The Science Fiction World of Xueba

Pang Xuelin shook his head helplessly.

Until now, he had been watching Sophon's every move, trying to find the slightest trace of artificial intelligence from her.

But I never found out that she was different from ordinary people.

Even from her body, Pang Xuelin faintly felt the existence of personality and individuality.

Is the technology of the Trisolaran civilization really strong enough to create such a powerful artificial intelligence?

Or, Sophon is simply a strong artificial intelligence created by the system, or even a life with self-awareness?

Pang Xuelin didn't know.

But he had a faint feeling that in the future, when Tomoko returned to him, it might bring some different colors to his life.

...

Two days later, Pang Xuelin, accompanied by Terence Tao, went to San Antonio, Texas to attend the American Mathematical Society's Cole Algebra Prize presentation ceremony.

At this award ceremony, many top scholars in the mathematics field came.

Such as Pierre Deligne, Peter Sarneck, Manuel Barvaga, Vietnamese mathematician Wu Baozhu, Chinese mathematician Zhang Yitang and so on.

The bonus is not too much, only 20,000 US dollars, but it can be regarded as another heavyweight award that Pang Xuelin has won after the Millennium Award and the Double Award.

At the dinner after the awards ceremony, Pang Xuelin became the focus of the whole dinner.

After dealing with the congratulations from many scholars, Pang Xuelin turned around and saw a fat Chinese scholar holding a glass of champagne and looking at him with a smile.

It was Zhang Yitang who came.

In the Chinese mathematics circle, Zhang Yitang should be regarded as a late blooming mathematician with legendary experience.

Zhang Yitang was born in 1955. In his early years, he studied in Peking University's Mathematics Level 78 and was one of the best students at that time.

In 1985, Zhang Yitang went to Purdue University in the United States to study for a doctorate after graduating from the Department of Mathematics, Peking University.

It's a pity that Zhang Yitang had bad luck for eight lifetimes, and met Mo Zongjian, a doctoral supervisor who almost ruined his life.

Zhang Yitang's doctoral dissertation announced the proof of Jacobi's conjecture.

The Jacobi conjecture is also an unrivaled problem in the mathematics world, but Zhang Yitang was able to solve it at a young age, which caused a great sensation at the time.

Many media have reported that the mathematical skills in the paper are very high.

It is a pity that the part of Zhang Yitang's own proof is impeccable, and the lemma quoted by his tutor was pointed out by many mathematicians as wrong.

But his mentor just refused to admit it.

This is already very strange in the mathematics world.

What's even more frightening is that, as a mentor, Mo Zongjian also slandered Zhang Yitang's personality because of this incident, and even didn't want Zhang Yitang to graduate.

Purdue University's Ph.D. can be graduated in three years, and cannot be graduated after more than seven years.

Zhang Yitang was dragged to the seventh year, and he couldn't graduate,

Zhang Yitang's life will be dragged down.

In the end, Purdue University couldn't stand it anymore, and organized other mathematics professors to read Zhang Yitang's paper. Everyone agreed that although there were mistakes in that paper (actually it was Mo's fault, Zhang Yitang couldn't be blamed), but the level was very high, enough After graduation, he forcibly intervened to let Zhang Yitang graduate.

Even so, Mo Zongjian did not let Zhang Yitang go. Not only did he not give a letter of recommendation (if his tutor abroad does not give a letter of recommendation, it often means that the student has misbehavior or has major academic problems), this guy even took advantage of him. Zhang Yitang's influence in the academic world made it impossible for Zhang Yitang to find an academic job.

When he was at his worst, Zhang Yitang could only do odd jobs in restaurants to make ends meet. He was still in his fifties and had no family or business. He was always alone, without a house, car, or stable income.

It was not until later that one of his younger students at Peking University who worked at Intel had a very difficult math problem with computer algorithms and found him. He spent three weeks in his spare time and easily solved it, so he obtained a very high-level patent. Update the fastest computer terminal::/

So he recommended him to the University of New Hampshire as the lowest-level lecturer, which saved him from the embarrassment of continuing to earn a living.

The core of American academia is the tenured faculty system, which is divided into three levels: assistant professor, associate professor and professor. These professorships are scholars in the traditional sense, carrying out both teaching activities and scientific research.

Once tenured, these professors can do whatever research they want. Even if there is no funding, no progress in scientific research, or even no longer scientific research, the school cannot expel them without legitimate reasons.

The lecturer is only a temporary teaching position, with heavy teaching tasks and no support for scientific research.

Under such circumstances, Zhang Yitang has been a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire for 14 years.

Until 2013, Zhang Yitang finally became a blockbuster, and published a proof of a weakened version of the twin prime number conjecture in the "Annual of Mathematics", proving that there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers, the difference of which is less than 70 million.

Although 70 million is a large number, if the result is true, it will be the first time anyone has formally proved that there are infinitely many pairs of prime numbers whose distance is smaller than a certain value.

This year, Zhang Yitang was fifty-eight years old.

In the world of mathematics, being able to make such a world-renowned mathematical achievement at such an age is not unprecedented, but it is also an unprecedented feat.

If he hadn't met Mo Zongjian, with Zhang Yitang's talent, he would have become a generation of top mathematics masters.

"Professor Zhang, hello!"

Pang Xuelin took the initiative to raise his glass and walked towards Zhang Yitang.

Zhang Yitang also raised his glass and said with a smile, "Professor Pang, congratulations!"

"Thanks!"

Pang Xuelin laughed.

Zhang Yitang said: "Professor Pang, if you are free after the dinner, I have some questions about Ponzi's geometry, and I would like to ask you for advice!"

Pang Xuelin laughed and said, "Of course it's no problem. After we return to the hotel later, I'll find you in the room."::

Zhang Yitang nodded and told Pang Xuelin his room number.

Then, the two chatted for a while, and Zhang Yitang chose to leave.

At this time, Deligne came over with a wine glass.

"Professor Pang, you can't shirk this time. You finally came to the United States and gave a report in Princeton."

Deligne smiled.

Pang Xuelin couldn't help feeling a little headache.

Deligne had invited him to give lectures in Princeton many times, but Pang Xuelin had shied away several times on the grounds that there were too many domestic affairs.

When he came to the United States this time, he had promised several universities to give reports, and it would not be appropriate to omit Princeton.

But now, Qi Xin is studying in Princeton, and Pang Xuelin is going to Princeton. It would be too deliberate not to visit her.

After hesitating for a moment, Pang Xuelin nodded and agreed.

Even if we meet Qi Xin at that time, it's no big deal to meet as old friends.

Pang Xuelin smiled and said, "Professor Deligne, that's fine, but I have already accepted invitations from several other universities. If I go to Princeton, I guess I will have to wait until the end of October at least."

Deligne smiled and said, "It's okay, we welcome you anytime."