Chapter 777: Great Ideas Often Come From Accidents
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Princeton University.
Many professors were seen drinking coffee inside a cafe located on the second floor of a building. This was their favorite place to talk about academia, or simply read a book and enjoy the peaceful afternoon.
Edward Witten was a frequent visitor of this cafe.
Witten was a physicist with a Fields Medal under his belt. Most students had an enormous amount of respect for this man. Students often took the initiative to greet him or talk about obscure physics problems.
The old man happily responded to these students.
He and Professor Fefferman were both approachable people.
One day, after Witten finished his lecture, he came to this cafe. He ordered a cup of coffee and sat by the window. He was surprised when he saw someone walk up the stairs and into the cafe.
“Angus?” Witten’s eyes were wide open. He put away his notebook and looked at Professor Angus. Witten then joked, “My friend, why are you back so soon?”
“Because I already have the answer I need.” Professor Angus slowly sat down across from Witten and paused for a while. He said, “You are right, even though I talked to him for less than an hour, I learned a lot.”
Witten smiled and said, “Oh, really? Can you share what you learned?”
“These new generations of scholars are more optimistic than us, and they have unique ideas. I was too pessimistic before. I thought the world was doomed, but this gives me hope for humanity.”
“I’m glad you’re more optimistic now.” Witten looked at his watch and said, “I have a physics lecture in a bit, I have to go.”
“Go ahead… Speaking of which, why are you interested in teaching undergraduate students?” Professor Angus said with a strange look on his face.
“Because life always ends… I think you’re right, we will all eventually die, but some things can be pa.s.sed on.” Witten smiled and finished his coffee. He put down the cup and said, “Maybe one day in the future, my students can unify the four forces.”
Professor Angus joked, “Or maybe they won’t.”
Witten smiled and said, “Haha, hopefully not! Regardless, I’ll be dead… Anyway, do you want to make a bet?”
Professor Angus said, “No problem, what are we betting? It’s not like you can bring money to heaven.”
Witten joked, “You never know, maybe you can use money in heaven.”
“We’ll find out soon!”
Witten left.
Professor Angus stayed in the cafe.
He quietly looked at the Princeton campus outside the window. He watched the students walk down the tree-lined path and began to daydream.
After a while, he took out a crumpled notebook.
This was his memo. Because of his decreasing memory, he often carried this with him. Whenever he had doubts about whether something happened or not, he would take out his notebook and read it.
Other than writing down errands such as “paying bills” and “repairing faucets”, he would occasionally write down inspirational thoughts…
Professor Angus stared at a blank page and pondered for a long time. The pen in his hand hovered above the page.
It seemed like he finally figured out something.
“Using past methods to speculate the future is incorrect. We need a new method to predict the future…”
He muttered to himself and scribbled down a line on the notebook.
[Universe Economics.]
He paused for a while, then crossed out the line. He then wrote down another line.
[Future Sociology.]
“This name sounds more interesting…”
Great ideas would often come at unexpected times.
Theories that could impact the entire world were born like this…
…
The second week after Professor Angus left, Lu Zhou heard an interesting rumor.
Princeton opened a new course for Professor Angus Deaton, and it was named the “Sociology of the Future”. This course didn’t teach any specific theories. It was just a general way of thinking about the future.
Even though the name sounded a bit strange, many students still signed up for this course since it was taught by a n.o.bel Prize laureate.
Apparently, Professor Angus was writing a book for this subject.
Even though the specific content of the course hadn’t been made public yet, according to an old friend of Angus, this book was like a boring scientific fiction novel with no academic foundation.
However, the old friend also said that this book might be really useful in the future…
Lu Zhou heard these stories from his ex-students in Princeton.
Qin Yue went from a lecturer to a professor. Hardy, who returned to teach at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, became one of the number theory leaders in Brazil… Of course, Brazilian mathematicians weren’t particularly good at number theory research.
As for Vera, apparently she was researching the Riemann’s conjecture with Molina. Regardless of whether she achieved any research results, having the courage to challenge this great conjecture was an achievement in and of itself.
Wei Wen was about to get a PhD from Princeton, while Jerick was recruited by the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology Inst.i.tute of Computational Materials…
Generally speaking, his students had done quite well for themselves.
Lu Zhou was pleased to have taught them.
After returning Qin Yue’s email, Lu Zhou stretched and was about to kill some time on Arxiv. Suddenly, he heard knocking on his office door.
Lu Zhou cleared his throat and spoke.
“Come in.”
The door was pushed open, and w.a.n.g Peng walked in with a serious face.
Before Lu Zhou could speak, w.a.n.g Peng spoke first.
“Bad news!”
Lu Zhou frowned.
“What happened?”
w.a.n.g Peng paused for half a second and sighed.
“Biosphere A suffered an attack from an unknown armed force. According to the local troops, the damage was substantial…”
Unknown armed force… attacked us?
The f*ck?!
Lu Zhou grabbed his armrest and immediately stood up.
“Is everyone okay?”
w.a.n.g Peng said, “Militants were killed in combat. The researchers and foreign experts are all safe… They’ve been reallocated to a local city for safety reasons. The local troops have dispatched and blocked all roads in the nearby area, and they are investigating the militants’ backgrounds, but…”
Lu Zhou was a little relieved, however, the “but” made him nervous again.
“But?”
w.a.n.g Peng spoke.
“The damage to Biosphere A is serious.”