Deep Space Wandering Fleet

Chapter 70: Chapter 70: Top Students, Academic God, God, and the God above Gods

Life was like that, going with the flow. Having come this far, it was alright to live simply and ordinarily. Who could guarantee that they would maintain exceptional foresight throughout their entire life? At the crossroads of life, in addition to graduate school entrance exams, there actually were many other choices, and not everyone was suited for scientific research. In a spaceship, every profession needed to be represented: teachers, doctors, nurses, maintenance workers, and so on.

The atmosphere at the dinner table gradually improved, and many things felt better once one could let them go.

The current society was still dominated by young people, and classes hadn’t yet solidified. The social structure didn’t require considering too much about “money,” so the pressure wasn’t that great.

“Utilizing knowledge to achieve class mobility is actually the healthiest operation of human civilization. Even if one doesn’t get admitted to graduate school, they can be like me, right? As long as you work hard, there are many ways to realize your own value.” Finally, Big Brother Wang Xin issued another talk on his views about life.

After dining with friends, Zhang Yuan returned to his dormitory and began learning new knowledge.

The content to study in Space Mechanics was indeed vast.

A spaceship, whether large or small, involved numerous disciplines such as physics, biology, materials, chemistry, and so on.

He self-studied for a long time every day.

Especially with an even more challenging interview coming up, even last-minute cramming was worthwhile.

“…Let’s start with integrated circuits.”

Zhang Yuan opened “Specialized Integrated Circuit Design,” a classic book that primarily covered the basic process of digital integrated circuit and dedicated integrated circuit design, along with the main design methods, across eight chapters.

He had been exposed to related knowledge during his university years, though not in-depth.

Actually… it wasn’t too difficult.

The nature of silicon-based chips was easy to understand: on the same semiconductor substrate, the PN junction had unidirectional conductivity. Connect wires to the ends of the PN junction and you have a diode. With diodes, it was simple to design “AND gate circuits” and “NOT gate circuits,” which could then be used for logic calculations.

The Soviets once developed ternary circuits, which were slightly different from binary circuits, with two more resistors in the “AND gate” and “NOT gate” circuits. These slight differences made manufacturing more troublesome, increased costs, and resulted in much lower chip yields. Due to various drawbacks, they were gradually phased out.

It sounded so simple in principle, yet it baffled 99.9% of humans!

Zhang Yuan felt that without a computer, even if he spent a month on it, he wouldn’t be able to design a circuit with computing power that compared to a six-year-old child…

Without any exaggeration, the more he learned, the more he understood the grandeur of nature.

Chip studies, a discipline that had developed for several hundred years, from the old diodes and integrated circuits to the latest photon chips, had “band theory” as their foundation, which was just an approximation theory. Humans knew it wasn’t entirely correct but were unable to rectify it.

Because the behavior of electrons couldn’t be calculated with precision.

On a larger scale, despite the complexity of various disciplines, most were just playing with electrons.

Once you mastered the various properties of electrons, it was easier to draw analogies to other disciplines.

After reading for six hours straight, he stopped to take a breather.

His rapidly working brain was slightly overheated and needed some time to absorb the newly learned content.

“Better to change my way of thinking, take a break.”

He went out to eat dinner, taking half an hour.

He opened his computer again and found a pile of unprocessed messages in his inbox which he began clicking open and replying to one by one.

The work projects on Earth were a good training opportunity, and he needed to keep going. His main focus was on algorithmic frameworks, and he was progressing a bit faster than the teams on Earth, with four or five hours a day being sufficient.

So, over ten hours of studying every day was no exaggeration.

The above day was a very routine one for Zhang Yuan. Sometimes he felt tired, but most of the time he was fulfilled by the knowledge he gained. He didn’t play video games, watch soap operas, or pursue romantic relationships; he forced himself to grow stronger.

Zhang Yuan mused, “If Li Zhendong worked this hard every day, even if he wasn’t as good as me, he would still be at least halfway there…”

But he knew deeply that what he was learning was just the tip of the iceberg. There were definitely many people in the world who were far more capable than him.

The academic elite of the world can be divided into five levels.

The first level consists of those who, during a long journey, overhear a stranger—auntie boasting about her child’s remarkable achievements, such as getting into the city’s key middle and high schools, ranking first or second in the class, and so on.

This should be considered the lowest tier of academic overachievers.

After all, it’s just high school. I don’t know what there is to brag about…

The second level includes people who also attend distinguished universities, go to classes, self-study, and somehow end up with high grades at the end of the semester.

As time goes on, one gradually realizes, no matter how hard they try, it seems impossible to surpass these individuals. With the same amount of study time, they are always more effective than the average person.

These talented individuals are often referred to as “true academic overachievers.”

The third level, of course, is the legendary “Academic God.”

Unlike academic overachievers, Academic Gods don’t study much but still score highly.

They are the most dangerous people in universities, and many clueless weaklings mingle with them. They stay up all night surfing the internet and gaming, but while fooling around, they end up failing several classes.

When you look back, that same laid-back person also casually took part in some contests, secured scholarships…

The weaklings failed and had to repeat years, while the “Academic God” went abroad.

The fourth level has already begun the march towards the superhuman, known as the real “God.”

In terms of personal character, “Gods” are without a single flaw.

They are both Academic Gods and academic overachievers; however, the most dominating aspect of these “Gods” is their stamina and sustainability. To them, studying is an extremely pleasurable activity, much like chewing gum that they simply can’t stop.

Ordinary people can only feel inadequate and ashamed in the presence of “Gods,” without a trace of envy.

Academic Gods cannot compare to the real “Gods.” Because the abilities of the Academic Gods are limited to the knowledge found in textbooks, whereas the real “Gods” have long transcended the realm of academia.

Zhang Yuan confidently estimated that he was marching towards this direction…

There is even a fifth level, which is, of course, the “God of Gods”!

This level is only witnessed in the world’s most exceptional geniuses.

Take, for example, Academician Ding, my intended mentor. He completed his undergraduate degree at Peking University’s Department of Mathematics, with 20 perfect scores of 100 and six scores of 99 in his mathematics major courses!

But he never boasts about trivial things like scoring full marks in exams. For these “God of Gods,” exams, competitions, and scholarships are as childish as kindergarten games.

In his first year at university, Ding Zhaodong covered the entire four-year university curriculum, and even out of boredom, he dabbled in the neighboring Physics Department’s classes…

However, these are trivial; only the exploration of the infinite Nature is the joy of life for the “God of Gods.”

There are people even stronger than Ding Zhaodong!

For instance… Professor Wang Zhong!

Professor Wang gained renown at a young age, making waves in the mathematical community with his major work at the age of 22—”Homological Functions in Nuclear Space.”

Zhang Yuan still cannot understand this paper in the field of Algebraic Geometry.

According to Professor Wang, the most brilliant minds in the world should be dedicated to studying Mathematics. He has utter disdain for conversations with those engineering professors who lack sentimentality and an appreciation for aesthetics…

Even these individuals, who study day in and day out, year after year, accruing knowledge steadily over decades, have created a gap between people that is actually greater than the one between humans and dogs.

Given this, what right does he have to complain incessantly?

…

(I’d like to recommend a book from a buddy of mine, “Elf: Early Login.” For friends who enjoy the second dimension, give it a look.)