Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 106 This thing is just right
"Congratulations, Professor!"

"Director, congratulations on winning the Nobel Peace Prize!"

Lin Ran walked into the office hall of the Red Stone Base and everyone stood up and applauded him.

This is NASA's first Nobel Prize winner.

Not to mention within NASA, even if you count the scientists who work indirectly for NASA outside, there are not many Nobel Prize winners.

Lin Ran won the Nobel Peace Prize, but this is also a Nobel Prize and an honor.

At present, the Nobel Peace Prize is not considered to be worthless, nor is it considered to be the result of political manipulation.

On the contrary, it was because Lin Ran proposed the hotline and promoted negotiations between the White House and the Kremlin that his award met everyone's expectations.

Winning the Nobel Peace Prize for facilitating negotiations between the White House and the Kremlin on the hotline and the Berlin crisis will be seen by the outside world as a reflection of the Nobel Prize keeping pace with the times and truly pursuing peace.

The NASA staff here who often work with Lin Ran will think so even more.

Among them, the blonde and blue-eyed staff members even presented flowers to her.

However, Lin Ran had no thoughts on this at all. He had been thinking about what would be more appropriate for the current Chinese country.

In addition, since we are going to Geneva this time, anything too big will definitely not be suitable.

The USB flash drive he was given contained technical information, and I'm afraid that by the time he returns, the Chinese side won't have opened it yet.

After much deliberation, Lin Ran decided to provide a single-board computer without any markings to China.

This is the so-called simple version of the Raspberry Pi.

The smallest Raspberry Pi is only the size of a credit card and uses a microSD card as its main storage medium.

Small but complete.

It also has a built-in simulation software for fluid mechanics simulation, plus the decrypted technical data of the U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, to stimulate China to increase resource investment and decrypt the single-board computer he provided.

After all, the standardized interface it provides still requires the development of corresponding displays and input devices before it can be used.

What if there is no useful information in it and China’s investment is not enough?

The U-2 will still be in service in America until 2024, which shows its value.

Therefore, as a reconnaissance aircraft that was only successfully developed in the 2s, the U-50 has just the right technology for the current situation.

Suitable for China to catch up, imitate and research.

Next year, China will shoot down a U-2, and with the two things happening side by side, the information he provides will be given more attention.

Also, don’t think that current Chinese experts can’t figure out what a single-board computer is.

Although China's current electronic technology mainly focuses on vacuum tubes, the Russians provided the vacuum tube production process, and the first domestically produced computer 58 developed in 103 was also based on vacuum tubes.

But China knew about transistors. Wu Xijiu and others who returned to China with President Qian studied electronics and telecommunications at Berkeley before returning, graduating first in the electronics department. They then went to MIT to pursue a master's degree and became the first group of scientific and technological personnel to participate in the design and manufacturing of transistors.

After Wu Xijiu returned to China in 1956, he led the Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to successfully develop China's first transistor.

A design group responsible for the development of transistor computers will also be established next year.

In Lin Ran's opinion, this thing is just right. It lets China know that the future direction of computer development is transistors, and at the same time makes them realize why America wants to develop transistor computers.

The greatest value of single-board computers, besides their own value, is that they point out the direction of future technological development.

America obtained the remains of alien technology, so she was sure that transistors were the future direction of technological development.

During the Cold War, people believed in the existence of aliens, and Area 51 began to be reported in the media in the 50s.

As a senior bureaucrat in charge of aerospace in the White House, Lin Ran packaged the single-board computer as a product he obtained from Area 51. It didn't matter whether it was an alien original or an American replica, because China would not ask about it anyway.

It just happened to contain information about the U-51 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that Area 2 was responsible for developing.

Lin Ran also considered whether to include hybrid rice technology, but after much thought, he was not worried about the so-called butterfly effect or something like that, but worried that providing hybrid rice to China would be an unrealistic fantasy:

"The reason why our crop yields per mu are low is not because the crops are incapable of doing so, but because we have not been able to tap their potential."

After all, hybrid rice is a completely

In order to avoid such a possibility, Lin Ran ultimately did not include hybrid rice in New York in 2020.

On the plane to Geneva was Vice President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Ruscoe.

If Lyndon Johnson and Lin Ran were direct superiors and subordinates, then Dean Ruscoe would be Lin Ran's sponsor, because in addition to being the Secretary of State, he was also the chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Dean served on the board of directors since 1950 and as chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation since 1952. Another interesting aspect of Dean's career is that he offered to resign several times, from Kennedy to Johnson, the last time in 1967 because his daughter Peggy planned to marry a black man, and he was worried about the political burden she would pose to the White House.

After all, many white people at that time could not accept this, and it might become a reason for being attacked by the Elephant Party.

This incident also shows that Dean, as a member of the Donkey Party, does not have too many racist ideas.

"Randolph, maybe Korolev is waiting for you in Geneva again." Dean joked on the special plane to Geneva.

Before, when no one knew who Korolev was, they gave him the nickname Chief Designer. Now that his real name has been exposed, people naturally call him by his name.

Lin Ran smiled and said, "If he scares me again, don't blame me for being unfriendly to the old man."

Lyndon Johnson didn't talk about this topic. He was thinking about the negotiations: "Randolph, how do you think we can overwhelm the other side?"

The White House's proposal to establish a hotline has been welcomed in Europe. Everyone believes that this is a responsible move and a statement for world peace.

But in America, this was seen by some as a sign of weakness, after all, the Berlin Crisis did not occur on the American continent.

Americans felt that this was the White House's attempt to seek peace.

Therefore, Lyndon Johnson hoped to be able to reflect his toughness in some form during the negotiation process.

Lin Ran picked up a piece of White House letter paper from the table next to him and slowly folded it into the shape of a paper airplane.

(1961 White House Oval Office stationery, from the Kennedy Presidential Library)
"At the end of the negotiations, fold our demands into paper airplanes and fly them to Mikoyan." Lin Ran handed the paper airplane to Lyndon Johnson and said.

This is also what Lighthizer will do to the Neonies when America and Japan sign the Plaza Accord in the future.

"Then let White House employees report the incident to the media, which would be a humiliation to Soviet Russia," said Lin Ran.

Lyndon Johnson's eyes lit up when he took the paper airplane, because it was simple, Kennedy was weak, and it had little to do with him.

The vice president can't take the blame for something like this.

But tough, that's how tough he is.

This will create a sharp contrast.

Lyndon Johnson didn't think he would be elected president three years from now. At least within the Democratic Party, he couldn't possibly defeat Kennedy. But what about seven years from now? Seven years from now, he would almost be the only candidate suitable for the Democratic Party.

Of course he didn't know that the opportunity would come two years later.

Lyndon Johnson wanted to do everything he could to accumulate capital for the election seven years later.

However, he still hesitated: "Wouldn't this attitude be bad?

What if the talks fail and the Soviets feel humiliated, leading to a further escalation of the Berlin Crisis?

"So in the end, when all the terms were agreed upon, the other party would be hesitant because of the sunk costs. We humiliated Mikoyan, but the final decision was made by Nikita," Lin Ran explained.

Sunk cost is not a new term. There is a similar concept in Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations. Later, Paul Samuelson's Economics published in 1948 further clarified the concept of sunk cost.

"Okay, that's a good idea. I'll seriously consider it." Lyndon Johnson gently tossed the paper airplane forward in the cabin of the special plane, imagining that he was at a negotiation site.

Obviously, Lyndon Johnson was impressed by Lin Ran's suggestion. After all, if the negotiation failed, it would be Kennedy's fault. If the negotiation was successful, it would gain him public recognition.

This business is not a loss.

Furthermore, even if the other party disagrees, it is not impossible for us to take two steps back.

It was like exchanging face for substance. The face was his own, and the substance belonged to America, Lyndon Johnson thought.

Dean was stunned. It wasn't because Lin Ran's suggestion was so great. The paper airplane humiliation was indeed very creative. But what Dean was thinking was that although what Lin Ran said made sense, aren't you afraid that the Soviet Union will really turn against you?

He then thought of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to the other party, but the other party's behavior did not seem to be for peace.

This is also a kind of information asymmetry. From a God's perspective, Lin Ran is well aware of the Russian high-level officials' nature of being weak, pretentious, and easily broken when facing America, so he would make such an unscrupulous suggestion.

The negotiations were held at the Palais des Nations at 14 Avenue de la Peace in Geneva, which is also the European headquarters of the United Nations and has hosted many international conferences in the past.

The negotiations were held in the main conference hall. In the center of the meeting was a rectangular wooden conference table with the flags of the three countries on it, as well as documents, water cups and pens next to it.

A world map and the United Nations logo hang on the wall.

As a representative of America, Lin Ran looked at the Chinese representatives eagerly.

Fortunately, the Raspberry Pi is small enough, so even if he needs to make sure that he is not carrying any dangerous items before starting, for someone of his level, the inspection will not be too strict, and it will be enough to make sure that he does not have any guns.

(End of this chapter)