Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 300 The End of an Era

"As I have said before, I have always believed that the moon is the best outpost the universe has given us, a natural base."

Throughout the long past, the moon has protected Earth from meteorite attacks and enriched its ecosystem. In the years to come, starting from the day Apollo technology was born, it will make great contributions to our journey into the universe.

The universe is so amazing. Just like building human cities on Earth requires careful consideration of geographical factors. In the past, places with rivers or lakes were suitable for human settlements, which gradually evolved into cities.

Similarly, we must make full use of the resources that the universe already has.

Mars is great, but it's too far away; the Moon is not good, but it's very close.

First the Moon, then Mars—Apollo technology will adhere to this goal, advancing step by step into the universe.

After the live broadcast, Lin Ran's concluding remarks were considered by many on the Simplified Chinese internet to be a speech no less significant than Kennedy's speech on the moon landing.

肯尼迪登月演说“我们选择登月”演讲时间是1962年9月12日，而林燃这次直播是在2022年的10月底，间隔差不多正好六十年。

A retrospective spanning sixty years.

When Lin Ran saw it, he was also very emotional. Kennedy had passed away right under his nose. As his former leader who had promoted him, he thought that pushing the moon landing forward by a big step would surely comfort Kennedy's spirit in heaven.

Almost a year has passed since he fell ill. Among those who were most moved by the Apollo moon landing, Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo are certainly among the most prominent.

They were supposed to be the first and second Chinese people to land on the moon last year, but the Americans blocked it.

We are neither the first nor the second.

At this time, the two were undergoing rehabilitation training at the Astronaut Center in Yanjing, and they were also watching Lin Ran's live interview with Wei Xuhang in their room.

Qian Fei sighed deeply: "Old Zhao, what do you think is the most important thing in a person's life?"

The two are now even closer than the four ironclad bonds of life.

"I used to think it was all about personal effort, but after seeing Wei Xuhang's experience over the past year, I realize that personal effort can never beat luck."

This kid is incredibly lucky!

They were all older than Wei Xuhang, with Qian Fei being the oldest, Zhao Jianguo the second oldest, and Wei Xuhang the youngest.

During training, both of them performed better than Wei Xuhang, but it was this kid who landed on the south pole of the moon, found water ice, became a lucky charm, and gained both fame and fortune.

This magical realism led the two of you to a deeper understanding of the word "luck".

"The only good news is that the head of Apollo Technology is a professor, and it's also a private company," Qian Fei added. "This means that once we complete our rehabilitation training and our physical indicators return to normal, we'll eventually have the opportunity to go to the moon."

The professor was only in his twenties. Given his abilities and age, his ambition was absolutely boundless. It was impossible for him to stop exploring the universe after just one or two moon landings.

He has the ability and the will, and he has also received strong support at the national level.

The private enterprise model also meant he wasn't worried about failure or making mistakes.

Of course, the professor wouldn't fail.

Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo exchanged a glance, and the same thought flashed through their minds: they still had a chance to go to the moon.

But Lin Ran's voice on TV ruined their plans.

"In addition, I would like to say to the viewers watching the live stream that we welcome you to join us. Apollo Technology's official website is always recruiting, and we need science and engineering talents from all walks of life."

Of course, liberal arts talents are also needed, but it seems that functional positions are already saturated. More positions will be released later, so those who are interested can pay more attention.

I can say with certainty that the compensation offered by Apollo Technology is absolutely acceptable in Shenhai. In addition to Shenhai, we also have multiple R&D centers in Yanjing, Chang'an, and Yangcheng, and these R&D centers are also recruiting. If you think the housing prices in Shenhai are too high, you can choose other cities.

It just seems that neither Beijing nor Shenzhen is cheap.

However, we will likely also establish R&D centers in Jiangcheng and Yudu, where housing prices are more affordable.

As someone born in the mid-95s, I can deeply empathize with the housing price situation.

Therefore, Apollo Technology has an additional benefit in Shenhai. We have some good news to share: our Apollo Technology Education Group has obtained the qualification to run a school. We will build a 15-year school, from kindergarten to primary school, then to junior high school and high school, within a two-kilometer radius of Apollo Technology's Shenhai headquarters, for the children of our company employees to enroll in the company.

This will help everyone save money on their children's education.

This is a real benefit.

The last company in Shenhai to offer this treatment dates back more than a decade to SMIC, which established a SMIC School in both Shenhai and Yanjing.

Taking Shenhai's SMIC School as an example, it's not a bad school if you want to study abroad, after all, it's the only private school in Shenhai that is authorized and approved by the American College Board as a SAT, ACT, and AP testing center.

This means that America would approve the tests that the school itself conducts.

However, if you're aiming for the college entrance exam, SMIC School is relatively average.

Regardless, it is definitely a benefit for enterprises to run compulsory education schools, and in Shenhai, it is a door that has been opened again after twenty years.

"In addition, we are currently preparing the option pool rules so that all employees can be allocated options. I believe that the options of the only company in the world that can land on the moon are quite valuable."

In terms of pure salary, we will also offer a competitive salary in the market.

However, we must state in advance that we cannot operate on a five-day, eight-hour work week. Our workload is very heavy, but we will strictly abide by the law and pay overtime wages.

Before you come, please consider our workload.

So, think about it: the CEO I brought in is Pony Ma, a big shot from the internet industry. His workload, if not on par with other internet companies, is definitely not going to be easy.

Given that we are currently in the startup phase, it's definitely not possible for us to have an easy work environment.

Finally, in addition to the engineers and R&D personnel mentioned above, we also need to recruit astronauts, just like the person sitting next to me. We need to recruit astronauts from the civilian sector. Those who are interested can apply on the official website. If you pass the interview, there will be a six-month probationary period, which is basically training. After passing the training, you will join the Apollo Technology astronaut team.

I don't need to elaborate on the benefits of becoming an astronaut at Apollo Technology, right? Look at Wei Xuhang, the company sends him to the moon, to space, and in the future, he might even go to Mars for free.

This is a treatment that no other company offers.

The prerequisite is that you are able to train.

Let me elaborate a bit. Our standards for recruiting astronauts are very strict, and the requirements for knowledge and skills are even higher. This is because we need more than just someone who can complete tasks step by step; we need engineers and construction workers.

Your role will be very diverse, requiring strong learning abilities.

It's not just about physical fitness requirements.

That's roughly it. We plan to recruit one hundred astronauts this time, and believe me, even one hundred astronauts might not be enough. Those who are confident in themselves are welcome to submit their resumes.

After Lin Ran finished his job posting, Qian Fei and Zhao Jianguo felt a surge of urgency. If they didn't recover soon, the new recruits would take their places.

"Let's go!" Qian Fei said.

Zhao Jianguo asked, "Where to?"

"Let's go do rehabilitation training!" Qian Fei stood up, and Zhao Jianguo quickly followed. They were going to find a rehabilitation training coach together.

On November 1st, after the interview, Lin Ran arrived at the office around 11 a.m. He usually arrives very early because he lives nearby.

By this time, they had moved to Baoshan.

When he arrived, he saw that Pony's office door was already open, which meant that Pony had arrived earlier than him.

Lin Ran was puzzled, wondering why.

Because you should know that Pony always arrives right on time at nine o'clock.

He would leave work late, or he would reply to emails after he got home from get off work, but Pony would not arrive early.

Lin Ran had barely sat down when Pony knocked on the door and entered: "Mr. Lin, it's one in the morning. America has launched a groundbreaking artificial intelligence, ChatGPT."

Since its launch, this software has been tested by Tencent's AI research experts and staff.

The field of artificial intelligence is about to undergo a dramatic transformation.

Lin Ran knew very well that for Pony, whose eyes were still bloodshot, to take ChatGPT so seriously, this ChatGPT must be no ordinary artificial intelligence.

However, he wasn't thinking about ChatGPT itself, but rather about the computation time.

America's midterm elections were held on November 6, 2022. The fact that ChatGPT was launched just before the midterm elections is quite significant.

America's core competitiveness lies in technology. The failed moon landing dealt a significant blow to America's soft power and also dealt a heavy blow to the US stock market, already jeopardizing the Democratic Party's chances in this year's midterm elections. If ChatGPT is truly as miraculous as Pony Ma claims, it could indeed help the Democratic Party reverse its decline to some extent.

Lin Ran didn't know the answer, so he gestured, "Pony, tell me carefully."

“Lin Sheng, do you know what type of software this is?” Pony asked.

Lin Ran nodded: "It's a chat software. You can tell from the name. I've seen related news before. They've released some information about it before."

"Simply put, this is an AI chatbot, but it is completely different from Microsoft Xiaoice and Siri in the past."

ChatGPT's ability to understand complex questions and generate coherent and accurate answers represents the most significant breakthrough in this field to date.

Because Tencent previously collaborated with Microsoft to launch QQ Xiaoice, I am well aware that the potential of chatbots in the past was very limited; they could only impersonate people, but could not become people themselves.

However, ChatGPT shows a glimmer of hope in becoming human. While it remains immature in Chinese, lacking a deep understanding of Chinese contexts, it demonstrates remarkable potential in English, capable of understanding your questions and providing accurate answers.

What's even more astonishing is that OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced its technical roadmap, highlighting that their success relies on massive amounts of training data and advanced algorithms.

Tencent's AI experts predict that they were trained using a larger dataset and an optimized deep learning architecture, combined with a human feedback reinforcement learning method similar to InstructGPT.

The underlying meaning is that perhaps with enough training data, artificial intelligence will emerge and its intelligence level will advance by leaps and bounds.

Compared to America, we have a natural disadvantage in computing power.

We can only buy a stripped-down version of the computing card. If computing power and data are the decisive factors on the path to general artificial intelligence, then the gap between us and America will be difficult to close for a long time.

From Tencent's perspective, domestic competition will not be affected, but its global strategy will most likely be affected in the future.

If this technological path truly leads to the development of general-purpose artificial intelligence, then the entire country of China will be severely impacted.

Pony's tone was serious, clearly indicating that he hadn't slept well the previous night, testing ChatGPT, reading reports from Tencent experts, attending meetings with Tencent, and browsing opinions in WeChat's expert groups.

I only slept for less than two hours that night.

Lin Ran said, "Okay, Pony, I'll go try it first, and we'll talk again after I'm done."

ChatGPT indeed gave him a big surprise.

The biggest use of this thing in modern times is as a cybernetic friend to chat with. It doesn't seem to improve productivity yet. However, if it can solve the problem of illusions, then it can improve efficiency to some extent.

But in 1960, especially with servers deployed in the shadowy region of the lunar south pole, which was water-cooled, and cyber oracles sent from the moon to Earth.

Lin Ran was thrilled just thinking about it.

However, there are still many technical problems to overcome. Currently, the ChatGPT technology route requires too many computing cards and has too high power requirements.

He was carrying batteries to the moon by the door; unless he could get his hands on a small nuclear reactor, the batteries were too limited.

Secondly, in the 2020 timeline, it wouldn't be difficult for me to build a small nuclear reactor; China would cooperate.

Weight issues are relatively easy to solve. For example, America's KRUSTY Kilopower 1 kW prototype reactor has a core that is only the size of a toilet paper roll. There is also a spherical microreactor that uses an aqueous solution of americium nitrate, with a radius of only 9.6 cm and a mass of less than 5 kg, which can stably supply energy in extreme environments.

China is developing the Linglong-1 micro nuclear reactor, which is 7 meters high, 10 meters in diameter, and has a power output of 125 megawatts. It's not impossible to bring it to 1960 if we grit our teeth and persevere.

The difficulty lies in how to make a nuclear reactor disappear into thin air once it has been built.

However, with the door in place, why not just launch a rocket onto the moon, preventing the spacecraft from landing at the lunar south pole and forcing it to land in a non-target area, and then retrieve it using the door?

To bring it to 1960, there would have to be a door at the edge of the lunar south polar shadow, without stopping on Earth, and go directly to the south polar shadow.

Of course, there are countless tasks to overcome along the way.

But the thought of establishing a global Starlink network in spacetime 60, creating a cyber god, and leading this spacetime down a completely different path to further benefit Earth filled Lin Ran with renewed fighting spirit.

"Under ChatGPT's technical roadmap, micro nuclear reactors cannot solve the fundamental problem. What I need to bring is a trained model, and the model also needs to be optimized. After all, I can't be as extravagant as OpenAI, which can use tens of thousands of NVIDIA graphics cards for training."

Even if I could use that many graphics cards for training, I wouldn't have a way to deploy them on the moon.

The impact of OpenAI on the world continues. In just five days, ChatGPT surpassed one million users, making it the fastest application to reach one million users since the birth of the internet.

Major internet companies, both domestic and international, have announced that they will launch their own large-scale models.

The term "large model" is gradually gaining popularity.

The gloom that China's moon landing had cast on America's moon landing has been swept away.

For the Democrats, the president's extensive self-promotion at the White House, highlighting his role in America's technological innovations and his deliberate mention of China in his White House speech, was a prime example.

"We have always been at the forefront of technological innovation, both in the past and in the future. I know that China's moon landing in the past two years has been quite a shock to us. Some people may think that America is lagging behind in the field of science and technology and is no longer viable. But we always have outstanding entrepreneurs, scientists and engineers to tell the world that America still has the best innovation environment and innovative achievements."

The Americans are winning again.

By juxtaposing news of major Chinese internet companies building large-scale models with the public's perception of Chinese technology as a copycat, the Democratic Party's midterm election situation was reversed almost overnight.

The previous decline has been swept away.

This is the power of ChatGPT being released a month in advance.

On November 30th, after thoroughly researching ChatGPT and its related technical routes, Lin Ran approached Pony.

Pony tried to talk to him several times, but Lin Ran always said he needed to think about it some more.

“Pony, what do you think of ChatGPT?” Lin Ran asked.

"It has huge potential. Even if it's just a question-and-answer robot, it will play a key role. If the coding function is optimized further, a lot of low-end programmers will lose their jobs."

In the past, a mid-level programmer would mentor several junior programmers; in the future, a mid-level programmer, with the assistance of artificial intelligence, will be doing the work of an entire team.

And that doesn't even consider the effects in other areas. Pony's tone was full of emotion: "America is always like this; the financial markets there have provided such significant support for their innovation, allowing them to emerge with such remarkable results. The domestic capital market, on the other hand, is too utilitarian towards entrepreneurship, and in recent years it has directly entered a winter."

Lin Ran then asked, "Do you think this technological path can lead to general artificial intelligence? Can it be like what they say?"

Pony asserted, "Impossible. This path has an end and a limit 99% of the time. It's impossible to develop general artificial intelligence based on it."

Lin Ran nodded after listening. "That's good. I think we've reached an agreement on this. Tencent will be responsible for providing the graphics cards, and I will be the technical lead. I will be responsible for the algorithm layer. I believe that within three months at most, we will be able to launch a question-answering robot that surpasses ChatGPT using the existing data."

This was an unexpected bonus for Pony. With a person's reputation, one can gain influence. Right now, no one knows how to do ChatGPT, but since Lin Ran has said so, Pony thinks it is definitely better than Tencent's AI experts.

AI is essentially mathematics, so he had no reason not to believe Lin Ran.

Lin Ran also needs to use Tencent's massive graphics card cluster, and at least in terms of progress, Huawei is still not good enough to catch up.

After listening, Pony said, "We will set up a new company and put this project in this company. Tencent will cooperate with this company, and then the robot will be directly embedded in WeChat. After its launch, we will make a special authorization. This company will be held by your parents or other relatives on your behalf. I don't want any shares. I will provide the initial capital and computing resources for the start-up."

What do you think? "

Pony's ideas boil down to two points: risk avoidance and profit distribution.

The moon landing dealt a blow to the White House, and now that they're expected to develop an AI even more powerful than ChatGPT in just three months, the White House is going crazy.

Therefore, whether it's with Tencent or through a collaboration with Apollo Technology, it will give the other party leverage.

Therefore, it would be better to use a new shell, one that has no apparent connection to them.

Tencent itself is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, so there are very limited areas you can target.

Lin Ran nodded: "Okay."

What he was after was no longer money, but the ability to package artificial intelligence as a cyber oracle and bring it to the 60th era. The two hit it off immediately.

"The sordid past is nothing to boast about; today, my unrestrained thoughts are boundless."

Lin Ran looked at the old man's calligraphy hanging on the wall of his office, thinking about how Song Nanping had come in a few minutes earlier to inform him that the old man had passed away. Lin Ran felt incredibly calm, and a sentence floated through his mind: "An era has ended."

The death of some people symbolizes the end of an era, because they are one of the most representative figures of that era.

When Lin Ran arrived at the hospital, in addition to flowers, he also brought a gift:
"This is lunar soil brought back from the lunar south pole during this lunar mission. It has been sterilized and disinfected. Please spread it in front of the old man's grave for me."

I have nothing else to offer but this to express my sorrow.

(End of this chapter)