Chapter 76: You Are Professor Qin
Chapter 76: You Are Professor Qin
“Academician Qin, after this, your titles will include the additional one: father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion.”
After the cheers in the command hall subsided, the Senior Leader’s emotions had calmed slightly. He also seemed more relaxed now that Controlled Nuclear Fusion was achieved.
As he said these praises to Qin Yu, he was also making a joke.
“As for the title ‘father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion’, I won’t take that.” Qin Yu shook his head in response to the Senior Leader’s words.
It wasn’t that he hated honor.
His ‘mind’ stayed young, his ‘spirit’ was absolutely immortal. He didn’t exactly crave it,
but he certainly didn’t dislike the feeling of the whole world cheering for him.
Simply put, just like he said,
in the research on Controlled Nuclear Fusion technology, especially Deuterium-Tritium Fusion research, he hadn’t done that much.
Even if he didn’t join in, later, the various research teams of the Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor project would still bring in Strong Artificial Intelligence to the Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor.
Then, by relying on the power of artificial intelligence and making some adjustments, they would complete the construction of a new experimental reactor.
The process might have been a little bumpier without his involvement, but ultimately, they still could have achieved the Deuterium-Tritium Fusion experimental reactor.
In that case, he truly saw no need to take on some title like ‘father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion’.
Moreover, frankly, he didn’t really lack such a title.
Even if only as the opener of the Intelligent Era, this era would still bear his profound mark.
Even if not the father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion, people still wouldn’t forget the role played by Strong Artificial Intelligence and General Artificial Intelligence in bringing about the Intelligent Era during the realization of Controlled Nuclear Fusion.
What mattered most,
was that his reason for joining Controlled Nuclear Fusion research was never primarily for Deuterium-Tritium Fusion, or the title ‘father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion’,
but for the following Helium-3 Fusion research.
Deuterium-Tritium Fusion research was, at most, practice before tackling Helium-3 Fusion.
It was the foundation before commencing Helium-3 Fusion research.
It also conveniently helped build up the research teams who would continue participating in Helium-3 Fusion research.
Currently, the entire Deuterium-Tritium Fusion reactor research project was already a massive undertaking.
Helium-3 Fusion research would be an even larger project, an even grander engineering feat.
This had nothing to do with Qin Yu’s intelligence.
Even if he grew eight hundred hands, he couldn’t complete the entire Helium-3 Fusion research project alone.
Him steering the main direction of the research project, breaking through key areas, while other teams solved sub-system and sub-module designs,
that was the more typical research process.
Otherwise, even if Qin Yu himself could master every detail of all the sub-systems and sub-modules in the entire Helium-3 Fusion project,
it would still take who knows how long to design and create the entire Helium-3 reactor piece by piece just like that.
Hearing Qin Yu’s words,
the Senior Leader’s smile faded a little. He nodded and didn’t argue,
simply adding,
“Even if you are not the father of Controlled Nuclear Fusion, the contributions made by Academician Qin within the entire Controlled Nuclear Fusion project are plain for all to see.”
“One who walks ninety miles has walked only half the journey. Most times, taking that last step from ninety-nine to one hundred is just as crucial as taking the first step from zero to one. The latter begins everything; the former finishes the work before true success claims the prize.”
…
“Huaxin News Agency Flash Report.”
“Huaxin News Agency, October 12, from Lingchuan City.”
“Through the joint efforts of the Energy and Power Research Institute of the Negentropy Research Institute under Academician Qin Yu’s direction and the research personnel from the original No. 01 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor project teams,”
“the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Experimental Reactor project was recently completed, and successfully accomplished its first ignition and operation trial task today.”
“In this first ignition and operation trial of the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Deuterium-Tritium Fusion Experimental Reactor,”
“the No. 02 Fusion Experimental Reactor maintained stable operation for two hours and twenty minutes, with power generation lasting one hour and twenty minutes. During this time, the Q-value remained stable above 10… Based on the above data, the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor project declares this ignition trial task a complete success!”
“The successful completion of this Controlled Nuclear Fusion experimental reactor ignition trial marks that our nation’s Controlled Nuclear Fusion has formally entered the process of commercialization and popularization.”
“In the foreseeable future, our country’s current energy pressures within the Intelligent Era will be significantly alleviated!”
This piece of good news had no reason to be delayed.
Unlike the earlier popularization of General Artificial Intelligence, which required preparations and buffers beforehand,
for a society now already in the Intelligent Era,
there was really no need to worry about any major disruption caused by the successful release of large amounts of energy from Controlled Nuclear Fusion.
In the Intelligent Era, the success of Controlled Nuclear Fusion essentially brought only the benefit of alleviating energy pressure; there wouldn’t even be short-term disruptions.
It was reported by Huaxin News Agency the same day, as soon as possible.
For people seeing this report,
what else they understood or didn’t understand was uncertain,
but the meaning of the last two sentences in the report was something they could grasp.
“Wow, so fast?”
“Kid, the miracle of the Intelligent Era, don’t get it?”
“Academician Qin Yu is amazing! The Energy and Power Research Institute is amazing! All the research teams and scientists involved in the Controlled Nuclear Fusion project are amazing! Does this mean we have unlimited energy?”
“Unlimited energy! And we’re in the Intelligent Era! Can we churn out resources without limit? Unleash production power without end? Bring on the Intelligent Machinery! I want to fill in the Pacific Ocean!”
“Unlimited energy isn’t quite it, but it’s true that our energy pressure will be greatly reduced now. I was getting worried before; our industrial scale grows bigger every day, we’d dig the whole Earth hollow eventually. Now we don’t have to worry.”
“Before the Intelligent Era, I never worried about Earth’s resources running out. After the Intelligent Era began, I started worrying. Not worrying about energy pressure anymore is just awesome!”
“Do you people realize what this means? Energy! Electricity! In our time, it’s the very foundation of how the world runs. Energy cost directly decides our production costs, decides the output cost of the stuff we use. Its impact is bigger than anything else. It’s no exaggeration to say – how much energy we have affects how our society runs more than how many people we have.”
“With electricity, our whole society’s production can keep turning. If energy ran low… I dare not even imagine how our Intelligent Era could be maintained…”
“We know, we all know… Speaking of which, does this mean our prices are going to drop again?… Because in the whole industrial chain, energy cost is basically the biggest chunk in our production costs now.”
“Huh? Friend above, are you short on cash? Our production levels were already supporting crazy low prices before?”
“Ha! I’m not short a dime. I’m barely past ninety and already retired… But still, gotta say: Academician Qin is incredible!”
To the vast majority of people at this moment,
the success of Controlled Nuclear Fusion technology wasn’t really a surprise.
Mainly because the construction of the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor was so conspicuous.
Though not inside Lingchuan City, you could see it from far away.
Authorities also didn’t try hard to hide the No. 02 reactor project.
Therefore,
related discussions and reports had been popping up online for quite a while now.
Many already knew about it.
Given the tremendous daily changes of the Intelligent Era itself, people had already expected further breakthroughs and widespread adoption of Controlled Nuclear Fusion.
However, the only thing that might have surprised most people was probably how early this moment came.
At the same time, it was also not fully anticipated that this event involved Academician Qin Yu.
Additionally,
even though before this,
the existence of the Negentropy Research Institute had already become basically open,
this was the first time
that its existence truly appeared directly in the reports of Huaxin News Agency, a mainstream media outlet,
and the first time in a relatively official way that the Negentropy Research Institute fully showed itself to the public.
About this matter,
the higher-ups had also communicated with Qin Yu.
Regarding this, Qin Yu had no objections.
With the needs of development, the scale of the Negentropy Research Institute kept growing step by step.
After all, when the number of researchers expanded to tens of thousands, and other support staff exceeded a million, and it became common knowledge, they surely couldn’t stubbornly deny the institute’s existence, could they?
That would be like ignoring the obvious.
At the same time, a big reason was that as Huaxia Nation led the further integration of HCC,
the reasons and necessity for keeping the Negentropy Research Institute and places like Research Institute 011 secret had gradually faded away.
So rather than everyone silently knowing it,
it made sense to openly reveal the existence of the Negentropy Research Institute now,
making it easier for the institute to recruit new excellent researchers later.
At that moment,
many people were discussing topics about the Negentropy Research Institute.
“Was the Negentropy Research Institute the one that led General Artificial Intelligence research before? That’s awesome!”
“Not only is Academician Qin Yu awesome, but the Negentropy Research Institute is awesome too!”
“…Hey, have you noticed there’s an official website for the Negentropy Research Institute online? On the site, it says the institute was founded by Professor Qin Yu.”
“Huh? Wow, that makes it even more amazing? Experts, tell me, do I have any hope of joining the Negentropy Research Institute someday? I don’t need to be head of any internal research institute, just a regular researcher?”
“…Don’t even dream about it; maybe in your next life… The brains to join that place—if you’re born with them, you have them; if not, too bad.”
“So, basically, the Negentropy Research Institute guided all of human civilization’s progress for so many years?”
“Let me clear that up: it’s not the institute that guided human civilization’s history… It was Professor Qin Yu, Academician Qin Yu, who guided human civilization’s history.”
“Think about it, without the ‘two Qins’ scientists, what would our whole world be like now?”
“I don’t know about the world, but I’d probably be dead, ’cause I’m 105 already. Even though I don’t feel like my middle age is over yet, without Professor Qin Yu, half my body would be in the dirt by now.”
The excitement online continued.
And concerning Controlled Nuclear Fusion achieving a base for commercial operation,
it naturally didn’t end with just a few media outlets reporting it briefly.
Soon after,
a series of actions followed.
Also on that same day,
the higher-ups announced related plans they had long prepared, also through Huaxin News Agency.
They declared
they would spread the energy technology used in the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor,
and carry out major construction of Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors over the next twenty years.
Although current technical problems with Controlled Nuclear Fusion
made the reactors too large,
for civilization in that Intelligent Era, facing huge energy pressure,
this huge size issue was a small problem.
The most important thing was to quickly reduce the current energy pressure.
As for the Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors being a bit oversized,
anyway, Intelligent Machinery handled the building, and with enough energy, bigger was fine.
Conveniently, Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors themselves were meant to solve energy problems.
It could be expected
that building these reactors
could also create a snowball effect.
…
The first batch of locations for giant Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors were chosen in multiple important cities, like the capital and Lingchuan City.
Since the No. 02 Controlled Nuclear Fusion Experimental Reactor was already able to produce stable power,
designing reactors for widespread construction faced no big technical hurdles.
In theory,
they just had to copy the No. 02 reactor design, at most tweaking small details locally as needed.
The Strong Artificial Intelligence that had built the No. 02 reactor once
already mastered a smooth production path for related devices in the whole industrial system.
Expectedly, spreading Controlled Nuclear Fusion Reactors should happen very fast in this Intelligent Era.
But all the outside noise
didn’t bother Qin Yu much.
He didn’t need to interfere or join much in the reactor spread.
At that moment,
while considering the next Helium-3 Fusion problem,
Qin Yu suddenly got interested in something else.
…
Inside the Negentropy Research Institute,
Qin Yu took a sip of warm water that a bipedal robot assistant brought.
The robot clearly remembered his drinking habits, keeping the water at just the right temperature when he wanted a drink.
Putting down the cup, Qin Yu pulled away from thinking about some problems and looked at the bipedal robot. After thinking a bit, he called out,
“Mind Core.”
The Strong Artificial Intelligence in the Brain Intelligence Project had no name.
To avoid people viewing it as having a separate, defined personality,
calling it the Brain Intelligence Project itself was likely a better choice.
Usually, this bipedal robot ran local intelligent programs.
But now, when Qin Yu spoke,
the strong AI in the Brain Intelligence Project could surely receive it.
“Academician Qin, I’m here,”
the strong AI replied instantly through the robot’s speech system after taking it over.
Thinking again, Qin Yu asked a question that seemed simple but strange.
“Who am I?”
But this simple question froze the strong AI in the Brain Intelligence Project.
The face of the bipedal robot, under strong AI control, showed no expression, since confusion or other looks came from the AI deciding to show them or not—it didn’t, so nothing appeared.
The freeze was a real freeze.
Faced with Qin Yu’s question, for a long moment, the robot didn’t move or react, stuck in standby mode.
Still, after a short wait, under strong AI control, the bipedal robot made a sound.
“You are Professor Qin.”
Hearing this answer,
Qin Yu couldn’t help but smile.