Chapter 357: Chapter 357
"So..." Xiang Shan carefully chose his words, "Ms. Ingrid Granat, could you please recount the process of the leak again?"
Across from Xiang Shan, Ingrid rolled her eyes, "What’s the matter? You’ve only been in charge for a day and you’ve already picked up bureaucratic bad habits? Can’t you read the report?"
Just as Jing Hongtu had predicted, Xiang Shan was indeed very popular within the scholarly community.
Over the past year, he had made outstanding contributions to the exploration of Argon. So far, the young man had shown no signs of radical moral flaws.
Moreover, he was among the first group of people to come into contact with Argon.
Just like Jing Hongtu said, this indeed was a significant "political capital."
Xiang Shan sheepishly smiled, "Isn’t it better to double-check? Maybe we could find more details?"
"No," Ingrid rolled her eyes again, "It’s not my fault."
It was the latter half of the year 2030.
In just this half year, the Rama Project had been in complete disarray.
Just last month, the project faced a massive crisis. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ novel·fıre·net
A hacker had posted a set of code from the Rama Project on a hacker’s website, leaving the message, "This seems like some special algorithm, but I fully don’t understand it. Does anyone know what this is?"
This was a big problem.
was a year of great advancement for the Rama Project. Xiang Shan creatively treated some "meaningless alien junk" as plain text and had succeeded in decrypting it. Xiang Shan, along with other scientists in the engineering department, methodically extracted various data from the alien junk and transformed it into binary code stored inside computers.
In the beginning, the officials of the Rama Project were worried that these codes might contain something like a super AI—malevolent towards humanity and capable of instant annihilation. But Xiang Shan had little trouble convincing them otherwise.
The reason was simple; although alien computers also fell under the "equivalent to Turing Machine" in mathematical terms, their engineering architecture was different from any on Earth, representing a wholly new Turing Machine implementation. Earth’s computers, from hardware to underlying protocols, were incompatible with it.
From the perspective of an Earth computer, it was just a file of incomprehensible gibberish.
After that, all kinds of talents started employing their divine skills.
They embarked on their work from multiple different angles, including logic, mathematics, evolutionary psychology, biology, and linguistics.
Everyone was intent on deciphering those mysterious codes.
During the subsequent investigations, the security department of the Rama Project quickly identified the source of the leak.
It turned out to be from Ingrid Granat.
Ingrid had copied part of the data from "Argon" onto her personal computer. Afterwards, she took her computer and left the park to return home for a vacation. According to her, she did this to think and record her inspirations anytime, anywhere.
However, her computer ended up sending out its contents.
It’s still unclear whether Ingrid’s leak was due solely to a security flaw in her computer or if it involved some act of betrayal on her part.
Since then, there have been two more instances of leaks.
Both were leaks of certain binary codes.
Still, these were codes that couldn’t run on Earth’s computers.
Presumably, the hackers who stole this thing also didn’t know what to do with these meaningless gibberish files, which is why they had to seek help from the hacker community.
And fortunately, no one on Earth has yet managed to reveal the true nature of this data.
Many in the hacker community outright questioned the hacker who stole the data, asking if this was a joke, a prank. Whether he was just smashing his face on the keyboard to produce a bunch of gibberish to mess with everyone.
However, the hacker who stole the data stated, vouching with his ID, that it definitely had significance.
He pulled these data from several linguists’ computers, who all happened to have a nominal position at a tech company in Europe. The hacker expressed suspicion that this capital was building a technological hegemony based on "natural language."
Such as creating AIs that produce various literary works, or translation software that surpasses the era, or AIs that operate based on natural language... among other things.
The hacker’s imagination was actually quite absurd.
The company mainly focused on voice AI and translation software and had business dealings with many scholars in linguistics and cognitive science. Ingrid was just one of those experts who received sponsorship and had her name attached. That several Rama Project scholars had business dealings with the company was no coincidence—after all, the project benefited the world’s top scholars.
However, the person who released the information was a very famous hacker.
And the code indeed didn’t seem like it belonged to this era—it wasn’t something Earth computers could currently run—but it did seem very logical.
"Zhu Rong," a hacker focused on stealing technical data from large corporations and then sharing it gratuitously, a cyber guerrilla of the information age.
Before this, he had already stolen or dismantled data from many large corporations.
For the special Rama Project, this was a major event. The entire park was controlled immediately.
Subsequently, the original head of the research department resigned immediately due to the lapse in information control.
Under the games played by various major countries and the internal demands of the scholarly community, several countries nominated candidates to compete for this position.
It was said that during their disputes, the fourth leak occurred. The major countries could no longer afford to squabble and hurriedly reached an agreement.
And just as Jing Hongtu had anticipated, Xiang Shan secured the position by a substantial margin.
After a brief inauguration ceremony, Xiang Shan became the head of the Rama Project’s research division and immediately joined the special task force to trace the information leak and minimize the incident’s external impact.
The reason he chose to come and inquire was actually because Jing Hongtu had told him to.
"Regardless, find a way to directly intervene in the process of this matter," Jing Hongtu had advised Xiang Shan.
Xiang Shan was very puzzled at the time, "Isn’t reading the reports enough? I feel there’s not much left I can do... The professionals surely wouldn’t have overlooked anything, right? Useful intelligence should all be in the reports..."
"It’s not about efficiency, but about sending a signal to the outside world, making a statement," Jing Hongtu shook his head, "You need to let others know you are concerned about this matter..."
Xiang Shan was even more confused: "To show concern for this matter, shouldn’t I focus on the neatly organized data already available..."
"No, ’actual work’ isn’t the point, the key is ’making your stance known.’ Although you might not understand now, remember this: To become a qualified ’bureaucrat,’ ’demonstrating the courage of your convictions’ is more important than ’the ability to work effectively.’ This is completely different from the academic world you are familiar with."
"And then what? What’s the point of that?"
"Even if this matter ends unresolved, you’ll still earn a good impression of ’actively taking the blame for the organization.’ This will benefit you in the future. That’s the worst-case scenario. Thinking positively, this incident happened during your predecessor’s term, and it isn’t linked to you. Yet when it is resolved, you will be deeply involved in the matter."
"But ultimately, if the matter is resolved, it would be due to the efforts of cybersecurity professionals, right?"
Jing Hongtu shrugged: "Yes, but beneath this simple and understandable ’rule’ exists an ’underlying rule.’ According to this ’underlying rule,’ the resolution of the event is inseparably linked to your ’wise decisions.’"
"Only by showing interest in the matter while holding the authority can you have a chance to intervene in its ongoing process later on."
"So, Xiang, remember, no matter what, always express your concern for the matter."
"If you want to possess the ’power’ to change the world, you have to learn to manipulate this sickening reality."
Recalling Jing Hongtu’s words, Xiang Shan still rubbed his forehead and said to Ingrid, "Inga, I understand how you feel. But we must resolve this matter."
"So you’re going to resolve it?" Ingrid was very dissatisfied: "How can chatting with me change anything?"
The other United Nations official beside Xiang Shan shook his head: "Ms. Granat, I hope you can control your emotions. Everyone is under suspicion now..."
"Everyone is under suspicion? What do you mean? Who among us deliberately brought in that virus?" Ingrid raised her eyebrows: "How is that possible? Those hackers don’t even understand what that code does! If someone among us had such inclinations, then they wouldn’t be speculating what those codes do; instead, they would have been raising the flag ’against the major powers secretly dissecting our alien friends’!"
The United Nations official countered, "Could it also be possible that an intelligence officer didn’t know how to safely transfer this code, so it was placed online, and its nature was described through a private channel?"
Ingrid felt a headache coming on. She truly didn’t want to entangle with these guys any longer: "I can’t imagine which agency’s intelligence personnel it could be. Freemasonry or the Jewish Capital Consortium?"
The United Nations official tapped on the table: "Mind your language, Ms. Granat."
"And besides me, there are others more suspect, right?"
"Are you referring to Yawgmoth Voigt?" Xiang Shan interjected, "Since Yawgmoth had been suspected of involvement with the extremist faction of the Open Access Movement, he has already been detained for investigation. If he can’t clear himself of these suspicions, he might just spend a lifetime in a Federation prison."