Chapter 1388: The Scary Question
Lu Zhou was surprised.
Mathematics was the most academically pure discipline. He originally thought that his teammates would more or less feel a little taken advantage of. But after he confessed all of this, he was easily forgiven.
“Actually… You don’t have to apologize at all.” Schultz said, “You contributed at least 50% in solving this conjecture… or even 60%. I think it’s not just me, Perelman and Professor Mochizuki would also agree with this.”
Although Schultz was still muddled, he had recovered from the initial shock.
After hearing Schultz’s words, s.h.i.+nichi Mochizuki nodded in agreement.
“On this point, I agree with Professor Schultz. It is a genius idea to use the refinement of Baker’s theorem as the starting point to construct the new mathematical language.”
Perelman stood beside them. He spoke concisely with a blank face.
“I don’t care, but it would have been better to tell us beforehand.”
Lu Zhou responded, “I wanted to, but the level of confidentiality on this has been top secret until now. Even now, only part of the information is disclosed. Also, I have been focusing on researching the ABC conjecture, so I have not paid attention to these things.”
“Speaking of which, I’m still a little bit confused.” Schultz’s tone was full of disbelief as he said, “Extraterrestrial civilization… G.o.d, I’ve only seen this in Hollywood movies. Does it really exist? Are you sure it’s not an April Fool’s joke?”
Lu Zhou spoke with an awkward expression.
“April Fool was last month… Regardless of what is going on on Mars, I am sure that this is definitely not an April Fool’s joke.
Perelman was still expressionless. He didn’t care about aliens. Mochizuki s.h.i.+nichi’s eyes began to s.h.i.+ne with excitement.
His shoulders trembled. He reached out and took off his gla.s.ses.
“It’s like…”
Lu Zhou: “Like?”
Professor Mochizuki nodded and continued excitedly, “It’s like so cool!”
“…”
Lu Zhou wasn’t sure whether it was “cool”.
But one thing he was certain was that the whole world was shocked by the news that had been made public through the Chinese press conferences.
Human civilization was not alone in the universe!
Although this had always been the speculation of many astronomers and science fiction writers and had been recognized by many ordinary people, it was not until the day when the first contact occurred that this speculation changed from an unfounded guess to a conclusion based on facts.
Not just that, but after China released the first contact recordings, it caused a turmoil in the world.
ABC conjecture!
Aliens actually use the ABC conjecture as the threshold for conversation?!
What does that mean…
That they don’t communicate with unintelligent creatures that can’t even solve the ABC conjecture?
Whether it was Weibo or Twitter, the trending searches were unsurprisingly occupied by Martian civilization-related terms. Any news related to this was flooded with comments.
This was the first contact between human civilization and a civilization outside of Earth. It was the only contact that had received feedback so far. The idea of aliens turned into a catharsis, like a flood bursting out of a riverbank.
“Don’t answer them, this must be a trap! Am I the only one who knows the dark forest axioms? If this is solved, then it gives the opposite party the motivation to destroy us. If it is not solved, it shows that we are weak! Sigh, we’re dead either way.”
“Scary… No wonder it was reported some time ago that the Ministry of Science and Technology of China issued a reward of 100 million yuan for the ABC conjecture. It turned out to be because of this.”
“It’s 100 million yuan per year! But mathematics doesn’t need funding, right? Unless you set up a mathematics research inst.i.tute, even 1 million is plenty.”
“Does anyone from mathematics understand the situation? Has this ABC conjecture been solved? Wikipedia seems to say it has been solved.”
“No, it hasn’t! Although many people have claimed that they have solved the ABC conjecture, so far there is no proof that has been recognized by the academic community. The most cutting-edge work in this field is mainly done by Professor K. Gyory on the inferences about the S-unit equation on the number field. Also from the LSPM research group… Apparently, they have achieved amazing results, and Professor Fefferman spoke highly of this result, but not everyone is optimistic about it.”
“What is the LSPM research group?”
“Lu Zhou, Schultz, Perelman, and s.h.i.+nichi Mochizuki… The initials of the four people.”
“F*ck, really?!”
In addition to normal discussions, there were also various conspiracy theories.
For example, some people suspected that this was a clue deliberately forged by the Mars landing office. After all, no one else could go to Mars to confirm it anyway. As for the purpose, it was to create a bargaining chip. Others were speculating that, in fact, the Martian civilization had not perished at all, but had reached an unimaginable level. The so-called ruins and clues to extraterrestrial civilization were only released to cover their existence.
These theories alone could be written into a novel.
Discussions were happening outside the internet as well.
The academic community’s opinion on this contact was also full of controversy.
Professor Yuval Harari, a history professor from the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, was interviewed by BBC.
As a high-profile emerging historian, his works included the “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” trilogy, which had almost become a pop-science textbook due to its unique narrative style and perspective on issues.
As for why he was invited instead of an expert on extraterrestrial civilization or astrophysics, it was because the producer of the BBC doc.u.mentary felt that, for this kind of discovery that was completely new, perhaps the brains of science fiction authors would be more convincing to the general public.
Professor Yuval spoke in an intriguing tone to the camera and microphone.
“Fortunately, we found neighbors that live next to us, but this is also unfortunate at the same time. Although we finally discovered their existence, it is very likely that they have been observing us on Mars for a long time.”
The reporter immediately raised a question that they prepared beforehand.
“In your opinion, are you not optimistic about the first contact between Chinese astronauts and extraterrestrial civilization on Mars?”
“First contact? What is the first contact? Was the first contact between humans and bacteria two million years ago or after microscopes are invented?” Professor Yuval smiled and continued, “In fact, it’s as if we don’t know anything about their language, yet they can communicate with us in any language on Earth. The difference between us and them may be greater than the difference between us and bacteria.
“And what is even scarier is that, do you think bacteria is a civilization?
“This a question we all have to face.”