四维虫子（2）

他：书是我自己找来看的，因为我不能理解它给我的感觉，所以我就找那些书看。

He: I found the books myself to read. Because I couldn't understand the feelings it gave me, I sought out those books.

他说的那些书目我见到了，有些甚至是英文学术杂志。一个高中生，整天抱着专业词典一点儿一点儿去读，为了读懂那些专业杂志刊登的专业论文。

I saw the titles of the books he mentioned, some even being English academic journals. A high school student, holding a professional dictionary all day, reading little by little to comprehend the specialized papers published in those journals.

我：可是你怎么能证实你的感觉是正确的，或者说你怎么能证明有谁给你感觉了呢？

Me: But how can you verify that your feelings are correct, or how can you prove that someone gave you those feelings?

他冷冷的看着我：不用很远，只倒退一百多年，你对一个当时顶尖的物理学家说你拿着一个没一本书大、没一本书厚的东西就可以跟远方的人通话，而这要靠围着地球转的卫星和你手机里那个跟指甲盖一样大小的卡片；你可以坐在一个小屏幕前跟千里之外的陌生人交谈，而且还不需要有任何连接线；你看地球另一边的球赛只需要你按下电视遥控器。他会怎么想？他会认为你一定是疯了，而且很白痴，因为那超出当时任何学科的范畴了，列在不可理喻的行列，对吗？

He looked at me coldly: You don't have to go far; just go back a hundred years. If you told a top physicist at that time that you could communicate with people far away using something smaller and thinner than a book, relying on satellites orbiting the earth and the card in your phone that's as small as a fingernail; that you could sit in front of a small screen and converse with strangers thousands of miles away, and you wouldn't need any connecting wires; that watching a game on the other side of the world only requires pressing a television remote control. What would he think? He would think you're definitely crazy, and very stupid, because that goes beyond any field of study at the time and is on the list of the incomprehensible, right?

我：但你说的是感觉。

Me: But what you're talking about is feeling.

他：那只是个词，发现量子之前没人知道量子该叫什么，大多叫做能量什么的。你的思维，还是惯有的物质世界，那是三维！我要告诉你的是四维，非得用三维框架来描述，我觉得我们没办法沟通。他再次表示我该滚蛋了。

He: That’s just a word. Before quantum was discovered, no one knew what to call quantum; most called it energy or something like that. Your thinking is still rooted in the material world, and that's three-dimensional! What I want to tell you is four-dimensional, and if I must use a three-dimensional framework to describe it, I feel we cannot communicate. He indicated once again that I should leave.

量子物理教授：你能告诉我那个四维生物还告诉你什么了吗？

Quantum Physics Professor: Can you tell me what that four-dimensional being said to you?

是绝对四维生物。他不耐烦的纠正。

It's an absolutely four-dimensional being. He impatiently corrected me.

量子物理教授：对，它还给你什么感觉了？

Quantum Physics Professor: Right, what else did it make you feel?

他：它对我的看法。

He: It gave me its perspective.

我：是怎么样的呢？

Me: What is it like?

他严肃的转向我：应该是我们，对我们的看法。我们对它来说不是现在的样子，因为它的眼界是跨域了时间，所以我们在它看来，都是蠕动的虫子一样的东西。

He turned to me seriously: It should be us, our perspective on ourselves. We are not what we currently are for it because its vision transcends time; thus, to it, we are all like wriggling bugs.

我忍不住回头和量子物理教授对看了一眼。

I couldn't help but glance back at the quantum physics professor.

他：你可以想象的出来，跨越时间的看，我们是一个长长的虫子怪物，从床上延伸到大街上，延伸到学校，延伸到公司，延伸到商场，延伸到好多地方。因为我们的动作在每个时间段都是不同的，所以跨越时间来看，我们都是一条条虫子。从某一个时间段开始，到某一个时间段结束。

He: You can imagine, from a time-transcending perspective, we are like a long worm-like monster, extending from the bed to the street, extending to the school, extending to the company, extending to the shopping mall, extending to many places. Because our actions are different at each time segment, when viewed through time, we are all like segments of worms. Starting from a certain time period, to another certain time period.

我和量子物理教授都愣愣的听着他说。

Both the quantum physics professor and I listened in a daze as he spoke.

他：绝对四维生物可以先看到我们死亡，再看到我们出生，没有前后因果。其实这个我很早就理解了：时间不是流逝的，流逝的是我们。

He: An absolutely four-dimensional being can see our death first and then see our birth, without any chronological cause and effect. Actually, I understood this long ago: time does not flow; what flows is us.

他一字一句说完后，任凭我们怎么问也不再回答了。

Once he finished speaking word by word, no matter how we questioned, he would not respond any further.

那次谈话还是以失败告终。

That conversation ended in failure.

不久后少年接受了一次特地为他安排的量子物理考试，结果是很糟。

Not long after, the boy took a quantum physics exam specifically arranged for him, and the results were very poor.

不知道为什么，我听了有些失望。

I don’t know why, but I felt a bit disappointed.

如果，他真的是个天才，那么他也只能是一百年后、甚至更遥远未来的天才。而不属于我们这个时代。

If he is really a genius, then he can only be a genius of a hundred years later or even further into the future. And he does not belong to our era.

我至今依旧很想知道，那个所谓的绝对四维生物会是什么样子的。它可怕吗？它恐怖吗？我可能永远没办法知道了，即便那是真的。

To this day, I still want to know what that so-called absolutely four-dimensional being would look like. Is it terrifying? Is it scary? I may never be able to know, even if it is real.

写到这里的时候，想起歌德说过的一句话：真理属于人类，谬误属于时代。

As I write this, I remember a line by Goethe: Truth belongs to humanity, while error belongs to the era.