When facing a hale, hearty, and well-renowned professor, Zhang Yuan felt nervous deep down.
Even after disregarding his other miscellaneous titles, just the title of the Academician of Mathematics would suffice to scare off ordinary people.
An academician!
Professor Wang's main research direction was the Theory of Motive, one of the hardest subjects out there. Motive was a higher dimensional promotional product of Galois group theory and it was later found to have a mysterious relationship with the quantum field theory.
Research on the Langlands Program and the Theory of Motive were the two current main trends in mathematics. The Langlands Program attempted to unify number theory and algebraic geometry, while the Theory of Motive attempted to unify discrete math and continuous math.
They were also known as two sides of the same coin.
In the past, there was a mathematician who made a bold prediction. "If humans ever complete these two frameworks, the mathematical world will usher in a true unity and all math problems can be resolved with these two theories."
Even though it sounded like a hyperbole, humans might really never reach that stage. The progress of the Langlands Program was considered so-so and after decades of research, humans had only made progress in the geometric Langlands Program and the p-adic Langlands Program. As for the Theory of Motive, due to its high degree of abstraction, it ended up as though mathematicians were just talking to themselves. Therefore, even peer review became difficult now. As a result, the progress on the study of the Theory of Motive was also extremely slow.
Without a doubt, Wang Zong was one of the top mathematicians, and the structure of hybrid motive was also proposed by Professor Wang. It had caused a huge sensation at that time.
He had often heard his father mentioning about his mentor with a tone filled with respect. Therefore, Zhang Yuan had come to visit in passing, with no hidden intentions.
He had even brought along a small gift, a local product of Donghua City, Donghua Ham, though it seemed like the current situation appeared to be somewhat weird.
"What university did you graduate from?"
"Z University." Zhang Yuan answered in all honesty.
"Oh, Z University…" Wang Zhong furrowed his brows and was slightly dissatisfied. Even though Z University was ranked third among the universities in Xia Country, it was still slightly worse in comparison to the top 2. From the point of view of an old man like him, good students should enroll in the top 2 universities.
"You're also a space volunteer?"
"That's right."
"Very good. You've inherited your father's ambition." Wang Zhong nodded in satisfaction.
If not for his old age, he would definitely be one of the half a million volunteers to experience the life of space voyaging.
"What are your plans for the future?" Professor Wang raised his teacup and leisurely took a sip.
"I still have 19 days of vacations left and I plan to browse through books in the library. After boarding the spaceship, I hope to find a mentor to complete my masters and doctorate…"
"It's good to gain more knowledge. What direction are you planning to further study?"
When they touched on this topic, Zhang Yuan revealed an awkward smile. "I'm rather fond of mathematics, but restarting a civilization requires a large number of talents. Therefore, I intend to engage in engineering research such as informatics… Yep, it'll mainly be math and space engineering."
Wang Zhong was a science professor. People who were engaged in science would often despise those in engineering, while those in engineering would often despise those in liberal arts. That had always been the chain of academic disdain.
The chain was determined by the degree of difficulty to write a trash thesis. It was relatively more difficult to write a trash thesis for a science professor, as it would require innovation at the bare minimum. As for liberal arts, it was simply too easy to write a trash thesis. Those television majors and performing arts majors specialized in producing doctorates who wrote trash theses.
When his father had switched from a Mathematics major to Space Mechanics, Wang Zhong had almost lost his temper, as he felt that engineering major was too utilitarian.
As expected, Wang Zhong's brows knitted together and he remained silent for some time. However, it was their first time conversing and they were unfamiliar with each other, thus he did not comment on Zhang Yuan's plans much.
"Have you found a mentor yet?"
"Not yet. I still have to take a test after boarding the spaceship. Hopefully, I can obtain high marks…" Zhang Yuan said modestly.
"…" In Wang Zhong's point of view, he naturally misinterpreted Zhang Yuan's words.
"…"
Earth Age was a large spaceship and despite the adequate preparations done in advance, the resources and outputs were limited. After all, most of the crew's time would be spent in hibernation.
In order to restart civilization on an unfamiliar planet, knowledge and technical skills were the most crucial. Therefore, the various experts and scholars would naturally be in control of more resources and have greater authority on the spaceship
The student quota for those well-known scholars was also limited. The identity as their students would naturally be more beneficial than ordinary skilled workers; it was somewhat similar to having a backing.
Right now, it was as if Zhang Yuan knew that he would not score good marks and was taking a backdoor route, so he attempted to find a good mentor with the help of Wang Zhong.
Professor Wang furrowed his brows and asked, "What kind of mentor are you looking for?"
Zhang Yuan blanked out for a moment before casually replying, "Of course the more knowledgeable ones. Someone like my father would be the best!"
Wang Zhong became even unhappier as he glanced at the Donghua Ham placed on his table.
Based on his years of teaching experience, someone who wished to rely on their parents to go through the backdoor was undoubtedly bad at their studies!
If he made a misjudgment, he would swallow that piece of ham whole!
'Why don't you check yourself out in the mirror and see what kind of standard you possess… You want the best mentor, but you need to reflect to see if you are worthy!' Wang Zhong inwardly thought.
His gaze towards Zhang Yuan gradually became unkind.
...
Wang Zhong was not someone who disregarded past relationships. In fact, it was not a difficult thing for him to slightly care for the son of his favorite student.
However, when it came to Earth Age, it was similar to touching his sore spot, making him extremely anxious.
The reason being, Earth Age was an independent society and once it launched, the civilization on Earth had no means to interfere with them. Other than external reasons such as the Dyson sphere or the supernova, there was another internal reason for the massive project.
It was the carnival of idealists of Earth! It was a mighty social experiment!
Back then when the father of nuclear fusion, Qi Yuanshan founded the Deep Space Foundation, he had also established a new school of thought, called New Civilization School.
Those from New Civilization School believed that civilization development was similar to a biological evolution, which could only be mended based on the original foundation. It was impossible to completely overturn the original and restart. As such, the history, culture, and ideology of the past would have a profound impact on their future development.
There were both good and bad to such influences, and it was impossible to make great changes using simple reparation methods. It was similar to the growth of humans. Once their world outlook was formed, it would be set in stone.
As a result, some old historical burdens would become a burden in the development of the future.
New Civilization School had once raised a question: why has Earth's civilization yet to integrate and become a unified country?
The answer was very simple.
Firstly, it was impossible for humans to give up acquired authority and interest. If a few countries were to unify with each other, the leaders of smaller countries would have to step down. Many ranks and interests would have to be re-distributed, so those with vested interest would naturally be unwilling.
A simple example would be that there were no consistent rail spacing measurements throughout the world.
Having the rail spacing to be consistent not only involved political factors, but also various economic problems. Changing the old rails required money, so who would fork out the cost needed?
Since no one was willing, it could only be dragged on.
With just a simple problem of rail spacing, no one knew how long it would be dragged on for, not to mention other more complicated issues that involved interests.
Secondly, based on history, cracks between each country were hard to repair. Ethnic hatred and various ethnic conflicts still existed until today. After four world wars, with the exception of East Asia who was in a better state, there were still conflicts in other areas. There were also small-scale wars, with it being more apparent in poorer countries.
Such conflicts were unlikely to disappear in the foreseeable future.
Thirdly, many countries were not worth supporting and rescuing.
In some countries, dictatorship and bureaucratic capitalism existed; in some countries, the entire population consumed drugs and even exported them, to the extent that their government had been fully occupied by druggies; in some countries, the entire population was lazy and preferred to let the fruit fall rather than picking them. There were also some countries where the whole population believed in religions… The chaos of global ideology was impossible to be saved with just a single great man.
In summary, New Civilization School believed that since Earth's current civilization could not be unified, it would be the same in the future. Even if they forcefully unified it, there would be even more chaotic infighting, and that was a result of a myriad of factors such as differences in history and culture.
Therefore, Earth Age was a mighty attempt of the New Civilization School.
It attempted to use physical distance to abandon all the rubbish pretenses throughout human history and establish a more powerful and unified new civilization where the entire populace had the same ideology.
It was just like after a father realized there was no hope for his future, he would place all his hope onto his child.
If their attempt were successful, the more powerful civilization would have a certain chance of influencing Earth's civilization.
That was the original plan Qi Yuanshan had come up with. A mighty… plan that spanned across tens of thousands of years.
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Author's note: In regard to Theory of Motive, Grothendieck's dream is to establish a universal cohomology theory which is known as the Theory of Motive. In any case, when words like motive and motivic appear in maths, you'll know that it's very high-level and abstract.
In the future, there will be some math and science fiction but there's no need to understand those terms. You just need to know they exist.