Chapter 300: The End Of An Era
“As I have said before, I have always believed that the Moon is the best outpost given to us by the universe, a natural base.
In the long years of the past, the Moon protected Earth from meteorite attacks, making Earth’s ecosystem rich. In the future years since the birth of Apollo Technology, it will make great contributions to our march into the universe.
The construction of the universe is so magical, just like building human cities on Earth requires full consideration of geographical factors. In the past, places with rivers or lakes were suitable for human gatherings, slowly evolving into cities.
Similarly, we must also make full use of the existing resources in the universe.
Mars is certainly good, but Mars is too far. The Moon is not good, but the Moon is very close.
Moon first, then Mars. Apollo Technology will adhere to this goal and advance into the universe step by step.”
After the end of this live broadcast, Lin Ran’s final summary speech was considered on the Chinese Internet to be a speech no less than Kennedy’s moon landing speech.
Kennedy’s moon landing speech “We choose to go to the Moon” was on September 12, 1962, while Lin Ran’s live broadcast was at the end of October 2022, exactly sixty years apart.
A review spanning sixty years.
When Lin Ran saw it, he felt deeply emotional inside. Kennedy passed away right under his nose. As the old leader who personally promoted him, advancing the moon landing a big step forward would surely comfort his spirit in heaven.
From the onset of illness to now, nearly a year has passed. In this year, among the groups most touched by Apollo Technology’s moon landing, the names of these two are definitely included: Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo.
Originally, they completed the moon landing last year and were supposed to become China’s first and second persons to land on the moon, but they were forcibly blocked by the Americans.
Everyone is neither the first nor the second.
At this time, the two were receiving recovery training at the Astronaut Center in Yanjing. They were also watching the live broadcast of Lin Ran interviewing Wei Xuhang in the room.
Qian Fei let out a long sigh: “Old Zhao, what do you think is the most important thing in life?”
Their current relationship is even closer than the four great irons of life.
“I used to think it was personal struggle, but after seeing Wei Xuhang’s experience this year, I realize that personal struggle cannot match luck no matter what.
This kid’s luck is really too good!”
They are all a bit older than Wei Xuhang, with Qian Fei the oldest, Zhao Jianguo next, and Wei Xuhang the youngest.
During the training process, both of them performed better than Wei Xuhang, but this kid was the one who landed at the Lunar South Pole, found water ice, became the koi fish, and gained both fame and fortune.
This magical reality development gave the two a deeper understanding of the word luck.
“The only good news is that the head of Apollo Technology is the professor, and it’s also a private enterprise.” Qian Fei added: “This means that after we complete recovery training and our physical indicators return to normal, there will always be a chance to go to the Moon.
The professor is only in his twenties, with absolute ambition in both ability and age. It’s impossible for him to stop exploring the universe after just one or two moon landings.
He has this ability, this will, and has received strong support at the national level.
The form of a private enterprise also means he doesn’t have to worry about failure or mistakes.
Of course, the professor won’t fail.”
Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo looked at each other, and the same thought flashed in everyone’s minds: there is still a chance for us to go to the Moon.
But Lin Ran’s voice on the television destroyed their thoughts.
“In addition, I want to say to the audience friends watching the live broadcast: we welcome everyone to join. Apollo Technology’s official website has always been recruiting. We need talents in science and engineering from all walks of life.
Of course, liberal arts talents are also needed, but currently the functional positions seem to be saturated. More will be released later. Those interested can follow more.
I can say this: the treatment offered by Apollo Technology is absolutely acceptable in Shanghai. Besides Shanghai, we have multiple R&D centers in Yanjing, Chang’an, Yangcheng, and other places. These R&D centers are also recruiting. If you think Shanghai’s housing prices are too high, you can choose other cities.
But it seems Yanjing and Pengcheng are not cheap either.
However, we should also set up R&D centers in Jiangcheng and Yudu. The housing prices in these two places are more friendly.
As a post-95s, I can empathize with housing prices too much.
So Apollo Technology has extra benefits in Shanghai. Here’s good news for everyone: our established Apollo Technology Education Group has obtained the qualification to run a school. We will build a 15-year school from kindergarten to high school within two kilometers around the Apollo Technology Shanghai headquarters for the children of company employees.
This way, we help everyone save money on their children’s education.”
This is real welfare.
Companies in Shanghai with this treatment have to go back more than ten years to SMIC. SMIC established SMIC Schools in Shanghai and Yanjing respectively.
Taking SMIC School in Shanghai as an example, it can only be said that if you want to go abroad, this school is not bad. After all, it is the only private school in Shanghai authorized and approved by the America university committee as an SAT, ACT, AP test center.
Equivalent to the tests done by the school itself being recognized by America.
But if you want to compete in the college entrance exam, SMIC School is quite average.
But in any case, a company running compulsory education schools is absolutely welfare, especially in Shanghai. It is a door opened again after twenty years.
“Additionally, we are currently preparing the option pool rules. All employees can be allocated options. I believe the options of the world’s only company that can land on the Moon are still quite valuable.
On the pure salary level, we will also provide competitive salaries in the market.
But let me state in advance: we cannot achieve the five-day eight-hour work system. Our work intensity is very high, and we will strictly comply with the law to pay overtime wages.
Everyone needs to consider our work intensity before coming.
To put it this way, think about it: the CEO I found is Pony, a big shot from the internet. The intensity is not to mention matching the internet, but definitely not much easier.
Plus we are now in the startup stage. For those wanting easy work, we definitely cannot provide it.
Finally, besides the engineers and R&D personnel mentioned above, we also need to recruit astronauts, just like the one sitting next to me. We want to recruit astronauts from the public. Those willing can register on the official website. If you pass the interview, there will be a six-month trial period, which is training. After passing the training, you will join Apollo Technology’s astronaut team.
Do I need to say more about the benefits of becoming an astronaut at Apollo Technology? Look at Wei Xuhang: the company sends him to the Moon and space for free, and in the future even to Mars.
This is treatment no other company has.
The premise is that you can pass the training.
Let me say a few more words: our astronaut recruitment standards are very strict, and the knowledge quality requirements are even higher. Because we need not only those who complete tasks by the book, but engineers and construction workers.
Your positioning will be very diverse, requiring strong learning ability.
Not just requirements for physical fitness.
Roughly that’s it. This time we plan to recruit one hundred astronauts. And believe me, one hundred astronauts may not be enough. Welcome those confident in themselves to submit resumes.”
After Lin Ran’s recruitment advertisement, Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo both felt a sense of urgency inside. If their bodies don’t recover soon, the newcomers will take their positions.
“Let’s go!” Qian Fei said.
Zhao Jianguo asked: “Where to?”
“To do recovery training!” Qian Fei stood up, and Zhao Jianguo quickly followed. They prepared to find the recovery training coach together.
On November 1 after the interview ended, Lin Ran arrived at the office at around seven o’clock. He usually arrives very early because he lives nearby.
At this time, they had already moved to the Baoshan side.
When he arrived, he saw that Pony’s office door was already open, meaning the other arrived even earlier than him.
Lin Ran was a bit puzzled inside, not knowing why.
Because it must be known that Pony always arrives at nine o’clock on the dot.
He might leave work late, or reply to emails after going home, but Pony doesn’t arrive early.
Lin Ran had just sat down when Pony knocked and entered: “Lin Sheng, at one o’clock in the morning, America launched a revolutionary artificial intelligence, ChatGPT.
Since this software was launched, Tencent’s artificial intelligence research experts and staff have been testing it.
The artificial intelligence field is about to change.”
Lin Ran knew very well that for Pony, with bloodshot eyes, to value it so much, this ChatGPT is definitely not an ordinary artificial intelligence.
However, he wasn’t thinking about ChatGPT itself, but about the computing time.
America’s midterm elections are on November 6, 2022. Launching ChatGPT right before the midterm elections is truly meaningful.
America’s core competitiveness lies in technology. The moon landing failure dealt a heavy blow to America’s soft power and a heavy blow to the US Stock Market, already making the Donkey Party’s midterm elections this year shaky.
If ChatGPT is really as amazing as Pony said, it can indeed help the Donkey Party regain momentum to some extent.
Lin Ran didn’t know the answer. He gestured: “Pony, tell me in detail.”
“Lin Sheng, do you know what type of software this is?” Pony asked.
Lin Ran nodded: “A chat software, right? You can tell from the name. I had seen some related news before; they had released some rumors earlier.”
“Simply put, this is an artificial intelligence chatbot, but it is worlds apart from past ones like Microsoft Xiaoice and Siri.
ChatGPT can understand complex questions and generate coherent, accurate answers. It is absolutely the most significant breakthrough in this field ever.
Because Tencent previously cooperated with Microsoft to launch QQ Xiaoice, I know very well that chatbots in the past had very limited potential. They could only pretend to be human, but could not become human.
But ChatGPT has a bit of hope of becoming human. It is still immature in Chinese, lacking deep understanding of Chinese context, but in the English domain, it shows astonishing potential. It can understand your questions and give accurate answers.
The even more astonishing part is that the company behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, announced their technical route. Their success relies on large-scale training data and advanced algorithms.
Tencent’s artificial intelligence experts predict it was trained with larger datasets and optimized deep learning architecture, combined with human feedback reinforcement learning methods similar to InstructGPT.
The deeper meaning behind this is that perhaps with enough training data, artificial intelligence will emergence, and intelligence levels will skyrocket.
Compared to America, we have a natural disadvantage in computing power.
We can only buy castrated computing cards. If the decisive factors on the road to artificial general intelligence are computing power and data, then the gap between us and America will be difficult to close for a long time.
From Tencent’s perspective, domestic competition won’t be affected, but global strategy will likely be impacted in the future.
If this technical route can really develop general artificial intelligence, the entire China will be severely affected.”
Pony’s tone was serious. Clearly, he hadn’t slept well last night: testing ChatGPT, reading Tencent experts’ reports, having meetings with Tencent, browsing opinions in the WeChat big shot group.
He slept less than two hours all night.
Lin Ran said: “Alright, Pony, I’ll try it first, and we’ll talk after I try it.”
ChatGPT indeed gave him a big surprise.
This thing’s biggest role in modern times is as a cyber netizen to chat with you. Currently, it doesn’t seem to improve productivity. If the hallucination problem can be solved, it could improve efficiency to some extent.
But placed in 1960, especially with servers deployed in the shadowed region of the Lunar South Pole, where there is natural water cooling, it would be a cyber oracle released from the Moon to Earth.
Lin Ran got excited just thinking about it.
But there are still many technical problems to overcome. The current ChatGPT technical route requires too many computing cards and too high electricity demands.
He would have to haul batteries to the Moon. Unless he can get a micro nuclear reactor, batteries are too limited.
Secondly, in the 2020 spacetime, it’s not hard for him to get a micro nuclear reactor; China would cooperate.
The weight issue is easy to solve. Like America’s KRUSTY Kilopower 1 kW prototype reactor, the core part is only the size of a toilet paper roll; there’s also the spherical micro reactor using americium nitrate aqueous solution, with a radius of only 9.6 cm and mass under 5 kg, both able to stably supply energy in extreme environments.
China’s Linglong No. 1 micro nuclear reactor under development is 7 meters high, 10 meters in diameter, with 125 megawatts of power generation. Gritting teeth, it could be brought to 1960.
The difficult part is, after getting the nuclear reactor, how to make it disappear into thin air.
But with the gate’s existence, directly launch a rocket to the Moon, let the spacecraft fail to land smoothly at the Lunar South Pole, land in a non-target area instead, then use the gate to retrieve it.
To bring it to 1960, there must be a gate at the edge of the Lunar South Pole shadowed region, without stopping on Earth, going directly to the South Pole shadow.
Of course, there is countless work to overcome in between.
But thinking about establishing a global Starlink in the 60 spacetime, creating a cyber god, letting this spacetime take a completely different path, and further feeding back to Earth, Lin Ran was instantly full of fighting spirit.
“Under the ChatGPT technical route, a micro nuclear reactor doesn’t solve the fundamental problem. What I need to bring is a trained model, and the model also needs optimization. After all, I can’t be as luxurious as OpenAI, using tens of thousands of Nvidia graphics cards for training at will.
Even if I could use that many graphics cards for training, I couldn’t deploy them to the Moon.”
The shock OpenAI brought to the world continued. In just five days, ChatGPT’s user count broke one million, claimed to be the fastest app to reach one million users since the birth of the internet.
Internet giants at home and abroad all announced they would launch their own large models.
The term large model gradually entered people’s minds.
The shadow cast on America’s moon landing by China’s moon landing was swept away.
For the Donkey Party, the president vigorously promoted in the White House that he drove America’s technological innovation, and deliberately mentioned China in the White House speech:
“We have always been in the leading position in technological innovation. This was true in the past, and will be true in the future. I know that in the past two years, China’s moon landing has shocked us somewhat. Some people think America has fallen behind in technology and is no longer capable, but we always have outstanding entrepreneurs, scientists, and engineers telling the world that America still has the best innovation environment and achievements.”
The Americans started winning to the point of numbness again.
Combined with the news of China’s internet giants making large models, it deepened the public’s impression of China’s technology copying. The Donkey Party’s midterm election situation almost reversed overnight.
The past decline was swept away.
This is the power of ChatGPT being released a month early.
On November 30, after fully researching ChatGPT and its related technical route, Lin Ran called Pony.
In between, Pony had wanted to come talk to him several times, but Lin Ran said he needed to think more.
“Pony, what do you think of ChatGPT?” Lin Ran asked.
“Huge potential. Even if it’s just a question-answering robot, it will play a key role. Just the code-writing function, if optimized further, a large number of low-end programmers will be unemployed.
In the past, one mid-level programmer led several junior programmers. In the future, one mid-level programmer assisted by artificial intelligence will do the work of a whole team.
Not to mention effects in other fields.” Pony’s tone was full of emotion: “America is always like this, able to produce such innovations. The boost America’s financial market provides to their innovation is too significant. Domestic capital markets are too utilitarian towards startups, and have directly entered a cold winter in recent years.”
Lin Ran then asked: “Do you think this technical route can develop artificial general intelligence? As they claim.”
Pony asserted: “Impossible. This road is 99% bound to have an end, an upper limit. It’s impossible to develop artificial general intelligence through it.”
Lin Ran nodded after hearing this. “That’s good. I think we agree on this. Tencent will provide the graphics cards. I will serve as the technical lead, responsible for the algorithm work. I believe in at most three months, we can launch a question-answering robot leading ChatGPT using existing data.”
This was an unexpected delight for Pony. A man’s reputation, a tree’s shadow—now everyone doesn’t know how ChatGPT works, but since Lin Ran said so, Pony thought it was definitely stronger than Tencent’s AI experts.
The essence of AI is mathematics. He had no reason not to believe Lin Ran.
And Lin Ran also needed Tencent’s massive graphics card cluster. At least to catch up in progress, Huawei currently isn’t enough.
After hearing this, Pony said: “We’ll set up a new company, put this project in it. Tencent cooperates with this company, then embed the robot directly in WeChat, and after launch, do a special authorization. This company will be held nominally by your parents or other relatives. I want no shares. I will provide the initial capital and computing power resources.
What do you think?”
Pony’s idea was two points: avoid risk, allocate interests.
The moon landing struck the White House. This time, producing an artificial intelligence better than ChatGPT in three months would make the White House go crazy.
So whether placed in Tencent or cooperating with Apollo Technology, it would give them leverage.
Therefore, better to use a new shell, one seemingly unrelated to them on the surface.
Tencent itself is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Market. If targeted, the places to target are very limited.
Lin Ran nodded: “Good.”
What he pursued was no longer money, but packaging artificial intelligence as a cyber oracle to bring to the 60 spacetime. The two hit it off.
“The old dirt is not worth boasting; now wild thoughts know no bounds.”
Lin Ran looked at the old man’s calligraphy hanging on the wall of his office, thinking about Song Nanping coming in a few minutes ago to inform him that the old man had passed away. Lin Ran’s heart was extremely calm, with a phrase drifting by: an era has ended.
When some people pass away, it symbolizes the end of an era, because he was one of the most representative figures of that era.
When Lin Ran arrived at the hospital, besides flowers, he also brought a gift:
“This is the moon soil brought back from the Lunar South Pole this time. It has been sterilized and disinfected. Please scatter it in front of the old man’s tomb when the time comes.
With nothing else to offer, I express my condolences with this.”
