Chapter 1009

“…… Predict the future? "

Touching his chin full beard, Perelman frowned and said, "what does this have to do with math?"

Schultz also nodded, looking at Albert, who stood up from the sofa in perplexity. "With all due respect, it sounds more like a concept in Hollywood blockbusters."

"Of course it matters!" Albert replied excitedly, "predict the future through mathematical methods. That's what we are doing!"

There was silence again in the apartment.

Krugman reached for Albert with a headache on his face, but the latter didn't listen to his reminding, instead, he threw his hand away and continued to stare at Perelman with bright eyes, hoping to get his approval.

However

His hopes were clearly dashed.

This time, it wasn't just Perelman. Even Schulz's face had a strange expression.

It's like watching a fool

"I think you think too much."

With a slight cough, Shultz broke the silence in the room and continued to speak his mind.

"Predicting the future is no longer a mathematical field. I don't think it's even a physical field. I think it's a field of philosophers' thinking. After all, you see, there are so many uncertain factors that will influence our thoughts, and we ourselves are also uncertain for many times. For example, if it rained today, maybe I would not be here -- "

" but the weather is predictable! It's hard to predict a person's journey, but a group of people's journey is predictable. The traffic data and weather forecast of New York City in the past five years can support my opinion! "

Schultz's words were strongly interrupted, and Albert continued in a firm and excited voice, "human beings are not different from the dust suspended in the water in essence. Most of the time, we are not only moving. The difference is that the disturbance we are suffering is not a small invisible atomic collision and position interference, but a series of tasks and responsibilities And the vibration of invisible neurons of motivation! "

"We have many tools to track human activities, such as the Internet, such as our mobile devices Count all the data that we can predict. As long as we can analyze it, what we can do is not only to give them fixed-point push ads, which is boring. We can even predict the future of ten minutes, ten days, and even more! "

"Don't you think it sounds exciting?"

The voice fell and Professor Krugman clapped.

However, he seems to be the only one who applauds

Whether Perelman or Schulz, the thought in his heart has almost been written on his face.

However, although the idea of land boat was similar to theirs, and he also thought it was a bit absurd, he suddenly recalled that when he was in Shanghai last time, Professor Krugman and himself seemed to discuss this issue.

Through the establishment of mathematical model, the large-scale human social behavior and production life are modeled, so as to achieve the purpose of predicting the future.

"It sounds interesting," Lu said with interest, although he didn't applaud. "Your statement reminds me of Asimov's psychohistory Did you copy this theory from base? "

"No! I'm explaining my theory from a scientific point of view Well, I'll admit that Asimov has a little inspiration for my theory, but what I'm going to talk about here is not the point of view in some science fiction, but a serious academic issue! "

"Well, let's assume that human collective behavior can be predicted, but What can this do? " Schulz frowned and said, "any behavior you do, even the observation itself, can have an unpredictable effect on the experimental results. It's not only meaningless, it's hard to do it. "

"It's all right! God, do we study wave particle duality of light to direct photons? Don't you think my prediction of the future is an exciting subject in itself? Even if we just prove that this is feasible, our name is enough to be recorded in history! "

Obviously, Professor Albert and Professor Krugman chose to come to St. Petersburg to persuade Perelman to join them.

One is that only scholars of Perelman's level can complete their huge plan. The most important thing is that Perelman belongs to the type that is better to speak in the academic review.

Even the reason why Poincare's conjecture was solved at the beginning was that when he talked with Hamilton on his way to the United States, he heard the latter talk about a kind of singularity called "cigar", and complained that the problem had troubled him for many years

However, Albert's mood became more and more excited because of the repeated rebuttals, and persuasion began to turn into a quarrel.

Krugman tried to alert his friends, but it was useless.

The final result was predictable, and Perelman rejected them on the spot.Although he didn't look at them with the same eyes as an idiot, he said in a firm tone that he didn't see any interesting places or think mathematics was used for such boring things.

As for Schulz, who is committed to achieving higher achievements in mathematics, of course, he will not be interested in this kind of aside subject, so it is only a polite expression, and he may consider research when he has time.

As for the exact time of the day, it may be only he himself knows.

As for the land boat

To be honest, he is still a little interested in this new way of thinking.

Unlike Schulz and Perelman, he is in favor of actively radiating the influence of mathematics into other disciplines and using mathematics to change other sciences.

And as Professor Krugman said, predicting the future is a romantic topic in itself.

Although he has little interest in economics and no interest in social science research, he is surprised that there are not many rejections for such a subject that seems to be built on the air loft?

But he didn't promise them immediately.

"I need a little time to think about it, at least until I solve Riemann's conjecture, I'm not going to study any other problems."

However, after hearing this, Albert's shoulders were down, and the expression on his face had become a deep disappointment.

In his opinion, this sentence is probably the same as Schulz's saying, and it can be said that it is not a euphemism to refuse

"After solving the Riemann conjecture God, I've never heard a more gentle refusal! "

The expression on Krugman's face was also full of regrets. He took a look at Perelman, then at the boat, sighed.

"Anyway, I hope you think about it."

Lu Zhou: "in fact, I have a question that has always been very confusing."

Krugman: " What's the problem? "

After thinking about it, Lu Zhou continued, "if the future is really predictable, is this really a good thing for us?"

Krugman was silent for a while and said, "it's hard for me to answer you this way. This is a question outside of academic. Like Mr. Albert, I believe when he wrote the book "links", I didn't expect that his theory would be taken by internet giants and advertisers in Silicon Valley to squeeze consumers' wallets... "

On hearing this, Albert was not happy at once, and cried out.

"Hey, can't you say that? Big data is not just for advertising! We've enjoyed the benefits of this technology on counter-terrorism, health care, urban planning and so on. Why do you always keep this in mind? "

Ignoring Albert's call, Prof Krugman continued.

“…… One day, he suddenly came to me and said that he was going to turn the theory in the book "outbreak" into reality. My first reaction was that this guy certainly didn't plan to do anything good, but I finally accepted his invitation. "

Lu Zhou: "why?"

"Because whether it's theoretical research or applied science research, it's not scholars who should determine whether a technology is evil or not. Is fission technology evil? From the point of view of 1945, most people may think so, but looking back today, maybe it is because of such super weapons that our world can still maintain peace in the extreme situation of a superpower going to collapse, which was unimaginable half a century ago. "

"So I think what we're talking about is just an academic issue. What we're studying is to predict the future in theory, not to do anything with it."

"As for whether or not to use this technology, or even to define it, our civilization will naturally make a choice."

After listening to this, looking at Professor Krugman's sincere line of sight, Lu Zhou nodded softly after being silent for a while.

"I see what you mean."

"If we have a chance in the future, let's talk about it."

Krugman nodded, and Albert, who was sitting next to him, made a helpless expression, shrugged and said, "I wish I had this chance, and I wish I could wait until that day."

Even if he studied physics, he had heard about the difficulty of Riemann's conjecture.

Other mathematical conjectures are difficult, but at least we can see the way to solve the problem.

But Riemann guessed that it was like a lonely mountain standing there alone.

No one knows. It will stand for centuries

He wasn't there at that time. It was a problem.