Applied Immortality

Chapter 200, This Epiphany Is Worth Following Tradition For

Translator: Tamon

To Wang Qi, stuff like magic items were things with a magic seal refined within them. A cultivator’s spiritual power transformed as it was channeled through it, employing the function the magic seal structure was designed for. To sum it up, a magic item was gear with extra skills employed using mana.

Wang Qi’s answer had Zhen Chanzi speak with disdain. “Boy, you skipped all refining classes, didn’t you?”

Wang Qi glossed over it. “Refining is a side skill. Refining theory can reach higher, but it could never go beyond ‘art’ and into a ‘path.’ World expansion path or matter transformation path, any insight into these two would improve one’s refining field.”

Physics theory development led to further interest in energy and mechanics. While chemistry theory pushed material and fuel discoveries. On Earth, Watt was the inventor of the steam engine, but behind him were Newton, Lagrange, and many more. Without Faraday and Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory discoveries, Edison and Tesla would never amount to more than second-rate engineers.

This was the power of theories!

Wang Qi might be saying that with a passion, but Zhen Chanzi deflated him with a line. “More like refining isn’t a mandatory test subject, yes?”

Wang Qi gave a flat laugh.

“Anywho, that was my understanding of magic items, the same thing you told me all those years ago.”

“Hey! Even I stopped thinking this way after just two classes on modern cultivation, alright?”

“Ahem, anyways, it’s my mistake, falling into the trap of dogmatic experience.”

“Experience? In your couple of years cultivating, how many magic items did you touch?”

“It’s the first impression that counts, is what you taught me.”

“Ahe-hem.” It was Zhen Chanzi’s time to clear his voice. “So after you analyzed this calculator’s structure?”

“It’s made of yin-yang diagrams. The jade has a storing capability.” Wang Qi nodded. “I managed to figure that part out, but it should also have manipulation, input, and output functions…”

Wang Qi’s eyes shone. “But where…”

Zhen Chanzi was curious. “What makes you think that?”

Wang Qi picked up a book from the desk. “This explains it. Since you don’t get it anyway, leave it at that. The next seals should be placed to facilitate these three functions. Now why…”

Zhen Chanzi sighed to himself as he watched Wang Qi go to another world again. [The kid is a perfect fit for modern cultivation.] His attention moved to the book Wang Qi threw.

Calculator Mind Theory, by Neumann.

Su Junyu gifted him the symbol calculator, but this thing was, in the end, the culmination of modern cultivation knowledge over the last two centuries put into practice. The structure Wang Qi mentioned was Divine Province’s Newmann structure, more popularly known as Von Neumann architecture on Earth.

If the ring’s problems were studied in depth with Newmann structure’s math, the results would be several valuable book materials. However, the Newmann structure had only three core features.

There were five basic operations: processing, controlling, storing, inputting, and outputting.

The binary system was used.

Instructions, or programs, were seen as something that handled data, with both being stored together.

As long as one was satisfied, then the computer would be known as a Von Neumann calculator.

“Tch, the structure feels… off. The jade token is physical, not made of parts. Then…”

The more Wang Qi observed, the more engrossed he became, amazed by the ingenuity of this structure.

Divine Province’s tech tree differed from Earth’s. The former didn’t care much about complex machinery. The Transcending Sect, with its classical mechanics, and the Contraption Pavilion, with mechanics, were mere first- and second-rate sects, far beneath the five best.

The magic seal replaced most of the functions of an electron. The logic gate circuit was replaced by a yin-yang diagram. But the biggest change was in the communication bus.

Divine Province had no concept of wires or electrical conductors. A steady spiritual energy field supplied the calculator with all its needs. All the information used this spiritual energy field to propagate and be processed.

The Von Neumann structure’s ‘data bus’ and ‘address bus’ were the different layers of the spiritual energy field.

Wang Qi watched a weird design, yet the most common structure in Divine Province.

The two worlds’ different computer technology defined each world’s particularity. Looking at it at face value, they were nothing alike, but after studying the principles behind them, they were identical. Paradoxically, principles in the two use cases always clashed at the most crucial junctures.

A baffling contradiction and agreement.

The thought of comparing the two civilizations’ structures got Wang Qi giddy, grinning as he wrote down.

Zhen Chanzi pondered. “I recall you saying that all calculators came from the magic treasure Copper Elegance, Contraption Elder Turing’s structure. Why is this calculator then of Newman structure?”

“Newman structure and Turing structure don’t clash.” Wang Qi said. “This calculator has a Turing structure but also a Newman structure.”

Wang Qi was struck by inspiration.

[What did I just say?]

The Turing machine and the Neuman calculator didn’t clash.

The core of the Turing machine was computation and computable numbers. Neuman’s calculator’s core was the five operations.

The former copied a human brain’s calculations, while the latter was an engineered implementation of the former.

The Turing machine was the clay, and the Neuman calculator was the resulting vase.

In other words…

The Turing machine and the Neuman calculator didn’t clash!

Wang Qi jumped to his feet. “Newman structure’s foundation!”

The Neuman calculator was the implementation of the Turing machine. That means that with a few adjustments to Copper Elegance’s foundation…

[Hold up, the Neuman calculator is a classic, but the Newman bottleneck still exists. Earth’s scientists had long since abandoned this structure.]

Nevertheless, just as computer development was modeled from the Turing structure, future computers were built with von Neumann architecture. Von Neumann architecture was the most basic yet still made a distinction between processing, controlling, storing, inputting, and outputting. Both quantum computers and dataflow computers worked on this concept.

Wang Qi slammed the table in excitement. “Now this is a tradition-worthy inspiration!”

“Don’t you ever get tired of that joke?”