Chapter 589 Hyperwebster

There are currently no other customers in the snack bar. Uncle Li and his wife are sitting opposite each other and chatting, discussing revenue issues with sighs. At the beginning, they bought this restaurant with great enthusiasm, but they did not expect that the business has not improved, and it is difficult to attract customers from other restaurants around.

Seeing Zhang Zian coming in with another guest, they quickly got up to greet him.

Before it was time to eat, Zhang Zian just ordered two glasses of orange juice.

After serving the orange juice, they backed off.

If he hadn't met Meng Li in the library that day, and if he hadn't been reminded by Meng Li, Zhang Zian would not have been able to find the unnamed book from the vast sea of ​​books in time, and then Meng Li left first, and he has been brooding over this question. He met Meng Li again today, and he must not miss this opportunity to find out.

Meng Li didn't have a deep impression of what happened that day. He only remembered it after being reminded by Zhang Zian, and said with a groan, "So that's what happened... Is Manager Zhang really studying mathematics?"

"Slightly interested." Zhang Zian said vaguely, "Mr. Meng, how did you know that book was hidden in the reference book section?"

"Hidden in the reference book section?" Meng Li was startled in surprise, and corrected: "No, no, you misunderstood. I mean, if there is such a book about life, the universe and everything, it should be placed in the Reference book section—it’s just a hypothesis, of course a book like this can’t exist in reality, right? Could it be that you really found such a book?”

He puts the emphasis on the words "suppose" and "should".

"It's really not, it's just a slip of the tongue." Zhang Zian perfunctory, trying to cover up the past, "Mr. Meng, is there any origin or source for this book? How did you determine that it will be in the reference book section?"

Meng Li smiled confidently, "Assuming such a book exists, I can not only conclude that it will be in the reference book section, but also that it should be placed on the bookshelf with various dictionaries."

Fuck!

Zhang Zian was shocked!

It's just amazing!

Meng Li was obviously not there that day, but he seemed to have witnessed the process of Zhang Zian finding the unnamed book from a pile of English dictionaries.

Zhang Zian became more and more curious. Knowing that Meng Li was trying to trick him, he said cooperatively, "Teacher Meng, can you tell the truth?"

"Where, I don't have that kind of ability." Meng Li restrained his smile and said seriously: "Master Zhang, I wonder if you have heard of Hyperwebster?"

"what?"

Zhang Zian was taken aback when he heard it, and couldn't find the word from his memory even after racking his brains.

Meng Li explained: "Hyperwebster, translated into Chinese as "Super Webster's Dictionary", is a thought experiment proposed by the famous mathematician and science fiction novelist Dr. Ian Stewart. This thought experiment means that if there is such a book Dictionary, the content of the dictionary is composed of 26 English letters, starting with A and ending with infinite Z, like this—"

In order to facilitate understanding, he took out a napkin, spread it on the dining table, and wrote on the paper with the marker pen he brought with him:

A, AA, AAA, AAAA...

AB, ABA, ABAA, ABAAA...

AC,

ACA, ACAA, ACAAA...

...

Z, ZA, ZAA, ZAAA...

ZB, ZBA, ZBAA, ZBAAA...

...

ZZ, ZZZ, ZZZZ, ZZZZZ...

Zhang Zian looked confused, but he found that the order of these letters seemed to be very similar to what he saw in the unnamed book.

Meng Li pushed the napkin to him, put down his pen and said, "Do you know what this means? It means that "Super Webster's Dictionary" contains all possible letter combinations, which also includes all English words, no matter it is already The English words that appear, or the new words that will appear in the next few hundred years or thousands of years, are all in the "Super Merriam-Webster Dictionary". For example, zidecuz is not a word, and it is not included in any dictionary at present. Whoever writes this word will certainly be considered a misspelling, but perhaps some year in the future, this word will be given a certain meaning, and people will be surprised to find that this word has already been included in the "Super Webster" "Dictionary"...assuming such a dictionary really exists."

Meng Li drank a few sips of orange juice to moisten his throat, and let Zhang Zian digest his words by the way.

Zhang Zian stared at the weird letter combinations on the napkin, trying to keep up with Meng Li's thinking.

After a while, Meng Li said again: "Not only that, because this dictionary includes all possible English words, these words may also form all possible entries-the answers to all unsolved mysteries in history, the world's Anyone and everything can theoretically be found in this dictionary. These entries may further form all possible paragraphs, from the first poor composition written by a beginner in English in some corner of the world, to "Declaration of Independence", to the English version of "A Dream of Red Mansions", to the complete works of Shakespeare, to the Encyclopedia Britannica, to all the English books in the Library of Congress of the United States, and to all the splendid articles written by a great writer who has not yet been born , are all included in this dictionary..."

Speaking of this, Meng Li's tone changed, became very relaxed, and said with a smile: "But...you can understand now after hearing it. The content of this dictionary is infinite, with a beginning but no end. The letters in it It is more than all the atoms in the universe, because the total number of atoms in the universe is limited, but the letters in the dictionary are infinite... This book can only stay in people's imagination, and it will never appear in the real world Even if all the time in the universe and all the atoms in the universe are exhausted, it is impossible to finish writing this dictionary.”

"My life has a limit, but books have no limit..." Zhang Zian murmured.

"what?"

Zhang Zian's voice was very low, and Meng Li couldn't hear clearly.

"No, nothing." Zhang Zian waved his hand, "I'm just a little confused."

Meng Li nodded and picked up the orange juice, "It's normal, this is a thought experiment that few people know about except mathematics, unlike Schrödinger's cat, which is well-known and talked about by the public... So, you and I Say, you were looking for a book about life, the universe, and everything, and I immediately thought of "Super Webster's Dictionary". Actually, I was joking with you. If I made the wrong book, then my crime would be serious...By the way, which book were you looking for?"

Zhang Zian smiled, "It's actually a science fiction novel, the third volume of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" written by Douglas Adams. The title of the book is "Life, the Universe, and Everything."

"So that's how it is." Meng Li suddenly realized, "I rarely read science fiction, no wonder I haven't heard of it... I'm ashamed!"  …

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