New Times, New Hell

Chapter 49 - Three Big Cheeses of the Forum

An announcement through the speakers in the meeting hall reminded everyone that the discussion was about to begin and that they should take their seats. The staff started to maintain order.

Tang Min stared at Yu Zhengdu. He looked like he wanted to speak, but ultimately couldn’t say anything. He left bitterly.

Yu Zhengdu watched his somewhat desolate figure depart. He didn’t know if this was just an illusion, but he felt that the other’s hair seemed even more wispy.

Yu Zhengdu lamented to himself a bit before finally sitting down. He picked up the schedule for the summit that the organizers had provided and looked over what was planned for today. He couldn’t help but admit that there was a lot of quality content in this year’s technology summit. Simply the list of speakers for today included Jiao Shanlan and Zhao Ruola, both individuals who rarely showed up in public.

The topics for discussion were very advanced too. Just from their summaries, one could tell that they held a lot of interesting content. And, to better accomplish the goal of discussion, every lead speaker had fifteen minutes to answer questions after their talk. This made Yu Zhengdu, who was mainly here to learn about new technological trends, look forward to the event much more.

As expected, as soon as the discussion started, the atmosphere in the room immediately became heated. Those that received invitations this time were either high-level administrators of large corporations or the best talents in each company. Many were here with the goals of learning and communicating. They weren’t interested in only listening to the main speakers’ perspectives; they had lots of their own thoughts and responses they wanted to share.

As one of the organizers of this summit, Jiao Shanlan was the first to speak. The subject he discussed was related to the pioneering laboratory he was working on. He introduced the direction his laboratory planned to take in the future. One reason was to share his intentions, while the other was to send a signal to all the participants here today to garner the attention of skilled and interested individuals to join.

Unsurprisingly, after he spoke, the Q&A segment was exceptionally intense. Several technicians were eager to ask questions. Some of them truly had feedback, but there were also a lot who took the opportunity to recommend themselves.

After Jiao Shanlan, two other high-level administrators from different companies spoke. They took much less time, only reporting on some technological problems they had made further advancements in. But in comparison to a large factory like Nova, the fields they worked in were relatively average. The overall response was much less lively when compared to Jiao Shanlan’s.

The organizers were obviously very experienced, as they had planned for these kinds of situations in advance. They had scheduled the order of guest speakers in a very particular manner. Thus, the atmosphere was only low for a brief period of time before welcoming a new climax. It was time for Zhao Ruola to speak.

The topic Zhao Ruola had prepared for today was very different from what everyone had expected. She didn’t discuss any of the currently popular trends. Instead, she returned to her roots and started discussing some basics. The title was《Basic Science, Policies, Resources, Humanity, and the Future》.

Zhao Ruola had a captivating physical appearance. As soon as she stepped onstage, she garnered everyone’s attention. The media invited to cover this event also immediately glued their camera lenses onto her. She wasn’t shy either, simply granting them a dignified smile and waving her hand in greeting.

“Everyone must be a little lost after seeing my chosen topic today, right?” Zhao Ruola used her laser pointer to point at the title page of her powerpoint. She smiled and said, “I originally wanted to discuss cloud technology and some issues with smart cities with everyone, but I was pretty inspired by some interesting posts I saw on starflicker a while ago, so decided to switch directions. Today, we are going to start with these posts and discuss some societal problems.”

As soon as she brought up starflicker, everyone started whispering to each other offstage. Several programmers had already begun heated discussions among themselves.

Zhao Ruola: “It seems that everyone already knows which posts I’m talking about?”

Someone who had no brain to mouth filter replied, “The battle posts between the three big cheeses of metaphysics?”

As soon as he spoke, everyone immediately started laughing. They weren’t mocking him; instead, it was out of a sort of like-minded understanding. There was that hint of kindness that only people within the field comprehended.

Zhao Ruola grinned and nodded. “Yes.”

starflicker was one of the top technological discussion forums in the nation. Several high quality posts originated from it. Some of the perspectives regarding technology posted on it had also been compiled into a book and published. It could be said that out of all the technicians present today, a majority of them either currently were or previously had been users of starflicker. They all knew at least a little in regards to the more popular topics on the forum.

In the past two years, following the influx of several students with no actual experience joining starflicker, the quality of the posts on the forum had gone down a bit. A lot of older users had left, too. But recently, because of a few posts that appeared quite strange, starflicker once again entered the field of vision of these professionals.

Those posts were created by the famous user, singer. The topics all seemed unrelated to Internet technology and included, but weren’t limited to, how to use programming to integrate in the choice for a newborn’s birthdate, the relationship between karma and humanized guidance, etc.

The most shocking one amongst them was called: Hypothesize that the overall number of souls of living beings remain at a constant quantity. How would one determine population distribution according to the overall amount of resources available in society?

Hypothesize……souls of living beings……overall number……constant……

Though there was a “hypothesize” in the beginning, it wasn’t enough to cover up the fact that this topic was full of supernatural influence.

But, just when everyone thought that singer had gone crazy because of his work in science and started down the inglorious path of metaphysics, the other experts on the forum suddenly joined in to begin a debate.

They&#k2026;&#k2026;they actually started seriously discussing it.

Among them, the most active and advanced were the two other experts, lan and osone. And also because of this, the two of them plus singer were jokingly called starflicker’s three big cheeses of metaphysics.

The battle between the three cheeses of metaphysics and other big V’s was metaphorically the same as the sword battle of Mt. Hua. This immediately caught the attention of a large amount of people. Several of these arguments also got reposted onto other parts of the Internet. Even those old users who had left for many years suddenly returned to watch the battle.

Because of this, as soon as Zhao Ruola brought up starflicker posts, this, in addition to her strange title, allowed everyone to instantly guess which posts she was talking about.

With this foundation, Zhao Ruola’s speech immediately received much more attention. But in actuality, she was only using these posts as an introductory hook. Most of what she discussed later was in regards to the possible future influence of advanced technological trends on the entirety of human society.

Because this was a relatively public event, Zhao Ruola didn’t try to purposefully mystify the concepts. She explained these profound concepts in simplified terms. Not soon after, the entire meeting hall became silent. Everyone was completely enraptured, all their attention focused on the information she was sharing.

At the end of her speech, Zhao Ruola suddenly switched topics and returned to the posts she had brought up in the beginning. She smiled and said, “I’m sure everyone has heard of the phrase: The end of technology is theology. But I believe a more accurate wording of this would be: The end of human technology is theology. Because the human consciousness is limited, but true science is unlimited. With the progress we’ve made in technology now, we are still unable to completely explain all the occurrences humans have experienced. Thus, we can only fit them all into the category of theology.”

“Including singer’s most debated question: Hypothesize that the overall number of souls of living beings remain at a constant quantity. I think……” She faintly smiled, “Perhaps, this isn’t only a hypothetical model?”

Her conclusion once again earned everyone’s laughter. It must be known that those present today were the most loyal materialists in the country.

After Zhao Ruola’s official talk ended, it was time for the Q&A segment once again. But probably because of the vast influence of those posts on the forum, the first two people who spoke both started discussing the posts. After hearing two consecutive questions, Yu Zhengdu finally couldn’t help himself. He raised his hand too.

As soon as Zhao Ruola noticed he had raised his hand, she smiled and pointed at him, giving him the chance to speak.

Yu Zhengdu grabbed the microphone and somewhat shyly added on to what the other two had already said. “Actually, the hypothetical conditions on those posts weren’t complete yet. This also caused a lot of bias in later discussions. For example, ‘Hypothesize that the overall number of souls of living beings remain at a constant quantity.’ The basis of this post is lacking……”

Yu Zhengdu summarized the contents of the post, along with the additions from the other experts, then shared some corrections he made to the hypothetical conditions. His summary was very detailed. It was easy to tell that he truly had a deep understanding of technology.

But because the problem itself was hypothetical, and because a lot of very influential experts had already expressed their opinions on it, while some people could listen to his thoughts calmly and carefully, others were already riled up.

Especially the two who had spoken before him. They had spoken under the premise that the post had been correct. Yu Zhengdu’s speech was basically directly condemning them as wrong.

This was a public opportunity to show one’s face. There were important people like Jiao Shanlan and Zhao Ruola present. Everyone knew that these two were in the middle of hiring new workers for their own teams. Those who spoke now were more or less trying to catch their attention.

Because of this, some people didn’t even bother listening to what Yu Zhengdu was saying in detail. They were only waiting for him to finish speaking. The person who spoke before him immediately stood up and retorted, “I believe that your opinion contains too much subjective speculation……To be more direct, you think a little too highly of yourself.”

Those who could attend today were all people who had at least some skills. Because of this, a lot of them were used to being praised by others. They were naturally more arrogant, and Yu Zhengdu was honestly too young. Just from age alone, he was probably the least experienced out of everyone present.

But from certain angles, the technological field was also the most honest and realistic field——it only respected the truly skilled.

Under this premise, from the moment Yu Zhengdu had stood up, many people had already prematurely concluded that he didn’t have enough experience. His words, then, would also cause people to believe that this was only a young person trying to appear better than he actually was.

In regards to questions of technology, Yu Zhengdu had always been respectful and careful. Upon hearing such a rude comment, he didn’t feel angry. Instead, he answered very seriously, “I’m only bringing up the points that I think should be fixed. Technological concepts become more clear the more they’re debated. If you have any questions about my opinion, you can ask them. We can have a discussion.”

That person hadn’t actually listened to Yu Zhengdu’s comments. In the moment that Yu Zhengdu had rejected his perspective, he had already started coming up with a way to regain the upper hand. “I think that young people need to spend more time learning before speaking up. You shouldn’t try to appear better than you are after only learning some basic concepts……”

He specially glanced at Zhao Ruola. Though Zhao Ruola hadn’t publicly announced her plans after coming back to the country yet, from the commotion her return caused in the field, the resources she could receive in the future definitely wouldn’t be any less than those Jiao Shanlan’s pioneering laboratory had received. Right now, the team members for Jiao Shanlan’s laboratory had pretty much already been decided. Unless someone was exceptional, it would be hard to join at this point. But there was still a chance with Zhao Ruola.

He noticed that Zhao Ruola looked like she was deep in thought, which ascertained his idea of needing to regain the upper hand. “Regarding the post that you used as an example, singer and the other technological experts have already had a detailed debate……”

The words flowed from his mouth like water through a river. He spoke confidently, re-summarizing and reorganizing what the other experts had said in the post. It was easy to tell that he truly had spent quite some time looking over and trying to understand what they had been talking about. “……Most importantly, I don’t know if you saw singer’s last reply. He already designed a model based on the results of everyone’s discussions. He operationalized it with the actual data. What level is singer on? I’m sure everyone seated here today already knows. If anything was wrong with the model, he would’ve talked about it long ago. Or, do you think that you’re more skilled than singer?”

In the end, his tone was more or less mocking.

The atmosphere was a little strange because of his words. Actually, when Yu Zhengdu had first started speaking, though many people didn’t agree with him, because of his firm grasp of these technological concepts, they all diligently listened to his argument. Yet, those posts on the forum themselves were out of the ordinary. And, the hypothetical scenarios during the battle on the forum had already surpassed everyone’s current knowledge.

Consequently, a lot of people could only somewhat understand that Yu Zhengdu’s perspective contained some good points. But in such a short period of time, they wouldn’t be able to accurately verify whether or not he was right.

This person had spoken a lot. His conclusion, though, was simple and straight to the point: someone on singer’s level has already tested this. If you want to refute him, please first confirm that you’re better than singer.

This made everything very awkward. Aside from the truly top tier individuals present, such as Jiao Shanlan, Zhao Ruola, etc. probably nobody dared to say that they were better than singer.

……Of course, not including Yu Zhengdu.

Only, Yu Zhengdu himself felt very awkward too. He had never expected that the other would be so confident in singer. Though it was very likely that he only wanted to use singer as a means of proving himself right, this still made things quite difficult for Yu Zhengdu.

Yu Zhengdu didn’t like the feeling of being put higher than everyone else. Thus, he had never publicly shared his identity as singer. But, he really hadn’t thought that one day, someone would use his own perspective to disprove him.

He couldn’t help but summarize to himself in his heart: could this be the legendary setting one’s own spear onto one’s own shield?

If he had known it would end up like this earlier, he would’ve announced that he was singer before he started speaking. If he said it now, it would be a little discourteous to the other brother.

Yu Zhengdu hesitated a bit, then politely said, “I think, singer’s perspective might not be completely accurate. Especially in regards to this post. There are actually a lot of mistakes……”

As soon as he said this, before the person who had been debating with him could say anything, someone else was already more unimpressed.

Wispy hair-Tang Min very agitatedly said, “Bullshit! singer could never be wrong!”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Why did his tone make him sound so much like a fan?

Tang Min rolled his eyes very exaggeratedly at him. “I’ve carefully read all of singer’s posts. His skills are definitely top tier, including that last model he designed. If I had to use two words to comment on it, they would be ‘completely perfect’. If you can’t beat singer in terms of technological skill, you aren’t qualified to criticize him.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” He really was a fan ah.

But what could he say, this wasn’t actually that surprising. It was pretty normal for technological homebodies with only one nerve like Tang Min to blindly worship technological experts. Thinking back on how he had pulled out his phone and looked up Yu Zhengdu’s company on the spot, then criticized it, and now seeing how he directly jumped out to fight for his idol, Yu Zhengdu couldn’t help but think that this was very……accordant with his style.

Yu Zhengdu’s entire person was lost. As soon as a fan like Tang Min appeared, this debate was destined to be out of the ordinary. He guessed that no matter what he said from now on, Tang Min would only rebuke him……

In the recent past, he had seen something similar to this before, when Shang Que had been involved in the big fight on Weibo. Netizens typically called these people: toxic solo fans.

Luckily, at this crucial moment, Jiao Shanlan stood up and yelled at Tang Min, “Sit down first.”

As soon as Jiao Shanlan spoke, everyone’s attention got drawn over to him.

But the frankness of technological homebodies sometimes couldn’t even be controlled by their superiors. Tang Min stubbornly said, “Wait a moment. I want to hear him finish speaking. If he can’t convince me, I hope that he can apologize to singer……”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Jiao Shanlan: “……”

Jiao Shanlan glanced at Yu Zhengdu, asking for his approval. Yu Zhengdu could only wave in resignation.

Finally, Jiao Shanlan couldn’t take it anymore. “He is singer.”

After Jiao Shanlan said this, the crowd went into an uproar with a “hong——”. Tang Min especially couldn’t react in time. He went huh and asked, “Who? Who’s singer?”

Yu Zhengdu facepalmed in exasperation. “I’m singer.”

“I’ve already operationalized the questions in those posts on starflicker. The problems that still remain are the ones I just brought up. Including the one I was just talking about. I also designed a model, but because of the issues I mentioned before, there are imperfections with the model’s base. In the month after, my team and I spent a lot of time trying to fix it, but even until now, we haven’t resolved all the problems. Because I was worried that I would mislead everyone, and because I really haven’t had time to recently, I haven’t shared the newest circumstances onto the forum yet……”

As soon as Jiao Shanlan and Yu Zhengdu finished speaking, everyone became shocked into a stupor.

Especially Tang Min and the person who had rebuked Yu Zhengdu before. Who would’ve thought, they had used singer’s perspective to argue with Yu Zhengdu for such a long time, but in the end, Yu Zhengdu was singer.

And everyone else was extremely excited. Those in the field had many guesses in regards to the true identities of the experts on starflicker. The three big cheeses of metaphysics, in particular, were a main focal point for everyone’s postulations. Who would’ve thought that today, they could see singer in person.

Though the media here weren’t tech professionals, from the crowd’s reaction, they could tell that Yu Zhengdu’s online identity was remarkable. They immediately turned their lenses onto him.

Tang Min was completely dazed. He stared at Yu Zhengdu for a long time but couldn’t say anything.

But another person still maintained his last bit of reasoning, especially now that all of the media’s cameras were facing this direction. He felt even more embarrassed. He forced himself to say, “Even so, you can only prove your own perspective. There were so many incredible people who also commented on that post. Like osone. osone brought up a lot of arguments. You mean to say osone was wrong too?”

Right after he finished speaking, main guest speaker Zhao Ruola, who had been watching everything unfold off to the side, suddenly said, “I think, osone would agree with singer’s views too.”

That person froze. Reflexively, he asked, “Why?”

Zhao Ruola smiled, “Because I am osone.”

The scene went into an uproar.

That person: “……”

That person hadn’t expected for this blow to be consecutive. He felt his vision go black. In a last attempt, he said, “But, there’s still lan……”

Jiao Shanlan slowly expressed, “I am lan. I agree with singer as well.”

Everyone present: “……”

That person: “……”

Triple kill, accomplished.

The uproar caused by the crowd was enough to raise the roof.