[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-technology-invades-the-modern-world":3,"chapter-technology-invades-the-modern-world-technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-20":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Technology Invades the Modern World",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2269504,4430,"Chapter 20: Rising Fame","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-20",20,"\u003Cp>Randolph, have you ever considered working in France for a few years?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the French Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies in Paris, I, Jean Dieudonné, René Thom, Louis Michel, and David Ruelle are preparing to undertake important work in algebraic geometry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You should have read my report at the mathematics conference two years ago, where I outlined the work we plan to do over the next decade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After seeing your mathematical map, I’ve gained many new ideas about our work—we may unify different branches of mathematics at their core logical level this century.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Different subfields are merely different expressions; they all share a unified core.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I believe with your participation, we can achieve this much faster.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grothendieck did not speak French but directly invited Lin Ran in imperfect English.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Lin Ran were truly a mathematician, this opportunity would be enough to excite him to the point of sleeplessness—to work alongside a group of top mathematicians on research that could profoundly shape the future of mathematics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Lin Ran were truly a mathematician, this opportunity would have left him too excited to sleep—working alongside top mathematicians on work that could profoundly shape mathematics’ future.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his ability, taking up the title of Pope of Mathematics would not be certain, but highly likely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unfortunately, Lin Ran had little interest in theoretical mathematics; for him, mathematics was a tool—a means to better achieve aerospace goals, not an end in itself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Professor, I’m sorry, I don’t speak French and don’t wish to leave America. I believe we can stay in frequent contact via fax from New York,” Lin Ran replied politely to the young, renowned mathematician.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grothendieck did not press further but said: “Fine, feel free to share any ideas with me anytime. Fox has my fax address.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He added with a grin: “I hope we don’t repeat the scene from my university days when I rediscovered measure theory and Lebesgue integration—we shouldn’t waste time on meaningless things.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Grothendieck studied at the University of Montpellier, where he stopped attending lectures after discovering all professors merely recited textbooks; according to historical records, Montpellier was among the most backward in mathematics teaching in all of France.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under such conditions, Grothendieck independently rediscovered the concepts of measure theory and Lebesgue integration through his own efforts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was akin in spirit to Einstein developing statistical physics theories based solely on his own insights.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I understand, Professor. Of course I understand.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the entire academic conference ended, all mathematicians acknowledged that Fermat’s Conjecture had been proven by Lin Ran and thus became a theorem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The paper was not published in any mathematics journal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, “New Advances in Mathematics” had not yet been launched; “Acta Mathematica” was a Swedish journal; “Annals of Mathematics” was run by Princeton University; “Journal of the American Mathematical Society” would not appear until the late 1980s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These journals all wanted to publish Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture as a special issue, with some of the higher-tier second-rate journals offering a staggering fee of ten thousand dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, academic journals did not pay authors for papers—in fact, authors often had to pay fees.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For example, the “Annals of Mathematics” charged between two hundred and five hundred dollars for the page space of a long paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only papers of Fermat’s Conjecture’s caliber—those capable of elevating an entire journal’s status—could receive such treatment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Columbia University did not wish to serve as a stepping stone for other journals, especially not the “Annals of Mathematics,” and given the current environment, the mathematics community itself needed a new top-tier journal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After learning of this, the American Academic Press, future publisher of “New Advances in Mathematics,” approached Columbia University; both sides quickly agreed and jointly launched a new top-tier mathematics journal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The launch of “New Advances in Mathematics” was moved forward from its original 1965 date to 1960, and Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture became its inaugural paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no payment for the paper, but Columbia University, citing long-term research projects, granted him an annual special research fund of twenty thousand dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lee Chengdao received the same treatment from Columbia University after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In addition to the research fund, Columbia University awarded him the James Madison Professorship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such professorships were endowed, typically funded by alumni or corporations, and came with additional stipends. James Madison was the fourth President of America; his endowed chair carried an annual additional stipend of ten thousand dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In other words, compared to ordinary mathematics professors, Lin Ran received an additional thirty thousand dollars annually from Columbia University.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Columbia also provided implicit benefits such as reduced teaching hours and a dedicated assistant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the real financial support came from the Rockefeller Foundation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Rockefeller Foundation granted him an annual long-term subsidy of fifty thousand dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In 1960, Lin Ran’s total annual compensation approached one hundred thousand dollars.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I never imagined I’d be enjoying a hundred-thousand-dollar salary in 1960—this is roughly equivalent to the pay of a mid-level Silicon Valley programmer in 2020,” Lin Ran thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beyond financial benefits, widespread media coverage further elevated his fame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Previously, only the New York Times had reported on it, using tentative phrases like “alleged,” “seemed,” or “possibly”; now it was confirmed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Publicly, Lin Ran was said to have graduated from Göttingen University, and as a Chinese descendant, newspapers dubbed him “Pride of the Chinese People” and “Chinese Gauss.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to Yang Zhenning and Lee Chengdao’s Nobel-winning “parity non-conservation” a few years earlier, Lin Ran’s proof of Fermat’s Conjecture was far easier to explain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Randolph Program, derived from it, was hailed by some mathematicians as having charted the research direction for all of twentieth-century mathematics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This provided even more material to write about.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even in mainland China, there were reports, though Chinese media omitted Lin Ran’s nationality and emphasized only his Chinese identity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In Taiwan, because Lin Ran had accepted a professorship at Tsinghua University, local newspapers lavished praise on him, nearly calling him the greatest mathematician of the twentieth century—though they added “one of.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Chinese-language newspaper “Overseas Chinese Daily” in New York enthusiastically promoted his significance to the Chinese people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[48] “In the presence of numerous mathematicians, the young Chinese-American mathematician Randolph Lin announced the solution to Fermat’s Conjecture; the theory it contains will transform mathematical research in the twentieth century and beyond, and simultaneously demonstrates the immense potential of the Chinese people in science.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1071,"2026-06-19T21:37:46.551Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","ad4346b570f402ac01a9fef54f1a5bc9656c5eaa0bbffeeecbaf5bc58982f7dc","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-21","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-19",162,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ftechnology-invades-the-modern-world-cover.jpg"]