Enter the Immortal Cultivation

Piaomiao Palace, inside the sect.

Following Wang Qi's words, cries of "This is impossible" and "How is this possible" rang out one after another.

The path to explore the material world is actually intertwined by two paths.

"Empirical" and "deductive".

These two paths are called "empiricism" and "dogmatism" on Earth.

In the history of Earth, Bacon and Descartes were the pioneers of one of these two paths.

No matter which world it is in, it is a practitioner of the way of reason and knows the righteousness of this world.

And now, one of the two feet of the human race moving forward on the road is about to be cut off.

Because...

"Empirical" has no meaning anymore.

"Empiricalists" must select the objects of their research from the records of countless facts and summarize the laws - that is, "empirical" is oriented towards "historical records".

However, "history" itself can be shaken.

"The past" is no longer unchanging. Time travel is valid - everything built on the "unchanging past" is problematic.

Time travelers/foresight can choose history. All the history we have experienced is not necessarily objective.

Records that appear to be free of any emotional tendency must actually carry the "subjective tendency of the foresight".

Because "history" itself must carry the subjective tendency of the foresight.

This is the fact of this universe.

Despair.

This kind of emotion appears uncontrollably among many human races.

On the other side of the starry sea, I don't know how many angels are angry and secretly curse the Immortal Alliance for not knowing the seriousness.

But more angels have also fallen into confusion.

This is the most fundamental questioning of the Immortal Alliance's own path.

When "history" does not exist, how should we continue to move forward?

In a foreign land, in Wang Qi's study.

Everyone fell into silence.

At this time, only Su Junyu was still able to speak: "Junior brother, are you kidding? Such explosive news, you... this... shouldn't..."

"It must be faced." Wang Qi was silent for a moment: "The secrecy of the Immortal Alliance is based on human considerations, refusing most people to know this fact. However, concealing this fact now will shake the foundation of the Immortal Alliance."

The Immortal Alliance, in the final analysis, is an "academic organization".

The reason why they want to fight against the cosmic monsters that may invade their hometown is because they want a stable environment to seek the great way.

And after the top leaders of the Immortal Alliance have proved that "the past and the future are in one body", this news can really not be concealed.

That will mean...

All non-foreknowers are executing the choices of the foreknowers without knowing it. The a priori ideas of the foreknowers will limit the development of the Immortal Alliance.

As long as the foreknowers exist, then any outrageous empirical results may appear-perhaps some seemingly normal empirical results are actually just the product of the disturbance of the foreknowers, which is far from the "truth".

On Earth, academic scandals are not uncommon. But an academic scandal that broke out in October 2018 caused an unprecedented shock.

Piero Anversa, an authority in cardiology and regenerative medicine in the United States, committed academic fraud 20 years ago and fabricated the existence of a C-kit positive myocardial stem cell.

A branch of science that should not have existed and was fictitious was fabricated.

It was just data falsification.

But for those who know in advance, they can make such things "real".

As long as they choose through history, no matter how outrageous the data is, it can be "real".

Let's put it this way, conducting a million experiments may cause special phenomena in a few of them due to certain operational reasons.

Then, a researcher who has the ability to choose history can directly complete those specific "several times" by choosing the future.

As for the other 999,900 times... all happened in the "non-existent future".

So, is this data considered "fake"?

Due to the setting of "limited foreknowledge is limited by knowledge and insight", such a situation is almost inevitable.

It was as if the members of Qilian that Wang Qi met were all individuals that he could definitely identify as "Wang Qi".

This was not even considered "deliberate falsification" or "academic misconduct".

As for malicious falsification, it was simply impossible to prevent.

Reason itself does not have the ability to explain nature, "empirical" and "deductive" are its feet.

So...

The wine jar in Ai Changyuan's hand slipped to the ground, and he muttered to himself: "What is the meaning of our quest?"

Empirical is losing the meaning of its existence.

Similar cries are appearing around all the monks.

"Don't panic!" At this time, Wang Qi, who was in the land of Shenzhou in the illusion, stood up and said, "Don't waver, and don't doubt! The path we have taken is by no means an illusion. Perhaps we are still very shallow, but our achievements are real - we are the fastest growing civilization in the universe. It took us a very short time to go from ordinary mortals to immortals. In the future, we will have many foresighted people. Perhaps for those powerful people who can modify history, everything that exists in history is just an illusion - but we have found the way to reality! From this point of view, the path we have taken is meaningful."

“It’s just that it’s not as meaningful as we thought it was — we’re just shallower than we thought it was, that’s all.”

"This kind of thing has not happened before. Seven hundred years ago, a monk from the Immortal Alliance predicted that the way of studying the movement of matter has reached its extreme. But facts have proved that the life of the way of celestial circulation is still there. It’s far from over. Later, there was the Piaomiao Palace and the Guiyi Alliance.”

"The same is true for Wanfamen's understanding of arithmetic. Just a few decades ago, my fellow disciples wanted to exhaust arithmetic. But facts have proven that we are still far away from the truth, that's all."

"We didn't go the wrong way, but we didn't go far enough..."

………………………………

Listening to Wang Qi's words in the illusion, Ai Qinglan turned her head and stared at him: "Junior brother, has the Immortal Alliance already found a solution...?"

She seemed to be in a weird situation now and couldn't believe anything.

Historical selection will inevitably lead to "anthropic selection" of experimental data.

If there is only one pre-knower in a field, or the strength of this pre-knower far exceeds that of other people in the same field, then all phenomena in this field may conform to his predictions.

Will pioneers in other fields supervise?

Today’s Immortal Way has refined the way of nature. All walks of life are separated by mountains.

Any law has its field of action. Take half a step and truth becomes falsehood.

What qualifications do "lay people" have to question "experts" in a professional field?

Even if there are many prescientists in a field... what if they all have highly consistent intellectual barriers?

If there are "two opposing factions", then does "anthropic interference with the results" become the ultimate explanation for all academic disputes?

Wang Qi pointed at the illusion.

He knows what's behind it.

"Yes, you may already have some ideas in your mind. For example, how can we be sure that the results published by others are true and objective? Can this kind of passive, blindness-induced anthropic selection be distinguished from malicious fraud? How can historical data be guaranteed to be accurate? Will someone use the ability to change history to erase factual records that are inconsistent with their own ideas? And, most importantly, how should we respond in this context? What is the significance of the evidence?”

Wang Qi took a deep breath and finally sighed: "It's a pity that I haven't found a way to perfectly resolve this crisis. We must admit that this is a more serious crisis than Wanfamen's 'ill-advised disaster'. "

"But that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do."

"We have indeed lost a shared 'reality'. This is painful. For us, it is like cutting flesh with a dull knife - we are being cut off bit by bit."

"We even have to face a more difficult future. My future self once told my present self that the historical choices of those who knew before would lead to the emergence of records. And the choices of the once strongest person in this universe would even lead to the emergence of the universe itself. significant change."

"But it's still not a desperate situation."

"We have lost a real foundation, so we have to find another one ourselves."

"There are different 'facts' in the universe, which will cause us to see various 'phenomena'. There may be some things that we have missed due to our choices of foresight. But this does not mean that they will never be the same. Will appear in front of us again, but it does not mean that they are 'vacant' in the universe. There will always be many clues under the seemingly strict theoretical boundaries constructed by the barriers of knowledge and vision. "

"In the near future, we will see this phenomenon - our scholars will summarize many completely opposite, but all valid theories. In fact, this kind of thing is already showing signs in our world. Misty The separation of the Tao and the Tao of form also exists in the theory of spiritual phase, the theory of entropic spiritual symmetry, and the traditional theory of spiritual power.”

"But in essence, this is just the difference between Wanfamen Li Zong and Lian Zong. We chose different starting points, followed the same direction, and reached different end points, that's all. It's like even if you don't like Lian Zong Li Zong's theory has never ignored Lian Zong's achievements."

"From numbers to geometry, from geometry to analysis, from analysis to arithmetic...this is how Wanfamen progresses."

"In the future, we will continue to encounter 'splits in the theoretical genealogy' - it may be that the 'phenomena' chosen by the foresight are different, it may be that the 'axioms' we choose to believe are different, it may be that the correct conditions are preset Different. But no matter what, they are our way.”

"It's going to be a tough time."