Chapter 13: Badges Alone Aren’t Enough
“Professor, thank you,” Lin Ran said.
Horkheimer said: “We are all unmodulated collectives.”
Seeing that Lin Ran had no reaction to this sentence, he shook his head and laughed: “Alright, it seems Larry Meyer didn’t pass on much of Theodor Adorno’s thought to you.”
In Horkheimer’s impression, Larry Meyer was a loyal supporter of Theodor Adorno, the latter being an important driving force in the shift of Western contemporary intellectual history toward postmodernism and post-Marxist trends, and his philosophical work Negative Dialectics laid the theoretical cornerstone for the critical theory movement of the past century.
And the “unmodulated collectives” that Horkheimer mentioned originated from the concept of unmodulated dialectical imagination in Adorno’s Negative Dialectics.
Back when they were still at the Institute for Social Research at Frankfurt University, they privately avoided calling themselves a collective and preferred to say they were all unmodulated collectives.
Lin Ran felt a twinge of tension inside, “Damn it, as expected, relying solely on the badge isn’t enough; later I still need to figure out the philosophical tenets and historical context of the Frankfurt School, otherwise, just relying on the badge really won’t get me far.”
He also wondered if, at the founding ceremony among the big shots of the Frankfurt School, they had another name for this badge.
These historical contexts were truly hard to know the truth about without being an eyewitness.
However, even though Lin Ran’s response didn’t satisfy Horkheimer and instead left him slightly puzzled inside, he still didn’t reject giving this young man of Chinese descent a bit of opportunity and some guidance from a senior.
“Relax, even if you didn’t have the Fabian Society badge, I wouldn’t stand by and let Rudolf take you away.
I’ve heard of Arthur Rudolf; he’s no good guy. He worked for the NAZIs before and has plenty of blood on his hands.
There are plenty of people in Washington who want him dead, but only because he’s at Redstone Arsenal, a remote place far from civilization, and working for NASA, is he barely managing to stay alive.”
Lin Ran gained some realization inside; Horkheimer was Jewish, so obviously he had heard about those among the scientists recruited from NAZI Germany who had done a lot of evil, especially these Jewish academic overlords.
And thus, Horkheimer gave the other no face at all.
Horkheimer continued: “But though Arthur Rudolf worked for NAZI Germany, the blood on his hands was mostly not Jewish blood, but of Irish descent.”
At this point Horkheimer said no more, and Lin Ran could conjecture the gist.
In America, people of Irish descent are the second largest ethnic group, and they are very united, very successful in politics, with many big shots in Washington coming from Irish descent.
America’s vice president in 08, Joe, was a famous big shot in political circles of Irish descent.
“But you don’t need to worry; NASA can’t just recruit whoever they want.
What Arthur Rudolf definitely wants is to recruit you directly as an engineer for NASA through Operation Paperclip.
But with me vouching for you, he can’t use Operation Paperclip to ignore your personal will and recruit you into NASA.”
Lin Ran asked curiously: “Professor, what does Operation Paperclip refer to?”
Horkheimer slapped his forehead: “Oh, I forgot you don’t know about this plan. After World War II ended, to recruit German scientists, NASA passed an operation called Operation Paperclip, allowing NASA to directly forcibly recruit German scientists.
This plan has continued to this day, but today, its goal has become scientists from Cold War adversary countries.
Arthur Rudolf roughly wants to position your identity as a scientist from China.
But with me vouching for you, where you really come from won’t matter so much.”
Lin Ran’s heart was still hanging; though the other didn’t explicitly say he didn’t believe him about coming from Europe, that’s exactly what he meant.
Lin Ran didn’t break this window paper, but thanked again: “Understood, Professor, thank you.
If you hadn’t been here today, I wouldn’t know what my fate would have been.”
Then he roughly explained the background with Haines before and what role the equation he solved could play for NASA.
Horkheimer frowned tightly, “Good, I understand.
Randolph, there’s no time like the present; I’ll arrange it for you now— this afternoon in the Columbia University Mathematics Department, you’ll give an academic conference on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Prepare as quickly as possible.”
“Good.”
This was the advantage of choosing Fermat’s Last Theorem as the stepping stone; if it were the Twin Prime Conjecture or the Poincaré Conjecture, he’d still need to explain it to a philosophy professor like Horkheimer before the other would know its value.
But Fermat’s Last Theorem, this famous conjecture from the 17th century, because it’s linked to Fermat, doesn’t need much explanation at all; the other would naturally know its value.
Ralph Fox, head of the Columbia University Mathematics Department, whose main field is differential topology.
Compared to his academic achievements, his anecdotes in the field of Go are even more talked about.
But what’s talked about isn’t because he’s good, but because he’s bad.
Back at Princeton, when he played against Stephen Smale, Stephen Smale had to give him handicap points to play.
“What?” Ralph Fox was full of shock. Of course he knew Professor Horkheimer, the renowned professor in the philosophy department, leader of the Frankfurt School.
The other came to tell him that they had a Chinese international student in their school who had proved Fermat’s Last Theorem.
If it weren’t Horkheimer speaking, he’d think it was an April Fool’s joke arriving four months early.
“I can’t confirm it, so that’s why I’m asking you to help organize an internal academic conference at Columbia University for him this afternoon.
If his proof is real, then we need to quickly give him a professor position, and then prepare to hold an academic conference for all of America.”
“Sorry, I’m not too familiar with the direction of Fermat’s Last Theorem. Many professors are still on vacation, still in Europe and haven’t returned.
Let me think, who should I find to attend this academic conference.
Oh my god, Professor Horkheimer, you’ve really given me a surprise beyond expectation; I didn’t expect the beginning of 1960 to be so sudden.
Alright, I get the gist; how about in the classroom on the southwest side of the second floor of the Mathematics Department building.
Sorry, this is really a bit sudden; I need to go get the professors ready.”
Ralph Fox planned to first find Lipman Bers and Paul Cohen.
Though none of the three worked on Fermat’s Last Theorem or related directions, they could make a rough judgment.
Whether the other’s proof was reliable.
This they could still do.
If reliable, then hurry and call back all the professors on vacation.
Compared to Fermat’s Last Theorem, what was a vacation?
