Chapter 20 New Civilization School

```

Facing the spirited and renowned old professor in front of him, Zhang Yuan felt a bit nervous.

Not to mention all the other miscellaneous titles, just the title of "Academician of Mathematics" was enough to scare an ordinary person half to death.

Academician!

The main research direction of Professor Wang was specialized, namely Motivation Theory, one of the most challenging subjects. Motive was an outcome of the extension of Galois Group Theory to higher dimensions, which was later surprisingly found to have a mysterious connection with Quantum Field Theory.

The Langlands program and Motive Theory research were currently the two major mathematical mainstreams. The Langlands program attempted to unify Number Theory, Algebraic Geometry, and Groups, while Motive Theory tried to unify discrete and continuous.

They were referred to as the obverse and reverse of the same coin.

A mathematician once predicted, "When Humanity truly completes these two frameworks, the mathematical community will witness a genuine unification. All mathematical problems will be solvable using these two grand theories."

It sounded impressive, but Humanity might never accomplish this step. The progress of the Langlands program was still so-so; after a few centuries of research, Humanity developed the geometric Langlands, p-adic Langlands, etc. But concerning Motive Theory, due to its highly abstract nature, it had turned into some mathematicians' own jargon, making peer review very difficult, so the development speed was extremely slow.

Undoubtedly, Wang Zhong was one of the top mathematicians; the construction of mixed motives was proposed by Professor Wang, causing a massive sensation at the time.

In the past, Zhang Yuan often heard his father mention his mentor with an air full of respect, so he visited the elder while on his way, without any other intentions.

He even brought a small gift, a local specialty of Donghua City—Donghua Ham. Although now, it seemed rather odd.

"Which university did you graduate from?"

"Z University," Zhang Yuan answered honestly.

"Z University…" Wang Zhong frowned slightly, not entirely satisfied. Although Z University was ranked as the third-best university in Xia Country, compared to the top two, it was a bit lacking. In the eyes of an elder like him, a good student should go to one of the top two schools…

"Are you also a space volunteer?"

"Yes."

"Very good, following in your father's footsteps." Wang Zhong nodded, quite satisfied with this.

If it weren't for his advanced age, barely having a few years left to live, he would certainly be one of the 500,000 to experience the life of interstellar travel.

"What are your plans?" Professor Wang picked up the teacup and took a slow sip.

"I have 19 days left for vacation. I plan to spend some time reading at the library. When I get on the spaceship, I hope to find a mentor and complete my master's and doctoral studies…"

"Learning more knowledge is pretty good, so which research direction do you want to pursue?"

Speaking of which, Zhang Yuan smiled sheepishly, "I quite like Mathematics, but restarting a civilization requires a lot of practical talent, so I still plan to engage in research in engineering fields, like Information Science… um, mainly Mathematics and Space Engineering, I guess."

Wang Zhong was a science professor; the sciences looked down on engineering, and engineering looked down on the humanities—this was a longstanding academic disdain chain.

It was determined by the simplicity of writing frivolous papers; science professors had relatively more difficult frivolous papers, needing some innovation, right? Whereas in the humanities, writing frivolous papers was just too easy, such as in Film Studies or Acting Studies, producing frivolous doctorates.

When Zhang Yuan's father switched from Mathematics to Space Mechanics, Wang Zhong threw a tantrum, considering the switch to engineering as "too utilitarian."

As expected, Wang Zhong frowned again, remained silent for a while. But since it was their first conversation, and the two were not very familiar, he did not express too many opinions.

"Have you found a mentor already?"

"Not yet. I'll have to take exams after boarding the spaceship; I hope to score high…" Zhang Yuan said very humbly.

"…"

In Wang Zhong's view, he naturally misunderstood a bit.

The "Earth Era" was just a large spaceship; even with ample preparation, the resources and output inside the spaceship remained limited. The majority of the crew's time would be spent in hibernation.

To restart a civilization on an unfamiliar planet, knowledge reserve and technical level were the most important. So, experts and scholars on the spaceship naturally controlled more resources, having more authority.

These well-known experts and scholars had limited slots for students. Being their student, of course, had more benefits compared to ordinary technical workers, akin to a kind of "backstage support."

Now, it seemed as if Zhang Yuan knew he couldn't score high, seeking for him to open the back door, attempting to find a good mentor through Wang Zhong.

He frowned and asked, "What kind of mentor do you want?"

Zhang Yuan was taken aback, and he casually said, "Of course, the more outstanding, the better; someone like my father would be perfect!"

Wang Zhong felt even more displeased in his heart, and then looked at the "Donghua Ham" on the table.

With his years of teaching experience, someone who wanted to go through the back door based on their father's connections was undoubtedly an academic loser!

If not, I'd swallow this ham whole!

He should look in the mirror and see what kind of character he was…

Wanting the top-notch mentor, first see if you deserve it!

His view of Zhang Yuan turned somewhat unfriendly.

…

Wang Zhong was not someone completely ignorant of worldly affairs. The son of his proud disciple, showing a bit of care, wasn't really a big deal.

But when it came to the "Earth Era," it seemed to touch on his sensitive point, making him very anxious.

Because the "Earth Era" was an independent society, once launched, Earth civilization would no longer be able to interfere with it. Disregarding all the chaotic factors like the Dyson Sphere, Extreme Supernova, this immense project actually had another intrinsic reason.

It was the revelry of idealists on Earth!

A great social experiment!

When the "Father of Nuclear Fusion," Professor Qi Yuanshan, established the "Deep Space Foundation," he also formed a new school of thought called the "New Civilization School."

The New Civilization School believed, Civilization's development, like biological evolution, could only be patched and repaired on the existing foundation, with no way to start completely afresh. Therefore, history, culture, and ideology from the past would profoundly impact future development.

This impact could be good, but also bad, and couldn't be dramatically changed through simple repairs. It's just like human growth, once a worldview is formed, it's fixed.

Thus, some old historical baggage would become a drag in the development process.

The New Civilization School once posed a question: Why hadn't Earth's civilization formed a unified nation until now?

The answer was simple.

First, humans as a species cannot abandon vested power and interests. If multiple countries unified, certain small-country leaders would have to step down, a mass of class interests would be redistributed, and vested interests would be unwilling.

A simple example is that the railroad gauges worldwide haven't been unified yet.

Unifying railroad gauges involves political factors as well as various economic problems. Replacing old rails costs money—who would pay for this part?

Since no one is willing to pay, it has to be dragged on.

Just a "rail gauge," such a simple issue, who knows how long it'll take to resolve, let alone other complex interest issues.

Second, the historical gaps between nations are difficult to mend; national hatreds, racial conflicts still exist today. After World War III and IV, except for the East Asia region, which was slightly better off, other places still had old and new enmities, and minor friction. The poorer the area, the bigger the conflict.

In the foreseeable future, these are unlikely to disappear.

Thirdly, many countries aren't even worth supporting or saving.

Some countries have a dictatorial + bureaucratic capitalist system; some nations are addicted to drugs, exporting them globally, even with governments already hijacked by the underworld; some countries are universally lazy, preferring to let fruit wither on the ground than to pick it; and some countries hold universal religious beliefs… The chaos of global ideologies can't be salvaged by merely one great person or one major power.

In short, the "New Civilization School" believed that since Earth's civilization can't unify now, it won't in the future either. Even if forcibly unified, more chaotic contradictions would emerge, determined by comprehensive factors such as history and culture.

Therefore, the "Earth Era" was a great attempt by the New Civilization School.

It sought to use physical distance segmentation to discard all the dregs of human history, attempting to establish a stronger, unified, cohesive civilization with a common ideology for all!

It's like an old father, seeing no hope for the future, placing all his hopes on an infant.

This stronger new civilization, once successful, would have a certain probability to influence the original Earth civilization in return.

This was the plan formulated by Mr. Qi Yuanshan back then.

A great… Millennial Plan!

--------------------------------

(Regarding Motive Theory, Grothendieck's dream, he wanted to establish a "universal" cohomology theory, called Motive Theory. Anyway, when you see the words motive or motivic in mathematics, you know it's very advanced and very abstract.)

(There will be some mathematics-based science fiction content in the future, and you don't need to know much, just know that such things exist.)

```