Chapter 013
The Lady Tasting Tea ⑥ (Unabara Sorano)
Update Time: 2011-NOV-05 16:10:52
From the past to the present, the changes in Sorano are so great that no one can believe it.
From an adult man to a little girl, from ordinary to talented, Sorano has no idea what has happened to herself. Although she has made up her mind to cherish the present and no longer hesitate about which one is the real her, the confusion of having two selves still occasionally arises.
In fact, there are almost no traces of an adult man left in Sorano's body. She has not only changed some of her past habits that tended towards male, but has even completely adapted to a feminine lifestyle, which may also be influenced by her body.
Although her body is peculiar (suffering from both mirror syndrome and heterochromia iridum, two rare genetic anomalies), the truly puzzling thing is in the inheritance of consciousness.
Describing this strangeness is not easy, so let's use a story to illustrate it.
It is said that at the famous University of Cambridge in England, something like this happened. It was on a summer afternoon in the 1920s when a group of university dons, their wives, and some guests were sitting around an outdoor table enjoying afternoon tea. At this point, one of the ladies insisted that tea tasted different depending on whether the tea was poured into the milk or thether the milk was poured into the tea. Some agreed, some disagreed, and the story had no conclusion.[1]
Sorano's confusion is even greater. At least from a theoretical point of view, the lady is undoubtedly correct.[2] Sorano's confusion is that her problem is "pouring the same tea into different tea cups, and the taste of the tea is also different", which is almost an unbelievable absurdity.[3]
The problem is very obvious here, but no one can explain it clearly, including herself.
This kind of strangeness is not simply on a physical level, but closer to a philosophical level of concept. In fact, once it extends to this level, the topic often becomes a meaningless and hollow plaything.
To put it simply, it's like a dream. Sometimes she feels like her present self is in a dream, and sometimes she feels like her past self was a dream she once had.
Even if she is no longer entangled in whether the present is real or not, and has decided to live well in the present, this indescribable feeling still exists.
If it is said that she has been influenced by her body and has changed, there are also some commonalities between the two. For example, her attitude towards physics.
Why did she decide to learn physics?
Regardless of her past consciousness or present consciousness, this simplest question is not easy to answer.
In Sorano's past consciousness, physics did not bring her any good memories. It is said that truly excellent physicists understand the beauty of physics, but as someone who is learning physics, Sorano has never found a similar feeling in those memories of the past.
Boring, tedious, difficult, almost all similar words are filled with those memories of the past, making her feel painful just thinking about them.
But why did she never think of giving up physics like her present father, even though she knew it was impossible to develop in this area in the past?
She does not understand her past thoughts, but she also does not understand her present thoughts.
Because even now, she does not understand why she is still connected to physics, which has not brought her any pleasant memories.
In fact, after discovering her current identity, Sorano did not have the leisure to think about this matter. But when an accidental opportunity to come into contact with physics appeared, she jumped in again in an unstoppable inertia.
If she really wants to find a reason, perhaps physics is the only thing that can connect her past and present. There is nothing strange about not being able to let go of the only thing preserved in her memory.
But when she started to touch physics again, she was surprised to find that she was completely different from the situation in her memory.
Things that she could not understand before, now she can almost figure out just by going through it in her mind. And knowledge that she could not acquire no matter how hard she tried before, she can now understand and master just by looking at them once.
Now Sorano can truly experience the beauty of physics. Even if it's just understanding equations, she can feel how elegant the laws are, which deeply attracts her. The pleasure of thinking is so tempting that sometimes Sorano herself begins to wonder why her past self learned it so painfully.
Actually, she doesn't really not know the reason. Because physics itself is wonderful, but her past self couldn't learn it no matter what, couldn't understand it no matter what, and naturally couldn't experience it.
However, why did her past self never give up?
Sorano realizes that her present father is even more talented in physics than her past self. If even her present father has to give up eventually, why did her past self persist?
There is no answer to this question in her memories of the past. And even if her present self wants to try to answer it, it is impossible.
The reason is actually very simple, because physics is no longer a painful thing for her now, so there is no way to explain why she persisted when physics was still painful for her.
This, perhaps the great Wolfgang Pauli could understand. At least, when he later discovered the famous Pauli Exclusion Principle, he was also unable to explain why, during the period when he was shouting "Physics is very muddled again at the moment!" and "I wish I had never heard anything about physics!", he did not switch to become "a movie comedian or something like that" as he himself said.
Of course, Sorano's situation is far from simple like Pauli's. For Sorano, the differences between the past and the present are too strange and obvious to be connected at all.
As mentioned before, the only thing that can connect Sorano's past and present is physics. Not only because physics is something that both her past and present consciousness cannot let go of, but also because both her past and present consciousness rely on the same solid laws and rigorous equations to understand the world they are in. This somewhat makes Sorano, who has had such a strange experience, feel a little relieved.
However, what it brings is also somewhat unsettling. Especially after passing the Landau Barrier.
This is something Sorano never expected. Her learning progress is already astonishing to most people, but she has been deliberately limiting herself from advancing too quickly. On the one hand, because she does not want too many people to discover her anomaly; on the other hand, because her past experiences have been reminding her not to be reckless.
However, after her teacher created such an exam without her knowledge[4], she was shocked to find that she did not really understand herself.
Although she has long known that her current self has quite outstanding talent, she has never thought of herself as having such amazing talent like her teacher does. Because her teacher's conclusion was drawn after comparing her with others of the same age, and she knows that this comparison is not fair, after all, she has the foundation from the past.
It was not until she passed the Landau Barrier without her knowledge that she truly realized how unusual she is now.
In general, it is like the concept of "Originally thought of occupying a place in the mainstream physics world in the future, but did not expect to have the hope of becoming a physicist like Hideki Yukawa".
Can it be said that her future has been set? If someone who passes the Landau Barrier does not choose physics research as her goal, she is afraid everyone would think it's a waste.
Although it is in such a bizarre way, her former ideals seem to finally have a day to come true?
What kind of plot is this? If this is a story in a novel, it's really chaotic.
Lying in the blue sky, Sorano feels the gentle breeze that is intoxicating. The Gravitation Manipulation ability at Level 4 has turned the entire sky into a soft bed, even giving her the impulse to sleep and not wake up.
Perhaps it's a bit embarrassing. As a person with so many experiences, she is still so obsessed with the childish dream of being in the sky.
However, those who have truly experienced it probably understand. Being in the sky, even the ordinary scenery becomes grand and magnificent. No matter how majestic the scenery on the ground is, it can only be a corner of the picture seen in the sky.
This is completely different from the feeling of sitting in an airplane cabin.
Perhaps this is why skydiving is an extremely dangerous sport, but there are still so many enthusiasts who enjoy it.
Just like her given name suggests[5], that feeling of the soul being caught by the sky is really irresistible.
The gifts that the two basic theories of physics have given to her present self, superpower explained by quantum mechanics, and the revelation of the nature of gravitation brought by general relativity, are something that her past self could never have imagined. At this moment, she truly appreciates that she did not give up on physics in the past.
Although there are still many things that cannot be explained, it is unexpectedly good.
No, it is not just good, it can be said to be perfect.
The only regret or rather something she can't let go of, is just one thing.
She doesn't know why, but she lost contact with her best friends in the orphanage.
First it was Edasaki Banri, then it was Haruue Erii. There is no reason or explanation. Suddenly, the news from both sides stopped.
Actually, Sorano has been trying to change herself all the time, hoping that she won't be completely out of touch with the world like in her memories of the past. Although there are some things that cannot be changed, at least she hopes to be like "The Grey Loner" Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Judging from the actual situation, it seems that she has succeeded. At least everyone who has contacted Sorano has a very good impression of her, and she has very good relationships with everyone she has met.
However, not a single person who she considers a best friend has been added, not one.
Where are her old friends, Banri and Erii, and what kind of life are they living, what experiences have they gone through?
Only this one thing, she can never let it go...
The weight of the word "best friend" is only truly felt now.
Such a feeling, whether in the past or present, has never been experienced...
[1] Footnote by the translator: The title of chapters in this arc originates from the little story above, which comes from the first chapter of David Salsburg's 2002 statistical masterpiece "The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century". Salsburg then introduced the "Lady Tasting Tea" experiment designed by Ronald Aylmer Fisher, later knighted Sir Ronald Fisher — randomly giving this lady several cups of tea with some having tea added first and others having milk added first, to determine the likelihood of her guessing a specific number of cups correctly — thus introducing the theme of the book. In Fisher's 1935 book "The Design of Experiments", he did not describe the outcome of this experiment, only discussing the various possible results and their probabilities. However, in the late 1960s, Salsburg learned from Professor Hugh Smith, who was present at the time, that the lady actually identified every single one of the cups correctly!
[2] Footnote by the author: Whether or not a person's tongue can taste the difference is another question.
[3] Footnote by the translator: A study published in 2019 found that the shape of a container can indeed determine to some extent how a chemical reaction occurs. It is worth mentioning that there is a pair of siblings in the research team, with the elder brother researching physics and the younger sister researching chemistry. (Liyun Dang, Yubin Hou, Chuang Song, Qingyi Lu, Ze Wang, Qiyuan Feng, Qingyou Lu, Feng Gao, "Space-confined growth of novel self-supporting carbon-based nanotube array composites", Composites Part B: Engineering, Volume 161, 2019, Pages 328-335.) In fact, we should also have such experiences in our daily lives: drinking cola directly from a plastic bottle feels completely different from pouring it into a glass before drinking.
[4] Footnote by the author: It should be noted that Sorano's identity as a student of Tokiwadai is easily controversial. But now, all objections are gone — anyone who can pass Landau's Theoretical Minimum exam is definitely qualified to enter Tokiwadai. In this sense, her teacher is not completely unreasonable.
[5] Footnote by the author: Sorano's given name "穹乃", or "そらの", literally means "belong to the sky" in Japanese, and there is also another writing "空之".
Endnote by the uploader:
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, readers interested in black holes should have heard of this name. He is the discoverer of the limit mass of white dwarfs, and his research in this area directly led to the discovery of black hole theory. But here, I don't want to talk about his achievements, but mainly about him as a person.
Chandrasekhar can be said to be a scholar who spent his whole life alone. His discoveries were first opposed by his revered mentor Eddington, and then by the god of 20th-century physics, Einstein. His early life was very tragic. In his own words, "They considered me as a sort of Don Quixote trying to kill Eddington." Perhaps it was this experience that made him accustomed to walking alone on the path of science. Most of the time, he was a true wanderer. Although it is said that he has a good personality and people who have met him have a good impression of him, it is rare to hear that he has any close friends. Even after he gained great fame, he still wore the same grey suit and lived the same life. His students even called this color "Chandrasekhar grey", and the nickname "The Grey Loner" was born.
People like Chandrasekhar, although gentle in personality, are probably difficult to integrate into any scientific organization. However, I have always held him in high regard.
Here, I pay tribute to Chandrasekhar with a story told by Richard Feynman —
"One of the most impressive discoveries was the origin of the energy of the stars, that makes them continue to burn. One of the men who discovered this was out with his girl friend the night after he realized that nuclear reactions must be going on in the stars in order to make them shine. She said, 'Look at how pretty the stars shine!' He said, 'Yes, and right now I am the only man in the world who knows why they shine.' She merely laughed at him. She was not impressed with being out with the only man who, at that moment, knew why stars shine. Well, it is sad to be alone, but that is the way it is in this world."
Endnote by the translator:
In my opinion, this chapter is the best demonstration of the two authors' skills in the early stages of the fiction, and it was also one of the main reasons that attracted me to continue reading back then.