Chapter 1010 The Atmosphere Suddenly Becomes Philosophical

"……Fortune-telling?"

Touching the beard that covered his chin, Perelman frowned and said, "Does this have anything to do with mathematics?"

Schultz also nodded, and looked at Albert who stood up from the sofa with a puzzled face, "With all due respect, this sounds more like a concept that only appears in Hollywood blockbusters."

"Of course it's related!" Albert replied in an excited tone, "Predicting the future through mathematical methods is what we're working on!"

The apartment fell into silence again.

Krugman stretched out his hand with a headache on his face, but the latter did not obey his reminder, but shook his hand away, and continued to stare at Perelman, Hope to get his approval.

However……

His hopes were evidently in vain.

This time, it wasn't just Perelman, even Schultz had a strange expression on his face.

It's like watching an idiot...

"I think you guys are thinking too much."

With a light cough, Schultz broke the silence in the room, and continued to express his thoughts.

"Predicting the future is no longer the domain of mathematics, I don't think it's even physics, I think it's already the domain of philosophers. After all, you see, there are so many uncertain factors that will sway our thinking, and many of us The time is also fluctuating, for example, if it rains today, maybe I won’t be here—”

"But the weather is predictable! It is difficult to predict the change of a person's itinerary, but the itinerary of a group of people is predictable. The traffic data and weather forecast of New York City in the past five years can support my point of view!"

The wording interrupted Schultz's words forcefully, and Albert continued in a firm and excited tone, "Human beings are not fundamentally different from dust suspended in water. We are also in constant motion most of the time. The difference is only that we The perturbations received are not tiny invisible atomic collisions and positional interferences, but are driven by invisible neuronal chatter that translates into a series of tasks, responsibilities, and motivations!"

"We have many tools that can track human activities, such as the Internet, such as our mobile devices...to count all the data we can predict, as long as we can analyze it, what we can do is not just to point them We can even predict the future of ten minutes, ten days, or even further into the future for such a boring thing as pushing advertisements!"

"Don't you think that sounds exciting?"

After the words fell, Professor Krugman applauded.

However, he seems to be the only one applauding...

Whether it is Perelman or Schultz, the thoughts in their hearts are almost written on their faces.

However, although Lu Zhou's thoughts were similar to theirs, and he also felt that this idea was a bit absurd, but at this time he suddenly recalled that when he was in Shanghai last time, Professor Krugman seemed to discuss this issue with himself.

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

"This sounds very interesting," Lu Zhou said with interest, although he didn't applaud, "Your statement reminds me of Asimov's 'psychohistory'... You got this theory from "Foundation" Did you copy it?"

"No! I'm explaining my theory from a scientific point of view... well, I admit, Asimov has inspired my theory a little bit, but I'm not here to discuss ideas from some science fiction novel , but a serious academic issue!"

"Well, let's assume that the collective behavior of human beings is indeed predictable, but... so what?" Schultz frowned and said, "Anything you do, even the observation itself, will have a negative impact on the experiment. The consequences are unpredictable. Not only is it pointless, it's hard to do."

"Whatever! God, are we studying the wave-particle duality of light to direct photons to do something? Don't you think that predicting the future itself is an exciting subject? Even if we just prove it It is feasible, and our names are enough to be recorded in history!"

Obviously, Professor Albert and Krugman chose to come to St. Petersburg in order to persuade Perelman to join their plan.

One reason is that only scholars of Perelman's level can complete their huge plan, and most importantly, from the perspective of academic circles, Perelman is also a relatively easy-to-talk kind of type.

Even the reason for solving the Poincaré conjecture at the beginning was because when he talked with Hamilton on his way to the United States, he heard the latter talk about a singularity called "cigar", and complained that this problem troubled him a lot years since...

However, because of repeated rebuttals, Albert became more and more emotional, and the persuasion had begun to change into a quarrel.

Krugman tried to remind his friend to pay attention, but to no avail.

And predictably, Perelman turned them down on the spot.

Although he didn't look at them like idiots, he still expressed in a firm tone that he didn't see anything interesting, and he didn't think mathematics was used for such boring things.

As for Schultz, who is committed to achieving higher achievements in mathematics, of course he will not be interested in such heretical topics, so he just politely expressed that he might consider researching someday when he has time.

As for when this day is, maybe only he knows.

As for Lu Zhou...

To be honest, he is still a little interested in this kind of novel thinking problem.

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

And as Professor Krugman said, predicting the future itself is a topic full of romanticism.

Although he has no interest in economics, and is not interested in social science research at all, he surprisingly does not have much rejection in his heart for this kind of subject that seems to be built on a loft in the air?

However, he did not agree to the two immediately.

"I need a little time to think about it, at least until I solve the Riemann Hypothesis, I don't plan to study other problems."

However, after hearing these words, Albert's shoulders drooped, and the expression on his face had turned into deep disappointment.

In his opinion, this sentence is probably the same as Schultz's set of rhetoric, and it can even be said that he refused without euphemism...

"After solving the Riemann conjecture...God, I have never heard a more euphemistic rejection than this!"

The expression on Krugman's face was also full of regret. He glanced at Perelman, then at Lu Zhou, and said with a sigh.

"Anyway, I still hope you can seriously consider it."

Lu Zhou: "Actually, I have a question that has been confusing me."

Krugman: "...what's the problem?"

After thinking about it, Lu Zhou continued: "If the future can really be predicted, is this really a good thing for us?"

Krugman was silent for a while and said: "It is difficult for me to answer you this way. This is a question outside of academics. Just like Mr. Albert, I believe that when he wrote the book "Link", he did not Thinking that my theory will be used by Internet giants and advertisers in Silicon Valley to squeeze consumers' wallets..."

Upon hearing this sentence, Albert suddenly became unhappy, and said loudly.

"Hey, don't say that please? Big data is not just for advertising! We are enjoying the benefits of this technology in all kinds of problems such as counter terrorism, medical treatment, urban planning, etc. Why do you always focus on this Don't let it go?"

Ignoring Albert's call, Professor Krugman continued.

"...One day he found me out of the blue and said that he was going to turn the theory in the book "Outbreak" into reality. My first reaction was that this guy definitely didn't intend to do anything good, but I finally accepted him. invitation."

Lu Zhou: "Why?"

"Because whether it is theoretical research or applied scientific research, scholars should not be the ones who should determine whether a technology is evil. Is nuclear fission technology evil? Thinking at this point in time in 1945, perhaps Most people would think so, but looking back today, maybe it is precisely because of such super weapons that our world can still maintain peace in the extreme situation of a superpower collapsing. It’s all unimaginable.”

"So I think what we're discussing is just an academic issue, and what we study is only the possibility of theoretically predicting the future, rather than using it to do something."

"As for whether to use this technology, or even to characterize this technology, our civilization will naturally make a choice."

After listening to these words, looking at Professor Krugman's sincere gaze, Lu Zhou nodded slightly after being silent for a while.

"I understand what you mean."

"If there is a chance in the future, let's talk about this issue."

Krugman nodded, and Albert, who was sitting next to him, made a helpless expression, shrugged and said, "I hope I really have this opportunity, and I hope I can wait until that day."

Even if he studies physics, he has heard about the difficulty of Riemann's conjecture.

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

But Riemann's guess is like a lonely mountain standing there alone.

No one knows, it will stand for centuries...

Whether he was still there at that time was a question.