Top academic

A lively and sincere welcome ceremony; exciting and fulfilling outdoor activities on the moon.

Richard and Thomas also collected two pieces of lunar soil themselves under the guidance of experts.

This is really a technical job.

Although it's called lunar soil, due to the lack of water, it's actually more like Earth's sand and gravel, with a very hard texture and very sharp grain edges.

Therefore, expert guidance and specialized tools are really needed to carefully extract a piece of lunar soil that is as intact as possible.

Of course, all of this was still broadcast live globally. This included the process of obtaining lunar soil.

Although it takes a bit longer, after all, a dedicated moon shovel isn't very user-friendly for beginners.

In addition, they also had to wear bulky spacesuits and adapt to the lunar environment where the gravity was only one-sixth that of Earth.

But it was all clearly worth it.

In fact, the netizens watching seemed to really enjoy this story of studying hard and finally succeeding.

The moment Thomas successfully knocked down and preserved a piece of lunar soil of the right size in a special container was also the moment when the most gifts were sent out in the live stream.

The live stream ended at that moment and resumed on the last day after a successful return journey.

When Richard, Thomas, and the other two crew members stepped out of the successfully landed capsule, witnessed by netizens around the world who were following the trip, it marked a perfect end to this journey for ordinary people to the moon.

On that day, all of China's major state media outlets devoted a minute to reporting on this matter during their most important news segments.

Furthermore, a shot was specifically captured of Richard stepping out of the manned cabin and waving to the camera.

It must be said that after appearing in front of the camera for so long, Richard now faces the camera as naturally as an actor.

Thus, this welder, who had been unknown at Xida University, gained a certain degree of fame throughout China.

Now everyone knows that a "lucky Richard" came from Fish, Philadelphia.

Yes, when a state media host solemnly uttered Richard's nickname, which had spread widely on the internet, luck was probably already completely tied to Richard's life.

After all, the whole world now has to watch China's central media.

That most important news program has long been not only a weathervane for China, but also for the world.

This can probably be seen from the content reported by the central media today.

Just as Richard landed near the Daquan launch site in China, many other people were also landing in Beijing, China.

These people are all prominent figures from various countries and regions around the world, or rather, prominent figures chosen to stand in the spotlight to represent their respective countries and regions.

Just as Qiao Yu planned, the enormous benefits that the moon could bring were there for all to see. If they were interested, they would naturally want to come and talk.

Who wouldn't be envious of the resources of an entire planet?

Not to mention that in this era, the moon is also likely to become a strategic location.

At least China has demonstrated this possibility. There's a lot to discuss next.

Of course, Richard also gained what he needed; wealth was secondary, the main thing was fame.

For those whose ambitions have been awakened and who want to live in the White House in the future, this level of recognition is the most important thing.

What surprised him even more was that Qiao Yu was clearly not just talking.

Upon returning to Xida University amidst much attention, an elite team immediately contacted him.

It's a truly elite team, from managers to finance, communications, policy and legal advisors, voter mobilization directors, and so on...

They all have extensive experience. Each of them has experience successfully getting people into the White House.

What Richard least expected was that there was a big shot in the team who had lived in the White House for a long time, serving as his consultant and public image spokesperson.

Of course, we can't start preparing for the next session right away; we'll begin in Pennsylvania, where Philadelphia is located.

The team's plan for him was to get Richard directly into the state Senate in two years.

Spend two years in the Senate to gain experience, then run directly for governor, serve one term as governor, and then officially launch your bid for the White House.

Most importantly, he will be the first person in the new century to challenge this goal as an independent candidate.

If he succeeds, he will probably truly solidify his identity as the lucky Richard.

However, he will have to continue working as a welder for the time being. According to his campaign advisors, this job helps him maintain his approachability and earns him more trust from voters.

Of course, pure welding was out of the question. Under the guidance of these consultants, Richard also opened accounts on many internet social media platforms.

He shares videos with the public every day. According to his advisor, he wants to maintain his public exposure from now on, so that people can understand his life better and thus feel closer to him...

In short, for Richard, life was no longer the same.

Of course, for Richard it was his entire life, but for Qiao Yu, who was far away at Dongda University, it was probably just a piece that was casually placed on the chessboard, and a piece that belonged to the long-term planning.

Qiao Yu, the instigator, didn't actually have much time to pay attention to Richard's side.

He has already begun working on research into general artificial intelligence.

Well, driven by laziness, Qiao Yu didn't want to spend all her time on work.

But if you accidentally develop an interest while researching, that's a different story.

Especially the part of general artificial intelligence that is related to mathematics.

As Qiao Yu said in his lecture to the new students, mathematics is the purest abstract language of all sciences.

Its essence is to strip away the complex phenomena and reduce them to their most fundamental structure, relationships, and patterns.

Mathematics, in particular, requires unambiguous precision. The entire language demands rigorous definitions and unambiguous reasoning.

Currently, the requirements for general artificial intelligence are that it should make optimal decisions in uncertain environments, without challenging the bottom lines of human morality and ethics, and satisfy almost everyone.

Take the famous trolley problem, for example. No matter what choice humans make, it will inevitably attract a lot of criticism; if machines were to make the choice, it would be even more problematic…

There are few people in this world who can solve problems, but there are always many who like to criticize problem-solving.

Mathematical optimization decisions obviously cannot be directly applied to the decision tree process of general artificial intelligence.

Not to mention the numerous definitions that have led to a great deal of derivative things.

The real advancement into the field of general artificial intelligence is no longer a problem that can be solved by deep machine learning alone.

After all, the intention of achieving this step is not to have the machine play chess through deduction or deduce mathematical problems step by step according to logic.

Instead, it allows machines to think autonomously under constraints.

Even for a genius like Qiao Yu, this is an extremely difficult problem, even more difficult than solving the Riemann Hypothesis or other Millennium Problems.

Dynamic learning, cognitive architecture...

The direct result is that Zheng Xiwen has noticed that Qiao Yu is going out less and less in the past two years. She has started to communicate with people very little, and often forgets to even report to Qiao Xi once a week, or simply asks Xia Keke to take Zisheng over for a meal.

I often lock myself in the office for most of the day.

Honestly, Zheng Xiwen had never seen Qiao Yu act like this before. So much so that he was quite unaccustomed to it at first.

This has directly led to the fact that those around Qiao Yu have not had an easy time in recent years.

Unfortunately, Qiao Yu is prone to taking her anger out on others. If she can't solve a problem, she'll often unleash a torrent of abuse on the project manager.

This broadened Zheng Xiwen's horizons once again. It's said that cultured people can curse without using any vulgar language.

Qiao Yu is undoubtedly one of the best among these cultured people, and some of the things he said were really too much for Zheng Xiwen to hear.

For example, "I always thought whether single-celled organisms have brains was a biological puzzle, until I finished talking to you and realized that it's not a puzzle at all..."

"Is this your level of logic? Dude, I think you need to find an elementary school textbook and review the exercises again. By the way, I suggest you find one for third grade or below; fourth graders are already learning about the chicken and rabbit problem, which you probably won't understand..."

In short, everyone who came out of Qiao Yu's office over the years had a rather unpleasant expression.

Even Yu Yongjun, who has the thickest skin, is like that.

This makes Zheng Xiwen's position even more important.

Recently, whenever a group of researchers and engineers come to Qiao Yu to report on their work, they always exchange a few polite words with Zheng Xiwen first.

The main point was to discuss with him whether, after they went in for a while, we could invite him in as well to create a distraction, making it easier for them to escape quickly.

They were all respectable people, and none of them wanted to be verbally abused by Qiao Yu in the office.

Especially Qiao Yu's brain, I don't know how it was structured. Not only is he good at solving difficult math problems, but he also never repeats himself when he insults people.

In addition, they have an exceptionally good memory, and can continue to build upon previous content, constantly adding new elements...

Moreover, neither Old Tian nor Old Yuan interfered in these matters.

Especially Mr. Yuan, who is quite old, almost ninety years old. He definitely can't control Qiao Yu.

Academician Tian is already over eighty years old, and after becoming a senior academician, he doesn't get involved in much of the work anymore.

Therefore, the entire Yanbei and Huaqing Mathematical Research Centers became Qiao Yu's domain.

Aside from Qiao Xi, no one else can keep him in check; Qiao Yu really has no one else who can get him to give him face.

That's roughly the situation.

Two years have passed, and the lunar base's area recently exceeded two thousand square meters. Zhang Qi's promise to use WiFi on the moon has already been fulfilled.

Furthermore, it has successfully attracted many wealthy individuals to travel to the moon. To date, seven groups totaling thirteen people have gone to the moon.

Even now, lunar travel has become, just as originally envisioned, one of the most popular travel options among the wealthy.

Because it's so profitable, several airlines have begun to consider launching private spacecraft services.

Its function is roughly the same as a private yacht. The only difference is that the latter can only sail on the ocean, while the former can sail in outer space.

Throwing a party on the high seas is no longer an exciting thing for the wealthy.

But only throwing a party in space can truly showcase the extravagance of the super-rich.

Look, the aerospace sector has already progressed to the point of demonstrating the feasibility of this project, but the construction of the general artificial intelligence (AGI) project supporting the lunar base is still in its infancy.

So far, these are just plans; no project has been implemented yet.

Therefore, Zheng Xiwen can actually understand Qiao Yu's emotions during this period.

But Zheng Xiwen actually felt that there was nothing wrong with it.

He even felt that Qiao Yu had indeed had it too easy before, and it would be good if he could be completely stumped by a difficult problem.

At least it made Qiao Yu start to act like a human being.

Indeed, Zheng Xiwen has witnessed Qiao Yu's success over the years he has been by Qiao Yu's side.

Often, problems that others have struggled with for a long time are submitted to him, and he solves them in just a few days.

Especially at the Institute of Computing Technology, Qiao Yu almost drove them to depression.

At the last meeting of the Mathematics and Physics Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, some academicians joked that the Institute of Computing of the Chinese Academy of Sciences should just be shut down, or merged with the Yanbei International Mathematical Research Center.

Anyway, the Institute of Computing Technology can't solve the problems here, so they have to be pushed over here, which is a complete waste of resources.

Because of this, the newly appointed director of the Institute of Computing Technology had a heated argument with the academician after the meeting.

After all, although the tone was indeed joking, whether the person really thought that way is another matter.

And to be honest, the Institute of Computing Technology has indeed had a lot of frustration these past few years.

The little funding we managed to secure was almost entirely contributed to Yanbei and Huaqing.

There's no way to compete with their efficiency!

Especially some project partners.

Although they were being polite and still assigned the project to the Institute of Computing Technology, they kept implying, both openly and subtly, that the Institute could collaborate with Qiao Yu's Fine Rain Technology, which would likely be more efficient...

Well, this is probably the kind of joke that nobody takes seriously, but the truth is indeed too sharp a knife...

Some people are genuinely afraid that the Chinese Academy of Sciences or higher authorities might think the Institute of Computing Technology is no longer of much use and simply shut it down...

In short, seeing that Qiao Yu could also be stumped by difficult problems made Zheng Xiwen realize that this guy was still human...

However, this relief was shattered when Tian Yanzhen personally visited...

"...Xiao Zhou came to me again to complain. He demonstrated the functions of July to me, and I think it's already very powerful."

Compared to other AI products on the market, it's already quite advanced; at least in my opinion, calling it AGI wouldn't be an exaggeration. But you're still not satisfied?

Zheng Xiwen, who had just brought the tea over, frowned subconsciously upon hearing these words.

July is the AI ​​code name for Qiao Yu's project.

There's no special meaning to it; it's just that Qiao Yu named the project that way because it was initiated in July.

However, he really didn't expect that July had already developed to this stage.

If Tian Yanzhen thinks it's pretty good, then the product is already at a high level of maturity.

Then he heard Qiao Yu's counter-question.

"Director Tian, ​​please don't rush. I'd like to ask you a question. How do you think we should mathematically describe this so that machines can understand subjective or higher-order concepts such as consciousness, intention, and value?" (End of Chapter)