When I woke up and opened my eyes, I saw the pale blue ceiling of the hotel.

After traveling through the parallel world for so long and returning to reality again, Long Yun lay in a daze for a while before remembering what he should do.

Today should be the day of departure for China, right?

After coming to Singapore for two or three days, even if he is on vacation, he still has a lot of team affairs waiting for him to do after returning home.

The group packed up and took a special car from the hotel to the airport, Long Yun was carrying a suitcase handed to him by Professor Liang, which should contain the documents they had drawn this time.

Those precious documents, which may be worth millions at black market prices, but were bought for less than 30,000 yuan, were packed in ordinary boxes and taken to the airport without any obscurity; There was no problem when I passed through the security gate and went through the fluoroscopy scan, and I took it to the plane very smoothly.

Climbed on the plane and put the boxes away, Long Yun was still wondering if this kind of customs clearance process was too simple, wouldn't it be very convenient for anyone to take advantage of such a loophole and take a private flight to carry contraband?

But he quickly thought that this should be because the relevant departments greeted him in advance, otherwise it would be impossible to carry cultural relics out of the country like this.

Taking off from Changi Airport, the "Mercury" SE720 quickly moved away from the coastline into the South China Sea.

Indeed, the way he drives now makes him feel like a driver at the front of a subway car; With a highly automated driving system, he generally doesn't have to do anything but stare at the display.

As when they came, Shangguan Ling and Professor Liang were still in the back cabin, but there was another locked lockbox; After landing, the relevant departments will naturally send people to take these things away, and their task will be considered to be completed.

The process of obtaining the literature this time was quite smooth, but it made their customs declaration and exit a lot less troublesome; Otherwise, if the conflict is caused by the unwise actions of the target, not only will the local government be alarmed, but I am afraid that the inspection of airports and other places will also be intensified, then they will not be allowed to leave so easily.

The next few hours of sailing will be so boring?

Thinking of the last trip, Long Yun was a little eager to have someone to chat with him; It's a pity that Shangguan Ling wants to greet Professor Liang and his wife, and he probably won't come.

When he was thinking blindly, he heard the sound of the cockpit door opening, Long Yun looked back and found that it was Professor Liang who walked in, and hurriedly bowed down to say hello.

"Professor Liang, please take a seat!"

"Hehe, you're welcome," it seems that Shangguan Ling should have said hello in advance, Professor Liang sat down in the passenger seat, and looked at the layout of the cabin with a little curiosity, "Don't say, it's the first time I'm in the cab, I'm a little curious!" ”

Seeing Professor Liang's novelty watch, Long Yun had nothing to do anyway, so he briefly introduced to him the control method of the plane and the meaning of the numbers on the display screen. After a moment of communication, Long Yun knew that he still knew something about the general flight control, and the conversation between the two became much more efficient.

"Ah, it's all like this now!"

With Long Yun's guidance, he understood what the colorful and green signs on the large display screen meant, and Professor Liang nodded with emotion. "Now in the cockpit of an airplane, it's all so modern! When my mind was still stuck on a lot of instruments, it seemed that I was really outdated. - Hey, Long Yun, you don't have to move anything, are you just sitting here to monitor the flight of the plane? ”

"Yes," Long Yun simply took the handle off the steering wheel, "Under normal circumstances, pilots only need to pay attention to whether the system is working properly. It is precisely because of this technology that flying has become much safer, after all, people are not machines, and they can always make mistakes in their busyness. ”

Hearing Long Yun's words, after getting his confirmation, Professor Liang fiddled with the steering wheel and control buttons in front of him with great interest, it seems that as a scholar's curiosity, this professor has not faded at all.

Somehow, the conversation returned to the purpose of their trip.

"Hehe, this time it's not bad! I haven't looked at the literature yet, but the content is really valuable. ”

"This, Professor Liang, what kind of literature is this about?"

I don't know much about the so-called "history of science" studied by Shangguan Ling and Professor Liang, and Long Yun just took this opportunity to ask.

"Actually, there is nothing; We already know the general content. Now it is mainly for the protection of cultural relics, the preservation of evidence, and the maintenance of national dignity that it is necessary to return. Professor Liang habitually took out the cigarette case and paused, and then embarrassedly put it back in his trouser pocket, "These documents are some technical records in the late Southern Song Dynasty, and they are indeed quite rare." ”

Technical records? It was the first time Long Yun had heard of such a thing.

In his impression, in addition to poetry and historical records, there seem to be vulgar novels left in ancient documents, and as for technical documents, do you mean such things as "Compendium of Materia Medica" and "Zhou Ji Suanjing"?

He asked his own question, which drew a burst of laughter from Professor Leung.

"Haha! I think it's the same, now many people think that it should be a poetry history book when they mention ancient texts, but this is not the case. He got up and went back to the back cabin, and after a moment he brought back a book, "Well, lad, you can read it when you have time." The so-called Wang Po sells melons, a book written by myself, I won't say much about the content, hehe! ”

"Oh, okay, okay!" Solemnly taking the book, Long Yun thanked Professor Liang, "So, what are the contents of these documents?" ”

"It is mainly a record of some technical studies collected in the late Southern Song Dynasty, including local collections, and was compiled and sorted out by government agencies at that time; However, due to the low status of science and technology at that time, such records were not included in the database, so it is not easy to find them now. Not only that, many Westerners are now looking for such first-hand information when studying the history of ancient Chinese technology, which is why it is such a strange commodity. ”

Long Yun nodded, he still knew this.

In ancient China, although science and technology also played a great role in society, they never received due attention. Among the ancient documents that have survived, there are the most historical books and records, while the materials on engineering are much rarer.

"Well, sometimes I feel like I have a long way to go. Not long ago, the most authoritative work on the history of science and technology in China was written by foreigners; Not only is this not reasonable at all, but it also shows that we do not attach importance to this period of history, or even ignore what Cheng dù has done. Professor Liang seems to be quite emotional, "Moreover, the so-called 'reading history makes people wise' is not a lie in this regard." ”

"Oh? How do you say that? ”

Long Yun felt a little interesting, and he wondered in his heart what kind of guidance the study of the history of technology would have for today's scientific research.

"So, I'll come up with a theory, and I'll tell you about it now."

Professor Liang was clearly in good spirits, and he adjusted his posture to make himself more comfortable in the chair.

"For example, in my study of historical sources, I found a very peculiar phenomenon. This phenomenon is called a 'scientific and technological blowout', but in fact the content is not new, that is, in the continuous historical development, industrial and agricultural technology, especially the basic theory, will stagnate for a long time, and then suddenly there will be a greater development. Have you ever paid attention to this phenomenon? ”

When Long Yun heard this, he lowered his head and thought for a moment, he felt that this phenomenon was not uncommon.

"I think there are, for example, the nuclear theory and weaponization before and after the war, as well as the theory of locked hydrogen crystals in previous years, it should be."

"Hehe, you're looking for some modern examples. But that's right, let's take the most recent one as an example," Professor Liang paused thoughtfully for a moment without blinking, "If you ask anyone, including scientists, twenty years earlier, who would have realized that such a thing might exist?" This sudden emergence of new technologies and theories is quite common in the history of science. Traditional theories often attribute this phenomenon to qualitative changes caused by quantitative changes, or the accumulation of long-term research by scientists. But in my own research, many new ideas are often only due to someone's inspiration. ”

“…… Inspiration? ”

"Yes, it's inspiration, or 'epiphany'! This is an oriental saying, so you can do it. In short, no matter how common theories emphasize the importance of basic research, and emphasize that quantitative change causes qualitative change; But in the end, there is always someone who suddenly understands the essence of things and solves the most difficult and critical things in the whole system. This has happened countless times in the history of science, so I am particularly skeptical: what kind of phenomenon is this inspiration, or epiphany, is? ”

Hearing Professor Liang's words, Long Yun thought a little confused; But he always felt that he couldn't grasp the essence of the matter, so he could only nod blankly in response.

"As an observer of science, not a practitioner, I probably don't have much of a say. But my point of view, this leap forward, is itself a kind of intractable mystery in the history of science.

After all, scientific research is about the objective world, not something subjective, isn't it? But how can objective things have such a character, which is often obtained not through planned research, but by 'flash of inspiration'? Whether this is due to the way the human brain thinks, or something else, I'm still thinking about it. ”

Professor Liang was still unhurriedly stating his point of view, and while Long Yun was concentrating on understanding, he also faintly felt an inexplicable feeling. This feeling probably stems from the "inspiration" mentioned by Professor Liang just now: is it a bit unreliable to explain the nature of scientific discoveries in such a statement?

But on the other hand, Long Yun also had to admit that many discoveries of modern science really came this way. If, as Professor Liang said, the development of science and technology in ancient times had such a law, then what does this phenomenon mean......

――――Dividing Line――――

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