1009 Suddenly Became Philosophical
“… Predict the future?”
Perelman rubbed his chin and frowned as he said, “What does this have to do with mathematics?”
Schultz nodded and looked confused as he said to Albert, “Forgive me, but that sounds like something out of a movie.”
“Of course this is related to mathematics!” Albert said with excitement, “We are predicting the future using mathematics!”
The apartment fell silent again.
Krugman gestured to Albert to sit down, but Albert ignored him. Albert continued to stare at Perelman.
However…
His hopes were destroyed.
Not only Perelman, but even Schultz had a weird look on his face.
Like they were staring at an insane person…
“I think you’re fantasizing.”
Schultz coughed and broke the silence. He continued to speak, “Predicting the future isn’t a field of mathematics, I don’t even think that it’s under physics. It’s something related to philosophy. After all, there are so many uncertain factors and variables. Everything is uncertain. If it had rained today, maybe I wouldn’t be here—”
“But the weather can be predicted! A person’s path can’t be predicted, but a group of people can be predicted. Just look at the forecasts for New York City’s traffic and weather over the past five years!”
Albert continued to speak confidently, “Humans are no different than particles suspended in water. We are constantly moving, the only difference is that the perturbations we receive are not small atomic collisions but rather electrical signals traveling through neurons, which dictate our actions!
“There are so many tools that can track human activities, like the internet, like mobile devices… If we a.n.a.lyze all of the data available, we can predict far more than boring stuff like advertis.e.m.e.nt reach, we can predict ten minutes, ten days, or even ten years into the future!
“Don’t you think that sounds exciting?”
Professor Krugman started to applaud.
However, he was the only one applauding…
Both Perelman and Schultz looked bewildered.
Even though Lu Zhou was also stunned, he remembered that he was discussing a similar problem with Professor Krugman back in Shanghai.
Which was the possibility of establis.h.i.+ng a mathematical model to predict large-scale human social behavior and productivity.
“That does sound interesting,” Lu Zhou said. He said, “This reminds me of Asimov’s Psychohistory… Is that where you got this theory from?”
“No! My theory came from a scientific point of view… Okay, I admit that I was inspired a little from Asimov, but I’m not talking about a fantasy novel here. This is a serious academic problem!”
“Okay, let’s a.s.sume that collective human behavior is predictable, but… so what?” Schultz frowned and said, “Even your behaviors, even the observation itself, will affect the experiment, it will produce unpredictable results. This is meaningless and almost impossible to achieve.”
“Jesus, what’s the point of researching wave-particle duality then? Don’t you think predicting the future is an exciting research project? Even if we prove that it is possible to predict the future, our names will be in history books!”
Obviously, Professor Albert and Krugman came to St. Petersburg to persuade Perelman to join their research team.
First of all, only a scholar like Perelman would be able to help their project. More importantly, Perelman seemed to be the type that could be easily convinced.
The reason he solved the Poincaré conjecture was that he talked with Hamilton about the conjecture in America…
Albert became more and more excited.
Krugman tried to tell his friend to calm down but to no avail.
The result was predictable; Perelman rejected them on the spot.
Even though he didn’t think they were complete idiots, Perelman said in a firm tone that he didn’t find it interesting to apply mathematics to such boring things.
As for Schultz, he was determined to achieve a higher level of mathematical status. He wouldn’t waste his time on side-projects. Thus, he politely declined and said he might consider it if he had time.
As for Lu Zhou…
Honestly, he was quite interested in this novel problem.
Unlike Schultz and Perelman, he loved to use mathematics to influence other disciplines and sciences.
And just like Professor Krugman had said, predicting the future was a fascinating problem.
Even though he wasn’t interested in economics, nor did he care about social sciences, this problem seemed novel and unique.
But he didn’t give an immediate answer.
“I need some time to think about it. I don’t plan on researching any other problems until I solve Riemann’s hypothesis.”
After hearing this, Albert slumped his shoulders and looked deeply disappointed.
In his opinion, Lu Zhou was just politely refusing them.
“After solving Riemann’s hypothesis… Jesus, you might as well just say no!”
Krugman looked a little down. He looked at Perelman and Lu Zhou, then spoke.
“Regardless, I hope you can reconsider.”
Lu Zhou: “Actually, I have a question.”
Krugman: “… What question?”
Lu Zhou said, “If the future really is predictable, is that a good thing?”
Krugman said, “I can’t answer that, that’s a question outside of academics. Just like how when Albert wrote his book ‘Linked: The New Science of Networks’, he didn’t expect his theories to be used by Silicon Valley giants to make advertising profits…”
Albert wasn’t happy.
“Hey, don’t say that! Big data is not just for advertising! It has helped counter-terrorism, medical care, urban planning, and more!”
Professor Krugman ignored Albert and continued to speak, “One day, he suddenly found me and said he planned on turning this theory into a reality. My first reaction was to reject him, but in the end, I decided to work with him.”
Lu Zhou asked, “Why?”
“Because whether it’s theoretical research or applied research, scholars shouldn’t be the one characterizing whether or not a technology is evil. Is nuclear fission technology evil? Most people in 1945 would think so, but looking back at it now, maybe having a powerful weapon keeps the world peaceful.
“So, I think we should look at this from the academic perspective. We’re just studying the possibility of predicting the future, not what we should do with it.
“As for whether or not we should use this technology, our civilization will make a decision.”
Professor Krugman looked at Lu Zhou sincerely. After a while, Lu Zhou nodded.
“I know what you mean.
“We can talk about this in depth in the future maybe.”
Krugman nodded. Albert shrugged and said, “I look forward to that day.”
Even though he was a physicist, he had heard about Riemann’s hypothesis.
Other mathematical conjectures were difficult, but at least people were making progress.
Riemann’s hypothesis was like a lonely mountain, with no one even coming close to climbing it.
It might even take centuries for someone to solve it…
Maybe Albert wouldn’t be around by then.