[{"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-66":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},2269550,4430,"Chapter 66: The Final Trial (Seek Follows!)","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-66",66,"\u003Cp>\"Chinese? It depends on the specific position.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it’s Kennedy, positions that don’t require congressional approval could potentially go to Chinese Americans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because Kennedy’s attitude toward Chinese Americans is relatively favorable; from an electoral standpoint, he might appoint one or two Chinese American officials to attract Chinese American votes.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After spending a year in the 1960s, Lin Ran realized money was just a number to him, so in 2020 he used part of his savings to buy a secondhand, battle-damaged Toyota Corolla.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He drove all day just to visit Li Xiaoman at the Buffalo campus.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman was surprised by Lin Ran’s long journey, dusty and tired:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Also, if I remember correctly, before his election, Kennedy made public statements expressing a friendly attitude toward Chinese Americans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Randolph, you drove all the way from eastern New York State to western New York State just to ask me this?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were both at the State University of New York, but distances between campuses could be hundreds of kilometers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran’s Stony Brook campus was on Long Island near New York City, while Li Xiaoman’s Buffalo campus was in Buffalo City in western New York State—the driving distance between them was a full 700 kilometers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A full year had passed since the 1960s, and Lin Ran had occasionally stayed in 2020 to research and read papers, so by February 2020, Li Xiaoman had returned to Buffalo to resume her studies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among all the SUNY campuses, only Buffalo was the one offering a Doctor of Law degree.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran explained: \"I recently found Jerome Wiesner’s manuscript online—he was Kennedy’s chief science advisor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then yesterday I had an exceptionally vivid dream: I appeared in Washington in 1960, appointed by Kennedy as Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the dream, Kennedy shook my hand and told me to do well, urging me not to let him down.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Li Xiaoman didn’t find it strange—when you’re deeply immersed in something, dreaming about it is normal. As she listened, she searched on her phone:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Jerome Wiesner’s official title was Special Assistant for Science and Technology, not chief science advisor. Also, Kennedy only won the election in 1960; his appointments didn’t start rolling out until 1961.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, back then, the National Aeronautics and Space Council, directly led by Vice President Lin Deng, already existed, so there was little need for a dedicated Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In short, your dream makes no sense.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Ran was moved by how seriously Li Xiaoman took the time to analyze his dream. He stared into her beautiful eyes and asked: \"Because the dream felt so real, I wanted to share it with you.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Man, as a Special Assistant for Science and Technology like Jerome Wiesner—what kind of power and influence does such a position actually have?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His claim of wanting to see her was a kind lie; the real reason was the series of accidents in the 1960s, which had made Lin Ran cautious and unwilling to discuss such matters over the phone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"To be honest, a Special Assistant’s authority can be vast or negligible—it depends on your own status and how much power the president is willing to delegate to you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a pause, Li Xiaoman continued: \"Take Kennedy’s era as an example: they established the National Aeronautics and Space Council, led by Vice President Lin Deng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If, as in your dream, you were appointed Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs, with Lin Deng already in charge, you’d have virtually no real authority.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lin Deng’s power was immense—he could directly influence NASA’s budget, personnel, and vendor selections.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I can’t understand why Kennedy would need to appoint yet another Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After talking with Li Xiaoman, Lin Ran began to doubt his own sanity—her analysis was undeniably correct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the National Aeronautics and Space Council already in place, was there even any point in adding another position?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After spending the weekend with Li Xiaoman and staying two days at Buffalo University, Lin Ran felt his inner calm return:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As long as I have the Gate, what’s there to fear? I can always flee to Xiangjiang or Göttingen—or just stay in China in 2020 and never leave the country again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Can they possibly chase me across time?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Randolph, the Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs really did exist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because NASA’s rocket launches kept failing, Kennedy became dissatisfied with NASA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He believed NASA needed restructuring, its leadership needed replacing—but that wasn’t enough. He wanted a technically expert specialist to help manage NASA from an engineering and administrative standpoint.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Perhaps, I suspect, he hoped you’d be the catfish in the catfish effect, disrupting NASA’s ecosystem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, critically, NASA had long relied too heavily on former Nazi German scientists—even figures like Rudolf Arthur, scum like that—reflecting a reality where geopolitics trumped ethics.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But that doesn’t mean Kennedy didn’t want to change that. He likely wanted to change it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, because of your Chinese American identity, both Kennedy and Lin Deng held relatively favorable attitudes toward Chinese Americans and wanted to see a Chinese American face in the White House to improve the situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for how they learned of your expertise in aerospace—I have no idea.\" Professor Horkheimer murmured his speculation to Lin Ran.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how things unfolded, Lin Ran was certain of one thing: he was truly going to begin as the Special Assistant for Aerospace Affairs in the White House West Wing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He’d thought he’d bypass the competition with General Aerospace—but instead, he’d leapt straight to the top.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Special Assistant—power could be vast or minimal—but with sixties-era information asymmetry in his hands, Lin Ran didn’t believe he couldn’t make waves in the White House and NASA.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before officially entering NASA, he had one final hurdle: the confirmation hearing specially prepared for his appointment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Clearly, a Chinese American entering the White House still provoked strong backlash, especially from conservatives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Randolph Lin could become the White House’s first senior official of East Asian descent.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Red scientist about to enter the White House.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is Kennedy’s so-called space race with Soviet Russia really going to rely on a Chinese American?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>American newspapers rushed to report the story, especially those supporting the Republican Party.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the White House had never before had a Chinese American bureaucrat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first Black person to hold a senior administrative post in the White House was William Slade in 1865, serving as personal assistant to President Abraham Lincoln, managing White House affairs and helping arrange the funeral after Lincoln’s assassination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first person of East Asian descent to hold a senior administrative post in the White House was James Thomson in 1961, serving as Special Assistant for East Asian Affairs under President John F. Kennedy—also assassinated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One cannot help but feel history is cyclical.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(James Thomson was born in Nanjing in 1931, entered politics in 1959 as an assistant to Congressman Chester Bowles. After the 1960 presidential election, Thomson followed Bowles into the Kennedy administration, first as Special Assistant to the Deputy Secretary of State, then as Special Assistant for East Asian Affairs.)\u003C\u002Fp>",1174,"2026-06-19T21:37:46.551Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","7bd4854940a4216bb921408af3cfad50aeb0f5db555b428e92884a1e20363222","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-67","technology-invades-the-modern-world-chapter-65",162,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Ftechnology-invades-the-modern-world-cover.jpg"]