Spark

In Chengdu, in the office, Chen Nian silently watched the feedback about the program on his computer screen.

For most people, the release of the program "One Day of the Chinese People" is a positive response to the "Old Man Selling Coal" video, but Chen Nian knows that the two are not really related.

Regardless of whether Wilson's video appears or not, the show will be released at an appropriate time.

Because it's actually more of a signal, a signal that Starfire's main target is starting to expand.

If we say that at the beginning of the birth of Xinghuo, its purpose was to develop the military industry at the fastest speed, quickly realize equipment updates and iterations, and create a basically safe living environment for China, then now, the development of science and technology has begun to enter the next stage. stage, that is, the stage of equal development of military industry and civilian use.

In fact, in Chen Nian's memory, the order of the stages of the "two lives" he lived in was misplaced.

In the previous life, Huaxia chose to give priority to ensuring people's livelihood and ensuring that the people could afford food, while the high-tech and military industries only entered a period of explosive growth after 2010.

But in this life, due to the existence of Chen Nian, the timelines in the two directions have been adjusted one by one.

The military industry was launched first, and high-tech was conquering cities and territories overseas. The domestic people's livelihood is actually in a "following" stage.

Its development is also not to be underestimated, but relatively speaking, it has indeed failed to reach the speed of the previous life.

You know, how exaggerated was the development in the field of people's livelihood in the previous life?

Chen Nian remembers very clearly that in 2000, when he was just in his first year of high school, the family conditions were not too bad. After all, his parents were both teachers, and a dual-career family could earn more than 1,000 yuan a month.

So almost every day, there are fresh meat products at home.

But in comparison, the life of my cousin's family in the countryside is much more difficult.

Pork is actually considered a luxury food. Although it is not to the point where it can only be eaten during the holidays, it is basically maintained at the level of one meal every three or four days.

And every time you buy meat, you need to have a tenable reason.

For example, there are guests at home, for example, the test scores are good, for example, the elderly are hungry and so on.

If I had to find a case for comparison, eating a catty of pork at that time was probably equivalent to the level that families now go to restaurants outside to reward themselves.

In addition, the cherishment of labor tools and agricultural machinery in rural areas can also reflect the difficulties of people's livelihood in that era to a certain extent.

A few acres of land needs to be irrigated. Even if most people have a water pump at home, they will not choose to use it, but pick it up bucket by bucket.

What they worry about is that the machine cannot be repaired after being damaged, and it is also necessary to weigh whether diesel consumption or physical exertion is more cost-effective.

A Coke bottle of diesel for 5 yuan is the price of a strong laborer who works for half a day.

——

But in this extremely difficult situation, in less than ten years, the changes that have taken place in the entire China cannot even be described as "earthshaking".

Pork that cost 5 yuan a catty in 2000 was actually only 7 yuan in 2023 in the last life.

What is even more exaggerated is the oil supply. The average price of first-grade peanut oil in 2000 was 10,000 yuan per ton. By 2023, it had reached a low of 14,000 yuan.

What is this concept?

In terms of purchasing power, the price of oil supply has actually plummeted.

As for the price of agricultural machinery, Chen Nian saw a case with his own eyes in his last life. After including various subsidies for supporting agriculture and going to the countryside, the actual price of a small rotary lawn mower with a price tag of 1800 was 160. dollars

Exaggerated, but verifiable anytime.

And this is the result of choosing "eat enough first".

Of course, the explosive development of transportation, not to mention the rapid development of infrastructure, has already been talked about.

But returning to this life, objectively speaking, the growth rate is indeed not as good as that of the previous life.

This is mainly because the resources swallowed by Xinghuo are too huge. Although the cost of scientific research does not need to be too high, the subsequent application of equipment and the price of defending the country are unavoidable.

At the same time, the situation is not only good, but also historically loose.

Chen Nian believes that in such an environment, it is not even a matter of "time" for economic take-off.

The spring of the driving force has been fully compressed, as long as you let go, it will spring up at an alarming speed.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian let out a long sigh of relief.

Everything is ready, and the next step is to wait for the large-scale launch.

At this point in time, the relationship between the Civil Affairs Office and Xinghuo has been completely made public, so there is no need to hide many things.

Just two days ago, a large-scale seminar had begun. Based on the work experience of the past few years, the Civil Affairs Office will submit a technical development plan for the next five years to the core team of Spark, which is in line with the current stage of Spark. After the plan was matched and deduplicated, it was handed over to Chen Nian as "gravel to fill the cup".

And at that time, it was the moment when Chen Nian really started to flex his muscles.

After turning off the computer, Chen Nian called Wang Jiancheng.

At this time, Wang Jiancheng already knew the identity of Chen Nian—of course, not the identity of the core of the Xinghuo Group, but the identity of the so-called "key scientist and field elite of the Xinghuo Group".

Therefore, he didn't have any doubts about Chen Nian's authority. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised that he was able to cooperate with Chen Nian in a completely reasonable and close manner.

After all, to him, Chen Nian was the most important leader on his scientific research journey.

He doesn't know anything else, he only knows that following his senior, he will never go wrong

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door of Chen Nian's office, and it was Wang Jiancheng who came, holding a running computer in his hand.

"Senior, here I come!"

Wang Jiancheng's voice is always full of vitality and joy. Chen Nian glanced at his computer and asked:

"Are you still running debugging? When will it end?"

Wang Jiancheng didn't see him either. He walked up to Chen Nian and put down the computer, then he answered:

"At present, all the codes have been entered, but as you said before, there are many adaptability problems in the codes you wrote yourself."

"I have completed 40% of the modification, but the military's excuse is that the data provided is relatively slow, and it may take a lot of time to dock and debug."

"On an optimistic estimate, it may take at least a week."

"And, now we have a major problem to solve."

"Another problem?"

Chen Nian subconsciously said.

He remembers that when he first started the Zhanlu project, he still felt that the interface problem was already a major problem.

"Yes. We lack actual combat data as training material."

Hearing this, Chen Nian couldn't help frowning.

"Is the Bingtui data unavailable?"

In fact, when Chen Nian first planned the Zhanlu project, he had already considered using Bingtui simulation data as a manually labeled dataset to provide Zhanlu AI with initial learning samples.

This is the easiest way to obtain data. After all, Bingtui is originally at the computer level, and the data is ready-made and can be generated repeatedly.

Otherwise, for the sake of a battle, do we really have to conquer an island or a small country as a demonstration?

How many countries in this world are enough to fight?

Besides, if the means of war can be expanded to be wasted on such things, there is really no need for Zhanlu to exist.

Anyway, what is a catastrophe to others is just a game to us.

After hearing Chen Nian's words, Wang Jiancheng shook his head slowly.

After thinking for a moment, he opened his mouth and replied:

"It cannot be said that the Bingtui data is not available. It should be said that the data of the Bingtui simulation software we are using at this stage is not available."

"Senior, you also know that the goal of Zhanlu's project is to be based on actual combat and achieve the effect of commanding in actual combat."

"And what is the biggest difference between actual combat and Bingtui?"

"Our soldiers will get tired and their equipment will malfunction, because unexpected situations caused by uncontrollable forces will happen at any time."

"In many cases, this kind of non-digital factor is what really determines the outcome of a battle."

"Of course, we can say that what we want at this stage is just a 'basic version' of Zhanlu, as long as he can have the command function, there is no need to put too high requirements on it."

"But that's where the problem lies. This thing is not a civilian AI system, it's for military use, and it's for war!"

"And in a war, we cannot allow any surprises."

"Victories and defeats are very common, but if the failure is caused by Zhanlu, wouldn't it be too ridiculous?"

"It is clear that the soldiers have reached their limit, but they still give orders according to the predetermined so-called optimal strategy; it is clear that the equipment has been damaged, but they still have to let them undertake important combat tasks."

"This is all unreasonable, and as long as this unreasonable existence exists, it means that Zhanlu is completely unusable."

"Frankly speaking, this is a mission that cannot accept flaws"

Chen Nian nodded slowly. He realized that Li Xiang did think a lot after participating in the project, and what he said did point out issues that he hadn't considered.

Zhanlu is not allowed to make mistakes.

As long as it has the potential to go wrong, it is unlikely to be accepted by the military that bites and uses it.

It seems that the difficulty of this project is higher than expected.

Why can't the system give a trained AI?

For example, the kind that is exchanged and taken out is a USB flash drive, which can be used directly by plugging it into the computer.

But if you think about it, that kind of thing that is more than ten years beyond the times, even if it can be used by plugging in a computer, it is impossible to really play a role.

The battlefield environment is different.

In the final analysis, it is still necessary to solve the problem of the data set.

"So you mean, we have to change the pawn pushing system first?"

"Yes."

Wang Jiancheng answered seriously.

Chen Nian shook his head dumbfounded, thinking to himself:

The workload is getting bigger and bigger, and it should have been thought that the army's requirements will not be that simple.

Bingpu system needs to be updated? Ok, then the equipment data of each model needs to be entered.

But if you want to input data, you must not input paper data, you have to test it on the spot.

To measure the data, you have to keep up with the information and digital system.

The information system needs to be improved, and the equipment electronic system needs to be upgraded, right?

The equipment electronic system needs to be upgraded, and you want to build a cloud environment, right?

To build a cloud environment, you must have a talent team, right?

Good guy, what they want is not Zhanlu at all, what they want is ADTS!

In the last life, even the United States only started to do this in 2021. The purpose was to build the basic framework for the army's digital transformation to adapt to multi-domain joint operations in the new battlefield environment.

What time is it now?

2010 is not over yet!

This kind of advanced strategic vision and novel way of asking for money is really amazing

It's as if someone came to you and said, I don't want anything else, but the rope in your hand.

But the problem is, the ox is behind the rope, and the cart is behind the ox, and your property and wife are still in the cart

It is simply too much.

But the project has been started, and there is no reason not to do it.

Fortunately, AI training is a long-term job, and it is not really an "urgent and important" issue as Wang Jiancheng said.

Thinking of this, Chen Nian said:

"Let's not worry about the later training. What we have to do now is to implement the algorithm first and deliver mature and usable products."

"As for the training issue, there will be military technical personnel to follow up."

"You don't have to think too much, you have to trust their technical capabilities."

"The University of National Defense Science and Technology is not kidding, after all, they are"

Chen Nian's words stopped abruptly. He originally wanted to say that they were the real developers of Zhanlu, but obviously, Wang Jiancheng didn't need to know this information.

"Okay, I understand."

Wang Jiancheng looked a little disappointed. In fact, his idea was very simple, he just wanted to see the things he designed being put into practical use as soon as possible.

But reality is not a game, and it is impossible to light up a single point of light in technology, and the whole world will change immediately.

Skipping this topic, Chen Nian and Wang Jiancheng once again checked the problems of Zhanlu's overall framework and algorithm, made some new adjustments, and confirmed that the optimization was in place, Wang Jiancheng said goodbye and left.

At this time, it was past eight o'clock in the evening, and Chen Nian was packing up his things and was about to leave the office, when the mobile phone on the table rang suddenly.

The caller was Pan Qingwei, who was also one of the small core members of the Huorong working group.

"Pan Gong, what's the matter?"

Chen Nian asked.

"Chen Gong, there is a problem."

"Livermore Laboratories just released a bulletin about plasma control."

"More specifically, it is the result of experimental data on the formation principles of the tearing field and the magnetic ripple field."

"According to the content of the report, there is a big gap between the results they made and our theoretical predictions."

"Now all parties have exploded, and our paper has just been released, but it seems that the conclusion has been proved to be unreliable"