Dead on Mars

Chapter 201 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Five, First There Was Newton and Then There Was Heaven; The Immensity of Graham’s Number
Chapter 201: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Five, First There Was Newton and Then There Was Heaven; The Immensity of Graham’s Number

Tang Yue’s hand hung in midair. He was amazed.

He knew that certain card game newbies could be indecisive, tending to hold onto their stronger cards to the end; thus, missing an opportunity and eventually losing the match.

“Four 5s? How is that possible? You had four 5s?”

“That’s right.”

“You held a Bomb… for so long?”

“Yup.”

Mai Dong didn’t play cards often. She was hesitant when it came to throwing her cards and there was no pattern to her actions. From his point of view, a newbie like Mai Dong didn’t pose a threat; therefore, Tang Yue had been watching Tomcat the entire match; thus, failing to realize that not a single 5 had appeared from start to end. For three people to play a deck of cards, it was amazing that Mai Dong was able to obtain a four of a kind.

This was akin to three people having a tournament at Mount Hua, like in the Louis Cha novel. Tang Yue would play the role of Northern Beggar, Hong Qigong, and Tomcat would play the role of Western Venom, Ouyang Feng. Mai Dong would be a young little Guo Xiang. Hong had mastered his Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms, so he naturally thought nothing of the young lady. His only opponent was the equally famous Ouyang.

Who knew that while they were embroiled in an intense match, the young lady would smile, pulling out an American-made MK3 grenade.

Tang Yue recalled the point when Mai Dong still had five cards left in hand. Back then, the latter had victory in the bag. The reason she didn’t throw the bomb was to watch Tang Yue make a fool out of himself, giving him hope that he could win. Then, he began his antics as a clown, only to be ruthlessly crushed to death.

Tomcat had already noticed this and knew that there was no hope of victory. Hence, it decided to get in on the act.

Tang Yue was the only idiot who was reeling in glee.

“You schemed against me!” Tang Yue was exasperated and furious, but all he could do was to admit defeat. “You both schemed against me.”

“How did I? I was on your side. We are peasants. Miss Mai Dong had a bomb in her hand, and I wasn’t her match. It was an indomitable force.” Tomcat shook its head. “Unless I grabbed a Bomb as well, the probability of winning was just too low.”

“I didn’t scheme against you either. Tang Yue, you lost because…”

“He’s just too green,” Tomcat interjected.

“No, no, no. You should be more euphemistic. You should say…” Mai Dong deliberated over her choice of words. “A vegetable.”

…

“You’re the vegetable. Lass, if you have what it takes, come on down. I’ll let you bear the wrath of a vegetable.”

“If you have what it takes, come on up. I’ll be welcoming you.”

“Come on down if you have it takes!”

“Come on up if you have it takes.”

“Come on down!”

“Come on up.”

“Come down!”

“Come up.”

“Come on down if you have it takes!”

“Kekeke.”

“You!”

…

“Mai Dong’s skills are lower than mine. She won purely on good luck. Do you know how low the probability of drawing a Bomb is when there are three players?” Tang Yue sighed. “Why don’t I ever have such good luck.”

“Good luck? Forget it.” Tomcat curled its lips. “You are just a schmuck.”

“I’m telling you that I have quite a temper.”

“Yes, yes, yes. You have a temper. Not only do you have a temper, but you are also a puncher.” Tomcat quipped. “If you’re that awesome, why don’t you fly into the sky and be beside Miss Mai Dong?”

…

The trio played cards the entire night with Kunlun Station remaining lit until late into the night as the stars rose in the sky. Along the way, the United Space Station entered the no-signal zone a few times, pausing the game a few times. They continued once the signal was re-established. They chatted as they played, but none of the topics of conversation was anything important.

For example: “Can there be a strong enough rope to tie the Earth to the moon?”

“Would having enough water extinguish the Sun?”

“How much information must a hard disk store before it can shrink into a black hole?”

Tomcat could answer most of the questions, but there were a few that stumped it. For instance, Tang Yue had raised an unexpected question. “Can cats be used as a perpetual machine with buttered cat to the end of the world?”

Everyone would sit there chatting as though they were hunters hiding in their igloos in the Arctic Circle. Inside their igloo was a tiny whale-oil lamp and they rubbed their toes to gain warmth from the weak fire. Even though there was a pitch-black blizzard outside, the room inside was warm.

Tomcat tapped the screen and threw out a Ten of Spades. “It’s obviously possible if you wish to make a hard disk shrink into a black hole. As long as the hard disk stores enough information entropy that exceeds the information entropy in an equally sized black hole. That way, the hard disk will collapse into a black hole. For example, you can stuff a huge number like G(64) into a hard disk.”

“G(64)?” Tang Yue threw out a Jack of Diamonds. “What’s that?”

“Graham’s Number,” Tomcat replied. “It’s a mathematical monstrosity. It’s the biggest number in the world. Every quantity in the observable universe is negligible in front of it.”

“How big is it? Can it be written in scientific notation?” Mai Dong asked, “What’s the exponent?”

“Impossible.”

“Can your brain contain it?” Tang Yue asked.

“Obviously not. You can’t take in the immensity of this number, but as long as I try calculating it, I’ll…” Tomcat sat straight as its eyes suddenly glazed over.

Following that, Tang Yue saw Tomcat’s head begin to smoke.

“Humanity hasn’t been able to create a storage device that can store Graham’s number. This is because there aren’t enough physical particles in the Universe,” Tomcat shook its head as it recovered.

“Not enough?” Tang Yue was confused.

“If you use all the fundamental particles in the observable universe, as well as all permutations they can be arranged in, they aren’t even a T4 strain on a Staphylococcus,” Tomcat said. “That means that even if you were to turn the entire Universe into a computer, it wouldn’t be able to count from 1 to G(64).”

Tang Yue shook his head and threw a 2. “I can’t imagine it at all.”

“All the permutations of the fundamental particles in the Universe?” Mai Dong exclaimed. “That number is already beyond imagination.”

“Don’t try to seek the biggest in the physical world, Miss Mai Dong. Every number that seems amazingly huge is only a few millimeters long when written on paper. In our Universe, the biggest number that truly exists is the time it takes for the Universe to complete a Poincaré recurrence. In other words, all the fundamental particles in the Universe will return to their original states,” Tomcat said. “And this number is still trivial compared to Graham’s number.”

First, there was Newton and then there was heaven; the immensity of Graham’s Number,” Tomcat said as it threw out a Black & White Joker. “But mathematically, there is still a number bigger than it.”

“Blast it! Tang Yue, where’s that bigass cannon of yours? Blast it!”

“I only have one Bomb,” Tang Yue said. “It’s gone if I use it.”

“It will be its turn if you don’t. Mr. Cat doesn’t have many cards left.” Mai Dong urged on the other end of the comms. “Blast it! Blast it! Don’t you make me look down on you.”

“Alright, so be it. I’ll blast your Bomb! Yamamoto Cat!” Tang Yue threw out the only Bomb he had in his hand. “Four 7s!”

“Four 9s.”

…