Technology invades the modern world

Chapter 355 Perhaps room-temperature superconductivity is the norm

"Professor, I have a question."

After Lin Ran finished speaking, a classmate sitting in the back raised his hand high. After Lin Ran nodded, he stood up and said.

"you say.

Before you begin, let me introduce you to Zhao, a student from the Tsinghua University Yao Class.
In addition to being open to everyone, we also have a few additional spots available for students from other universities during this summer internship program.

Lin Ran said.

Zhao is indeed from Tsinghua University, but that doesn't mean everyone from Tsinghua University has to be included in the internship program. Rather, someone from Tsinghua University contacted him, hoping to arrange an internship for him.

Those with good relationships were basically all included.

It's just an internship; helping others will make things easier for yourself in the future.

Lin Ran didn't have any lofty ideas. Whether in China or abroad, relying on connections is inevitable; it's a matter of human nature.

In human society, all you can do is blend in with the world.

"Professor, it is like this, what you are doing is certainly very meaningful."

The problem is, are you trying to seize control of the discourse?

This is a very dangerous thing. I think if you really want to do this, it's best to communicate fully with the relevant authorities in Yanjing and get their consent before doing it.

Let me give you a very simple example to help you understand this more clearly.

Previously, Baidu had a Baidu snapshot feature, which allowed users to find websites that had disappeared in the past.

I believe the Baidu Snapshot feature still exists, but it is no longer open to the public.

A large part of the reason is that we don't want everyone to compile a combined edition.

The same event, five years ago and five years later, both from official reports, but bound volumes like these can seriously damage credibility.

Why is there a discrepancy between five years ago and five years later? If the problem lies in the past, shouldn't those who made the decisions back then be held accountable? If the problem lies in the present, that would be terrifying.

This time span may not be five years, but ten years or even longer. And if you compile a collection at each point in time, you will find that the propaganda on the same event is constantly changing.

Why is this? And what's the point of compiling this book? Is it to trace back to the past? Whose responsibility are they trying to hold accountable?

The most interesting person here is the head monk. The 2015 investigation report showed that he was innocent and that all the accusations against him were false and untrue.

Are the questions that are made public 10 years later different from those 10 years ago? No.

Why has the narrative changed over the past decade? Didn't they say there was nothing there before? Now they say there is?

The fact that you're asked to compile a combined edition is even worse: the official investigation report on the abbot in 2015 was problematic and contained forgeries, so every subsequent report will be scrutinized with suspicion.

This is what Servitan cannot accept.

“Professor, this is my concern.” Zhao said sincerely, “Don’t try to become the benchmark of public opinion.”

After thinking for a moment, Lin Ran asked, "Student Zhao, what I'm doing is just creating a large model in the humanities and social sciences; it doesn't involve collecting the data you mentioned."

It simply provides users with a professional perspective on the subject from a theoretical standpoint.

It's not a bound volume, nor is it a coordinate system; current large models can do that too. I just want to take it a step further and create a model with a higher degree of professional integration.

Zhao smiled wryly and said, "Professor, of course I know you mean well and have no ill intentions. You are just doing this from a research perspective."

This is also to give us a suitable practice topic.

The problem is that being misunderstood is the fate of those who express themselves. If you create something and put it on the internet, you will face public pressure from all sides, and some people will see it as a sword.

You cannot control where this sword is pointing.

Professor, you should know what the Gini coefficient is, right?

The National Bureau of Statistics occasionally publishes the Gini index, and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics has also conducted Gini index statistics before, and the two are vastly different.

(Gini index data from official sources)

When Southwestern University of Finance and Economics conducted this statistic, I believe it was merely for academic considerations, a sociological research project. We clearly calculated the value to be 0.61 or 0.62, while the official figure is around 0.46. The difference in data is enormous.

Once neutral academic research is published, it is no longer under control and will be interpreted in all sorts of ways.

It could even become a powerful tool to attack you personally, Professor, and the most effective means to sow discord between you and the authorities in Yanjing.

Professor, my suggestion is that you can do it. This model is certainly very meaningful and can be made public. You can just put the responsibility on us. You give us the topic, and then we can produce the results.

After communicating with Yanjing University, we decided to present it on social media as an academic achievement to lower external expectations and avoid making it a yardstick.

Professor, your position is too high and your reputation too great. If we do it in your name or in the name of Crimson, the whole thing could easily get out of control. If we do it in the name of a student's work, it will be just right.

Students make mistakes, that's normal.

Lin Ran nodded: "Okay, I understand. I will give your suggestion a good consideration."

The person in charge of the project was also surnamed Zhao. After Lin Ran left, Zhao Songxia, who successfully stayed, went to the front of the stage and gave a brief self-introduction to everyone.

After the first day ended, Zhao Songxia returned to his workstation and sighed inwardly, wondering what kind of monsters these people were.

Every single student in Lin Ran's math class is one of Lin Ran's protégés; he can't possibly treat them like interns.

As for the other students who were not in Lin Ran's math class, there were only 12 of them. Judging from the fact that Zhao, the student who gave the reminder in the morning, was of extraordinary background, Zhao Songxia felt that he had to treat him well.

Moreover, the lower the educational background of these 12 people, the less he dared to offend them. Among them was even a third-year student from an unknown second-tier university. Who knows where this big shot came from?

Lin Ran's second task today was to discuss matters with representatives from Huawei.

The past six months can be described as a period of rapid progress in artificial intelligence. GPT has unveiled a stunning achievement, making the outside world realize that artificial intelligence has such power and can really be used to increase productivity.

Six years have passed from the blueprint in 2016 to its implementation at the end of 2022.

In the first half of the year, Wenxin Yiyan and Shenhong fired the first shot, followed by the release of large models by companies such as ByteDance, SenseTime, and Baichuan Intelligence.

In the first half of 2023, there were more than 20 financing events in China directly related to large-scale models, and the number of various large-scale models released in China exceeded 100.

It was also known as the "Battle of a Hundred Models," which was much more intense than the "Battle of a Hundred Groups" that took place in the group-buying era.

Just like abroad, those who dig for gold seem to have no hope of making a profit for the foreseeable future, while companies like Huawei, which make computing cards and sell hoes, are making a fortune.

Despite the large number of manufacturers developing large-scale models and purchasing computing cards from Huawei, Apollo Technology and Crimson Technology remain their most important partners in this field, bar none. Therefore, this visit was attended by Huawei's top executives in charge of computing card business, along with their entire team of experts.

Lin Ran said he had something important to discuss.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to briefly discuss my thoughts."

As we all know, the reason why America is blocking Nvidia's most advanced computing cards from entering China is that it hopes to take advantage of the so-called technological singularity of artificial intelligence to completely surpass us.

This is a well-known, overtly calculated strategy.

Regardless of whether outsiders believe that the LLM technology route can truly lead to AGI, or whether unmanned factories truly eliminate the need for human labor, Western media outlets are heavily promoting this narrative.

In this regard, I believe that under the current technological system, it is very difficult for us to achieve a leapfrog development.

We have too many shortcomings. The semiconductor industry is a huge system that needs to be developed slowly over time.

I am confident that we will succeed.

But I think it would be better if we could surpass it sooner.

Therefore, I invite everyone to discuss whether my idea is feasible.

In other words, without breakthroughs in fundamental theories, there can be no leapfrog development in technology.

However, if there are enough breakthroughs in a combination of technologies, it can also lead to results similar to leapfrog development.

Currently, there is only one way for the semiconductor industry to achieve a breakthrough: the emergence of new materials to replace the old silicon-based chips.

Undoubtedly, this will be difficult to achieve in the short term.

Superconductors might be a good shortcut.

An expert in the audience raised his hand and asked softly, "Professor, are you referring to LK99, which was recently developed in Korea?"

Do you think that's a true room-temperature superconductor?

Lin Ran looked puzzled: "No, I don't quite understand what you mean by LK99?"

The expert was relieved. He had thought that if it was LK99, which was still far from being confirmed, then all their trip would have been for nothing.

LK99 is a room-temperature superconductor that a Korean professor claims to have developed. His team also published a paper, which describes a very simple synthesis route, considered simple among superconducting materials. Netizens jokingly call it a room-temperature superconductor "made by alchemy".

In addition, the material exhibits some properties that are only found in superconductors, so its release caused a public uproar.

This has made many experts who have spent their entire lives researching superconductors question their existence. They wondered what they had been doing with their lives if this thing was made so easily.

This even sparked a discussion, with some suggesting that perhaps room-temperature superconductivity is really that easy, and that people have been overcomplicating things in the past.

In short, there has been a lot of discussion, with some people saying it is room-temperature superconductivity, while many others say it isn't.

After hearing this, Lin Ran waved his hand repeatedly: "That's not what I meant. Of course, if room-temperature superconductivity really comes into existence, that would be even better."

My thinking on this matter is based on the absence of room-temperature superconductivity.

We have already started infrastructure projects at the lunar south pole. We have found water ice in the shadowed area of ​​Shackleton Crater at the lunar south pole and placed various sensors.

Its temperature remains at 100K year-round, which is equivalent to -173.1 degrees Celsius.

Although it is still too high compared to niobium-based compounds, which are commonly used low-temperature superconductors and require temperatures of around 9-10K.

But that doesn't mean we can't make use of this environment.

Do you all understand what I mean?

If we broaden our perspective to the cosmos, Earth's temperatures are not common; extremely low or high temperatures are the norm.

For these places, their room-temperature superconductivity is equivalent to ultra-high temperature superconductivity or ultra-low temperature superconductivity on Earth.

The cost of transporting semiconductor equipment to the moon is now far lower than the cost of overtaking on Earth.

Our reusable rocket technology is fully mature, and the Burning-1 A3 rocket is routinely making round trips between Earth and the Moon. Since we can count east and west, why can't we count earth and moon?

"East-to-West Data" refers to a strategic consideration in China's past: placing data centers in the west because the west has abundant hydropower resources, a smaller population, lower electricity demand, and lower temperatures.

The result is a dense network of data centers in Guizhou Province, Apple's cloud in Guizhou, rather than cloud-based in other provinces.

The engineers present were already very excited.

The connection between semiconductors and aerospace is incredibly exciting.

“On Earth, we need expensive liquid nitrogen cooling systems to maintain superconductivity, but the Moon is a natural paradise for superconductivity.”

Lin Ran continued:

"We have already done some preliminary research on copper oxide materials, such as Bi-2223, which we just mentioned. Its Chinese name is bismuth strontium calcium copper oxide. Its critical temperature Tc is about 110K, and it can achieve superconductivity under normal pressure."

Moreover, it exhibits semiconductor properties in its parent state. By doping with oxygen, we can control the carrier density, allowing it to transition from an insulator to a superconductor.

This means that the chip can handle both semiconductor logic and superconducting transmission simultaneously, reducing energy loss.

In addition to copper-based, there are also iron-based ones.

We have successfully fabricated a single-layer FeSe film in the laboratory on a SrTiO3 substrate, achieving a superconducting temperature that consistently exceeds 100K.

Its parent material is a semiconductor, and its superconductivity is enhanced through interface effects. Imagine growing this thin film using molecular beam epitaxy in the vacuum environment of the moon and integrating it onto a silicon-based chip. The low gravity can also reduce the formation of defects!

Of course, it's not all good and no bad.

FeSe is the star of iron-based superconductors, and its semiconductor matrix allows us to build hybrid systems: superconducting-semiconductor heterojunctions.

Using FeSe as the superconducting layer and GaAs (gallium arsenide) as the semiconductor substrate, a Josephson junction can be realized for use as a quantum bit.

In Earth-based laboratories, we have already seen Tc above 100K, but cosmic rays from the Moon may interfere with the formation of Cooper pairs. I think we may need to add a radiation shielding layer, perhaps using boron-doped diamond as a buffer, since it can also be superconducting at low temperatures, with a Tc of about 10K, but it is more stable.

K3C60 can also be considered as an alternative. Its normal superconducting temperature is only 20K, but it can jump to over 100K under photo-induced conditions.

It is an organic semiconductor, highly flexible, and suitable for the curved terrain of the moon.

We can conduct tests on the moon, combining photoexcitation to create transient superconducting circuits.

In short, while technological breakthroughs are unlikely in the short term, by utilizing the existing environment, we may still be able to accomplish some great things.

(End of this chapter)