Chapter 115: China’s Guess
“This completely disjointed content, even for someone like me whose native language isn’t English and who hasn’t had much exposure to English popular literature, can intuitively feel the disconnect between these two parts.
If what I said earlier was more about the plot, even with descriptions of the world this author fictionalized, including high technology content, it mostly stayed at the level of usage.
For example, we would say that the television can display moving images and produce sound, feeling like a moving picture book.
The earlier content was just at this level, but the content starting from here explains how televisions are made, using cathode ray tubes.
The television receives television signals in the form of radio waves via an antenna, and it uses the Soviet Union’s SECAM system standard, with the signals including video information, brightness signals, and sync signals.
The signals received by the television are converted to intermediate frequency signals by the tuner, then separated into video signals and audio signals by the demodulation circuitry.
That’s right, starting from the appearance of these two characters, Lei Jun and Yu Dong, the entire book’s content is completely different from before.
Not only does it explain what the thing named Raspberry Pi is and how to use it, with specific steps.
It also introduces that, according to the news obtained by the two, it contains software that can be used to calculate fluid dynamics formulas, and Germany and Japan in the book rely on this software to calculate fluid dynamics formulas, achieving leaping technological development in airplane, rocket, and missile design.
Finally, after the two went through great hardships to open the Raspberry Pi, they discovered an unexpected surprise inside, finding specific technical data on Germany’s latest developed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.
This matches the information White Horse passed to us via the note.
Therefore, I believe this part of the content was grafted in by White Horse on top of the original content.
I also believe that we can completely open this machine named Raspberry Pi following the steps in the book.
It won’t take long; if it’s just using the fluid mechanics calculation software contained inside, it would take at most one week.
If reading the information contained inside via the images, it would take a bit longer, but with our current technology, it’s absolutely no problem.”
Dean Qian appeared confident.
The comrade sitting in the middle hosting the work said: “Everyone can speak freely based on Dean Qian’s introduction just now.
This matter itself has too many things we can’t understand from beginning to now.
Since it is built on a lot of unreasonableness, and under the premise that we currently have no opportunity to communicate directly with White Horse, we need to fully unleash everyone’s imagination.
Let me share my thoughts first.
Undoubtedly, Dean Qian just mentioned that the book says this device named ‘Raspberry Pi’ is composed of billions of transistors.
Although I’m not a professional and don’t know much about science and engineering.
But I am very clear about the importance of semiconductors. When we formulated the ‘1956-1967 Science and Technology Development Vision Plan,’ we listed semiconductor technology as one of the four urgent measures precisely because we fully understood its importance.
Including when Comrade Huang Kun reported work to me, he also detailed the latest progress in Europe and America.
Last year, after we imported a batch of academic journals via Hong Kong and France, Comrades Wang Shouwu and Wu Xijiu also mentioned our current progress, including America’s latest progress and the gap between us, during their work reports to me.
So in my understanding, this ‘Raspberry Pi’ is unlikely to be something America made themselves.
With my shallow knowledge, I really can’t imagine how to integrate billions of transistors into an area the size of a fingernail.
This is a bit beyond my cognition.
I believe the information Dean Qian got from the book is real, meaning the information White Horse wants to pass to us is authentic—this ‘Raspberry Pi’ was dismantled by America from alien equipment.
Additionally, I’d like to remind everyone that White Horse didn’t mention in the message he sent back that it integrates billions of transistors.
Instead, it’s through the characters in the novel in the book that he tells us.
Is this true? Or is it a smokescreen he deliberately created to ensure this book reaches our hands?
Dean Qian, have you thought about this?
It can be said that the reason the other side didn’t use microfilm but this method instead.
In my view, this exactly shows White Horse’s caution.
Using microfilm, if discovered, or intercepted by Americans or other institutions midway, this form naturally adds persuasiveness to his claims.
Of course, his situation might not be convenient for making microfilm either.
And in the form of a novel manuscript, even if customs personnel get it midway, they would think it’s a science fiction writer’s fantasy, the ravings of a science fiction novelist.
Including you, Dean Qian, can read the disjointed feeling between these two parts of content; if intercepted in Hong Kong, Yokohama, or other transit places.
Then White Horse’s exaggerated expressions in the disjointed content would also serve as protection.
So in my view, I believe Dean Qian’s judgment on the disjointedness, but I don’t think the other disjointed part, the part White Horse described, is all true.
I also don’t think the earlier part, the part described by that character named Philip K. Dick, is fake.
Have you thought about it? There’s another possibility?
That is, what if America really discovered another world?
Dean Qian also mentioned just now that the book describes an era where Germany and Japan won, and the novel characters realize through a novel named ‘The Heavy Grasshopper’ that there might be the existence of a world completely different from the novel’s world.
Could this also be the information he wants to pass to us?
White Horse is unsure whether this Raspberry Pi was obtained by America from another world, or from an alien spaceship or alien beings.
The note he gave us is just what he believes is the most likely situation based on the intelligence he obtained.
I mentioned earlier to unleash imagination; what Dean Qian said may not be right, and what I say may not be right either.
This book is indeed disjointed, but the earlier content may not be without value, and the part White Horse added later may not all be correct.”
With his words, everyone soon began speaking freely.
“I think we just need to grasp one core point: get it up and running as soon as possible.
Dean Qian just said that this machine named Raspberry Pi only needs a few days of debugging to be usable, including how the built-in fluid mechanics calculation thing is used as described in the book by the other side.
Shouldn’t we quickly organize people to debug it and get it working.”
With the leader speaking, everyone began expressing their views.
Compared to another world, which everyone finds hard to imagine, alien products clearly have the upper hand.
This is also why Lin Ran didn’t mention Moore’s Law in ‘The Man in the High Castle’ through Lei Jun and Yu Dong.
If he mentioned Moore’s Law inside, Chinese people would definitely infer from Moore’s Law, the current transistor count in IBM computers, and the transistor count he mentioned in the Raspberry Pi chip that this board might be a future product.
To avoid similar risks, Lin Ran specifically found a minimal Linux distribution on GitHub, then disabled all time-related configurations and uninstalled all time-related components.
It’s a specially customized Linux.
Because Lin Ran knew he would eventually return to China, and compared to it being an alien product, it being a future product would trigger even more uncontrollable risks.
Never underestimate others.
Although China lacks exposure to science fiction literature and currently doesn’t understand so-called parallel spaces or time travel.
But that doesn’t mean Chinese people lack imagination.
“As an old hand who has worked on the intelligence front for years, I’d like to say a few words.
The most urgent is of course to verify the Raspberry Pi, to check if its computing ability is as astonishing as described in the book.
If true, then the importance of semiconductors exceeds our expectations.
At least the technical content in his book is credible.
Regarding the billions of transistors inside, this point is indeed hard to judge.
But that’s not important.
Whether what he says is true or false, if true, can we replicate it?
If false, can we figure out his purpose in saying so?
At least we can be sure that White Horse went through great hardships to create the Geneva negotiations scenario to hand the Raspberry Pi to ***’s hands.
They must have judged this thing to be extremely important, and America definitely has it too.
If we can’t quickly unleash the energy contained in the Raspberry Pi, America’s subsequent technology explosion will be astonishing.
They are already ahead of us in research in this area.
So studying this book and judging which information White Horse wants to pass is certainly important.
But for us right now, the most important is to get the Raspberry Pi working and turn it into our strength.
And America has it, does the Soviet Union? The Soviet Union has been launching rockets one after another these years, satellites one after another, sending people to space one after another.
I don’t believe America has it and the Soviet Union doesn’t.
And if they both have it, where did they get it from?
Is it possible they got it from Germany?
If so, besides this, what other information are we unaware of?
In short, everyone, our current task is very heavy. If the other side really obtained alien technology, it’s easy to form a scene like modern firearms and cannons against bare hands.
I guess White Horse considered this too, so even risking exposure, he had to send it to us.
To make us understand the use of the ‘Raspberry Pi,’ he even specially wrote a novel for camouflage.
I completely empathize with his good intentions; we can’t slack off either, we need to act quickly.”
