Chapter 777

Princeton University.

In the caf é on the second floor of the building on the side of the Boulevard, many professors usually choose to have a drink here in their spare time, or exchange academic issues with peers, or hold a book to read quietly, or simply enjoy the peace in the afternoon.

Edward Witten has been a regular here since he settled down in Princeton.

For the physicist who has won the fields prize, who is just a line away from the Nobel Prize, most of the students here respect him from the bottom of their hearts. Many people greet him enthusiastically after meeting him, or ask for some physics problems that are too obscure for beginners.

The old man is very happy to answer these things.

In Princeton, where the strong are like clouds, he and Professor feverman are rare masters who are approachable and don't have any arrogance.

One day, after class, Professor Witten came here as usual, ordered a cup of coffee, sat by the window, spread out the notes taken out of his pocket, but suddenly he saw an unexpected person coming up from the stairs.

"Angus?" With a little surprise, he opened his eyes wide, closed the slightly old note spread out on the table, looked at Professor Angus who came to his side, and Witten jokingly said, "my friend, how can you come back so soon?"

"Because I've got the answer I want," said Professor Angus, leaning his walking stick against the table. He sat down slowly across from Witten and paused for a long time. "You're right. I've benefited a lot from communicating with him for less than an hour."

Professor Witten smiled. "Oh? Can you share your harvest with me? "

"Their generation of scholars is more optimistic and unique than us. I used to be pessimistic that the world was probably over, but now I have a new perspective

"I'm glad you've got something," Witten said mildly, looking at the time on his watch. "I'll have a physics class later, so I won't accompany you."

"Go When did you start to be interested in undergraduates? " Professor Angus asked with a strange look at him.

"Because life has an end I think you are right, we will inevitably sleep forever, but some things can be passed on, "Witten smiled, drank the rest of the coffee, put down the cup in his hand, and continued quietly," maybe one day, one of my students can see the unity of the four basic forces for me and the string that makes up our world. "

Professor Angus said with a wry smile, "maybe they all fart."

Witten laughed and said, "ha ha, maybe! Whether positive or negative, it's an answer to me Do you want to make a bet? "

Professor Angus: "no problem, but the question is what are you going to bet on? Whether there is money in heaven or not is not certain. Even if I win, it is not good. "

"I think there will be, after all, we sent so many economists," Witten joked

"Let's talk about it then!"

Witten's gone.

Professor Angus stayed in the caf é and continued to sit, except for one person who could talk with him.

Quietly looking out of the window of the campus, watching the students downstairs walk through the mall, for a while he saw some trance.

After a long time, he slowly took out a crumpled notebook from his arms.

This is his memo. Because he forgets things occasionally when he is old, he often carries such a thing with him. When he doubts whether he has forgotten something important, he will look it over.

In addition to recording such trivia as "paying bills" and "repairing faucets", occasionally he will write down his inspiration that comes out of his ordinary life suddenly to prevent it from slipping away from his thin silver hair

Staring at the blank page of the paper, Professor Angus pondered for a long time, holding the tip of the pen in his hand like a rusty dagger, quivering gently at the top of the note.

After a while, he seemed to have figured out something. His eyebrows were loose.

“…… It's not right to speculate about the future with the method of the past. What the future needs is the method of the future, and Thinking beyond reality. "

He murmured to himself what others could not understand, and then scribbled down a line on the blank note.

After a pause, he crossed it out with a pen, wrote a new line and whispered to himself.

[sociology of the future]

"this name sounds more interesting..."

Great ideas are often born out of casual thinking.

A theory that has a great influence on later generations was born inadvertently

……

Just the second week after sending Professor Angus away, Lu Zhou heard an interesting rumor.

A professor of economics named Angus Deaton, Princeton opened a new course called "sociology of the future". This course does not teach any specific theoretical knowledge, just a kind of thinking about the future.Although the name sounds strange, there are still many students signing up for it because the course is offered by Nobel Prize winners.

Professor Angus, who opened the course, is said to be working on a book on the subject.

Although the specific content has not been made public, according to one of his old friends who has read the manuscript, this serious academic work is more like a science fiction without a protagonist than an academic monograph, and it is quite boring to read.

But the old friend also said that some of the points raised in it are very interesting. Maybe they can be used in the future

These interesting stories are all learned by Lu Zhou from the students who teach in Princeton.

Over the years, Qin Yue has become a professor from a lecturer. Hardy, who returned to the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil as early as he could, even became one of the academic leaders of the local mathematician school Of course, it may have something to do with the fact that Brazil's mathematics circle, which is "subject oriented", is not good at number theory research.

As for Vera, she is said to be working with Molina of the Institute of higher learning to challenge the Riemann conjecture, the highest crown in mathematics. It doesn't matter if there is any result. It's a very gratifying thing for the timid girl to have the courage to challenge this century's problems.

And Wei Wen, who's going to get his Ph.D. from Princeton, and Jericho, who's been recruited by the Institute of computational materials at MIT

On the whole, a few of his students are doing quite well.

As their professor, Lu Zhou is also very pleased.

After returning an email to Qin Yue, who sent it to him, he got lazy in Lu Zhousheng and was about to go to arXiv to see if there were any interesting mathematical papers. Suddenly, the peace in the office was broken by the knocking outside the door.

After clearing his throat, the boat said.

"Come in, please."

The door opened gently, and Wang Peng came in with a serious face.

Seeing his expression, Lu Zhou didn't have time to ask, "what's the matter?" he began.

"Bad news!"

The boat frowned slightly.

"What happened?"

Wang Peng hesitated for half a second and said with a heavy voice.

"Biosphere a was attacked by unidentified armed forces. According to the news sent by the local forces, it suffered heavy losses..."

Unidentified armed forces a surprise attack?

Lying trough?!

As soon as the boat heard this, it grasped the handrail subconsciously and rose abruptly from the office chair.

"Is everyone OK?"

Wang Peng: "all the militants have been killed in the crossfire. The researchers and foreign experts present are safe and sound It has been transferred to nearby cities for resettlement. Local forces have moved out in an emergency, blocking all roads in the vicinity, and are investigating the background of the militants and the entry channels, but... "

Lu Zhou just breathed a sigh of relief, and his heart beat slowed down with difficulty, again because the word "Dan" was raised.

"But?"

Wang Peng continued with a heavy voice.

“…… The loss of biosphere A is said to be very serious. "