Chapter 442: The Human Mind Is Tiny Compared To The Universe
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
While the Nobel Committee for Chemistry was arguing over whether or not Lu Zhou should win the award, the PRX thesis continued to impact the physics industry.
Lu Zhou had received many calls and emails over the past few days.
Lu Zhou’s physicist friends such as Professor Frank Wilczek, Klaus von Klitzing, etc., were all surprised by his work.
There were also some strangers that wanted to get to know Lu Zhou and discuss the turbulence phenomenon with him.
Additionally, there were also some invitations from academic conferences.
For example, the IAEA-Demo international conference in November. They invited him to do a one-hour report on his turbulence phenomenon research.
Normally, Lu Zhou would have gone for it.
After all, there were many excellent controllable nuclear fusion reports at the conference. If he wanted to build the first DEMO nuclear fusion reactor by 2025, he had to utilize his international academic opportunities…
However, over the past few days, he hadn’t been “in the zone”.
After accepting the mission, Lu Zhou didn’t immediately start working on a feasible sub-mission. Instead, he gave himself a week off.
He’d walk around campus every day or take his Ford Explorer for a ride.
Although New Jersey was small, there were plenty of tourist attractions.
Like The Sussex County Park which was covered in red by the autumn leaves, or the 220-foot white war veterans monument on top of High Point mountain that overlooked the tristate area.
Lu Zhou suddenly realized that he had been missing out on what America had to offer. Unfortunately, he went on this trip alone, with only one set of picnic utensils.
The only partner that was always by his side was Xiao Ai.
Whether it was at the High Point State Park in New Jersey or on Princeton Campus, Lu Zhou was never fully relaxed; he was always thinking about a problem.
If the system contained all of the solutions to civilization or humanity’s unsolved academic problems, then the most effective method would be to tell Lu Zhou the answers directly instead of getting him to do research and figure out the answers himself.
However, the system obviously didn’t do this. Rather, it guided Lu Zhou to study these mysteries on his own.
Lu Zhou enjoyed studying, and he felt that his knowledge had increased exponentially under the system’s guidance. Not only did he surpass people his own age, but he had also achieved what most could never hope to accomplish in their lifetimes.
However, what confused him the most was the motive behind the system’s actions.
He had actually thought about this problem for a while now.
Is there a species of alien out there in the universe that is entertained by us low-level humans? Or does the system come from the future?
The possibilities were endless; it was even more complex than a chaotic physics system.
However, Lu Zhou felt like no matter what the motive was behind the system, it probably wasn’t some kind of boring principle like “humans must solve their own problems”.
There had to be a deeper motive behind this system that came from nowhere.
Suddenly, Lu Zhou had a strange idea.
What if the Zhou’s conjecture about Mersenne primes is only a practice question, and the Goldbach’s conjecture… or even the Navier–Stokes equation is the system giving me “homework”… or rather, “research projects”?
And the general points give me a way to buy the answers, almost like a supplementary exam.
In this case, when all of my subjects reach Level 10, will the system give me a “graduation letter” or maybe an “acceptance letter” for a higher academic level?
Thinking about it this way… I’m not a professor as I haven’t even graduated from the system yet!
Lu Zhou’s hypothesis was further affirmed when he recalled reading “the small fire of civilization” in the system’s controllable nuclear fusion mission chain description.
He sat on a bench near Lake Carnegie as he stared at the body of water that was sparkling under the sunset. This lake had brought him a lot of inspiration. However, this time, it was unable to answer his question.
“For you, these questions aren’t even questions, right?”
This wasn’t the first time Lu Zhou felt something like this.
However, this was the first time Lu Zhou felt like humanity’s mind and glory was so small compared to the universe…
Suddenly, a familiar voice brought him out of his daydream.
“What are you looking at?”
Lu Zhou looked over and saw Molina standing there.
Molina didn’t know why, but she felt like Lu Zhou was ignoring her.
“What’s… wrong with you?”
Lu Zhou shook his head.
“Nothing… I just bumped into a problem I don’t understand.”
“There’s a problem that you don’t understand?” Molina raised her eyebrows and said, “I thought there’s nothing in this world you don’t know.”
Lu Zhou smiled when he heard this, and he shook his head.
“I don’t know why you think that when there are so many problems in this world I don’t understand.”
Every night, sporty students and professors from Princeton would run around Lake Carnegie; Molina was one of them.
Lu Zhou would occasionally sit on the bench, and he would always see Molina running.
The two had a pretty good relationship. Not only were they academia friends, but they were normal friends as well.
At a place like Princeton, other than his own students, Lu Zhou had very few friends that were around the same age as him.
Molina looked at Lu Zhou, who was staring at the lake, and she said, “You’re becoming more and more like those people.”
Lu Zhou said, “Which people?”
“The old folks at the Institute for Advanced Study,” Molina said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if one day the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study offers you a tenured researcher position.”
A tenured researcher at the Institute for Advanced Study was different than a tenured professor at Princeton. The title itself was one of the highest honors in academia. There were less than 30 tenured researchers among the top four universities.
For example, Einstein was one of Princeton’s tenured researchers. This went to show how high the threshold was.
Also, unless there were special circumstances, a lifelong honor like this would almost never be awarded to a young scholar…
So, when Lu Zhou heard Molina’s ridiculous statement, he laughed. “Tenured researcher? I’ll take that as a hopeful wish?”
Molina smiled and said, “Of course you can, but you do realize I’m saying that you look like an old man when you’re thinking?”
Lu Zhou shook his head and said, “Don’t say that. In terms of age, you’re older than me.”
Molina: “…”
She didn’t know why, but she suddenly felt like throwing her can of coffee at his face…
