I Became a Plutocrat in World War I: Starting with Saving France-Chapter 741: The Worm

If there is something that cannot be obtained through force, it might be the development of technology.

But this is not contradictory because technological development often brings prosperity and military strength.

The British invented the steam engine, leading the first industrial revolution, making Britain a strong empire for hundreds of years, known as the Sun Never Sets Empire.

The wide application of electricity and internal combustion engines during the second industrial revolution made Europe and the United States the center of the world.

The third industrial revolution was the development of computers, establishing the United States as a generation of hegemons.

Shire knew very well that no matter how many victories he achieved on the battlefield, as long as he did not master computer technology, the rise of the United States was inevitable.

Because whether in civilian equipment or military fields, Shire’s inventions could not compete with the computer-applied United States.

The time is not far off.

The first practical computer in the United States appeared in 1946, just 30 years ago.

By then, the forty-something Shire would have to watch the Bernard Group he built collapse.

If Shire did not want to see this happen, he must grasp computer technology and lead the third industrial revolution himself, making France, or rather the Bernard Group, the leader.

Shire designated a building and an additional playground as the laboratory for this project.

This building had all the necessary facilities, from accommodation to dining to entertainment, solving all living problems internally.

The building was surrounded by a 5-meter high wall, like a prison with multiple layers of defense.

An infantry battalion was deployed, divided into three squads armed with guns on guard 24 hours non-stop. No one was allowed to approach, not even Dejoka knew what the laboratory was researching.

At this time, there were only three people in the large laboratory: Shire, Professor Fursden, and Lieutenant Pan Wan.

The laboratory was set on the second floor to avoid the dampness of the first floor, as vacuum tubes were very sensitive to this.

When Turing invented the original computer, he used something called a "bomb" as a component, which was later replaced by vacuum tubes.

Shire did not follow this old path. With modern knowledge, he skipped this step and directly used vacuum tubes. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

(The picture above shows the original computer invented by Turing. At that time, he did not think of the more convenient punched tape input/output and storage methods, so he used such a bomb-like mechanical unit as a component. Its function was to violently crack the German Army’s messages.)

Shire’s experiment started with the simplest single-digit addition.

The experiment was the most primitive programming, only the programming method was wiring, using binary arithmetic rules.

The first experiment was not successful. After wiring, Professor Fursden powered the input terminal, and Lieutenant Pan Wan recorded at the output terminal.

"It seems wrong," Pan Wan said. "The answer we need is 9, but we got 3."

Initially not hopeful, Professor Fursden gradually gained confidence in the experiment.

"There must be something wrong," Fursden’s eyes wandered over the circuit, frowning. "This is essentially the logic rule of binary arithmetic, just transformed from theory to circuit. Logically, we should get the correct result."

Then he judged: "It might be a vacuum tube issue; it’s prone to failure."

So the two of them checked the wiring and vacuum tubes again and indeed found a burned vacuum tube.

"It must have burned out the moment it was powered, so we didn’t notice," Fursden said.

Shire watched them struggle from beside.

In modern times, this could be easily solved with a few lines of simple code, but in this era, each carry had to be controlled by wiring.

If one wire was connected wrong or one vacuum tube was faulty, the correct result couldn’t be obtained.

Shire admitted that he was not as skilled as the other two; although he knew the principles, he was soon confused by the pile of vacuum tubes and wires.

What Shire didn’t know was that both Fursden and Pan Wan greatly admired him.

Pan Wan considered it his field.

If this method worked, codes that originally took hundreds or thousands of people hours to decipher could be cracked in seconds.

This could be a tremendous achievement in the military.

The speed of code decryption was extremely important; otherwise, it would be meaningless, as the intelligence might already be outdated by the time it was deciphered.

Professor Fursden had a broader view.

While inspecting, he thought that if this experiment succeeded, it would mean that all problems solvable by logic could be calculated.

Many problems could be modeled and converted into logical problems.

In other words, the problems it could solve were far more than imagined!

This was a completely new field, an untouched territory.

And we were the pioneers, creating history and leaving a significant mark!

Unbelievable, how did Shire think of it?

After inspection, Fursden used his trembling hand to power on several vacuum tubes at the input terminal according to the binary data.

Pan Wan quickly recorded the data at the output terminal. He didn’t need to calculate; he could convert it to decimal at a glance.

He was stunned for a moment and then looked at the data again excitedly before shouting:

"It’s the result we wanted, we succeeded, it calculated correctly."

"Unbelievable, it completed it automatically!"

"It really works..."

As an experienced man who had conducted countless experiments, Professor Fursden remained calm.

In fact, he only appeared calm on the surface.

Professor Fursden knew that this experiment was more important than any previous ones, with all previous results combined unable to compare.

Therefore, he had long been excited, with his blood rushing.

But he still restrained himself and said to Pan Wan, "We should test with more data; it might just be a coincidence."

"Yes, Professor." Pan Wan nodded repeatedly. "But I know it can work, it must work, our theory is solid!"

Sure enough, test after test yielded the correct result.

If it didn’t, it was due to loose wiring or poor connection, or a bad vacuum tube.

After testing with a dozen data sets, Professor Fursden finally sighed in relief.

He turned his gaze to Shire, stared blankly for a moment, and then suddenly stepped forward and shook Shire’s hand excitedly.

"I was wrong, General. This is feasible." Professor Fursden’s voice trembled. "It opened the door to a new world for us. Thank you very much, General! This is astonishing, a genius idea!"

"Yes." Lieutenant Pan Wan was so excited he could hardly breathe, looking at Shire with eyes full of admiration. "No one has ever thought of doing this, only you, General!"

Shire nodded and glanced around. "Maybe we should improve the environment here. We can’t let anything in, not even a bug."

Professor Fursden and Pan Wan were stunned. At this moment, Shire was thinking about bugs?!