Physicists’ Reading

Do you remember, dear reader, the fairy-tail of Clever Peter? The one that tells how the priest gave him to carry a basket of eggs and repaid with three pieces of wisdom, let’s say: if someone tells you, Peter, that there ain’t no dumber porter than you, don’t believe him! Then Clever Peter got angry and talked back: Eh, Father, you’ve told me wise words and I wanna repay you with one. He whacked the basket with the eggs at the earth and said: if someone tells you there is at least one whole egg, don’t believe him.

So, if someone tells you that without Lord’s will even a leaflet doesn’t move, don’t believe him.

Lord lived outside space and time and had a title of Lord of physics. He had given it to himself because there was no one else to do it instead. He had, of course, wisdom of mathematics, and chemistry, and astronomy and even astrology, but was Lord only of physics because both mathematics and chemistry, and astronomy, and even astrology come from the physics. Lord had created the laws of the physics and had let them in the wide world to supervise things to do no trouble.

Lord considered the laws of the physics very important. But here and there in them some dimensional and non-dimensional figures came out. People on the Earth called these figures fundamental and people on Gateway – Gosh numbers. Lord didn’t consider them important and when he created the Universe, set them so-so. But soon (on Earth ten billion years had passed) he got bored and began creating parallel universes. There he let the same laws of the physics but changed the Gosh numbers. The results were far more than interesting.

The first universe was neither too big nor too small; matter had appeared in it and the matter had somehow come to life. An incredible variety of living matter came in sight. In some parts of the universe it began destroying itself and in others – going out in the space around. Everywhere the living matter evinced strange curiosity to itself and the world around. Why do, devil, we exist? How, for God’s sake, is the Universe the one we know? Is there Lord and if yes where had he hidden himself? Too late Lord noticed that the devil had sneaked into the universe in the form of several laws of the paraphysics. They seemed to him strangely unfitting the remaining physics and he didn’t dare try them. However, they had stuck in. When he saw what was happening, he isolated a part of the universe from the laws of the paraphysics. All there fell down. The living matter became dead matter at once. The existing suns burned out, died out and nothing more happened. No new suns were born. Planets became dust and got lost in the endlessness of the space. In the remaining parts of the universe life flourished: stars were born constantly, the variety of living matter increased, its curiosity and knowledge of the surrounding world grew.

Then Lord made a second universe. This time he was careful and the paraphysics could not sneak in. As long as several billions of years nothing happened. Atoms of matter roamed in space, touched, separated; energy wandered between them and stopped nowhere nor had any wish to pile up in greater quantity. The Gosh numbers were the same, only the paraphysics missed. Then Lord let the paraphysics. It started work immediately. Et voilà! A star shone forth. A second one followed, a third one… in a few billions of years the universe started flashing as the first one. Atoms gathered together, energy piled up, stars formed, planets, galaxies. Life appeared.

For Lord’s great astonishment this universe became different than the first one. As if the Gosh numbers were the same, as if he hadn’t change neither the physics, nor the paraphysics, but there! The universes were different. Their structures were the same – stars, planets, dust, gas, cytoplasm, but the details were absolutely different.

He made a third universe and let only the paraphysics in. In a couple of billions of years all atoms and all the energy organized themselves in one and only one supermind. It whirled around the universe and was terribly bored because there was neither what to study nor what to entertain with. It couldn’t even die because the paraphysics didn’t know what entropy is.

Lord became endlessly curious. He created one more universe. He let both the physics and the paraphysics in. But this time changed the Gosh numbers. Oh, not all – only Planck’s constant and light speed. (Lord had to accept that these two numbers are somehow related but their relation was so complex that even Pete Shapiro could not guess how). The result was miserable – after the Great Boom no matter appeared. Only light, light, light… The fourth universe also gave miserable results – with terrifying speed atoms started appearing, they combined, molecules grew up, polymers appeared and for Lord’s awe several million years later – just an eye blink – the entire universe got filled by a single hyper-super-mega-polymer. But light and free energy there was none! Of mind it’s worthless to speak. Lord clutched his head and destroyed both universes. But the devil hadn’t minded his business again (Hadn’t he? Isn’t messing others’ work his business?): Lord destroyed the two universes together. Although they seemed fully isolated from each other, an impressive boom came out, the energy from the one and the matter from the other combined in something unseen and as a result appeared… nothing appeared. Without himself knowing how, Lord had achieved total annihilation with absolute contradiction with the Law of Mass and Energy Preservation. And while the devil was giggling behind the door, Lord astonishedly was scratching his head.

Then it came to his mind to measure the first universe. For his increasing awe, it turned out significantly more massive than it should have been.

“Thunderstorm!” said Lord and the devil continued giggling behind the door.

Had he measured it before he blew his unsuccessful experiments out, or not? He would have rather measured it. He had written it down somewhere around. Oh, no! His wife had cleared away his cabinet and the loose sheet with the mass of the first universe had gone through the channels, i.e. in the rubbish box, it in the container outside, to the village dunghill and so on to the factory for remaking refuses. Together with it the capsules with experimental matter were also gone. Devil! (And the devil continued giggling behind the door.) Lord put on his hat and set off for the dunghill. An incredible sight met him there: from the dunghill another universe had been growing out. Lord put it in his pocket and went back home.

He started studying the self-born marvel. A universe as a universe. With the physics, paraphysics, life, mind and the hidden matter. And once again something was out of order: on a planet Einstein was explaining before five students the theory of relativity, which made… Lord redundant!