Super God-Level Top Student
Chapter 983 - 376: Are You Willing to Respect Knowledge and Pay for Knowledge?_2

Unfortunately, after closely studying Qiao Ze's rise, Robert Stephen simply doesn't dare to entertain such thoughts.

After all, the content in Qiao Ze's paper is neither likely to be fabricated nor suspected of plagiarism.

In fact, for a mathematician who invented embedding a watermark within papers to prevent plagiarism, such an accusation would certainly be intriguing, but unfortunately, Qiao Ze's research directly transcends his time; it's all entirely new things.

It's difficult for anyone to find evidence of plagiarism in a paper that only cites one or two theorems from his previous work. Not to mention that what Qiao Ze has constructed is destined to be named after him—a completely new mathematical system.

Overall, Robert Stephen has had a tough time recently, but like an unyielding fighter, he has never given up.

...

While accustomed to using printed papers and recording with pen and paper, Robert Stephen's computer screen was still lit up.

The monitor was displaying a chat window for a temporary discussion group.

This group included top mathematicians in the United States studying Qiao Ze's new paper, twenty-three people including him.

This group was created by Turing Award winner Leonidas Qiong, who was also one of Robert Stephen's friends, and after knowing he was also researching Qiao Ze's paper, he pulled him into the group chat.

To be honest, with his understanding of superspiral algebra and transcendental geometry, Robert Stephen was once very active after joining this group chat, helping other mathematicians solve many problems.

The purpose of resolving these issues was because he was clear that during these proofs, Qiao Ze hadn't made any mistakes. Of course, he never told others the real purpose of his research on this paper, but he hoped to get inspiration from everyone's discussions to find inconsistencies in the paper's logic.

At this moment, Robert Stephen just finished watching the proof of a lemma, looked up, and was planning to make himself a cup of coffee to refresh and continue working when there was movement in the group chat.

A newcomer he had never heard of was added to the discussion group.

Subsequently, the creator of the discussion group, Leonidas, specially introduced, "Everyone, this is Professor Joey with extremely high expertise, especially having a profound understanding of mathematical intricacies. If you have questions, you can ask him privately."

Robert Stephen read this message, somewhat confused.

He really hadn't heard of any renowned mathematics professor named Joey in the United States.

Unconsciously, he opened Leonidas's private chat interface, and asked, "Qiong, who exactly is this Professor Joey?"

Soon, the message was replied, "I don't know either."

"Don't know? Then how did you have his contact?"

"Just met online. I discussed this issue with him on a forum, and how should I put it, he gave me some very detailed explanations, enlightening me. However, this person... well, I don't know how to describe it."

"What do you mean by this? Qiong, is there something you can't say directly?"

"If you have any math problems, just chat with him privately, and you'll understand. I can only vouch for him; he is definitely not a fraud."

...

"Not a fraud?"

These words made Robert Stephen even more puzzled, and after having his curiosity piqued, he glanced at the problem he had just marked on the paper.

To be honest, there were too many incomprehensible parts of this paper. If there really was someone who could also enlighten him, he wouldn't mind interacting with the other party. So after sending his question privately to this Professor Joey via software, he then understood what his friend meant by "he's definitely not a fraud."

"Alright, Professor Stephen, do you need an expanded explanation for this question? I happen to be very familiar with this content and can provide you with a clearer and more comprehensive proof process, though I'll need to charge one-hundredth of a virtual coin as remuneration. So, do you acknowledge that knowledge is priceless and are you willing to pay for it?"

Robert Stephen was a little dumbfounded.

Pay for knowledge? Solving a math problem actually requires a fee?

Mathematicians discussing questions actually need to pay?

Robert Stephen reflexively opened a website to check the current price of virtual coins, 53,267 US Dollars per coin, one percent would be approximately 532 US Dollars?

Really, if it weren't for his friend willing to vouch for this guy, ensuring he's not a fraud, Robert Stephen would have directly closed the private chat, not wanting to pay attention to this money-driven person anymore.

But curiosity and his dedication to the paper ultimately won over reason.

It's just over five hundred dollars; it might be a stretch for ordinary professors in universities, but for an academician like him, it doesn't significantly affect his lifestyle. It's worth a try.

After deciding, Robert Stephen quickly replied, "I can give you five hundred dollars directly. You just need to give me an account."

"Sorry, Professor Stephen, you know, although I believe making money from knowledge is a noble thing, you should understand, not many people agree with my behavior. So if I directly give you my account, I'm afraid my identity might be exposed. In fact, I have solved problems for many mathematicians, and the cooperation has been pleasant.

So I can only accept transactions with virtual currency. If you don't trust me enough, I can give you a list, and you can ask others if they are satisfied with my service. Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, I can solve this query for you.

But the content I provide to you is ephemeral, meaning only you can see it, and given the difficulty of this issue, you only have one hour. As for whether you are willing to share it for free with others after fully understanding the problem, or choose to charge for answering questions, I cannot and will not control.

However, during the explanation process, taking pictures and leaving evidence are strictly prohibited. Otherwise, even if you respect knowledge and are willing to pay next time, I won't serve you anymore."

Robert Stephen was utterly speechless, to the point where he didn't even want to communicate with this money-minded person anymore. He simply applied for an account, bought one-hundredth of a virtual coin, and then exchanged it with the virtual address provided by the other party.

The transaction proof was then copied to the other side.

Sure enough, Professor Joey was not a fraud. He quickly provided the explanation to the problem he raised.

Robert Stephen initially thought the solution would be a video or a detailed course of proof sent over, given the ephemeral nature, but what he never expected was that it was a personal detailed explanation.

What made him even angrier was that after answering a small section of the content, he would ask if he understood it, and when he understood and requested the next step, the previous contents truly vanished.

"This lemma you're questioning, in other words, in a topological space with interlacing, there exists a unique minimal interlacing subspace, so that for all ⊆, if interlacing, then ⊆. Right?"

"Yes."

"Then let's dissect this proof process: firstly, when X is a topological space with interlacing, then according to the preceding theorem, a set acts as a set of all interlacing subspaces: I(X)={Z⊆X | Z has interlacing}. Can you understand this step?"

"I can understand."

"Then we can simplify this lemma to prove: there exists a unique ∈(), so that for all ∈(), there is ⊆, to thoroughly understand this step, we need to start from defining an interlacing metric, by the way, do you have any problem with the concept of interlacing metrics?"

"..."

...

An hour later, looking at the empty chat window, Robert Stephen only felt like he was dreaming.

It has to be said that the other party is indeed not a fraud; the entire explanation process really explained every step thoroughly, asking if he understood every step, and if he said he didn't understand, it would be explained repeatedly.

From defining the interlacing metric, identifying the interlacing center, to finally confirming the uniqueness of the interlacing subspace... each major step was divided into countless small steps, making the entire proof process of the lemma much clearer than the paper itself.

It also displayed the symmetry, non-negativity, and separability proof processes that were briefly mentioned in the paper, indeed making him completely grasp the proof process of this lemma, though he just felt something strange...

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.