the vast universe.

Lucien seemed to be standing at the center of the boundless Atomic Universe. He said in a low voice, “The determinism in a broader sense met difficulties in the N-body problem a long time ago. As for the microscopic domain, it’s a place where the original concepts have to be abandoned. The uncertainties in the microscopic domain do not mean the uncertainties of the macroscopic world.”

The N-body problem was an astrophysical notion. Its simplified version was the three-body problem. To wit, in a system made of three planets, because of their complicated influences on each other, it was in fact impossible to calculate their accurate trajectories. One could only get the solutions of certain moments in certain parts, which was in violation of determinism. However, in the school of astrology most believed that it was only because the current mathematics were not developed enough yet.

“Why are there so many differences between microscope and macroscope?” Fernando roared even more terrifying than the thunder.

Surrounded by the elemental planets, Lucien replied, “That’s exactly what we need to work on.”

“You don’t know anything, and everything needs to be worked on, and you are bold enough to raise such a theory?” Fernando was even more infuriated, which had caused the weather changes around. Hellen, who was supervising the Allyn magic tower, had noticed the anomaly and informed Douglas and the other grand arcanists, fearing that she might not be able to get things under control on her own.

Lucien stepped forward in the profound projection of the universe. “This conclusion is based on the experiments so far. It matches the other theories and phenomena in the microscopic domain most!”

“Even if it is wrong, it should not be disapproved by the obsolete theories but by the new experiments!”

As he spoke, Lucien pushed his monocle.

“Master, calm down first. Devise an experiment to falsify it.”

Fernando understood that it was only Lucien’s explanation, in which only the uncertainty principle was inferred rigorously. Therefore, he managed to get his emotions back under control after a few breaths, before he declared aloud.

“I can’t and I will never accept your theory. I can’t agree that our world is built on dice!”

The thunderstorm stopped, but the wind was still blowing, exactly like what was on Fernando’s mind. It was even more depressing for Lucien than the previous doomsday view. “Has my teacher, who always supported and protected me, taken the other side on this ‘path’, too?”

At this moment, Hellen walked in and asked in suspicion, “What happened here?”

Douglas, Brook, Hathaway, Oliver and Vicente arrived in one minute. If Fernando and Lucien had a fight, the whole Allyn would probably be destroyed.

Fernando snorted and pointed at the paper on the desk. “Copy them and read them for yourself. Remember, it’s still only Lucien’s dream talking and must not be taken seriously!”

Even Douglas was more or less scared when they saw the papers on the desk. After hearing Fernando’s explanation, and seeing that he was still standing in one piece, they finally copied the papers and browsed through them.

After a long time, the library became dark again, and a cosmos where planets collapsed and destruction enshrouded everything. Oliver said coldly, “Absurd. This is utter nonsense! This is entirely different from the world in reality! It can only exist in dreams!”

The magnetic field twisting the surroundings with the dancing electric currents, Brook also said solemnly, “We cannot observe the uncertainties of matter in reality. It is safe to say that, if we can observe them, it will mean that our very existence is ridiculous and contradictory to it!”

Boom!

The noise of collapsing were even more horrifying than thunder!

In the library, more and more complicated, unbelievable views surfaced.

Clear, delicate and translucent snowflakes dropped, bringing in unimaginable frigidness, mixed with Hellen’s intermittent murmur, “Experiment results... Determinism... Prophecies are probabilistic... Matters are probabilistic... The world is also probabilistic?” Even she could barely control her own feelings and emotional changes anymore.

Spots of elements blossomed like colorful flowers, which gathered into a torrent. Indifferently, Hathaway read the paper, her eyes unfocused, as if she were looking at the experiment data in her laboratory far, far away. “Probabilistic? Then, all the laws will be wrong...”

A cold and silent desert, with monuments standing everywhere, arrived. The two needle-like spots of redness jumped intensely on Vicente’s face, as he said, “If the wave function of electrons is probability wave and a superposition of all their possible locations, something terrible will happen. It will result in the loss of objectivity and actuality, and we have never observed such terrible things in reality yet. At the very least, we exist here for real.”

A hazy mountain and a rippling lake that were as beautiful as the real world’s appeared, pacifying all the weird views except for the electric currents.

Under countless brilliant stars, Douglas was unusually rigorous. “We believe in arcana instead of gods because it encourages us to observe and consider things with the law of causality. We believe that a unified law is behind all the natural phenomena, which influences different things with its variations. The foundation of everything I said is the reasonableness and comprehensibility of the world.”

“Even though all the observations so far are probabilistic, I still maintain that a definite cause, not an intrinsic quality, leads to such probabilities.

“Lucien, the truth of the world is no dice!”

As the starlight dangled down, the dark shadow of gravity caused heavy depression, resulting in the reduction of space.

“That’s right! The truth of the world is no dice!” Oliver shouted, almost losing his cool and turning into ‘roaring Fernando’.

Brook also nodded in approval. “The truth of the world is not dice!”

“Do you hear that? The truth of the world is not dice!” Fernando roared again.

Together with their declaration, the destructive storm, the collapsing planets, the twisted magnetic field, the lighting bolts and the curved space burst out again.

BOOM!

“...The truth of the world is not dice!”

In the roars, the sentence came at him like Light of Judgment.

The Atomic Universe appeared again, and Eternal Blaze generated by fusions in the infinite space drove away the depression and darkness.

Standing at the center of the illusionary universe, Lucien shook his head. “Mr. President, master, Mr. Brook, Oliver...”

After a brief pause, he fought back with an even firmer voice:

“Don’t stipulate what the truth of the world is and what it is not!”