Chapter 744 Binary

The car stopped downstairs of the tractor factory's office building. Professor Versenden didn't even have time to put down his luggage when Laurent told him that Charles was waiting for him in the conference room on the third floor.

Professor Versenden was a little surprised. Conference room?

Why a conference room!

Is this a meeting?

…

In the conference room on the third floor, Charles was chatting with Lieutenant Pan Wan while drinking coffee.

Pétain acted quickly and transferred Lieutenant Pan Wan from the Cipher Bureau within two days.

Pétain was very smart. He did not mention "Lieutenant Panvan" by name, which would undoubtedly arouse the suspicion of the parliament: You must have had contact with people from the Cipher Bureau, otherwise how would you know this name?

If we investigate further, we might be able to lead Charles out.

Pétain submitted a report to the government, saying that 10 cryptanalysts were needed to form a front-line decryption team.

Because of Pétain's recent outstanding performance in Verdun, and more importantly, the possibility that he could become a rival to Charles, the government readily agreed to his request.

Then.

As long as "Lieutenant Pan Wan" was not on the list, Pétain would find fault with the resumes of this group of people and ask for a replacement.

After two rounds, "Lieutenant Pan Wan" was finally captured without a trace.

"Do you like mathematics, Lieutenant?" Charles asked Pan Wan who was sitting opposite him.

"Yes, General." Pan Wan sat upright. "If you don't like math, analyzing codes will be a nightmare."

"Of course." Charles nodded with a smile.

Passwords are a bunch of boring numbers and letters. Unless you like it, no one can stand being buried in them all day.

Looking at the overly nervous Pan Wan, Xiaer reminded:

"If you were a soldier, you would stand at attention and salute me."

"But you are not. You are more of a scientific researcher here."

"So, you don't need to worry too much about your rank, do you understand me?"

Lieutenant Pan Wan looked at Charles in confusion: "Research staff?"

Shouldn't it be about deciphering the telegram?

When did deciphering telegrams become scientific research?

Charles laughed. "Deciphering messages is of little use to me, Lieutenant. If I can outsmart the enemy in tactics, equipment, and intelligence, I won't need this."

Lieutenant Pan Wan was awakened.

Yes, Charles has advanced tactics. He has also invented a series of advanced equipment and used air superiority to obtain real-time intelligence.

He was winning all the time, even without deciphering the enemy's messages.

Although there may be dangerous situations sometimes, the probability is very small.

"But..." Lieutenant Pan Wan was stunned.

If that was the case, why did Charles go to such great lengths to transfer him out of the Cipher Bureau?

"Wait a moment, Lieutenant." Charles took out his pocket watch and looked at it. "I need you to meet someone who may be your research partner."

At this time, the dusty Fossenden pushed the door open.

Charles smiled: "Look, here he comes!"

Charles stepped forward and shook hands with Versenden, introducing them to each other:

"Professor Versenden, a radio expert and physicist. The 'echo sounder' is his masterpiece."

"Lieutenant Pan Wan, a cryptanalyst, is very good at this and is a top talent in keeping secrets."

Pan Wan knew about Versenden, but Versenden did not know about Pan Wan.

As they were discussing this, they were all wondering what the connection was between a radio expert, a physicist and a cryptanalyst.

Do we mean letting radio experts receive the signals and cryptanalysts decipher them?

Charles was in no hurry to speak. He motioned for the two to sit down. After the secretary handed a cup of coffee to Fossenden, he said slowly, "I am considering a possibility. Gentlemen, is it possible for us to use a machine to decipher the code?"

"Machine?" Both Fussenden and Pan Wan cast doubtful looks at Charles at the same time.

"We do use machines, General," Lieutenant Panwan explained. "For example, a cipher machine..."

"No, this is different." Charles interrupted Lieutenant Pan Wan and asked in a different way: "You should know something about binary, right?"

"Of course." Versenden nodded. "Leibniz's invention is used to solve logical problems."

Lieutenant Panwan said: "I even studied it and tried to use it in code breaking."

(The picture above shows the German mathematician Leibniz, who invented binary in 1679. At that time, it was mainly to convert complex problems into simple logical calculations of "yes" and "no". Unexpectedly, it later became the basis of modern computer technology)

"Very good." Charles felt that he had chosen the right person:

"Since you all know binary, you also know that it can be used to solve logical problems."

"So why don't we do it with a machine?"

"What I mean is, if a certain component has electricity representing '1' and no electricity representing '0', can we use a combination of these components to get the answer to some calculation?"

Versenden and Pan Wan were stunned.

After a long while, Pan Wan, who was more sensitive to numbers, said, "General, what you mean is that as long as we input the data, it can get the results we want? In other words, it will automatically complete the calculation process, all?"

"Yes." Charles nodded approvingly. This understanding was very accurate.

Versenden shook his head in disbelief:

"That can't be done, General."

"Do you know what this means?"

"If it can do these things, it can even be said to have human intelligence. It will be an extremely terrifying existence."

Charles gave Versenden another thumbs up; he saw the future.

Charles didn't expect the two to accept it now. Twenty years later, when Turing first proposed this idea, many people thought he was crazy and believed that it was impossible to achieve.

But a few years later, when he was working on deciphering codes, he still built the first computer in human history.

(The picture above shows Turing, lying on the grass in 1935, when he suddenly had an idea of ​​whether machines could be used to complete calculations instead of humans. In 1936, he published a paper proposing the concept of "Turing machine", but almost no one agreed with it)

"The principle is not complicated," said Charles.

"We can use specific wiring methods to implement logical operations."

"For example, only when two components have electricity, the component they control together will have electricity. This is the 'AND' operation."

"Similarly, if only one of the two components has electricity, the component they control will also have electricity. This is an 'OR' operation."

Lieutenant Pan Wan's eyes widened instantly:

"If a component has power but the component it controls has no power, it is a 'not' operation."

"God, this might... this might actually work."

"There's even a theoretical basis for this kind of operation, I mean the rules for binary operations."

Versenden still shook his head. "This is impossible. This is a waste of time, General. It is meaningless."

Ciel said calmly, "Why don't we start with something simple? For example, build a machine that can perform binary addition."

(End of this chapter)