"Ball Lightning" | Huaisha

About the author

Liu Cixin, the first Asian writer to win the world science fiction "Hugo Award", is a member of the Chinese Science Writers Association , has won the Chinese Science Fiction "Galaxy Award" nine times in a row. In 2015, he became Asia's first Hugo Award winner for his novel "The Three-Body Problem".

About this book

"Ball Lightning" is a long science fiction novel centered on ball lightning, showing us a unique, mysterious and bizarre world. The English version of "Ball Lightning" was officially released in 2018.

Core content

This book tells the story of the male protagonist and his beloved girl Lin Yun, who together researched a high-tech called ball lightning and ended the world war. story. Through this story, the author provides us with a scientific theoretical framework that can accommodate ordinary human emotions: those who died did not completely disappear, but changed to a confused and dreamy state and continued under another rule. Survive.

Foreword

Hello, welcome to listen to this book every day, I am Huaisha. Today I’m going to talk about Liu Cixin’s long science fiction novel “Ball Lightning”.

About this novel, perhaps the most famous labels are two: first, it is a prequel to "The Three-Body Problem", because many of the characters and science and technology that appeared in "The Three-Body Problem" are in "Spherical". It appears in the book "Lightning". The second label: Hardcore, this science fiction novel involves a lot of knowledge about quantum theory. People who like science will find it very enjoyable, but if you read it as a literary work, you will find it a bit too hard.

Today, I want to talk about this book from a very soft perspective. Let’s discuss a question that is difficult to answer scientifically: those people we love, after they pass away from this world, Where have you gone?

The famous documentary director Mr. Liu Xiaoli once said a sad thing. He said: "A person's life is the process of the people he loves constantly leaving."

No Yes, this sentence is sad, but it is also a cruel truth. Disasters, illnesses, and accidents can indeed cause the loss of loved ones. There is no resurrection after death. We try to adapt to the death of our loved ones, but in the end we find that it is hard to forget for a long time. Maybe this is life.

However, this novel tells us: those who died did not completely disappear, but changed into a state of blurred dreams and continued to live under another rule. So what kind of state is this? Is it really possible?

First, let’s get into the storyline of the novel.

Part One

To sum up the entire content in one sentence: the male protagonist and his beloved girl Lin Yun, together they are studying a high-tech technology called "ball lightning" , and finally ended the story of a world war. The whole story can be divided into three paragraphs.

The first paragraph can be summarized as: What is ball lightning?

The beginning of the story describes a night of thunder and lightning.

That day was the actor’s 14th birthday, and a family of three was sitting in the living room eating and chatting. Suddenly, an accident happened. A round sphere with light flew in from outside the window. The family initially thought it was ball lightning. Ball lightning is a type of lightning. It is not the crack-like lightning we usually see in the sky, but is round. It is also commonly known as rolling thunder by the common people.

Ball lightning hit the actor's parents with a "snap". In the next second, the two of them turned into two piles of ashes, which meant they died instantly. For just a second, in a happy family, only the male protagonist is left as an orphan.

Afterwards, experts carefully analyzed the scene of the incident and believed that the large ball of light that suddenly flew into the house was not a simple lightning. But what exactly it is, scientists are not sure. From then on, the male protagonist became a scientific worker, and he wanted to crack the secret of this "ball lightning".

Later the actor went to college, where he met the physicist Professor Zhang Bin. This Zhang Bin is a very important character in our novel. Professor Zhang Bin led the male protagonist into the research field of "ball lightning". Later, while doing research, the hero met Lin Yun, the heroine of the novel. Lin Yun is a cold and beautiful woman, but she treats the male protagonist very well.

The spark of love sparked between the two, and they fell in love while doing research. It can be said that they lived a happy life.

At this point, the novel spends a lot of space describing their specific research process, including how they went to Russia to visit various scientists, etc., and also involved a lot of physics knowledge. I have omitted all these plots for you. Anyway, the final conclusion is that "ball lightning" is not lightning at all, it is actually a macroelectron. So what is this macroelectronics?

First of all, in the real world, we all know that electrons are very small and move at high speed around the nucleus. According to the setting of the novel, there is actually a larger world outside the earth and universe we live in, and that world is called the macro world. However, the novel does not touch on what the macro world looks like at all. The electrons in the macro world can act on our world. The ball of light that killed the protagonist's parents was not a rolling thunder at all, but a macro electron.

According to quantum theory, we know that microscopic particles have a property called "non-locality". The words "uncertain region" refer to non-locality, and electrons also have non-locality. What it means, let's put it in layman's terms, is that we have no way to determine the specific position of an electron. It is an erratic state. You can understand that you are still here at this moment, and then suddenly fly to another place the next moment. The middle part does not fly at the speed of light, but moves instantly.

According to the scientific setting in the novel, anyone who is killed by macroelectrons will also become erratic like electrons. Scientists call them quantum ghosts. "They" are an unusual kind of ghost. Life and death are indescribable. Speaking of this interjection, in the novel "The Three-Body Problem", humans came up with a plan called "Quantum Ghost" to fight against the Three-Body Man, using the setting in "The Ball Turns Lightning". Therefore, this is why people call this book the prequel to "The Three-Body Problem". As for what quantum ghosts specifically look like, we will discuss this topic in detail later. Let's go through the storyline now.

As we just mentioned, scientists have figured out that ball lightning turns out to be macroelectrons in the macroworld. After discovering this, the heroine Lin Yun was very excited because she believed that macroelectronics could be used for military purposes.

This is the second part of the novel: what ball lightning can do.

After some hard work, Lin Yun successfully developed a macroelectron machine gun that can continuously shoot macroelectrons one after another. This weapon has two major advantages. The first is that it can penetrate walls. Because macroelectrons can move instantly, they can hit enemies hiding in bunkers. The second benefit is that it enables selective strike. It is set in the novel that scientists can adjust the properties of macroelectrons and attack any material they want. For example, there is an enemy truck now. If you adjust the "ball lightning machine gun" to the human-killing mode, the string of ball lightning will fly over, the entire vehicle's electronic equipment will be fine, and all the people will turn into ashes. If it is set to attack electronic equipment mode, the person will be fine, but the entire vehicle's electronic equipment will malfunction. If you switch to the "attack natural rubber" mode, then hit it and all the tires will be burned.

After this ball flash machine gun was developed, it was immediately given an opportunity to be used in practice. But this use caused the actor and Lin Yun to break up.

This is what happened: Several terrorists occupied a nuclear power plant, and they took several children hostage. After all, they were in a nuclear power plant, and humans didn't dare to shoot easily, so they decided to use ball lightning machine guns to kill them. Lin Yun personally operated the ball flash machine gun, and several macro electrons flew through the wall towards the bad guys. The terrorists inside were beaten to ashes before they could figure out what was going on. But unfortunately, the hostage children were also killed together. The male protagonist felt very painful, and at this time, he found that Lin Yun's eyes actually shone with a kind of fanaticism. The male protagonist was frightened when he saw it: It turns out that my girlfriend is a murderer, and he was very disgusted with Lin Yun.

After this incident ended, the male protagonist became disgusted with the "ball lightning" weapon. First, he decided to break up with Lin Yun, and then resigned from the Ball Lightning Research Center. After resigning, he went to the United States alone to do some scientific research that had nothing to do with ball lightning, which was equivalent to fading out of this career. Shortly after the actor resigned, his physics teacher Zhang Bin also fell ill and passed away. Zhang Bin's will was to use ball lightning to cremate his body. Lin Yun, on the other hand, continues to stay in the institute to study ball lightning weapons.

A few years later, the World War broke out. This is also the third part of the novel, how ball lightning ended the war.

In the second half of the novel, Liu Cixin describes a world war. The war is between China and another hostile alliance. The author is vague about who this hostile alliance is, but anyone with a discerning eye can tell that it is actually the United States.

At the beginning of the war, the Chinese army used ball lightning weapons, but unexpectedly, the Americans also mastered macroelectronics and related technologies. After a battle, China lost several battles in a row, and the enemy It's coming from the Pacific Ocean, and it's about to land in China.

China is about to be defeated. At this time, a huge explosion suddenly occurred in China's Gobi Desert, and a land with a radius of 1,000 kilometers was razed to the ground. The explosion also had a side effect: electronic equipment in one-third of China's land area failed, and half of China fell back into the agricultural age.

What everyone didn’t expect was that after the explosion, the enemy army signed an armistice agreement with China immediately, and the war ended.

What is going on? It turned out that the explosion was caused by Lin Yun. After she broke up with the male protagonist, she devoted all her energy to studying macroparticles and made a major breakthrough. She thought, since there are macroelectrons in the macroworld, there must also be macroatoms. Since there are macroatoms, is there also macronuclear fusion? After a series of complex experiments, Lin Yun finally mastered the fusion energy of macro-atoms. At the same time, macro-atomic nuclear fusion can release huge energy. As a side effect, the radiation waves released after the explosion can cause all nearby electronic equipment to malfunction.

In the later stages of the war, Lin Yun saw that China was about to be defeated, and she decided to exchange her life for peace. This macro-fusion explosion is equivalent to telling the enemy that China has mastered terrible macro-fusion weapons. If you dare to move forward, I will continue to trigger macro-fusion and the world will return to the agricultural era. Lin Yun also died in the explosion.

This is a threat of mutual destruction. The enemy was very frightened when he saw it, so he could only sign an armistice agreement with China. Lin Yun used his own sacrifice to defend China's territory and gain world peace.

After learning the news, the actor felt very regretful. He knew that he had wrongly blamed Lin Yun before. The reason why Lin Yun behaves so cold-blooded is not because she likes killing, but because she has a military character. She understands that to defend what she cares about, she must make sacrifices, even her own life.

At the end of the story, humans begin to rebuild their homes that were destroyed by the war. Because of macro-atomic technology, humanity may usher in a technological leap and great progress in the future, just as humanity ushered in great technological progress after World War II. The male protagonist finally married his first love, but in his heart, he always missed Lin Yun.

This is the main plot of "Ball Lightning". Next, let’s get into the topic of this audio, about how quantum ghosts continue to accompany their loved ones.

Part 2

Let’s look at it from another angle. The whole novel is actually about the male protagonist constantly losing the people he loves, but these people have always stayed with him in the form of quantum ghosts. story.

At the beginning of the story, the male protagonist lost his parents. But he soon discovered that his parents were actually still with him.

The first supernatural incident happened after the male protagonist went to college. One day when he returned to his original home, he suddenly discovered that the cup on the table was turned upside down. He himself was not very fond of turning cups upside down. This was his mother's habit during her lifetime.

Then, the actor found some hair in the sink in the toilet. These hairs are black and white, obviously left by their parents. This is impossible. The person has been gone for several years, how can his hair still be there? Moreover, suddenly in the next second, he found that the hair in his hand disappeared in front of him like magic. The male protagonist felt at that time that his parents must still be in the room. But there was no fear in his heart. What child would be afraid of the souls of his parents? On the contrary, the actor felt inexplicably happy at that time. Through this detail, he understood the existence mechanism of quantum ghosts. Although the real parents did not appear, they stayed by his side in some form. The hero felt very relieved.

Why do people feel sad when their loved ones die? One of the big reasons is that they can no longer accept any new information from their loved ones. This is the most unacceptable thing in our hearts. We always hope that a room or a place still looks like there are people there.

In fact, this is the psychological mechanism of us Chinese people sweeping graves during Qingming Festival. In our hearts, we are particularly afraid that the cemetery will be deserted, so we have to maintain it regularly, weed it, and wipe the tombstones over and over again. We just hope that there will be life and new changes here, and give people a state where new information is being generated. And we all know that once a flower blooms or a tree grows next to the tombstone, we will be very happy in our hearts. We may say that this is a spiritual manifestation. Why are we happy? Because new information is received from the deceased.

So, this is the first special thing about quantum ghosts. We can call it: new information is generated.

Let’s continue the story, which is also the second person the male protagonist lost, his teacher Zhang Bin.

Teacher Zhang Bin died of illness. As we just said, because he studied ball lightning all his life, his will was very special. He hoped that future generations would use ball lightning weapons to reduce his body to ashes. As a result, after such a fight, Zhang Bin, like the actor's parents, accidentally turned into a quantum ghost.

This matter was discovered by Lin Yun. The specific discovery process was as follows: At that time, Lin Yun was studying macro-atom nuclear fusion technology, and there was a mathematical expression that she could not derive. Later, when she was sweeping the grave of Teacher Zhang Bin, she suddenly found many mathematical formulas on the tombstone. This is definitely a manifestation of Teacher Zhang Bin, because how could the craftsman who made the tombstone know such advanced mathematics? Lin Yun quickly copied down the mathematical formula, and when she got home, she saw that it was indeed the mathematical expression she was struggling to decipher at the time.

Why can Zhang Bin understand these formulas after becoming a quantum ghost? Because he was originally a physicist, after becoming a quantum ghost, he was able to better understand the quantum world, so he calculated the mathematical expression of macro-atom fusion. At the same time, he could also observe that Lin Yun was anxious because he could not calculate the formula, so Zhang Bin chose to go directly to the time and space where Lin Yun was sweeping his grave, and wrote the formula on the tombstone.

Let’s see, another characteristic of quantum ghosts is revealed here: quantum ghosts can exist across time and space, and can go wherever they want at any time. This shows that time is not a barrier at all for them.

What is the nature of death? In fact, it is a person who fails in the confrontation with time, and death is the result of the failure of this confrontation. However, these quantum ghosts can successfully defeat time. Their lifespan is not extended, but they are no longer restricted by time. In a way, it is equivalent to gaining eternal life. This is exactly what we want to see.

This is the second characteristic of quantum ghosts. They defeat time.

Let’s continue reading the story. At the end of the novel, didn’t Lin Yun die in a macrofusion explosion? According to the scientific setting of the novel, she also became a quantum ghost.

One night, the actor was working on the workbench. Usually, there is an empty amethyst vase on his desk. That night, he suddenly noticed a fragrance. When he looked up, there was a blue rose in the vase. But when the actor took a closer look, the rose suddenly disappeared. However, the fragrance left in the air was the perfume Lin Yun used when they first met. We know that taste can store memories. At that moment, the actor remembered all the good memories of the two people's past. This shows that Lin Yun is still staying with him in a special way.

Because Lin Yun used exclusive memories that only belong to two people, this shows that her personality, memories, goals, character, and ideals as a human being still remain. Although she no longer has a physical body, her spirit still exists.

Think about it, when we miss a loved one, what do we miss? It's his consciousness, his character. The reason why a person is him and not others is precisely because he has a unique consciousness.

At that moment, the actor even felt that he was the happiest person. Because of ball lightning, although it took away several of his loved ones, it also gave him a unique sense of happiness. Those important people stayed with him in a special way.

Speaking of which, we have summarized the three characteristics of the quantum ghost described in this novel, which are: generating new information, not being afraid of time and retaining the original personality.

I have to say, it would be so gratifying if those who have passed away can really exist in this way.

Now, I will talk about my views on this novel from two perspectives: science and perception.

Part Three

First, let’s take a look at the scientific setting of the novel.

Sorry, in fact, according to current scientific understanding, there is no experimental evidence that there are macroatoms and macroelectrons in this world, and there is no scientific theory to support the immortality of human consciousness. This is a "purely scientific" explanation I give you as a science popularizer.

However, we are not talking about pure science today. Next, I want to share with you my true personal experience. These experiences made me rethink the significance of science to human life

I once told several friends about the book "Ball Lightning", and every time after telling the story, I would explain it to them. What is a quantum superposition state and what is a multiverse? These are very hard-core physics knowledge. But do you know what their first reaction was? At least three friends asked me on different occasions and times: Huaisha, what do you think, is it possible that my relatives are still alive in another world?

You see, they are focused on this issue.

Do you know how I answered? I answered categorically at that time: It’s possible, it’s completely possible. After getting this answer, I could see that their eyes were all shining. It feels like their long-held wish has finally found scientific support. At that moment, I could realize that the light in their eyes was valuable, and might just be the most valuable thing in the world.

This incident made me realize that what my friend needed at that time was not a rigorous scientific explanation, but an emotional space supported by scientific theories that could preserve his dreams. This made me rethink the meaning of science in human life.

Let’s summarize. In fact, the scientific method’s understanding of the world can be divided into the following four types, which are:

First, science has clearly verified things that are correct.

Second, science makes it clear what has been proven to be incorrect.

Third, science currently clearly knows things that cannot be verified.

Fourth, science still doesn’t know whether it can be verified.

First of all, let us rule out the fourth point. At present, science does not know whether it can be verified. This issue is unclear, so we will not discuss it. Let’s focus on the first three points.

Let’s look at the first point first, what is scientifically proven. There are many things in this part. Every law of physics we have learned and all scientific and technological achievements that have been commercialized fall into this category. These things can definitely improve the quality of our lives.

This part of knowledge has a characteristic: it can provide human beings with deterministic and measurable value. For example, a certain technology has a clear price in the patent office, how much is the technology transfer fee, and how much is it for a single use. The valuation of a technology company in the billions is clear in the secondary market. Or a new drug that has passed FDA review has a certain chemical formula, and its commercial value can be estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars.

The second type is something that science has clearly proven to be incorrect. For example, science clearly tells us that during a solar eclipse, singing, dancing and doing rituals on the earth cannot speed up the recovery of the sun. Also, you cannot get rich by buying lottery tickets or gambling in casinos. This knowledge can definitely help us avoid losing some value. For example, if you go to a casino to play a game called baccarat, the mathematics behind it has clearly told you that first of all, it cannot make you rich, and on average, you lose 4 yuan for every 100 yuan you bet. You can clearly You know that your assets are "thinning" at a rate of 4%.

In science, the first two types of knowledge can be summarized as: what science has clearly proven and what science has falsified. They are our best weapons to face the world rationally. It makes our lives controllable and perceptible. As a modern person, facing these two kinds of knowledge, our only attitude is to obey. There is a word I like very much: Follow the good as it flows. If you are also a rational person, I can't even find any reason not to do what is good.

The third type is worthy of discussion.

How do we think about things that science clearly cannot draw conclusions at the moment? What are these things like whether Hawking radiation exists. For this matter, we have to go to the surface of the black hole to measure it. Scientists can tell you that it is basically certain that humans cannot measure it at present. Or the famous Schr?dinger's cat. There is a cat in the box, which may be alive or dead. But once you open the lid, it will definitely die. Then you can never know whether it is dead or alive. Science clearly tells you that there is nothing I can do about these things.

The macroelectrons and quantum ghosts discussed in this novel belong to this, and science cannot currently confirm or falsify them.

For these things, my personal attitude in the past was that if the call was not accurate, then take the minimum value and don't have high hopes. But the reaction of my friends to Ball Lightning completely changed me. Why can't we take the maximum value? At least, now, my attitude in 2019 is: because the value and significance bursting out here are too great to be measured.

Speaking of this, I have to talk about a personal experience. I know an entrepreneur who is very rich, lives a very disciplined life, and has been a vegetarian for a long time. I asked him why, and he gave me a very emotional answer. He said, because my family is watching me.

It turned out that a few years ago, his family members fell ill. Then I silently made a wish in my heart, saying: No matter whether my family's illness can be cured or not, I will be a vegetarian from now on. But in the end, his family still passed away, but he insisted on being a vegetarian from then on and became very healthy. He insisted that there was definitely a spirit in heaven watching over him. For such a wealthy person, the stimulation from the market and all things in the world can no longer motivate him. But his relatives are watching him, and this motivating effect on him is priceless.

Descartes said, I think, therefore I am. With the mind, we exist. The poet Gu Cheng also said: Close your eyes and the world has nothing to do with me. We got the signature of Gao Shuang, the astronomy teacher in the app, who also said: The world is not made up of atoms, but stories.

Yes, the universe is indeed very big, but the truly shocking thing is the meaning in the heart.

Back to the question we asked at the beginning: Where did our beloved people go after they passed away?

I think I prefer, and even believe in, this explanation:

What will happen if the entire human world is really reduced to the microscopic scale of a macro atom? uncertain. Uncertainty, to a certain extent, means that anything is possible.

Moreover, there are really many serious scientists now who believe that humans may really be the only species in the universe. The Creator created a huge universe to play with us humans. Why must it not work? Isn't it just a little wasteful? God is not afraid of waste. If we really are the only species in the universe, why can't we maximize our imagination?

Therefore, the greatest value of the novel "Ball Lightning" does not lie in whether it conforms to the scientific setting of quantum theory, nor does it describe a high-tech world war. Rather, the author has taken a small step forward on the current scientific setting and provided us with a scientific theoretical framework that can accommodate ordinary human emotions. Science fiction creates a buffer zone between science and emotion, armoring our tender emotions. This book tells us that the pictures that appear in our imaginations and dreams are really possible. Our loved ones are in this universe, and may whisper back to us at any time, telling us: Yes, I am here. Because your heart is the universe, and I will always be there if you need me.

Written and narrated by: Huaisha

Mind mapping: Moses Mind Mapping Studio