I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 740: After modification - Binary

The car stopped under the office building of the tractor factory, and Professor Fursden was informed by Lauren that Shire was waiting for him in the third-floor conference room even before he had time to put down his luggage.

Professor Fursden felt a bit strange. The conference room?

Why the conference room!

Is it a meeting?

...

In the third-floor conference room, Shire was chatting leisurely with Lieutenant Pan Wan over coffee.

Petain acted quickly, transferring Lieutenant Pan Wan from the Cryptography Bureau within two days.

Petain was smart; he did not explicitly request for "Lieutenant Pan Wan," which would undoubtedly arouse suspicion from the parliament: you must have had contact with people from the Cryptography Bureau, otherwise, how would you know this name?

A further investigation might lead to Shire.

Petain reported to the government, saying he needed ten code analysts to form a front-line signal deciphering team.

Due to Petain’s recent remarkable performance in Verdun, and more importantly because he might become Shire’s competitor, the government quickly agreed to his request.

Then.

As long as "Lieutenant Pan Wan" was not on the list, Petain would nitpick resumes from this group to demand a change.

After two rounds, "Lieutenant Pan Wan" finally fell into the trap without a trace.

"Do you like mathematics, Lieutenant?" Shire asked Pan Wan, who was sitting across from him.

"Yes, General." Pan Wan sat upright: "If you don’t like mathematics, analyzing codes would be a nightmare."

"Of course." Shire nodded with a smile.

Codes are just a bunch of tedious numbers and letters; unless you like them, no one can endure being buried in them all day.

Seeing Pan Wan’s overly tense expression, Shire reminded:

"If you were a soldier, you should be standing at attention and saluting me."

"But you’re not; here, you’re more of a scientific researcher."

"So, don’t worry too much about military ranks, do you understand?"

Lieutenant Pan Wan looked at Shire in confusion: "Scientific researcher?"

Isn’t it about deciphering telegraphs?

When did deciphering telegraphs become research?

Shire laughed: "Deciphering telegraphs isn’t much use to me, Lieutenant. If I can crush the enemy tactically, technologically, and in intelligence, then I don’t need that."

Lieutenant Pan Wan was enlightened.

Indeed, Shire had advanced tactics, had invented a series of sophisticated equipment, and utilized air superiority to acquire real-time intelligence.

He had been winning, even without deciphering enemy telegraphs.

Although there were occasional risks, the probability was very low.

"But..." Lieutenant Pan Wan froze.

If that’s the case, why did Shire go to such lengths to transfer him from the Cryptography Bureau?

"Wait a moment, Lieutenant." Shire looked at his pocket watch: "I need you to meet someone; he might be your research partner."

At this moment, the weary Fursden pushed the door open.

Shire smiled: "Look, here he comes!"

Shire stepped forward to shake hands with Fursden and introduced the two to each other:

"Professor Fursden, an expert in wireless technology and a physicist. The ’Echo Detector’ is his masterpiece."

"Lieutenant Pan Wan, a code analyst who excels in this field and is among the top-secret cutting-edge talents."

Pan Wan knew Fursden; Fursden did not know Pan Wan.

As they greeted each other, both wondered: what could a wireless expert and a code analyst have in common?

Could it be that the wireless expert receives signals and the code analyst deciphers them?

Shire was in no hurry to speak. He gestured for them to sit down, and after the secretary handed Fursden a cup of coffee, he spoke unhurriedly: "I am considering a possibility, gentlemen. Can we decipher codes using a machine?"

"A machine?" Both Fursden and Pan Wan looked at Shire in surprise.

"We do use machines, General." Lieutenant Pan Wan explained: "Like decoding machines..."

"No, this is different." Shire interrupted Lieutenant Pan Wan and rephrased his question: "You should be familiar with binary, right?"

"Of course." Fursden nodded: "Leibniz’s invention to solve logical problems."

Lieutenant Pan Wan said: "I even researched it. I tried to apply it to deciphering codes."

(The picture above is of German mathematician Leibniz, who invented binary in 1679. At that time, it was mainly to transform complex problems into simple "yes" and "no" logical calculations but unexpectedly became the foundation of modern computer technology in later generations)

"Good." Shire felt he had chosen the right people:

"Since you both know binary and understand it can solve logical problems."

"Then why don’t we implement it with machines?"

"What I mean is, if a component with electricity represents ’1’ and no electricity represents ’0’, can we use combinations of these components to achieve certain calculations?"

Fursden and Pan Wan were stunned.

After a while, Pan Wan, who was more sensitive to numbers, said: "Do you mean, General, that as long as we input data, it would produce the results we want? It would complete all the calculations automatically?"

"Yes." Shire nodded approvingly; this understanding was spot on.

Fursden shook his head in disbelief: 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"It’s impossible to achieve, General."

"Do you know what that implies?"

"If you can achieve that, it could be said to possess human intelligence. It would be a terrifying existence."

Shire thumbs-upped Fursden; he had seen the future.

Shire didn’t expect them to accept it now. Twenty years later, when Turing first proposed this idea, many thought he was mad and considered it impossible to achieve.

But a few years later, when he took on deciphering codes, he still created the first computer in human history.

(The picture above is of Turing, lying on the grass in 1935, suddenly thinking whether machines could replace humans to complete calculations. In 1936, he published a paper proposing the concept of the "Turing Machine," but almost no one agreed)

"The principle is not complicated." Shire said:

"We can use specific wiring to implement logic operations."

"For example, only if both components have electricity, the component they jointly control has electricity; this is the ’AND’ operation."

"Similarly, if either component has electricity, the component they control has electricity; this is the ’OR’ operation."

Lieutenant Pan Wan’s eyes widened instantly:

"If a component has electricity, and its controlled component doesn’t, this is the ’NOT’ operation."

"God, this could... this could really be possible."

"Such operations even have a theoretical basis, I mean binary operation rules."

Fursden still shook his head: "It’s impossible. It’s a waste of time, General. It has no significance."

Shire’s tone was calm: "Why don’t we start with something simple? For instance, make a machine that performs binary addition."