Chapter 259

Translator: Dreamscribe

[MIT Professor Yu Seo-ha Proves the Limits of Turing's Halting Problem. A New Chapter in Humanity's Computation Theory?]

Headlines carrying the same message dominated the front pages of portals around the world. They were provocative enough to make even people who normally had no interest in science news click on them at least once.

└Turing was wrong?

└No, he wasn't wrong. His theory just had limitations.

└I don't understand any of this, but it's a huge deal, right?

To the overwhelming majority of people, Seo-ha's paper might as well have been written in an alien language. But the name Alan Turing, combined with Seo-ha's title as the youngest Fields Medal recipient, was more than enough to draw attention.

Broadcasters rushed to schedule special programs.

[Science Special - The Boy Who Surpassed Turing]

Panels of so-called experts sat around studios and offered their own interpretations. Unfortunately, most of them could not understand the paper, so their explanations rarely ventured beyond imagination and speculation.

One panelist looked solemnly into the camera and said,

“I see this as a declaration that the age of digital science is over.”

“That's not quite right! To put it simply, it means that problems once believed to be absolutely impossible for computers to solve can now all be solved.”

Professor Kim Ji-yoon sighed and shook her head.

“No, that is not what it means. Professor Yu's paper shows that the range of computation a Turing Machine can handle is limited. In other words, he mathematically proved that there are domains where Turing's framework itself does not apply.”

The host blinked and asked,

“Then what exactly changes?”

“We can't say for certain yet. We'll need more time to learn how far Complex Systems can be predicted and what fields this can be applied to. One thing is clear, however. A theoretical foundation has been established that could make things once considered impossible possible, much like the Life Matrix.”

“Could we end up with something like a time machine from the movies?”

Ji-yoon answered firmly.

“No! Computation Theory and time travel are two completely different subjects.”

“Ah! That's quite disappointing. Then one last question, and probably the one our viewers are most curious about. How will this affect our lives going forward?”

“...Honestly, I don't know either.”

It was not an answer that would help the ratings. The host looked troubled.

“Aren't you being a little too cautious?”

“Great discoveries are usually like that. Even Michael Faraday, who discovered the Law of Electromagnetic Induction, probably could not have predicted the electrical civilization we have today.”

The host's eyes lit up.

“Oh! Then something incredible that we can't even imagine could happen in the future.”

“That's right. Rather than changing our lives immediately, this is more like laying a cornerstone for the distant future. And I hope everyone remembers that Professor Yu, the person who laid that stone, is still only in his early twenties.”

The stock market also went into turmoil.

Tech companies' share prices swung wildly several times a day, to the point that even experts had no idea what direction things were heading.

“They're calling it the Yu Seo-ha effect, but what direction is this effect even supposed to push things?”

“Nobody knows. Everyone just expects something to change.”

“So uncertainty itself has become the catalyst.”

No one knew the correct answer, but people were too busy enjoying the excitement to care.

One famous actor posted the following on social media.

[I don't understand a single thing about it, but tonight, just knowing that someone so incredible is Korean somehow makes me feel proud.]

Within less than a day, the tens of thousands of ‘likes’ it had received seemed to reflect the public's feelings.

Meanwhile, the CEO of a famous IT startup reacted cynically.

[Why is everyone making such a fuss? Does pure math put food on the table? If you want to get rich, invest in technology.]

└Math is what makes that technology possible.

└Do you even know how rich Yu Seo-ha is before saying something this ridiculous? lol

└He does kind of have a point. This doesn't affect our everyday lives at all.

From their own positions, in their own ways.

The world was responding differently to the ripples caused by one young man.

***

“Argh! This is driving me crazy.”

Ben screamed after opening the mailbox. It was packed full of mail.

“What happened?”

Seo-ha, who was nearby, poked his head over.

“Look at this.”

“Don't tell me all of this is...”

“Yep. This is just today's batch.”

Packages and envelopes.

Mail of every possible shape and size was piled inside the box like a mountain. The postmarks and addresses were written in languages from countries all over the world.

Seo-ha rummaged through the box with an intrigued expression.

“A lot of weird letters come in too, so don't just read anything.”

Ben snatched a suspiciously patterned envelope out of Seo-ha's hand.

For the past few months, Ben had been in charge of managing the mail, and it was enough to give him a headache. Requests for money or proposals asking Seo-ha to invest were actually among the less troublesome ones.

There was a laboratory that wanted to study Seo-ha's DNA, a publisher urging him to write an autobiography, a sperm bank, and even a cult. The cult insisted that Seo-ha was undoubtedly the prophet they had been waiting for and asked him to lead their order.

“Germany, India, Brazil, Korea... What's this, Mongolia? How do they even know our address?”

“You can find it on the university website. These seem like letters of encouragement. Some were sent by entire groups of students too. You should be fine reading this one.”

Ben pulled out a pink envelope and handed it to Seo-ha. Seo-ha took out the letter inside with a tense expression and read it.

[Professor, thanks to you, my daughter, who was battling cancer, has been able to return to school. Thank you for saving my daughter's life.]

“...”

For a long time, he could not take his eyes off the letter. Ben carefully held out another one.

“Want to read one more?”

Seo-ha silently nodded.

[I am a doctor working in a small rural village in Africa. The reality here is that we lack not only new drugs, but even basic medical equipment. Every year, countless patients were diagnosed with cancer only to pass away without ever receiving proper treatment.

But Professor's Life Matrix theory has brought a small miracle to this place. The combinations of Antiparasitic Drugs and Antibiotics made public in the database have shown remarkable effects in some patients.

Everyone in this village sincerely prays for Professor's health and peace. I, too, would like to express my deepest respect and gratitude.]

The bridge of his nose stung.

He slowly folded the letter and slipped it into his inner pocket.

“This is the first time you've gotten letters like these, isn't it?”

“Yes.”

“I've been filtering out anything that doesn't seem important, but I'll start setting these aside from now on.”

“...Thank you.”

He trudged across campus and sat down on a bench.

It made him think deeply.

What was mathematics?

Until now, mathematics had been a journey toward truth.

But what he held in his hands now was nothing less than someone's life.

He suddenly looked around.

The late-afternoon sunlight stretched across the campus. Students laughed and chatted as they moved between lecture halls like always. Someone was throwing a frisbee around on the lawn.

“It's peaceful.”

Yet despite what he said, his eyes saw a different landscape.

The frisbee flew forward along a geometric trajectory. Its Position Vector constantly updated with time, the solution to a Differential Equation formed by gravity and air resistance.

Whoosh-

Leaves swayed in the wind.

Countless collisions between air molecules overlapped, and at the end of it all, a single trajectory was selected. Even all these movements, which seemed chaotic at first glance, must have some deeper meaning.

The urge to decipher every last one of them welled up inside him. From the darkness, Ducky spoke as though whispering.

'You want to know, don't you? So do I. So throw those stupid letters away.'

“Be quiet.”

'People betray you. Emotions are nothing but waste. But a beautiful proof is an eternal law in itself. Mathematics is the most perfect world.'

He raised his head and looked at the sky.

Sunlight struck tiny particles in the atmosphere and scattered, painting the sunset. The dispersion of wavelengths according to Rayleigh Scattering.

It felt as though the universe itself was posing a gigantic question to him.

'You know it too. Every phenomenon has a law.'

The birth of stars, the evolution of life, even human thought.

They simply had yet to be discovered. This world must be woven together by countless forms of mathematics.

If he could understand all of them...

Complex Systems, life, the universe.

Perhaps someday, all of them could be explained through a single language. Ducky's voice burrowed into his ears.

'Keep walking toward the truth. That's what you wanted from the beginning. Don't let emotions distract you.'

Seo-ha muttered with an indifferent expression.

“Have you been stressed lately?”

'I'm just the inner voice you don't want to face.'

“Of course I'm going to uncover the truth. Whether you help me or not. But I have no intention of letting it ruin my life.”

People inevitably died. Ducky might long for eternity, but Seo-ha wanted warmth. Things that shone precisely because life was finite.

The warm dinners his mother made for him, his little sister Seo-eun, who did not always listen but was more precious to him than anything, and things like Gyeo-ul's piano melodies that gently caressed even the deepest corners of his heart.

'What a pointless waste of time...'

Ducky grumbled as he sank back into the abyss.

But Seo-ha instinctively knew that even the cold intellect hidden behind the Duck Mask felt relieved by his choice. He smiled softly and said,

“Trust me. In the end, we'll reach our destination together.”

Seo-ha rose from the bench and brushed the dust off his clothes with a few pats. Without the slightest hesitation, his steps turned toward the Apex lab.

Step.

Step.

His mind was unusually clear.

It was probably because his conversation with Ducky had gone well.

Beep-

When he tapped his key card, the laboratory door slid smoothly open.

'Hm?'

Something felt off.

Theo, Sri, Cecilia, Su-jeong, Ben. Every one of them was staring at him. Su-jeong hurried over and held out an official document.

“The institute is putting the brakes on our research into the 13-Step Hypothesis. They say it's a directive from the government.”

[Proposal for Joint Research Based on National Security Risk Assessment]

Seo-ha quickly snatched the document and read it.

In summary, it said that the research posed a substantial potential threat to national security, so they were demanding joint research and information sharing. In exchange, the government offered to increase their funding severalfold.

It was not a recommendation.

It was an order based on the federal DURC(Dual Use Research of Concern Policy), so universities receiving government funding were required by regulation to comply.

Flip.

He rapidly turned through to the final page.

The sender was the Technology Security Committee under the US Department of Defense.

“DURC policy...”

Theo added an explanation from beside him.

“It was originally created to oversee research involving pathogens and toxins, basically biochemical weapons. The problem is that it covers not only physical materials, but biological information too.”

Su-jeong looked dumbfounded.

“So our Life Matrix falls under this.”

“That's right.”

Seo-ha's expression hardened.

“What are they really after?”

“I can explain that.”

Everyone's gaze shifted toward the back.

Whitman walked in, his face flushed red. He held the same official document in one hand. With a grim expression, he spoke.

“The government intends to classify your research.”

“Classify it?”

Seo-ha's eyes widened.

*****

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