I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 700 (Patreon)

Chapter 700: The Beginning of Everything, the Terrifying Black Box Quantum Experiment

Perhaps it was a minute, or ten minutes, or even an hour. Within the light cone of fate, time did not exist. This place was a crevice in time and space, where all beginnings and endings intersected.

Rewinding over a thousand years was no easy feat. Even for just a piece of land the size of ten thousand acres, it had reached the limit of what Lynn could endure.

Fortunately, the timeline quickly advanced to October 3rd, 2549 of the Federation Calendar.

The day he died!

The surrounding scenes instantly froze—people walking, machines turning, and water molecules dancing in the air all came to a halt, like a special painting. It wasn't until Lynn clapped his hands that the frozen time began to flow again.

In the next moment, the hall doors were pushed open, and over a hundred researchers in dust-proof suits entered the laboratory. Lynn clearly saw his past self among them.

Lynn followed them into the lab. The interior was spacious, with a large vacuum experiment area in the center to prevent free molecules from interfering with the experiment results.

The so-called black box experiment wasn't actually conducted in a black box. "Black box" was a metaphor, as quantum-level reactions couldn't be observed with the naked eye.

The entire experiment was controlled by AI, as only artificial intelligence could achieve such precise control and data monitoring.

The ultimate goal of the experiment was to find the true factor causing quantum collapse!

Although the theory that human observation leads to quantum probability collapse had been proposed hundreds of years ago and was supported by numerous experiments, many federal researchers still tried to overturn this idea or at least find the real cause of quantum probability collapse.

For instance, a federal academician studying quantum science believed that the collapse of quantum probability could not possibly be due to observation itself but rather due to energy interference above a certain frequency.

After all, all observation behaviors inevitably affect quantum states.

Moreover, the larger the mass of a substance, the less pronounced its wave properties, which was strong evidence.

However, they didn't have sufficiently suitable and precise instruments to confirm this point in the past.

Since the breakthrough in quantum observation technology in the new century, similar experiments had become increasingly common. But a key issue had troubled the scientific community for decades.

That was how to distinguish between observation and interference. Some researchers believed that the energy level of observation equipment should be minimized. As long as the interference was small enough, they could observe the state of particles without causing quantum probability collapse.

Other quantum researchers scoffed at the interference theory and focused on the observers.

If human observation could affect quantum collapse, what about mammals, insects, or even single-celled organisms?

Where was the boundary of observation?

But regardless of the school of thought, they all needed to do the same thing: make the output process as complex as possible. Hence the black box!

This special instrument would only operate when the quantum probability was fixed. Once the quantum probability became chaotic again, the instrument would automatically stop.

During the entire experiment, everything was handled by independent AI, not connected to the external network. All data generated during the experiment would also be completely deleted.

The reason for such rigor was that similar experiments had been conducted twenty years ago, with all experimental data sealed and reopened ten or twenty years later, attempting to circumvent quantum collapse.

As a result, as long as they chose to record and store the data, whether they chose to view it now or not, the quantum probability would always remain in a collapsed state. Occasionally, there would be chaotic probabilities, but before researchers could rejoice, AI would inform them that the instrument had malfunctioned and the data had not been recorded.

So to avoid affecting the experiment's output results, subsequent experiments simply deleted the data directly.

Although this approach was more troublesome, it was indeed effective. After more than a year of tedious experiments, they had confirmed that some large mammals could cause quantum collapse after "viewing" the experimental data output by AI, allowing the quantum detection instrument to continue operating. All insects subjected to experimental tests could not.

All the creatures involved in the experiment couldn't understand the significance of the experimental data, so observation was certainly unrelated to whether these creatures could comprehend the data's meaning. Shar suspected the boundary of observation might be whether the creature had basic cognitive abilities.

"Prepare Biological Experiment No. 137!" Shar instructed.

Under the control of independent AI, all preparations were completed within fifteen minutes. This time, the test subject was a koala, also confined in a black box. All experimental data would be presented to it in the form of images, and all data would be deleted after the experiment.

As for Shar and the others, they only needed to see whether the instrument continued to operate during this process to know if the quantum probability in the black box had collapsed.

This was similar to the double-slit interference experiment. As long as the process was not observed and only the output result was known, the quantum probability would not collapse.

After confirming everything was ready, Shar solemnly pressed the button to activate the quantum instrument. Under the anxious gazes of everyone, the instrument started operating smoothly.

Shar's expression was quite surprised because, according to previous expectations, a creature with such a small brain as a koala was highly unlikely to pass the experiment.

After pondering for a while, Shar had the AI replace the experimental animal in the black box with a chameleon to try again.

The result was again unexpected—the instrument continued to operate without stopping.

Shar's face changed. They had previously tested reptiles like turtles, and none had passed the test. Why did the chameleon pass?

Could lizards be smarter than turtles?

Shar continued the experiment in confusion, becoming increasingly shocked.

Tuataras passed, rattlesnakes passed, mantises passed...

Even spiders passed the experiment smoothly!

"How is this possible?" Shar stared intently at the continuously operating quantum detection instrument, suspecting it was malfunctioning. He immediately shut down the biological black box and had the AI perform a self-diagnosis.

The AI's prompt soon sounded.

"No anomalies found, all programs operating normally."

"Normal? Are you sure?" Shar's brows furrowed deeply.

"Doc...Doctor!" an assistant suddenly called out in a trembling voice, pointing to a certain place.

Shar instinctively looked up, feeling a chill rise from his feet to his heart.

The quantum detection instrument was still running, showing no signs of stopping.

But he clearly remembered shutting down the biological black box, meaning there were no observers inside the box. Yet, the quantum probability remained in a collapsed state...

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