Chapter 73: Locking onto the First Emperor of Qin_1
No. 7 Sophon Monitor had never made a mistake in its work, that's why it was selected to be a Sophon Monitor.
It was time to change shifts with the Sophon monitoring Lin Sen, while Lin Sen and Logic were enjoying themselves.
Changing shifts for Sophons meant the previous Sophon needed recharging. Sophons absorbed energy from vacuum zero-point energy, which couldn't be applied at the macro level—at least, the Trisolarans couldn't do it.
Behind every Sophon was a Sophon Monitor. Sophons flew at near-light speed every day, monitoring the globe. They would gather massive amounts of information, most of which the Sophon computer could effectively filter.
However, when it came to communication methods such as metaphors, symbols, and allegories, the computer's recognition rate was low, so it needed to rely on Sophon Monitors for review.
No matter how strong a Sophon's artificial intelligence was, its essence was to imitate the Trisolaran way of thinking and use highly sophisticated algorithms.
Logic was mainly monitored by Sophon No. 1. Upon receiving information that Sophon No. 7 had arrived, the monitoring task was handed over to No. 1.
Although their monitoring duties were subdivided, Sophons flew at high speeds, consuming a lot of energy, which required frequent recharging in outer space.
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The essence of a Sophon is a proton with an 11-dimensional structure.
When monitoring, Sophons need to descend to at least six dimensions to acquire electromagnetic wave (light) information of sufficient value.
A 6-dimensional Sophon is massive at the microscopic scale, while electromagnetic waves (light) have the basic capability to traverse dimensions.
The relationship between a Sophon's dimensions and size:
An 11-dimensional Sophon has a size at the femtometer scale (10 to the power of minus 15 meters), which is also the size of the original proton structure;
A Sophon reduced to 9 dimensions has a size at the picometer scale (10 to the power of minus 12 meters);
A Sophon reduced to 6 dimensions has a size at the micrometer scale (10 to the power of minus 6 meters), as mentioned in the original work, when it contracts to a six-dimension Sophon, it disappears and becomes invisible;
A Sophon reduced to 4 dimensions has a size at the centimeter scale, described in the original work as only the size of a flying star;
A Sophon reduced to 3 dimensions has a size at the kilometer scale, as mentioned in the original work, the size of a Trisolaran giant moon;
A Sophon reduced to 2 dimensions has a size at the million-kilometer scale, which has created the cosmic flicker phenomenon;
The size expansion upon dimension reduction is exponential.
The sizes discussed here are the projections of high-dimensional space onto three-dimensional space.
The proton itself is a high-dimensional material, with a complexity and number of structures that contain extraordinarily massive amounts of information, enough to give rise to intelligent civilizations.
But in our macro three-dimensional space, it occupies only a femtometer-scale size; we can only see a tiny fraction of an 11-dimensional proton's true form in three-dimensional space.
However, by manipulating a warp point in one of the proton's dimensions, allowing that dimension to spread out across others, the proton's occupancy in other dimensions will significantly increase, but its mass and electric charge as inherent properties would remain unchanged.
In order for the Trisolarans to reduce the dimension of protons, they not only need to accelerate protons to extremely high levels, but also need to manipulate the proton's dimensional warp points at the microscopic scale, which must reach at least picometer-level precision.
The macro three-dimensionality is the accumulation of minute differences in microscopic dimensions on a larger scale, with other information balancing and neutralizing each other, not showing through.
A macroscopic line, perceived as one-dimensional, magnified a hundred times will reveal countless fiber structures, and those fiber structures are three-dimensional.
What has been discussed above pertains to the relationship of the dimensions of matter (mathematically, this is expressed as the number of parameters used to describe the behavior of matter). To describe a macroscopic object's position, three parameters are needed, but in reality, at the femtometer scale, eleven parameters are used (this is a way to understand it, but not to be taken literally).
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While enjoying himself, Lin Sen was pondering whether he needed to deceive the Trisolarans before taking action.
In fact, Lin Sen had already locked onto the identity of the First Emperor of Qin.
It had been analyzed before that the current situation was very disadvantageous to the Trisolarans; it would be best for them if there were forces on Earth that truly belonged to the Trisolaris. Based on the experience in the original work, Sophon robots were the only choice.
Therefore, the first step would be to have the capability to manufacture quantum chips on Earth, which is to say, quantum computers.
Who would Sophons seek out?
High-level members of the ETO in the original work include the following.
IDs like First Emperor of Qin, John von Neumann, Mozi, Aristotle, King Wen of Zhou, Newton, Confucius, Einstein… and so on.
If the Trisolarans choose the ETO to help implement the quantum computer, selecting high-level ETO members is essential.
Eliminating other options, only the First Emperor of Qin and Aristotle had the capability.
As for Mozi, Einstein, and other members, their real-world identities were not high, insufficient to help the Trisolarans realize the quantum computer.
Aristotle, also known as Keiko Yamasuki, was a prodigy who independently invented a non-von Neumann computer, and if the Trisolarans gave her the technology, she might completely master all of it, so the Trisolarans dared not approach her.
That leaves only one person most likely, the First Emperor of Qin.
But how to find the First Emperor of Qin and capture him?
Firstly, consider the production conditions for quantum computers.
The most fundamental principle of our commonly used computers is the logic computation of gate circuits, consisting of diodes and transistors that output logical results from inputs of 0s and 1s.
Assembling multiple gate circuits together allows for computational modules such as adders, multipliers... and integrating millions to billions of gate circuits forms our computer chips.
Quantum computers work in the same basic way, composed of quantum gates, which are logic gate circuits responsible for performing quantum operations on qubits.
The input signal for quantum gates is qubits, with qubits used as the memory unit and form of information storage. Essentially, it replaces the electrical signals of traditional computers with qubits, with other principles remaining the same, albeit with a change in the method.
To manufacture a quantum computer, what conditions are needed? Materials alone couldn't pin them down, or rather, it was difficult to do so.
Materials with superconducting and quantum tunneling effects are researched in many labs around the world, numbering in the hundreds.
If all were to be checked, there would be a high chance of exposing one's intentions, and just because the Trisolarans lack imagination doesn't mean they couldn't discern Lin Sen's intentions.
Even if the Trisolarans might not detect any clues, ETO could analyze them, as Trisolaris would sometimes provide Lin Sen's data for ETO to analyze.
So what about starting with the manufacturing process?
Quantum computers are not ordinary technology. A quantum computer needs to lithograph quantum gates onto a wafer, integrating qubits and quantum gates to form a complete quantum chip.
They require a photolithography machine capable of lithographing quantum gates. The best way is to modify existing photolithography machines, or trade for most of the machine's crucial components, which are strictly controlled by the government worldwide.
Especially for some precision components, each one is produced with strict registration.