PDLP Chapter 807 Final Question
Chapter 807 Final Question
Chapter 807 Final Question
Ever since he confirmed the news about the latest short story with Jiang Yuan, Yang Chao has been full of anticipation for many days and seems to be much more motivated when he goes to work.
After this state lasted for several days, Yang Chao gradually returned to normal.
Mainly because he saw Jiang Yuan's recent updates on the Internet, he felt that it would be impossible for him to submit the manuscript in the near future even if he hurried. However, there was a deadline for the essay submission for an award, and Yang Chao felt that he would receive the manuscript sooner or later during this period.
Just after Yang Chao had regained his composure, on this seemingly ordinary working day, Yang Chao once again received a message from Jiang Yuan.
"It has been sent to your email."
On the other hand, after completing the proofreading of the manuscript, Jiang Yuan immediately organized the manuscript and sent it to Yang Chao's email account.
The special notification ring rang, and Yang Chao looked at Jiang Yuan's message that seemed to have no subject. His thoughts quickly changed, and he realized that Jiang Yuan was talking about the short manuscript.
Without even having the time to reply to Jiang Yuan's message, Yang Chao hurriedly sat down at his desk, turned on his computer and logged into his email account at the speed of light.
I also received the manuscript sent by Jiang Yuan as soon as possible.
The title of the work was not written on the document, so Yang Chao could only click on the manuscript to view it.
As soon as the manuscript is opened, the first line of text reveals the name of the work.
"The Last Question" Yang Chao read out the name of the story, then chewed it over twice, feeling a little surprised.
Due to the preconceived impression created by "The Fortress of Demon City", Yang Chao subconsciously thought that if it were a short story, it would probably be of a similar style.
But looking at the title of this work, Yang Chao suddenly felt that maybe he could win the award. An inexplicable premonition drove Yang Chao to start reading.
The story was not long, only about ten thousand words. Yang Chao poured himself a cup of coffee and prepared to read it carefully.
Jiang Yuan looked at the email that had been received, and a sense of anticipation rose in his heart.
The short story "The Last Question" was also carefully selected by Jiang Yuan from among his many works.
When it comes to classic science fiction short stories, one that cannot be avoided is the short story written by science fiction master Asimov in the last century.
It seems to have transcended the limitations of time. Even after decades, it can still bring shocking impressions to readers after reading it.
With his fingers lightly tapping on the desk, Jiang Yuan flipped through the work again.
[The last question was first asked half-jokingly on May 2061, 5 AD.]
Yang Chao carefully read the bold text on the computer screen and was drawn into the setting at the very beginning of the story.
Different from some popular novels, Yang Chao believes that science fiction novels have a much higher reading threshold, especially some hardcore science fiction novels.
The Last Question, on the other hand, throws out a supercomputer called [Mao's Model] and unfolds the story with a drunken chat between two of the computer's managers.
When the two administrators were chatting, they naturally talked about the question of whether energy is infinite, which involved the concept of entropy.
The two had different arguments, and finally decided to throw this question to the supercomputer [Mao's Model]. As a computer in 2061, it has a huge database to support the ability to answer questions.
The two administrators sorted out the problem and summarized it in human terms: after the sun dies of old age, is it possible for humans to restore the sun to youth without consuming any net energy?
The principles involved are so complicated that even supercomputers cannot give a definite answer.
The final response was that there was insufficient information and no answer could be given.
When he sobered up the next day, the person who asked the question had forgotten the question, but the question still remained.
At this point, Yang Chao finished reading the first paragraph of the short story and blinked at the screen.
Even though he had no special knowledge of physics, Yang Chao realized at this moment that this was not a novel that did not involve scientific knowledge.
At the same time, the final question was brought up at the beginning of the novel, making Yang Chao curious about how the story will develop subsequently.
After finishing this paragraph, Yang Chao continued reading.
The entire short story jumps across many timelines and unfolds around this final question over a long period of time.
Although the number of words was not large, it still took Yang Chao a long time to finish reading it.
The descriptions of different timelines almost made Yang Chao addicted to the black characters, as if he had traveled through time and space, or as if a science fiction movie had materialized in his mind, with particularly vivid images.
His thoughts flowed along with the story. When Yang Chao looked up again, it was already dark outside the window. However, being located in the city center, there were already bright lights outside the window.
Looking at this scene, Yang Chao looked at the shocking sentence at the end of the novel.
At this moment, Yang Chao seemed to have a sense of tremor that echoed the imagery of the work.
He stood up and looked out the window for a while, turned on the office lights, and then sat back in his seat before he calmed down.
However, the excitement still remained on the surface.
Even though he had blind faith in Jiang Yuan, Yang Chao at most thought that Jiang Yuan should be able to participate in the selection and competition for these awards.
But when reading "The Last Question", Yang Chao almost felt that he was reading a classic work that had won a famous award.
Of course, if Jiang Yuan knew what Yang Chao was thinking, he would also praise him for his good vision. After all, it is indeed one of the representative works of the famous artist.
Yang Chao did not restrain his thoughts and immediately sent Jiang Yuanfa his feelings after reading the story.
A series of verbal messages bombarded him. After listening to one or two, Jiang Yuan finally converted them into text to read.
Looking at Yang Chao's review, Jiang Yuan nodded with empathy.
Because he was completing the reprint of "The Last Question", Jiang Yuan was deeply touched by this story after reading it again.
Yang Chao's feelings can basically be regarded as Jiang Yuan's viewing experience, so naturally they can resonate with each other.
In the last voice message expressing his review, Yang Chao directly replied that he was ready to submit the manuscript as soon as possible, and he also felt from the bottom of his heart that it could have a certain impact on the awards.
After reading the message sent by Yang Chao, Jiang Yuan replied again, saying that he had also sent the English version of the manuscript to Yang Chao's email.
It was only after receiving Jiang Yuan’s reply that Yang Chao remembered the issue of translation.
However, seeing that Jiang Yuan was fully prepared, Yang Chao was also ready to push the essay, and even paid more attention to it than Jiang Yuan. After personally experiencing what kind of short story "The Last Question" was, Yang Chao's emotions were also ignited.
Originally, Jiang Yuan's Golden Dagger Award had already brought his status as editor-in-chief to the top.
I didn’t expect that after such a short period of time, a new flying moment came.
If Jiang Yuan could win the award in such an award selection event where many famous people gathered, Yang Chao estimated that it would cause quite a stir around the world.
In other words, as long as there is news that Omega will also participate in the competition for this award, it will be eye-catching enough.
In everyone's eyes, mystery novelists and science fiction novelists are obviously very different.
Yang Chao was also thinking secretly, and felt that even in this situation, it was still beneficial.
The advantage is that "The Last Question" is indeed extremely excellent. As long as everyone reads it and spreads it, it will probably receive a lot of recognition regardless of whether it wins this award or not.
Thinking of this, Yang Chao has already started planning.
After consulting Yang Chao to arrange the "The Last Question" essay contest, Jiang Yuan felt relieved.
The operations in the next period of time have nothing to do with me. According to Yang Chao's usual practice, he always makes good arrangements.
While Yang Chao was busy helping Jiang Yuan submit his work, Jiang Yuan was also continuing to prepare for the performance of Chapter 1.5.
The submission of "The Last Question" also went very smoothly. In the preliminary round, I passed it easily because I participated under the name of Omega.
Jiang Yuan and Yang Chao finally selected the awards to be participated in the selection. Although the gold content is not low, the award selection process seems somewhat casual.
Of course, the casual aspect does not lie in the selection criteria, but the entire selection process, which is not as secretive as other awards. Instead, there is a tendency to actively reveal information.
By this time every year, everyone basically knows the list of authors participating in the selection.
For many science fiction writers, this can be described as an open battle.
When the new year's selection lineup was revealed, some concerned readers also browsed through the list of authors as soon as possible.
There are not many newcomers who have passed the preliminary selection, and most of them are writers whose names readers will be more familiar with.
Of course, many readers are also familiar with the name Omega.
So when everyone saw this name for the first time, they subconsciously chose to ignore it.
But after ignoring it, he felt as if something was wrong. Finally, he came to his senses and when he fixed his eyes on the name Omega again, he couldn't help but utter a word with a different pronunciation but the same meaning - "Fuck".
Omega's name appeared among the names of a number of science fiction writers. After many people discovered this blind spot, the first thing they thought of was the possibility of a duplicate name.
After it was discovered that there was no duplicate name, it became one of the hotly discussed topics on the day the lineup was revealed.
Everyone was very curious about why Omega appeared in the award selection lineup this time, and many people left messages under Jiang Yuan's account to ask.
Jiang Yuan also chose one of the questions to respond to, confirming the news of the submission.
After Jiang Yuan's certification, it was confirmed that there is absolutely no possibility of duplication of names.
For a while, this news caused quite a stir on the Internet.
On the one hand, after winning the Golden Dagger Award and subsequently launching the "Sherlock Holmes" series, the name Omega can basically be said to have secured its godhood in the mystery novel world.
As soon as there is news about a new mystery novel, novel fans will probably respond in droves.
But now, there is indeed news about the new work, and fans rushed to the scene after hearing the news. Only to find out that it is a science fiction work, they couldn't help but be stunned.
It’s unclear. Neither the fans nor the science fiction fans who follow the award selection process can understand it.
Before the work came out, there were no criticisms or doubts, after all, this was only the preliminary selection for the award.
So apart from a brief burst of noise when the news first came out, there was no further noise.
Not to mention, Jiang Yuan did lay the groundwork with a work like "The Fortress of the Demon City".
Even many other well-known writers have had the experience of going off track and trying different styles of work. What's more, this is just a short story, so no one took it too seriously.
Even the writers who entered the preliminary round with Jiang Yuan did not take Omega seriously and subconsciously regarded Jiang Yuan as a hobby.
But other people don't care, and the judging of the awards is different.
After seeing the news, I became curious about the short story "The Last Question".
After all, after reading so many novels, I found that they are basically all in a more formal science fiction style.
So whether Jiang Yuan is just playing around or submitting his work seriously, he is ready to take a look to change his taste.
Apparently, there were quite a few judges who had this idea. After “The Last Question” entered the preliminary round, it quickly began to circulate among the judging panel.
What everyone initially thought was just a casual work actually left a very deep impression on the judging panel, and several people couldn't help but praise it highly.
Such comments began to circulate even before the primary election was over.
But after all, the next round of results have not been made public yet, so after they came out, not many people chose to believe them.
Most people still maintain a skeptical attitude, but this does make fans more excited about this work.
What really made everyone start to take Omega's participation in the selection of an award called the Galaxy Science Fiction Short Story Award was the announcement of the second round of shortlisted candidates after the preliminary selection.
After entering the final selection, the number of works decreased significantly, and basically all of them can be regarded as excellent works.
Omega's name appeared again in the main lineup, and everyone realized that this was no joke. Discussions began to increase again, and even the opponents who participated in the selection became curious and wanted to find out what kind of work it was.
As for Jiang Yuan himself, his attention at this time was focused on the chapter tour which started on the first day.