When Qingmu first saw the symbols on the ground, he felt a strange sense of familiarity. Something deep inside his mind was crawling out, like worms, rustling and whispering, and when it couldn't crawl out, it would gnaw at his brain.
This wasn't the first time this had happened; whenever he thought about things deeply, especially about his own past, his head would ache terribly like it was now.
He once suspected that he might have been infected with the Gray Brain Virus. If his subconscious mind hadn't been able to function freely, he would have even suspected that a shadow had taken over his brain.
In the past, when faced with such a situation, he would inevitably stop thinking, lazily stretch, and then light a cigarette. Now, his cigarettes are soaked in water, so without a smoke, his brain cannot secrete enough dopamine to suppress the nerve pain.
His mind was now like a boiling hot pot, the symbols on the ground transformed into delicious ingredients, all crumbled and thrown into the pot, mingling with his brain matter, swirling up and down alongside red chili oil and specks of Sichuan peppercorns.
He grinned and winked at the things, saying, "I think I can understand a little bit..."
Everyone at www. hetushu. com. com was looking at him, waiting for him to speak—"You've understood a little, so speak up and clear things up for everyone."
But Qingmu couldn't explain it. It wasn't that he was lying, but rather that he didn't know how. You simply can't explain to a foreigner who has never eaten China food what hot pot is, or what exactly is bubbling around in it!
The Crow gently nudged his head. " Guagua, caw, I told you not to brag! There are linguists here, and it's wrong to brag about linguistics in front of one! Just like no one can brag to Ruhua that they can make braised pork knuckle..."
Qingmu reached above his head and grabbed the Crow's ankle. Startled, the Crow flapped its wings and cried, "Hehe, don't do that! I was just joking! Caw, Guagua, don't throw me!"
Qingmu didn't throw it away. Instead, he grabbed its paw and scratched it on his head, as if his scalp was itchy and scratching it would make him feel better.
"Wow, cool!" The Crow immediately started scratching his head. "You don't have lice, do you?"
Su Huilan said, " Qingmu, what exactly did you understand? Tell me quickly."
Qingmu said, "What I saw were fragmented pieces of information, unable to be pieced together into something meaningful, so I don't know how to put it, but I do understand a little bit."
Mrs. Larry encouraged her, "Then describe the fragments of information you see, even if it's just a tiny bit. That's how language deciphering works. When Champollion deciphered Egypt hieroglyphs, he only started with the name of a pharaoh. You just need to give me a hint, and perhaps we can work together to translate the text completely."
Qingmu shook his head and said, "No, madam, it's difficult for me to describe, because what I see cannot be translated into language. I see many patterns, and I don't know what they mean."
"A pattern? What I see is also a pattern. What the lady drew on the ground is a pattern. Doesn't everyone see something else?" Petru said.
Mrs. Larry's eyes lit up, and she said, "Mr. Qingmu, please tell me, what kind of pattern do you see? Oh, you don't need to describe its details, just tell me what it looks like, such as its shape, colors, and so on."
Qingmu thought for a moment and said, "It's three-dimensional, like a holographic projection, but it's all fragmented. As for the colors, they're a mess, I can't really describe them."
Mrs. Larry looked excited, her breathing quickening. She frowned, her hands clenched into fists, her fingers rubbing together incessantly. After a moment, she said, "I understand, this is a more advanced script, far more advanced than I imagined!"
"Just how high-end is it?" Alice asked.
Mrs. Larry said, "Linguistics is actually a branch of information science, and writing is a way to record and transmit information. In philology, the most common method is to classify characters according to their origin and function into pictographic, ideographic, and phonetic types. However, there are also some less common methods that classify characters according to their shape. For example, we call the writing on the clay tablets found on Crete linear script, and China characters square characters. Have you ever heard the saying that Chinese characters are like QR codes, while English is like barcodes?"
Alice said, "I've heard of it, but it's just a viewpoint popular on the China internet; it doesn't have any academic significance, does it?"
Mrs. Larry said, "Indeed, this has no academic significance; it's just netizens entertaining themselves. But it reflects an undeniable fact—Chinese characters carry a much greater amount of information than English."
Su Huilan suddenly realized, "Does Madam mean that English is actually a linear language, that is, one-dimensional, while Chinese characters are two-dimensional? A two-dimensional information module naturally carries more information than a one-dimensional information module."
"That's exactly right." Mrs. Larry nodded with a smile. "After linguistics and computer science were unified, we proposed the dimensional theory of language. However, this is very complex and involves the application of thermodynamic laws in computer science. But there is a very interesting conclusion—the communication between organisms usually uses an information encoding method that is one dimension lower than the dimension of the space in which they live."
This sentence is a bit of a mouthful, and the listeners unconsciously repeated it, "Information encoding methods that are one dimension lower than the spatial dimension in which it exists..."
Seeing that everyone seemed puzzled, Mrs. Larry explained, "To put it simply, humans are three-dimensional beings. Our languages and writing systems typically use two-dimensional encoding because this method can carry the maximum amount of information within our comprehension. If we used three-dimensional encoding, the amount of information would be even greater, but the human brain couldn't process it all, and learning would be more difficult. If we used a lower dimension, such as one-dimensional, the quantity and efficiency of information transmission would be very low. This is how knotted ropes were used for record-keeping in ancient times."
"But Madam, you just said that English is linear while Chinese characters are two-dimensional. Does that mean we Beauty are lower-dimensional beings compared to the China?" Alice said indignantly.
Mrs. Larry said, "Of course not. When I said English is linear, it's only relative. In fact, both English and Chinese characters evolved from standard two-dimensional encoding. English abandoned pictographs and only retained phonetic functions, reducing the complexity of information encoding while increasing the ease of information transmission; you can think of it as 1.5-dimensional. Chinese characters, on the other hand, combine pictographs, ideographs, and phonetic compounds, improving the efficiency of information encoding; you can think of it as 2.5-dimensional. These information encoding methods are all within our normal understanding. Which one we use depends on our needs. Different eras and social models have different requirements for the speed and efficiency of information transmission and dissemination."
Su Huilan said, "I understand, Madam. The writing on the ground uses a more advanced encoding method."
Mrs. Larry nodded and said, "Yes, I should have realized it at the altar. These inscriptions were projected onto the ground through the gaps in the pumice stones by moonlight. The real information was probably in the spatial arrangement of those stones in the air, but unfortunately, it's no longer visible. Fortunately, Mr. Qingmu reminded me. I think this is a kind of three-dimensional encoded textual information."
"Madam, you just mentioned that bioinformation uses an encoding method that is one dimension lower than the dimension of the space it exists in, and Mr. Qingmu can actually see the three-dimensional encoding information of these characters, then..."
Alice looked at Qingmu with a strange expression, the last part of her sentence left unsaid—"Then isn't he a four-dimensional monster?"