Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
“The observer effect!” At the same time, in the Maple Palace in Antiffler, the previous Sun King, as well as the current Rudolf II of the empire, stood upon his throne and blinked to before the screen. His eyes were deep and solemn but also filled with delight.
At this moment, he seemed to have grasped the key to return to the demigod level!
Although the current experiment did not have double slits and the beeping alarms and that it adopted a brand-new design, through which the purpose of recording and erasing was cleverly achieved, Douglas and Lucien had demonstrated the equivalence of the two experiments a moment ago. According to Lucien, the current experiment had ruled out many unnecessary “interferences” so that the subtle “effect” would not be sabotaged. That was the reason why the experiment could only be conducted after Douglas became a demigod.
Therefore, all the intelligent lives with the slightest knowledge felt that their whole bodies were shaking. Was their observation the key to the disappearance of wave features and the appearance of particle properties?
Then, was the world still objective and actual?
Was it the observer effect that Lucien Evans proposed?
Before the experiment table, Douglas’ raised hands were obviously shaking. It was obvious that he found the result unacceptable. However, everything had been designed and conducted by him in person, without any negligence or other influences. The result was real and trustworthy.
Lucien proposed the thought experiment at the beginning exactly to prove the observer effect!
Although the reasons other than the observer effect could not be excluded just yet, all the arcanists were forced to consider the possibility that the observer effect did exist. At the very least, until they found another theoretical explanation, they could not neglect the observer effect anymore!
Douglas stabilized his hands that seemed to be dispersing and repeated the experiment, but the transformed interferometric fringes were as clear as before.
Once, twice, thrice… After five times, Douglas raised his head and said solemnly in a low voice, “The duplicability suggests that the result of the experiment is legitimate. After today, all the arcanists can apply to repeat the experiment with those devices.”
The studio was in dead silence. Samantha, Louise, and some members of the Highest Council were still in confusion, disbelief, and resistance. Brook, Fernando, Hathaway, Hellen, Oliver, Vicente, and the other legendary sorcerers were deep in thought. After the great shock, they began to consider alternative explanations other than the observer effect.
Inside the Atom Institution, Annick shook his head and paced back and forth, not bothering that he was walking on pieces of glass. His mouth opened and closed, as if he wanted to propose another reason. Sprint, on the other hand, was stunned. There was no telling what he was thinking.
“The observer effect… Is there really an observer effect?” Heidi murmured.
The experiment was designed to confirm the observer effect, and the result undoubtedly showed that it was working.
Inside the generic school, Ali looked at his classmates and asked both them and himself, “It’s impossible. If our senses are the reason for everything, will our world still be objective and actual? This does not agree with arcana at all…”
The comparison of the two experiments had manifested a horrifying conclusion.
“At the very least, it’s our own observation, not gods, that caused it. Our fate is still in our hands,” Charlot, the monitor, replied subconsciously.
“Well… Well…” The students next to them were so overwhelmed that they felt the arcana they learned had been entirely overturned. What was right?
On the stream screen, Douglas no longer looked as grave as before. Gently and solemnly, he said, “This is the end of the quantum eraser experiment. In the next, we will run the second and the last experiment, which is Lucien’s experiment of deferred choice. We are going to transform the classic double-slit experiment again to better highlight the result.”
He replaced the double-slit experiment with another experiment and demonstrated the equivalence.
“The previous double-slit experiment let us know that, if we choose the wave features and design an experiment accordingly, we will eventually see the diffraction patterns, but if we want to see the particle properties and add alarms, it will be the pure overlapping spots of light on the screen.
“In such cases, our choice and the corresponding arrangement lead to different results.”
Douglas was cautious enough to not speak of the observer effect but said “choices” and “corresponding arrangement”.
The arcanists who watched the live stream nodded. Whatever the theoretical explanation was, Mr. President had just described the objective facts of the experiment. There couldn’t be anything wrong about that.
Douglas went on. “What if we delay the choice? In the previous experiments, the electrons had obviously passed two slits and two routes, thereby engaged in self-entanglement, when they behaved as waves; and when they behaved as particles, they must’ve passed only one of the slits. Then, what will happen if we make a choice after the electrons choose a route but haven’t reached the screen? Will we see the electrons coming from two routes or from one?”
Since the double-slit experiment had been transformed, Douglas used routes instead of slits to refer to the process in between.
“Whatever the choice is, the route of the electrons has been fixed before the choice, and it cannot change…” The ordinary people like Ali had recovered from the shock of the quantum eraser experiment just now. They began to speculate what might happen with their shallow knowledge of arcana.
Annick shook his head to keep himself away from other explanations of the quantum eraser experiment and focus his attention on this experiment.
The new experiment that his teacher proposed was also related to the observer effect, but Annick did not think that the result would be in favor of the observer hypothesis. After all, whether the electrons walked on two routes or on one had been fixed before the choice was made. “Observation” couldn’t change what had already happened, could it?
Pope Viken in the Holy City held back his delight and watched Douglas prepare the experiment expressionlessly.
What was the experiment trying to prove?
He did not think anything unexpected would happen after the major shock just now. The new experiment was more likely meant to prove a certain bold hypothesis wrong.
Rudolf II sat on the throne in the Maple Palace and watched the experiment in silence. He somehow had a bad feeling.
The members of the Highest Council in the studio and Samantha, Louise, and the other staff were also slightly confused. Was Lucien Evans trying to prove that the current observation could change the past? It was a thought that was even more unbelievable than reversing the time!
The past had been fixed. How could it be changed?
Douglas activated the experiment. The detector sent out a signal, suggesting that the electrons came on one route.
The experiment was repeated and repeated, proving again and again that the electrons were only coming on one route after the preliminary procedures.
Suddenly, when the electrons finished the preliminary procedures and hadn’t reached the detector, Douglas quickly added a new experimental device that showed that he chose the wave properties.
At this time, the detector in the other direction and the current detector beeped at the same time nonstop.
Douglas’ face was pale because he knew exactly what it meant!
It meant that, after he made a choice, the electrons, which had undoubtedly been traveling on one route, came from two directions. The past had been changed!
Their “observation” had changed the past of the electrons!
Thud, thud, thud.
Samantha stepped backward until she hit the wall. Her face was gloomy, and her eyes were widened and filled with tears. Did it mean that the strict law of causality did not work in the timeline? A cause could happen after the consequence? The present could change the past?
Crack, crack, crack.
The notebooks and quills in the hands of most members of the Highest Council fell to the ground. The coldness and shiver from the depths of their soul made them unable to say anything. It was even more unbelievable and incredible than any magic!
Even the grand arcanists like Brook and Fernando were slightly confused at this moment. How was it possible? The choices at present decided what happened in the past?
The noises of items being broken echoed in the entire Allyn nonstop, but nobody said anything. It was like a city of silence.
No arcanists wouldn’t be overwhelmed by such an experiment. They felt that the world was collapsing and everything was an illusion!
Many of them rubbed their heads so hard that they almost wanted to crumble it so that they wouldn’t be as painful and desperate. Had it not been for the fact that it did not concern the components of their cognitive world, corpses, blood, and brains would’ve been all over the ground everywhere. Few arcanists above the middle rank could’ve survived it.
Even so, they had sensed the collapse of beliefs. They felt that they did not recognize this world anymore. There was nothing but grayness in their eyes.
The students who were watching the stream like Ali and Longman found it even more unacceptable. They swallowed hard, finding it hard to believe that the consequence actually decided the process. It was the opposite of their common sense and natural instincts!
Nobody could say anything as they watched Douglas repeat the experiment.
Boom!
The Maple Palace in Antiffler had such an intense explosion that the most splendid and magnificent palace was reduced into ruins. Covered in wounds, Rudolf II murmured to himself as if he had gone mad, “Determinism, law of causality… Determinism, law of causality…”
He did not calm down again until a long time later, but he knew very well that he could only count on a miracle, or “Mountain Paradise” that was under the control of Viken, in order to return to the demigod level, because his worldview had been completely destroyed.
Thanos, the most distinguished genius in the Magic Empire and the first expert in history who found the path to the demigod level, truly understood what “Worldview Destroyer” meant!
In the Holy City, Viken was equally lost and overwhelmed at first, but then, he burst into crazy laughter. “The observer, the law of causality on the reversed timeline, and the present changing the past. I got it now! I got it now!”
