Lu Zhou didn’t have to wait for long.
After a few sips of coffee, a printed resume was placed in front of him by a mechanical robot arm.
As always, Lu Zhou was satisfied with Xiao Ai’s speed and efficiency. He flipped through the paper and looked a little surprised.
He had some guesses in his mind, but he didn’t expect this professor’s resume to be this clean; it was almost too clean.
What did clean mean?
The professor had published many papers, and judging by his impact factor and citation numbers, they were quality papers. He also had a wide field of research, covering both biological neural networks and mechanical neural networks, making outstanding achievements in both fields.
However, the issue was that it seemed like he wasn’t having a good time at the Switzerland Neural Network Science Research Center.
He spent the last decade as a researcher. Even though he had his own laboratory and office, his salary and research funding were small, to say the least.
This was extremely unusual for a scholar in the field of neural network algorithms and biological neural networks. Even though his research area was unpopular, it didn’t make sense for his laboratory to be this small.
Either he was involved in academic misconduct, or he offended someone.
Basically, Lu Zhou’s conclusion was that this person had good research abilities, but wasn’t treated well by the academic community.
This reminded him of a partner he worked with a long time ago.
Which was Professor Sarrot, who left Silicon Valley and Cornell University to return to his hometown, Amsterdam.
Lu Zhou thought for a bit and spoke.
“Xiao Ai.”
Xiao Ai: [Yes? 0.0]
“Write an email for me and send it to Professor Lumiere’s mailbox,” Lu Zhou said. “I want to have a chat with him.”
…
The Switzerland Neural Network Science Research Center.
Professor Lumiere walked out of a classroom with a textbook in his hand. He had just finished giving a lecture to graduate students. He whistled to himself as he walked toward his office.
He turned on his computer and was going to check whether his post on the dark web had any updates. However, he noticed two emails with strange addresses sitting in his mailbox.
He opened the email and was shocked.
There was only one sentence.
[I heard you were looking for me?]
Professor Lumiere broke out in cold sweat, like he just saw a ghost.
Someone hacked my post on the dark web?
Not only did they find my IP address, but they also found my work email?
Even though the website wasn’t particularly secure, it was able to avoid being hacked by international police and maintain its illegal transactions for many years. Anyone without a background in advanced network security would have a hard time penetrating the website.
Not to mention that the website’s users were often expert hackers that loved to show off their skills by cracking websites…
Lumiere did not know that Lu Zhou had a quantum computer, hence any traditional network security protection methods were useless.
The only kind of servers Xiao Ai couldn’t get into were air-gapped computers. Anything connected to the Internet was vulnerable.
Lumiere felt like someone had just taken off his clothes, exposing everything underneath.
Lumiere trembled as he opened the second email.
He froze.
[Want to have a chat? About virtual reality.]
There was a 20mb attachment in the email.
Lumiere saw the attachment and hesitated.
However, he remembered that the other party was able to break through a dark web website, so there was no reason for them to send a rudimentary virus in the form of an email attachment. Thus, he downloaded the attachment and double-clicked it.
The software installation began.
Like he had expected, it was a communication software.
There was a basic audio call interface.
Soon after, he heard voices from his computer speaker.
“Hello, Professor Lumiere.”
“Hello, Dr. Z,” Professor Lumiere said with a confused face. He looked at the dark video screen and shrugged. He said, “It seems like you have found me.”
Lu Zhou: “I’m just returning the favor.”
Lumiere: “Believe me, I had no ill intentions… I just wanted to talk with you about the paper.”
Professor Lumiere cleared his throat and spoke.
“Actually, I am also in this area of research, and I have made some good progress. But as you know, this area is extremely unpopular. Even though some companies in Silicon Valley are in this area, those blood-sucking mosquitoes only care about profit. They want us to do the research, but don’t want to give us funding.”
Lu Zhou frowned and said, “So, you’re in a tight spot?”
“Not quite, actually, my research funding is plentiful.”
Professor Lumiere then said, “Do you want to come to Switzerland? I can find you a place to work and live. I can even get you a visa. I’m at the amazing Switzerland Neural Network Science Research Center. And I’m the… director of the institute… I have a big laboratory, I’m sure you’ll love—”
“Enough Professor Lumiere, I didn’t come here to listen to you bragging.”
Professor Lumiere turned red as he spoke.
“I’m not bragging, I’m telling the truth—”
Lu Zhou: “Regardless of whether you’re telling the truth, I am not interested in working there. I have my own laboratory and funding. Do you really think I want to come to Switzerland?”
“You have your own laboratory? Where?” Lumiere then said, “Of course, if the conditions are right, I can also work for you… I’m about to be promoted to the director, but I’m willing to make sacrifices.”
Somehow, Lumiere was no longer the director.
Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.
He spoke in a condescending way.
“There’s no need for you to make that sacrifice. Do you know what I mean, Professor Lumiere?”
“I understand.” Professor Lumiere shrugged and said, “You don’t think I’m good enough, am I correct?”
Lu Zhou didn’t say anything.
Professor Lumiere wasn’t angry as he spoke patiently.
“I understand, after all, you are Dr. Z, the man that saved the world. I’m just a small researcher… That’s why I suggest that we talk in person. If you’re willing to buy me a plane ticket, we can—”
Lu Zhou: “There’s no need for that, I only need to ask you a few questions.”
Lumiere immediately said, “Go ahead.”
Lu Zhou smiled at his confident reply.
He cleared his throat and spoke.
“Everyone knows that the core components of neural interface virtual reality technology can be divided into three parts. The first is the collection of neural signals, the second is the processing of neural signals, and finally, the output to the nervous system. Which means to directly speak to the brain in the form of electrical signals.”
Lumiere said, “I don’t think everyone knows that…”
Lu Zhou: “That’s beside the point.”
Lumiere said, “Oh right, sorry.”
Lu Zhou continued, “… I won’t go into detail about the concepts. So far, I have found a solution to the collection and transmission of neural signals. But the main problem is sending information to the brain.
“When the brain interprets neural microcurrent signals, it is difficult to ensure that each person interprets the signals in the same way.”
Lu Zhou briefly explained the concept to Lumiere.
He avoided talking about any sensitive information.
He wanted to know how an expert in biological neural networks would respond to this problem.
After hearing Dr. Z’s question, Lumiere contemplated.
After a long time of waiting, Lu Zhou spoke.
“You don’t have to give me an answer straight away. Actually, I’m also trying to find a solution to this problem. If you have any good ideas, you can send it to my email.”
Professor Lumiere said, “It might be a little difficult for me to give you an answer since the question is too abstract and broad, but…”
Lu Zhou: “Do you have any ideas?”
“I do…”
Professor Lumiere said in a serious manner, “Why if you try distributed computing?”
