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Chapter 1041 Science and Technology

"...Is this... a clock?" After a while, Wang Chengen directed two eunuchs to carry out a large black lacquered box from the back hall. It was very heavy and three people could not lift it onto the table at all. They had to call the flat-headed brother who was on duty outside the hall to come in to help.

The box looks inconspicuous, but it has a secret. After unscrewing the lock and lifting the lid, the box can be laid flat on all sides, revealing a steel and copper frame, full of punk style. Galileo scratched his head and walked around for several times but still couldn't figure out what it was.

"You are 71 years old, click, click... I am 43 years old, click, click... Add them together, and you see, the number is 114!"

Hong Tao smiled and casually said two sets of numbers. After he said each one, he fiddled with the metal wheel engraved with numbers on the machine. Finally, he turned the handle twice, and the answer appeared on the wheel below the machine.

This thing is called a gear-type computer, which first appeared in the middle of the 17th century and was invented by the French scientist Pascal. But now it is 1635, and Pascal is not yet an adult. This machine was developed by the craftsmen in the Time Workshop based on the gear-type computer in Hong Tao's memory, which took 8 years.

It has a set of horizontal gears and a set of vertical gears inside, which are driven by a spring and designed according to the decimal system. The low-level gears rotate ten times and the high-level gears rotate one time, which represents the carry, and can represent up to ten digits.

"Oh my God, who is this...whose work is this? Could Your Majesty please introduce it to me? It is so beautiful, it is simply a masterpiece in the world. Only God's favorite can have such a clever conception and superb craftsmanship!"

There is no need for a heavy hammer to beat the drum. Galileo instantly understood the usage and general principle of this thing. He tried it twice himself and laughed so hard that his saliva flowed down his beard without him noticing. He even forgot that this was the emperor's office and danced around like a madman.

"Oh, wait, wait, have some tea first. I don't quite agree with your assessment. It is still far from being God's masterpiece. If it can calculate multiplication and division, it should be able to close the distance.

But this work is beyond the ability of me and the craftsmen, but with your efforts and the mathematicians from Europe, maybe we can see God's masterpiece in advance."

Seeing that the old man was staggering due to brain hypoxia due to his emotional excitement, Hong Tao quickly signaled Wang Chengen to go forward and help him sit down. At the same time, he also gave up the idea of ​​pretending to be the inventor of the gear computer.

The trouble with bacteria hasn't been solved yet. If we make a computer, we won't be able to explain the design ideas and principles at all. We can't always hide from people, so we'd better not show off.

"It's my honor... Then it..." Galileo agreed to this proposal without thinking, and focused all his attention on the machine. If it wasn't too heavy, he would have picked it up and ran away.

"Pingtou, personally lead people to help Dean Jia transport the things back, and then arrange to pick him up in Europe!"

Hong Tao didn't really want to stay with this old man. The more he knew, the more questions he would have, and they were all very high-quality questions. Each one of them could expose his lies. It was too tiring.

"Your Highness, I once tested him with questions from the Cuju team's textbook. He thought about it for a long time before he could barely answer it, and the process was not very clear."

Wang Chengen couldn't understand why the old man from Xifan took away the machine that the emperor valued so much and continued to call people from Europe. If it was true as the emperor said, these Xifan people were all great scholars, they shouldn't have had such a hard time solving geometry problems for the Cuju team.

This thing was brought to the Imperial Academy, and the new girls could easily give neat answers. Obviously, the emperor might have been deceived by these European scammers.

"Do you think that what I teach are all top-notch knowledge? Don't think about it. I'm telling you the truth. No. The world's knowledge is divided into two levels. One is to study the nature and laws of nature, focusing on answering what and why. The other focuses on what to do and how to do it, emphasizing application.

The former is called science, and the latter is called technology. What I teach you is mostly technology, which focuses more on daily applications and rarely involves the study of laws. Doing so will have a big disadvantage, and it will not be possible to form a system and carry out self-innovation and development.

I am not a cuckold, I cannot live for a thousand years. When I die, without a scientific system, many things will stagnate and no one will care. To make up for it, I have to ask them to help. These people are indeed not as good as the Cuju team in terms of technology, but almost all of them are geniuses in science. A million people cannot defeat one, and neither can I. They will make up for the deficiencies in science and form a system, so that creative talents can graduate from new schools and colleges in the future.

Forget about you, as you are not cut out for research. But you should tell the Cuju players not to look down on these Western scholars. Anyone who wants to make a name for himself and accomplish something great in the future should humbly seek their advice.

Don't be too nervous. Those who are qualified to be their students are not ordinary people. They need to be selected from thousands. Good grades alone are not enough. Talent is also required. Alas, I have no talent and only know a little. Otherwise, I wouldn't have to go all the way to beg others to be my teacher.

Tell the outsiders that unless it is too urgent, they will not come. If there is anything, please report it tomorrow. I want to sleep for a while and take a quick look at the memorials from the past few months. I will not return to the palace tonight!"

Is Wang Chengen's idea right? It cannot be said to be wrong, and most people, including students of the Royal Academy, should think so.

If you give Galileo a plane analytic geometry problem that is equivalent to that of a high school in later generations, he would most likely not be able to solve it. But this does not mean that Galileo's mathematical geometry attainments were low, it is just a difference in time.

The methods of solving problems in later generations were painstakingly summed up by generations of mathematicians over hundreds of years. No one can learn them in a short period of time without a teacher. As long as they are given enough time to study the rules, they will soon surpass others and summarize theories from them. This is a skill that ordinary people do not have.

The purpose of recruiting so many scholars from Europe was not to solve application-level problems, but to use them to help the Ming Empire build a scientific system and spread the philosophical ideas about logic in European culture.

What Han culture lacks most is not talent, but logical thinking. Lack of logical thinking is why a scientific system has not been established. Without a scientific system, the leading edge in technology application was soon surpassed by the West, which is a vicious cycle.

I have a lot of advanced technology in my memory, but it is just memory, plagiarism. Plagiarism can produce quick results, but it cannot create continuously. If there is no homework to copy one day, I will stagnate immediately.

This is not an exaggeration, there are precedents in history. The Maya and ancient Egypt both created brilliant civilizations, with huge cities, majestic pyramids, superb craftsmanship and complex astronomical calendars. However, as time went by, they not only did not grow and prosper, but were interrupted.

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Why did such a bizarre phenomenon occur? There may be many reasons, such as war, natural disasters, etc., but Hong Tao believes that their civilization is likely to be like the current Ming Empire, and its achievements are derived from copying homework.

When one or several people with advanced memory die, there is no homework to copy, and the results copied before cannot be integrated. People know the results but not the reasons, and cannot leave a complete scientific system to future generations. Naturally, progress will stagnate, as if it was cut off by something.

Now that we have learned the lesson, we should not ignore it and take preventive measures. We should copy homework, after all, copying homework is effective and low-cost. But while copying homework, we should also start to build a scientific system to prepare for emergencies.

I really don't have this ability, but fortunately Europe has emerged from the Dark Ages and started the Renaissance, and many geniuses have emerged in various countries. Asking them to help is obviously the best way. It seems to cost a lot of money, but in fact it is a big profit.

As for whether these Europeans would spread science and technology ahead of time and affect the leading position of the Ming Empire, the answer is a resounding yes. There is no secret recipe or research result in the world that can be kept secret forever. As long as it is used, it will be learned sooner or later.

But don’t worry too much, because what is spreading is only the technology, not the scientific system. This system cannot be established by just a few geniuses, it also requires external environment and large-scale investment of funds, manpower and time.

Looking around the world, for a long time, even if someone saw this step, they probably didn't have the energy, financial resources, and time to copy the system of the Ming Empire. If there was, it didn't matter, they could bring their fleet and army to cause trouble and use the first-mover advantage to destroy the conditions they had.

Science belongs to all mankind. This statement is correct and it actually works this way. But the first half of the sentence is missing. It should be that the creators profit first, and then it belongs to all mankind. Without this premise, no one would be willing to take the trouble to create, and everyone would just wait to copy their homework.

(End of this chapter)