Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 22: Little Morgan Seen Through

"I'm sorry, but I've already accepted an invitation from Hong Kong University. I'll be giving lectures there this summer, so I'm sorry I can't comply with your invitation from the University of Tokyo."

Lin Ran was very polite, but his tone was extremely firm.

Even without the invitation from Hong Kong University, he had no intention of going to Japan to serve as a visiting professor.

After he returned to 1960, while looking up information about this era, he discovered something very interesting: neither Yang Zhenning nor Li Zhengdao had ever given lectures in Neon.

As for Yang Zhenning, he would not even attend ordinary lectures unless it was an academic conference. It was not until 2010 that he became a visiting professor at the Neon Academy.

(Professor Yang Zhenning's 2011 lecture at the Neon Academy. He has been a visiting professor at the Neon Academy since 2010.)
And Tsung-Dao Lee also did not go to Neon.

He has won the Rising Sun Medal awarded by Japan, but that was in 07. The reason for the award was not for promoting academic exchanges or contributing to Japanese academia, but simply because 2007 was the 50th anniversary of his winning the Nobel Prize, and Japan awarded this honor to outstanding Asian people.

So Lin Ran was very curious, whether there was no invitation or for some other reason. During the casual chat after the interview, Lin Ran specifically asked about it. The two people explained that it was national hatred and family feuds. Science has no borders but scientists do have borders, and it is impossible to cultivate talents for Japan.

If the two predecessors were like this, Lin Ran would be even less able to practice the so-called Sino-Japanese friendship and go to Neon to give lectures, even though the two-month salary offered by Neon was the same as the annual salary of Columbia University.

"President Huang, I'm going to Hong Kong to discuss academic matters, nothing else. I'll be staying here for two months. I'll have time to teach students and answer questions. I believe my academic achievements in mathematics should be able to solve many difficult problems."

After learning that Lin Ran accepted Hong Kong's invitation, Huang Yunji had a very keen sense of smell and came to the door a few days later under the pretext of giving him some local specialties.

Lin Ran took the red bean cake, a specialty of Shenhai, from the other party, and then he understood the meaning of the other party asking him about his hometown during the interview. It was false to ask about his hometown to tell the readers, but it was true that he asked so that he could prepare the hometown specialty to be delivered to their doorstep.

Assuming that both parties are smart people, Huang Yunji naturally understood what Lin Ran meant.

"I can help with academic issues, but nothing else."

In addition to the influx of people from all walks of life, including mathematicians, Chinese scientists, journalists, etc., he could guess all of these, but there were also some that he could not guess.

The visitor he had never guessed was John Adams Morgan, a member of the Morgan family, whose mother was from the Adams family.

The Morgan family is very famous in the Chinese Internet because of the presence of Morgan Jr. and Morgan Jr.

But the Adams family is the first family in America to produce a father and son president. They own the military-industrial complex Raytheon and are also a well-established family.

As the product of the marriage between the two parties, John Adams Morgan was an absolute powerful figure within the Morgan family. He was only 30 years old at the time and was a partner in a well-established investment bank in New York.

John Morgan was obviously not willing to be just a partner. He hoped to seize more power within the Morgan family, so he specifically approached Lin Ran.

"Professor, I know you. You have made outstanding contributions in the field of mathematics, but you are more interested in aerospace. Professor Horkheimer hopes that we can give you a chance, saying that you have extraordinary talents.

The old guys in the family don’t believe it, but I do.

I'm willing to give you a chance to get what you want."

John Morgan looked like an older, white man, but he was exceptionally strong. Later, Lin Ran learned that he was a former Olympic champion. In the upscale restaurant they had booked, Lin Ran had the feeling that his counterpart was desperately trying to prove himself and control the entire negotiation process.

But how can you get what you want? Even if you have to rely on the power of the Jewish community, even if you face a behemoth like Morgan, the information gap in the next sixty years will not be in vain.

"Eisenhower can't sit still?

It seems the media has angered the Elephant Party and Eisenhower."

(A satirical cartoon by the American media after the Soviet Union launched a satellite, mocking Eisenhower for only playing golf in the face of the Soviet Union's satellite launch.)
"Let me guess, to surpass the Soviet Union, the moon is obviously the best option.

The Soviet Union's Sputnik 1 had already been launched into space, and their Sputnik 2 even sent a puppy into space.

If it just involves sending people into space, the White House is not sure it can make progress faster than the Soviet Union.

Only projects like the moon landing, which have a long enough cycle and involve enough technical difficulties, have the value and possibility of catching up.

So the White House is planning a moon landing?"

Before John Morgan could speak, Lin Ran knocked on the table to signal him not to answer in a hurry. He hadn't finished speaking yet:
"If we want to go to the moon, we must first conduct a feasibility study. This is a huge project, a project that cannot be any bigger.

Requires careful preliminary demonstration.

Not everyone can take it.

With Morgan's influence in the White House, he should have received the news in advance. The White House would organize a feasibility study and require each company to submit a proposal. The winning proposal would receive the order for America's moon landing.

There are only a few companies with this capability.

In 1892, under the leadership of Morgan, Edison General Electric Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Company merged into General Electric Company, and Edison was eliminated.

Although General Electric is called Electric, it spans many fields, including aerospace.

However, GM does not have an advantage in the aerospace field. Even its aerospace-related departments are not influential departments within GM, and are somewhat marginalized.

So sir, you want me to participate in the writing of the feasibility study report on GE's moon landing plan to help GE win orders from NASA.

And if you can get the order, with your influence within the Morgan family, I'm afraid General Electric will split off the aerospace division and form a new company, General Aerospace.

General Aerospace may become a giant like General Electric, just as your grandfather acquired General Electric, and you can become the patriarch of the Morgan family by recreating a giant like General Electric."

Before coming to see Lin Ran, John Morgan not only greeted Professor Horkheimer, but also asked Haynes, who worked at NASA, about Lin Ran's situation. He came to see him because he had a certain understanding of Lin Ran's achievements in the aerospace field.

He didn't believe Haynes when he said Lin Ran was a little special. How special could he be?
But after Lin Ran finished speaking, John Morgan really felt like his soul had been seen through. What the hell was that?

(End of this chapter)