Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 146 China also wants to poach talent.

February 1963, Kyiv.

A cold wind howled outside the Institute of Cybernetics at the Academy of Sciences, shaking the frosty windows of Viktor Grushkov's office.

Inside, a bulky electronic computer hummed faintly in the corner, its indicator light flashing incessantly.

The walls are adorned with Grushkov's work: sketches of cybernetics systems and computer designs are casually pinned to the shelves crammed with technical journals.

Grushkov sat at the table, hunched over a pile of blueprints and handwritten calculations, his brow furrowed as he pondered intently.

He has been preparing for OGAS recently.

Because he knew very well that, whether it was this year or next, one day the Kremlin would agree to his pilot program.

This is determined by reality.

No one has access to Western journals more readily than them, nor do they understand the extent of the pressure exerted by the liberal camp.

Unless the Soviet Union didn't want to win, OGAS would be on the agenda sooner or later.

Of course, after Nikita was eliminated, someone who really didn't want to win came along, which was an unexpected development.

Compared to corn, medals are more like personification.

The door suddenly opened, and a young assistant stumbled in, panting, clutching a telegram tightly in his hand. His face beamed with barely suppressed excitement.
"Director Viktor Grushkov! News from Moscow!" he shouted, shoving the telegram at him.

Grushkov looked up, his sharp eyes narrowing, and took the telegram. His fingers lightly brushed across the paper, scanning the brief text:

The Kremlin has approved pilot programs for OGAS in Ukraine, East Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, and requests that feasibility studies and program designs be completed within six months.

Grushkov's hands trembled slightly; beneath his calm exterior, his heart was churning with turmoil.

I had thought that this ambitious plan would never come to fruition.

Unexpectedly, things took an unexpected turn for the better.

Randolph Lin, thousands of miles away, delivered a powerful assist to him.

He also learned enough from Lin Ran's news, and together the two created this world, the birth of the simplified version of OGAS in Eastern Europe.

He slowly rose, walked to the window, and gazed at the snow-covered city. For a moment, the room was silent, save for the soft hum of the machine behind him.

Then, he turned around, a determined smile spreading across his face.

"Comrades," he announced to his colleagues at the Cybernetics Institute, his voice steady yet passionate, "the moment we've been waiting for has arrived. The Kremlin has approved the OGAS pilot project!"

A cheer erupted as his followers, the young scientists and engineers who supported his vision, gathered around. Their eyes shone with hope and determination.

Among them was Ivan, a thin engineer with messy hair, who spoke excitedly.

“Director, this is it!” he shouted. “The opportunity we’ve been dreaming of! OGAS will completely transform the way we manage the economy, and we will lead the world into a new era!”

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times, it was the age of idealism, it was the age of hope.

Grushkov nodded, his smile warm yet tinged with unease. "Yes, Ivan, this is a great victory. But we cannot ignore reality; this is only the beginning. The success of OGAS, piloted in four Eastern European countries, will determine its fate."

The road ahead is steep.

We need to give it our all!

Natasha Kapitonova, a sharp-eyed and strikingly beautiful female engineer, stepped forward. "We are ready, Director Grushkov," she said firmly. "Haven't we been preparing for this day for so long?"

Now is the time for us to prove ourselves. OGAS will prove that compared to machines, humans are foolish, selfish, and greedy.

Grushkov walked to the center of the crowd. He was the one who built the control center, so he was both authoritative and benevolent there.

Grushkov looked around, gazing at the familiar faces:
"Comrades, OGAS is not just a technical project; it is our commitment to an ideal. Through computer networks, we can streamline the economy, eliminate bureaucratic inefficiencies, and demonstrate the true power of a planned economy."

He paused, his tone becoming serious. "But please don't misunderstand, opposition is everywhere. Some people are afraid of change, clinging to their power, afraid that machines will replace them, even though we do want to achieve that."

We must meet these challenges with scientific rigor and unwavering conviction.

“Exactly,” Grushkov said, his eyes gleaming. “The Cold War was not just a contest of missiles or consciousness; after Professor Lin proposed the technological singularity, it will also be a race for innovation. We need to prove to the world that machines can not only be used to calculate mathematical equations and play chess, but they can also help humans make decisions, or even replace them.”

For Grushkov, this was undoubtedly an unprecedented surprise.

Soviet Russia will undergo unprecedented changes because of OGAS.

Regarding Deep Blue, China received reports almost as late as the Soviet Union.

They want to get their hands on Western newspapers, but it will take at least a month or even longer.

But Hong Kong newspapers will report it.

Although Lin Ran claims to be of European Chinese descent, his knighthood and his position as a visiting professor at Hong Kong University mean that he is considered half a Hong Konger by the people of Hong Kong.

With the establishment of maritime shipping standards, among the group of white faces in the photo, Bao Yugang from Hong Kong was the only Chinese.

Who helped them save face? It was Lin Ran.

With all these factors combined, even though Lin Ran isn't from Hong Kong, in the eyes of Hong Kong people, he's no different from one.

Therefore, Hong Kong's local newspapers published a deluge of reports about the deep blue camp.

The Overseas Chinese Daily's headline read: "Brilliant Achievements of Chinese Scientists: Deep Blue, the Machine Chess Player, Unveiled."

The focus is on the outstanding achievements of Chinese scientists and their role models for the development of science and technology in China.

The Overseas Chinese Daily is biased towards China.

Meanwhile, newspapers like the Hong Kong Times, which are located on the outlying island of Hong Kong, focused their reporting on headlines such as "Deep Blue Emerges, Professor Displays His Power Again."

The title is this, but the content emphasizes that the island will vigorously develop the electronics industry and contribute to the realization of artificial intelligence for mankind.

The South China Morning Post was relatively neutral, but its report also praised Lin Ran highly, calling him a Leonardo da Vinci of our time:
"His achievements span mathematics, aerospace, and computer science. As one of the most brilliant minds of our time, the professor has once again proven his abilities. Indeed, as he said, he will only bring one success after another."

These reports would appear in Yanjing every two days and in Panzhihua every three days.

"Indeed, this is what Bai Ma really wanted to tell us," Dean Qian and Hua Luogeng discussed.

Given Hua Luogeng's abilities, position, and background, coupled with his expertise in mathematics, he was able to access information about certain blue-chip stocks.

He knew that the white horse existed, and he could guess that the white horse was Lin Ran.

He has access to these things.

But how did Lin Ran transmit the information and physical objects back? The Raspberry Pi was an "alien product," and Hua Luogeng couldn't access this information.

He hadn't even read the manuscript of the Strange Man of Gaobao that Lin Ran had sent back.

Dean Qian knew a little more, but only a limited amount. For example, he personally handed the Raspberry Pi to the Chinese representative at the Geneva Conference.

"Yes, the technological singularity brought about by computers is the most important thing."

America's continued focus on developing computer technology stems from the fact that while computers serve as the medium, the key lies in the artificial intelligence they support," Dean Qian added.

As someone who was nearly eighty years old and had learned about virtual reality, he was able to propose the concept of the metaverse in that era. Of course, he didn't call it the metaverse; he named it "Spirit Realm," which was later borrowed by an author. Dean Qian was undoubtedly very perceptive about technology.

They are even more convinced of the existence of the technological singularity.

Even without Lin Ran's explanation, Dean Qian could imagine just how terrifying the technological singularity was.

Given that the Raspberry Pi is an extraterrestrial creation, he could better understand why America's semiconductor technology could develop so rapidly, and why they placed such importance on it.

At that time, America Semiconductor relied almost entirely on military orders and had no personal market.

Semiconductors are the foundation of computers, and computers are the foundation of artificial intelligence. When the concept of artificial intelligence at the technological singularity was proposed, the whole thing formed a perfect closed loop in Dean Qian's mind.

Hua Luogeng interrupted, "Old Qian, I have only one question."

That is, since the technological singularity really is the decisive point.

We all know that this is theoretically possible, and once it is done, it can indeed unleash unimaginable power.

It's hard to imagine the extent to which America's current industrial production capacity, combined with the automation brought about by artificial intelligence, could reach.

Today, America is not the America that was later castrated. It still possesses unparalleled global production capabilities, continuously airlifting supplies to Berlin.

For Chinese people who are aware of the gap at this point, the more they think about it, the easier it is to fall into a state of despair.

Both Dean Qian and Hua Luogeng studied and worked in America. The longer they stayed there, the more admirable their decision to return to China became.

Making this decision was truly not easy.

Returning home brings status and power, but compared to the material disparity, the power scientists gain is insignificant.

"What I can't understand is why America had to say it?"
They could have kept quiet and made a fortune, and then claimed that we had achieved the technological singularity after we had achieved it.

Why announce it in advance? To drag Soviet Russia into a real life-or-death competition,” Hua Luogeng continued.

After reading the reports that traveled across the ocean, Hua Luogeng was completely baffled by this.

Mathematicians are better able to understand the power of computers and just how terrifying the technological singularity truly is.

After the colleagues from the Institute of Mathematics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences arrived in Panzhihua, the first thing they did was to design a brand-new algorithm for their colleagues at the Meteorological Bureau in Beijing.

In addition to being collected in Yanjing, meteorological data from across the country will also be collected in Panzhihua.

The meteorological bureau's job in weather forecasting is simply to notify the whole country of the weather.

The optimized complex model has brought the accuracy of weather forecasts to 90%.

This allowed Hua Luogeng and his colleagues to more intuitively experience the terrifying power of computers.

As a mathematician who had seen the Raspberry Pi, he felt enlightened after witnessing the technological singularity and never suspected that it was a strategic deception.

If China could manufacture Raspberry Pis anytime and provide one to every person, it's unimaginable what kind of explosive development China would experience in science and technology.

This is just a computer; it can only solve mathematical equations.

Just thinking about how terrifying the artificial intelligence that Lin Ran mentioned would be made Hua Luogeng feel an unprecedented sense of urgency.

The thoughts of the higher-ups in Panzhihua are all pretty much the same.

From their perspective, America has many Raspberry Pis, the semiconductor industry is advancing by leaps and bounds thanks to the ability to reverse engineer and disassemble Raspberry Pis obtained from aliens, and they may have also obtained secrets about artificial intelligence and the technological singularity.

America's ultimate goal is to create artificial intelligence capable of achieving the technological singularity.

This logical chain is very complete.

Dean Qian said quietly, "It's possible that some of the pieces of the AI ​​puzzle are in the hands of others."

Dean Qian knew about the existence of aliens, and in his opinion, it was possible that America's research on artificial intelligence had encountered a bottleneck.

He speculated that the best way to break through this bottleneck would be to involve the Soviet Union, which possessed some extraterrestrial heritage, so that everyone could work together to advance the project.

Upon returning that day, Dean Qian began writing a report, suggesting that it would be best to also show Hua Luogeng the manuscript of the "Gaobao Qiren".

The Raspberry Pi user manuals and simulation software user manuals that Hua Luogeng came across were all handwritten copies.

One more thing: why didn't China ever suspect that the Raspberry Pi was a product of the future or came from another parallel universe, and why didn't it question the English operating system and English emulation software interface embedded in it?

This is because the underlying logic of a computer is a circuit of 0s and 1s.

As early as the 40s, computers were already being operated using machine language, which is binary code consisting of 0s and 1s.

Assembly language already existed in 47, and in the 50s, IBM spearheaded the development of more advanced languages.

Therefore, from the Chinese perspective, it is possible that America, who obtained the Raspberry Pi in the 40s, first built her own computer based on the Raspberry Pi, and then developed machine language, assembly language and high-level language based on her own computer.

Finally, these languages ​​are used to reverse engineer and build your own operating system on the Raspberry Pi.

This is not impossible.

As for simulation software, NASA's X-15 aircraft project in the 50s used the IBM 7090 for aerodynamic simulation.

Major newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post have reported on NASA's use of new computers to support X-15 flight tests.

The report mentions new computers and support testing, which immediately made Huaguo think, "You're using Raspberry Pi for aerodynamic simulations, right?"
Therefore, as long as no one in China can directly access how America operates internally, Lin Ran's claim that the Raspberry Pi came from outer space means that China can never get close to the truth by guessing.

"This is?"

The next day, in the most heavily guarded area of ​​Area 51, Hua Luogeng, blindfolded and wandering around, finally found himself in a room with two books inside.

Dean Qian said, "You can look around here first. We'll talk after you're done. If you need anything, just ring the bell and someone will come to arrange it."

One is a manuscript, and the other is "The Man in the High Castle," imported from New York.

All in English.

Hua Luogeng found it somewhat difficult to read.

But he still gritted his teeth and finished watching it in three and a half days, working in the morning and watching it here in the afternoon and evening.

After reading it, Hua Luogeng returned to Dean Qian's office, feeling a sense of unreality.
"Did the Raspberry Pi come from another world or from outer space?"

"The white horse said it was from outer space."

After Dean Qian revealed more information, Hua Luogeng pondered, "Did America receive a batch of Raspberry Pis, or a Raspberry Pi production machine?"

This made him even more curious.

"It should be a Raspberry Pi; I find it even harder to imagine what the production equipment looks like," Dean Qian said.

Hua Luogeng paced back and forth in his office. “I suspect it may have been obtained from NAZI Germany.”

Do you know Chu Ze?

Dean Qian pondered for a long time, but still couldn't figure out who this person was: "I don't know."

"He was a German scientist. I met him in Göttingen after the war and heard his story."

He was muttering to himself like a madman, saying that America had stolen his work.

I was bored at the time and was waiting for Professor Siegel to pick me up, so I chatted with him.

In 38, he built the first computer called Z1. At that time, all computers used decimal, but Z1 used binary.

Later, Z2 began to use relays instead of metal rods and levers to perform binary calculations.

With Z3, it can perform all addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and square root calculations.

That's all I heard at the time. He proposed to the German government in 39 that they build an electronic computer.

Based on "The Man in the High Castle," I think Chu Ze might know something.

He was likely referring to the raspberry pie as the reason he said America stole his work.

Konrad Zuse, considered by some to be the father of the computer, designed the first binary computer Z1, the first Turing-complete computer Z3, the first high-level programming language Plankalkül, and the first true computer chess engine.

But because he was in Germany, not Silicon Valley, he did not achieve much commercial success.

Hua Luogeng's claim that the Americans stole his achievements is also a wonderful misunderstanding.

After the war, Chuze hoped to obtain funding to continue his research, only to find that his registered patents were not recognized by America, while IBM had already registered those patents.

Dream on if he thinks he can sue America and IBM. First, it's impossible, and second, he doesn't have the money.

Upon hearing this, Dean Qian's eyes lit up: "No, what you said is actually quite possible."

Could you think back in more detail about where you met this person?

"University of Göttingen"

Do you remember what he looked like?

"I need to think about it carefully. What do you want to do?"

"After World War II, he was still in Göttingen and wasn't taken away by America. He might be a treasure trove. The Soviet Union and America were able to divide up German scientists. Why can't we try to win over hidden gems like Chuze?"

(End of this chapter)