Chapter 244: The Professor Is Superman
The applause continued endlessly until the players left the stage, and it only subsided when IBM’s CEO Thomas Watson took the stage.
Here, Fischer was reluctant to leave for a long time; he still hadn’t come back to his senses, and it was IBM staff who went on stage and escorted him down.
Thomas had a smug smile on his face; the more shocking Lin Ran’s performance, the better the marketing effect of this event.
America’s technology companies had long known the importance of marketing since the Edison era.
Edison’s public demonstration of the Incandescent Lamp bulb, the comparison between tungsten filament and bamboo filament, experiments with thousands of materials—these were not only scientific anecdotes but also great marketing techniques of that era.
America’s technology companies in the 1960s were the same.
Before Light Emitting Diodes were even produced, Texas Instruments invited various technology media to visit and build hype, touting their enormous potential.
Later, after General Electric “produced” them on portable calculators for large-scale application, Texas Instruments accused General Electric of plagiarism and patent infringement, then loudly proclaimed that the Light Emitting Diode was General Electric’s great discovery.
IBM, known as the Blue Giant, was undoubtedly one of the technology companies in this group that most needed marketing to maintain its status in the public mind.
“We have witnessed an unprecedented brilliant chess performance.
The professor has once again demonstrated his omnipotent myth with a miraculous performance.
The professor is always like this, able to bring surprises to everyone.
I want to respond to the media’s doubts, those who claim that IBM bribed the players to deliberately lose to the professor—these doubts are completely false, despicable accusations without any evidence.
This is a complete denial of the players’ professional ethics, destruction of IBM’s corporate image, and disrespect to the professor; it is extremely despicable behavior, and IBM is already contacting a law firm to sue and seek compensation from all doubting media.
At the same time, I also want to explain to everyone present: for IBM, is it better for the professor to fail or to succeed?
Isn’t it that the professor suffers his first defeat in life in IBM’s Technology Ark.
IBM’s Technology Ark becomes the professor’s Waterloo.
Such explosive news would obviously have better promotional effects for IBM.”
This is the businessman’s propaganda technique; obviously, doing so would bring greater marketing benefits to IBM.
But at the same time, doing this would offend the professor; most of IBM’s orders come from the Department of Defense, the Army, and NASA, and they cannot afford to offend Lin Ran no matter what.
Offending Lin Ran for marketing effects would be purely picking up sesame seeds and dropping the watermelon.
Therefore, before this chess match, starting from a year ago when Thomas decided to do this, he repeatedly confirmed with Lin Ran whether IBM should help bribe the players.
Whether to casually find a reason to replace “disobedient” players like Fischer.
It was only because Lin Ran firmly said no, showing full confidence, that IBM did not tamper with anything.
If it were someone else, IBM would not hesitate to tamper.
They would even see it as an opportunity to please the professor; the professor is not short of money—what could please him more than adding another halo to his light?
IBM executives led by Thomas regretted not being able to tamper with it, feeling they had missed a precious opportunity.
“So the accusations against IBM are pure nonsense.
Once again, thank you, professor, for gracing us with your presence, giving IBM’s Technology Ark legendary color, and thank you all guests for joining us here to witness the professor’s chess myth together.
And now, the final segment of today: please have our staff set up; next is the professor’s match against our Deep Blue 2.0.”
After Thomas finished speaking, the lighting effects that had been dark everywhere else on the stage suddenly lit up, focusing on the stage.
The staff timely served Coca-Cola and coffee to the audience below the stage.
Philip K. Dick shook his head slightly while drinking cola.
His wife Annie saw it and asked puzzledly, “What’s wrong?”
Philip K. Dick said, “In the past two years, many sci-fi works with cyberpunk colors have emerged on the market.
Everyone is starting to gradually think about what the essence of the cyberpunk society the professor mentioned is.
And after high technology and material abundance, will it be as the Soviet Union said, humanity stepping toward Socialism and gaining greater freedom,
Or as the professor said, stepping into the cyberpunk world where mega-corporations control humanity’s birth, aging, sickness, and death.
Individuals becoming increasingly vulnerable, people rapidly alienated by technology-empowered capital.
I’m just thinking about this issue.
The professor’s attitude is very pessimistic; my thinking is that the professor’s pessimism has reasons.
Because for humanity to confront capital, it essentially relies on superhumans like the professor.”
Annie asked, “Do you mean Superman like Clark Kent?”
Superman Clark Kent first appeared in Action Comics magazine on April 18, 1938, and has since been an enduring image in America.
Philip K. Dick nodded: “Exactly, do you think the professor is not Superman?
But his difference from Clark Kent is that the professor’s superhuman nature is in the brain, while Clark Kent’s difference is external.
But in a sense, the professor is a superhuman with even greater power than Superman.
No matter what he does, everyone attributes it to genius rather than monster.
Because from the outside, the professor looks no different from us ordinary people, but intrinsically, his difference from ordinary people is probably even greater than Clark Kent’s difference from ordinary people.
Not long ago when I visited Hugo Gernsback, his view was similar to mine: the professor is Superman.”
Hugo Gernsback is the editor-in-chief of the sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories, also hailed as the father of world science fiction; the Hugo in Hugo Award is him, not Victor Hugo who wrote Les Misérables.
(Hugo Gernsback experiencing early VR equipment)
“Mr. Gernsback even regrets being too old; if he were younger, he would definitely create a superhero comic based on the professor as prototype,” Philip K. Dick said.
Hugo Gernsback will pass away in August 1967, half a year later.
Philip K. Dick took another sip of cola, feeling his mind clearer: “What I said earlier was a bit off-topic.
First, you need to accept that the professor is Superman.”
Annie nodded: “Of course; before this, I could hardly imagine a human playing chess against eight people at once, let alone that these eight were all Chess Champions, America’s eight best chess players.
Wherever the professor needs to use his brain, he is Superman.”
Philip K. Dick said, “You’re right.
If we don’t discuss contributions, the anomalies the professor shows externally far exceed Einstein’s.
Ordinary people can hardly understand how powerful Einstein’s brain is without popular science, but ordinary people just need to hear what the professor has done to feel this person is not normal.
So I say he is Superman.
Then back to cyberpunk society.
That technology-empowered capital has stronger power is undoubtedly true.
Because tools are amplifiers; humans invent increasingly powerful tools, and with tools, humans can unleash greater productivity, which also means capital needs fewer employees to maintain the same production capacity.
Such technological development makes the arrival of the cyberpunk society the professor mentioned very possible.
And for ordinary people, whether they can escape the fate of being controlled by mega-corporations depends on superhumans.
I sigh because it’s too hard for ordinary people to compete with companies for superhumans.
Superhumans like the professor, even after studying under Professor Horkheimer, proposed systematic oppression theory, and realized America is a White Person-dominated country.
But he still finds it hard to avoid joining forces with companies.
Whether cooperating with IBM or earlier with the Morgan family.
Therefore, this makes me realize that stepping toward the cyberpunk future prophesied by the professor seems unavoidable.
In the past, I thought the random appearance of superhumans was a setting for human society to avoid cyberpunkization; now in this Technology Ark proposed by the professor and built by IBM, I instead feel that the random appearance of superhumans is not the brake—it’s the accelerator.”
“Maybe this is just the professor’s personal choice,” Annie said.
Philip shook his head: “No, this is inevitable.”
After Philip finished speaking, Lin Ran took the stage again.
By now, the other eight chessboards had been cleared away, leaving only one chessboard on the table, connected by cables to the massive computer matrix behind.
This match was even less suspenseful; Deep Blue didn’t last more than ten minutes before conceding defeat.
Then Thomas went on stage and personally hung the plaque engraved with “Randolph Lin” on the wall filled with people’s names.
The plaques for other names were handwritten paper, while Lin Ran’s was a metal plaque, hung at the very top.
This wall listed the names of all humans who had defeated Deep Blue; if they were defeated by Deep Blue, it would be removed and placed on the other side.
Therefore, the media also called it humanity’s last line of defense.
Meaning that once this line of defense is breached, artificial intelligence will have completely defeated humanity.
“I’m honored to witness the professor’s miracle together with everyone the day before Christmas.
I hope that in my lifetime working for IBM, I can remove the professor’s plaque from this wall.
I believe that moment will be my most glorious time at IBM.
Because this would be IBM engineers using the crystallization of collective wisdom to defeat the professor, ordinary people’s wisdom concentrated together defeating the top-tier genius in human history.
I hope by then, everyone here can witness it together with us.”
After Thomas finished, Lin Ran smiled: “I look forward to it just as much.”
Russia is also a White Person country and had religious traditions in the past, but since it was prefixed with “Su,” they stopped celebrating Christmas.
As an atheist country, the official level prohibits celebrations of holidays with religious color.
Christmas falls into this category.
New Year, namely January 1, became the main winter holiday, absorbing many Christmas traditions, such as decorating New Year trees and giving gifts.
Starting from December, news about the moon landing from America successively reached the Soviet Union, including the scene of American astronauts stepping on the Moon, which Soviet Union television stations also rebroadcast in a short segment in news programs.
No live broadcast, but rebroadcast as news report.
This put enormous pressure on the Space Agency in Moscow.
On Christmas night, the meeting room was brightly lit, with dim yellow lights casting mottled shadows on the heavy oak furniture.
The walls were covered with design drawings of R-7 rockets and Sputnik satellites, all witnesses to the Soviet Space Agency’s glorious history.
In the corner, a Panda brand radio from China emitted a clear voice, playing news broadcasts from across the ocean.
“…Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Moon, Buzz Aldrin becoming the second human to step on the Moon. NASA Director Randolph Lin did not attend the press conference at the White House, which is seen as a symbol of rift between Mr. President and the professor, although the professor claimed it was because he had to attend the New York Mathematicians’ Christmas Party…”
The broadcaster’s voice was low and clear.
Vasily Mishin sat at the head of the long table; he was Korolev’s successor.
Korolev’s death was kept secret and not announced.
After all, as a figure in the field of aerospace on par with Lin Ran, the Soviet Union did not want the outside world to know they had lost a giant in aerospace engineering, making the outside world think they could no longer compete with NASA.
Vasily’s expression showed both excitement and pressure.
The excitement came from the Kremlin.
At the end of 1966 in the Soviet Union, there were some anomalies; some things that should have happened would happen sooner or later.
External institutions, mainly those in America and other countries specializing in studying the Soviet Union, also noticed this anomaly.
People inside the Soviet Union were even more sensitive to this anomaly.
After all, they were in the midst of it.
However, for the technocrats of the Soviet Space Agency, this influence might not be a bad thing.
Because Nikita cut their budget, diverting more budget to the Semiconductor Field, to Dresden in Eastern Europe and the Zelenograd microelectronics center outside Moscow.
This was not only budget cuts but also engineers.
After Korolev’s death early in the year, Kremlin support for aerospace and military projects continued to shrink.
And now, after Mishin’s recent meeting at the Kremlin, he realized that the situation would undergo an unprecedented change.
It seemed they were about to emphasize military and aerospace again.
Valentin Glushko sat opposite him, expressionless, staring at a rocket design drawing left by Korolev on the table.
As the Soviet Union’s top rocket engine designer, Valentin was accustomed to staying calm under pressure, but the waves in his heart were hard to completely conceal, because America’s progress was too fast.
Originally, they thought America would complete independent moon landing in 1968.
But it was two full years ahead of schedule.
And their early moon landing was a product of luck and cooperation.
This time, America not only did not use the joint moon landing technical route but instead used a new one: command module separation and rendezvous.
Using a new technical route, yet ahead of schedule.
This shocked the Soviet Space Agency enormously.
Glushko’s mind flashed with the image of the professor in high spirits at the Cape Canaveral control center, and complex emotions arose in his heart: although the professor was the greatest threat as opponent, he had to admit the other’s exceptional ability, and their side had also lost Korolev.
Mishin asked, “Comrade Glushko, what are your thoughts on the N-2 rocket?”
Glushko slowly raised his head: “Comrade Mishin, sorry, I still think the same: the 30 engines of the N-2 rocket are very difficult to solve in the short term.
Korolev was great, but he was not a god.
The blueprints he left cannot solve all problems; to build N-2, we have too many issues to overcome, and now we face severe personnel shortages.
More importantly, in competing with NASA, we lack top-tier talents like the professor.
We all know clearly, whether it’s you, me, or other engineers, none of us can compare to the professor.
The number of engineers is secondary; the top-tier engineers are even more important.
A wolf pack relies on the alpha wolf.”
This N-2 here is actually the N-1 from the original spacetime.
In the past two years, under Korolev’s leadership, the Soviet Union urgently produced an N-1, which was just a simplified version of N-1.
The N-1 in the original spacetime had a payload capacity of a full 95 tons.
Capable of transporting 95 tons of material to low Earth orbit, and 33 tons to lunar transfer orbit.
Glushko and Mishin both knew clearly that for independent moon landing, developing N-2 was essential.
Relying solely on N-1, the probability was going up but not coming back.
In the past, doing it that way was fine.
But today, with America having successfully achieved independent moon landing, sending two people up and bringing both back, doing one-way tickets obviously wouldn’t work.
Doing so wouldn’t prove the Soviet Union’s technological strength at all and would instead have counterproductive effects.
“We can’t live forever in the professor’s shadow. We need to find our own way and leverage Socialism’s collective power.” Mishin paused, his gaze turning to the distant night sky.
Glushko sighed: “Haven’t you understood yet? The professor’s success hasn’t rung the alarm for you.
His team is efficient and decisive because the manager is the professor.
We must admit this; in the long term, I think we should also cultivate our own professor, and in the short term, I think we need to find our professor.”
Mishin looked puzzled, waiting for the other’s detailed explanation.
Glushko continued: “Comrade Mishin, ideology cannot solve technical problems.
The Saturn V rocket, F-1 engines simple and reliable, single engine thrust 1.5 million pounds.
While our N-2, 30 NK-15 engines, the synchronization control difficulty is clear to both you and me.
I long suggested using fewer RD-270 engines, but you insisted on Korolev’s design.
I know RD-270 is still in testing, we can’t wait, N-2 is Korolev’s legacy.
But undoubtedly, the 30 NK-15 engine design of the N-2 rocket has fatal flaws; the complexity of synchronization control makes every test like walking a tightrope.
We shouldn’t cling to Korolev’s legacy.
We need to find our professor; I think cooperating with China would be a good approach.”
“China?”
“Exactly, I believe money will be our professor,” Glushko said.
