Chapter 119 The Essence of Thinking Part 2

Marcus: "As I just mentioned, we know that thought occurs at the quantum level, and this quantum level isn't about the scale of microscopic particles like protons or electrons.

"The essence of thought still takes place at the submicroscopic level of neurons and the like, but it also possesses the basic characteristics of quantum physics. When we refer to the quantum level, we're actually talking about these basic quantum characteristics, not necessarily small sizes. These are two different concepts.

"The fundamental characteristics of quantum physics include: quantum superposition, indistinguishability, quantum entanglement, uncertainty principle, possibility interference, and quantum tunneling phenomena.

"Thought processes occurring in human neurons also have these characteristics. We define this as the Neural Quantum Space, which is a deeper level than traditional brain thought structure theories.

"But recent discoveries have shown that the three-dimensional structure of brain neurons can't possibly bear the complexity of our thoughts; our thinking is too intricate for that. We believe that there must be other elements influencing our thoughts.

"During Tyler's studies on matter-antimatter macros, he found that there was a quantum oscillator between the matter and antimatter macros, which we call the Macro Quantum Oscillator. It can be understood as the quantum oscillator reduced to two dimensions.

"Furthermore, matter-antimatter macros have a higher stability than ordinary matter-antimatter pairs. Of course, the more stable they are, the more energy they may contain—and if you disrupt this stable structure, the energy released by the annihilation of matter and antimatter macros is a million times that of ordinary macro atomic fusion.

"Tyler's findings didn't just stop here; more importantly, he discovered a strong connection between the Macro Quantum Oscillator and the entanglement resonance of thought.

"Experiments have found that the vibrational frequency of the Macro Quantum Oscillator is extremely close to the frequency of our thought resonance, and it even exhibits superluminal properties. We believe there must be a connection between the two.

"Additionally, our research on quantum life forms also unearthed 'Information Outflow' in high-dimensional dark matter. This 'Information Outflow' in the High-Dimensional Space resonates with the probability clouds of quantum life forms in a way that causes them to 'collapse.'

"This has greatly piqued our interest; the closer two individuals experiencing thought resonance are to the Macro Quantum Oscillator, the greater the amplitude of its vibrations will be. The essence of macro electrons is that they're the result of electrons reduced to two dimensions, so the Macro Quantum Oscillator is naturally formed by the dimensional reduction of a quantum oscillator.

"Therefore, we speculate that our consciousness and thought might not actually occur in three-dimensional space, but should rightfully be taking place in four dimensions or perhaps even a higher dimensional space. Although our bodies and brain matter are three-dimensional, the origins of our thoughts or memory could be in even higher dimensions.

"They rely on some sort of connection and can become entangled with one another, eventually producing our thoughts. This is why we say our thoughts take place on a quantum level.

"Rather than saying that thought occurs at the quantum level, it would be more accurate to say that it occurs at the high-dimensional level. The mental imagery in the brain is merely a projection of thought from the High-Dimensional Space.

"The Macro Quantum Oscillator has opened the door for us to observe high-dimensional thought, and it's currently the only way we can study it.

"Recent studies also indicate that dark matter exists in high-dimensional spaces, and we even conjecture that the High-Dimensional Space where thought occurs, the High-Dimensional Space where dark matter resides, and the Macro Quantum Space where quantum life exists are all part of the same High-Dimensional Space. Everything makes sense under this framework.

"In the High-Dimensional Space, there is an abundance of dark matter which doesn't interact electromagnetically with three-dimensional matter, because matter from different dimensions cannot affect each other. However, gravity can traverse dimensions, which is why we can detect them through gravitational forces.

"Quantum oscillators in the High-Dimensional Space's dark matter can carry our mental body, as well as that of quantum life forms. These mental bodies can entangle with our brains in three-dimensional space.

"They all exhibit quantum characteristics, the essence of which is that High-Dimensional Space is compressed into an extremely small scale of spatial dimensions.

"Just like Sophons, which are originally eleven-dimensional but can be reduced to two dimensions. When reduced to two dimensions, the other dimensions do not cease to exist; they are simply coiled up in a minuscule space."

Lin Sen was shocked by this speech; it essentially unveiled the true nature of the universe.

Being familiar with the plot, Lin Sen naturally knew that the universe was originally of a higher dimension, possibly even eleven-dimensional, but after many a cosmic war, space had ultimately been reduced to its current three-dimensional form.

Initially, the lifeforms of universe civilizations were high-dimensional beings, and their minds naturally existed in high dimensions as well. When the universe underwent dimensional reduction, they had to reduce their own life forms in order to continue to survive.

It is possible to reduce the dimensions of physical matter, but once consciousness is dimensionally reduced, the lower-dimensional life forms might be incapable of bearing the original consciousness entity. How to preserve high-dimensional consciousness in low-dimensional space then becomes very important.

It is akin to how our three-dimensional biological thought and consciousness rely on two-dimensional material support, somewhat like enabling a computer to possess complete human thought. It is undeniable that computers can have simple thought processes, but they are still inadequate to hold human thought, which is far too complex. The key lies in how to preserve the original form of thought.

They may have found a way to retain most of the consciousness entity in the high dimensions (even though that dimension could be tightly curled up and very small), with only a small part of consciousness depending on low-dimensional life matter, while the majority is supported by dark matter quantum resonators in high dimensions.

We say that there are only four fundamental forces in the universe, but that's only in the context of the three-dimensional universe. Dark matter in higher dimensions may have a fifth type of interaction that might be related to the very essence of consciousness.

At the same time, much of the original matter of the universe that has undergone dimensional reduction may not have reduced in dimension, but instead escaped into a curled-up high-dimensional space, never fully forming low-dimensional material. This may be what we have detected as dark matter.

This also explains why there are so many civilizations in this universe. It is possible that we are all from a previous high-dimensional universe civilization which cast a large number of memory bodies into the low-dimensional space. If a low-dimensional life form appears and resonates with the high-dimensional consciousness entity, the thought process of that species would explode in development.

This theory indeed reconciles all phenomena consistently without adding any entities (Occam's Razor: Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily), perfectly aligning with the worldview of the Trisolaran universe.

...

Lin Sen really didn't know whether to let Marcus continue researching or not. If he kept going, he would probably discover that this universe had been dimensionally reduced. However, that thought seemed reasonable, since in the original work Yun Tianming hinted at a Dimensional Strike for Cheng Xin, which was surely a discovery by the Trisolarans.

How did the Trisolarans know? The most likely answer is that they deduced their conclusion from a combination of theory and observation. However, their technology was only a few hundred years ahead of humans (without the blockage by Sophons) at most—on a cosmic scale, both sides were equivalently low-level, the weakest of the weak.

That the Trisolarans could discover the truth of the cosmic dimensional reduction suggests that if humanity were to continue its research in this area, they might reach a similar conclusion. Unfortunately, in the original work, Tyler committed suicide after breaking through the wall, and humans also paused their research on Ball Lightning.

Lin Sen naturally wouldn't stop Marcus's research; he could only sigh that people in this era were too against nature's way, truly shaming transmigrators.

Yet Lin Sen still had some questions that weren't fully clarified, as Marcus was a scientific researcher adept at discussing theories, but fundamentally what Lin Sen really wanted to know was the reason behind Tyler's death.

Lin Sen, "I think I understand what you're saying. You consider that the essence of thought occurs in high dimensions, which are curled up on a very small scale and exhibit quantum characteristics."

"Our brain's thoughts can be said to be a projection of higher-dimensional thinking, and this conclusion comes from your observations of the correlation between the resonance of macro quantum resonators after dimensional reduction and thought."

"But what does this have to do with thoughts in quantum space, sub-quantum levels, and Tyler's death?"

PS: The three-dimensional universe of the Trisolaran world is caused by dimensional reduction, but the author believes that the characteristics of high dimensions will not entirely disappear after the reduction, but will instead be curled up on a smaller scale.

As in the original work, Sophons in two dimensions also have thickness, though it is extremely small. They can refract light, which indicates they have thickness. Their ability to pass through high-dimensional matter implies that their thickness is less than a femtometer, possibly even at the level of an attometer.

The author speculates that after a high-dimensional universe experiences dimensional reduction, a large amount of matter remains in these curled-up spaces, incapable of transmitting electromagnetic interactions with the three-dimensional space but capable of transmitting gravitational effects, which we collectively call dark matter (accounting for 95% of the universe's mass).

Regarding consciousness, many in the scientific community believe it arises from quantum resonance at the neuronal level, not entirely conjectured by the author.

The author surmises that to some extent, we are also a seeded civilization from a high-dimensional space civilization, with part of their high-dimensional consciousness entities cast into three dimensions. If local species' thought quantum resonances are triggered, they would possess considerable thinking capabilities.

Advanced civilizations could directly modify their bodies to lower dimensions and inherit high-dimensional consciousness entities directly. However, ordinary civilizations are no longer able to survive and can only cast their consciousness entities, seeking to continue through symbiotic civilizations. (This is also a norm in the Trisolaran universe; the Returners also cast consciousness entities into the next universe.)

This kind of thought quantum resonance is not observable to us, except for one situation where it can be observed. Through the dark matter between macro positron-electron pairs after dimensional reduction, the effects of resonance on macro quantum resonators can be observed.