Chapter 1957 - When the Melon is Ripe, it Falls
Then he said, "If each switch is a proposition—closed is 'true,' open is 'false'—and the light bulb is also a proposition—lit is 'true,' dark is 'false'—then what is the relationship between the propositions represented by the two switches and the proposition represented by the light bulb?"
"Only when both sub-propositions are simultaneously true is the compound proposition true—this is an 'AND' relationship," Feng Shan answered.
"Yuzhi, what kind of circuit is this? I explained it to you last time."
Qian Yuzhi scratched his head. "A series circuit."
"Good, now modify this circuit so that 'the bulb lights when either switch is closed.'" Feng Nuo continued.
Qian Yuzhi thought for a moment, removed both switches from the circuit, connected the two ends of both switches together with wires, then connected them to the light bulb and battery circuit. "Connecting the two switches in parallel achieves this effect."
"The two switches now have an 'OR' relationship!" Li Jianai chimed in eagerly.
"So, what happens if we add a reading roller to each reading unit of the sorting machine and connect it in series with the original roller?" Feng Nuo asked, glancing at Feng Shan to indicate she shouldn't answer.
"Only when both positions where the rollers are located are punched—equivalent to both series switches closing and completing the circuit—will the relay activate and push the card into the pocket," Qian Yuzhi answered.
"What's its logical meaning?" Feng Nuo looked to Li Jianai.
"It means this card satisfies the 'AND' of the two simple propositions represented by the two rollers," Li Jianai answered.
"I see! So if we add several more rollers to each reading unit and connect them in parallel, we can control the relay to push out cards where any one of those holes is punched—equivalent to the 'OR' of the simple propositions represented by multiple hole positions!" Qian Yuzhi seemed to have discovered a new world and spoke happily.
"Exactly. Tomorrow we'll modify it this way—install ten rollers on each reading unit, connected in series with each other." Feng Nuo was quite satisfied. Qian Yuzhi seemed to have had quite an awakening recently.
This way, as long as the query problem could be expressed as a disjunctive normal form with "no more than ten conjunctive terms, and each conjunctive term containing no more than ten simple propositions," the sorting machine could handle it—vastly more powerful functionality than before.
He glanced at his watch. It was almost dinner time.
"Finally, I want to say that this class of sorting machine functions is actually very closely connected to 0-1 Boolean algebra. 'AND' and 'OR' are actually operations, which we call 'logical operations'—one of the core functions of computers."
"We can see that the 'AND' and 'OR' of logical operations have an equivalent relationship with series and parallel circuits. And switches can be closed or open, relays can be powered or unpowered, light bulbs can be lit or dark—the two states of these components can all be used to represent 'true/false' or '0/1.' In the future, other electronic components will be able to do this even better."
"So using electronic circuits for logical operations is very convenient. Moreover, electronic circuits are much faster than mechanical structures—this will be the future direction of computer development."
"Now, here's the question. Everything above is about logical operations. But computer systems don't only need to perform logical operations—there's also ordinary addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, root extraction, and even calculus. These operations we call 'arithmetic operations.' The tabulating machine in our computer system is actually the device for performing arithmetic operations. Currently we can use mechanical structures to complete accumulation functions. But if I want to use electronic circuits to perform arithmetic operations, how do I do it? Switches can represent true/false, but they can't represent specific numbers."
Feng Nuo's gaze swept over his three students below. Seeing their expectant eyes, a radiant smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. He turned around and wrote a line at the top of the blackboard.
"There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don't."
A few days later, the machinery factory's conference hall was abuzz with voices. This was where the Industrial Sector held its regular meetings, and the Planning Commission had organized a symposium on the punch card computer system here—essentially a briefing session. The purpose was to introduce the system's functions to the ministries and commissions under the State Council as well as powerful departments, so that each unit could go back, study the matter, propose specific application requirements, and then consider procurement plans.
The Executive Committee harbored an extremely urgent need for data collection, management, and utilization, so once the meeting notice went out, transmigrators and high-level naturalized citizens from many departments attended the briefing, including the Planning Commission itself, as well as Land Administration, Civil Affairs, Finance, Taxation, Audit, Police, Finance, Political Security, and the Fubo Army.
Although Ma Qianzhu was the main leader pushing this project, he didn't attend in person and merely sent a congratulatory letter. The Executive Committee's meeting style was very concise. Wu De, presiding over the briefing, used just one minute to briefly introduce the project's background and progress, then let Feng Nuo take the stage to explain the entire system and answer questions.
At this moment, Feng Nuo was overwhelmed with emotion, his eyes stinging slightly. Unlike the "fishing" he had originally envisioned, he had crossed multiple disciplines to personally create this machine with his own hands—it felt like his own child.
The punch card computer system had never been domestically produced or imitated in old timeline China, and Chinese-language materials were extremely scarce. Abroad too, only a handful of manufacturers like IBM existed, and users tended to be large enterprises and government agencies, so not much information had been made public. Its principles and design were scattered piecemeal across various documents—in fact, there was no complete documentation available for copying or imitation.
To design this system, the project team had searched through virtually all electronic materials in the Grand Library, finding every piece of information related to this primitive computer—even if just a few words—and reorganized and combined them. The reference booklets compiled from these materials alone would stack to eye level.
The current prototype was the result of him and the many transmigrators on the project team spending countless sleepless nights in exhaustive study, discussion, debate, design, manufacturing, verification, modification, re-verification, re-modification... Although the mechanical structure and many key component designs came from other transmigrators on the research team, as the main planner, the excitement Feng Nuo felt was indescribable.
Though this child's "IQ" wasn't very high yet, and its appearance was clumsy and crude, at least it could truly start working now. Next, he would further improve it, making it smarter and faster—of course, this also depended on technological progress in the Industrial Sector.
He knew very well that the mechanical punch card computer was only a transitional product, but this product was the origin of future, more advanced vacuum tube and transistor computers. With this rudimentary system, the Executive Committee's computer system could cultivate the first batch of professional computer technicians. They would inevitably become the pioneers and users of more advanced computers in the future.
Thinking of this, Feng Nuo's heart surged, and he nearly shed tears.
He collected himself, walked to the speaker's position, and began introducing the functions and performance parameters of each component of the punch card computer system...
At the back of the hall, Li Jianai quietly slipped out—it was once again time for her regular contact.
She felt somewhat strange. Jia Ben was clearly at a workshop not far away, yet each time she still had to go to a specific contact point. It's going to be quite odd if it's always like this, she thought to herself, not noticing that the "organization" arranging two "hidden assets" in such a small area was itself quite strange.
"You've done good work this past year. Keep up the effort." This was Jia Ben's first sentence after they met.
After saying this, he smiled. Li Jianai hadn't known Jia Ben was capable of smiling. But his expression immediately returned to seriousness, and he added, "Those aren't my words. This is what the regional commander asked me to convey to you."
"Yes! Thank you for the organization's encouragement and trust!" Li Jianai quickly snapped to attention and saluted.
Jia Ben waved his hand, indicating she should relax. "In a few days, another comrade will contact you," he said seemingly casually. "Since you've come here, I'll probably be transferred away soon. In the future, pay more attention to the machinery factory—I don't need to say more about that."
He didn't mention that he might be transferred to Guangdong, where the Executive Committee was preparing a metal processing enterprise in Foshan. Nor did he mention that Li Jianai had done well with the punch card machines during this time, and that higher-ups might consider having her work part-time at the Technical Department—the transmigrators at the Political Security Bureau had an urgent need to establish a detailed and efficient archival system, and this device was notoriously associated with concentration camps back in the day.
"Any other questions?"
At this point, Li Jianai uncharacteristically and somewhat embarrassedly produced a document and handed it over. "What's this now?" Jia Ben asked as he took it.
"A dating application?" Seeing those words, Jia Ben froze for a moment, then laughed—this time he laughed much longer than before, as if he had seen something particularly amusing. He glanced at Li Jianai. The girl's face was slightly flushed, but she looked at him very earnestly.
According to Political Security Bureau regulations, "hidden assets" like Li Jianai were required to comply with the "important personal affairs reporting" system. Dating was considered a type of "important personal affair."
Jia Ben put away his smile, though a trace of amusement remained on his face. "Are you serious? I don't encourage you to submit this—you're still young, and now you're a transmigrator's student. You have a very promising future ahead."
Li Jianai's face reddened further, but she still didn't answer, stubbornly looking at Jia Ben.
Jia Ben felt somewhat helpless. He stuffed the envelope into his pocket. "Alright, by the rules, you have this right. However, you should know that given your status, even though that Qian Yuzhi kid is a martyr's dependent and has a pretty high political rating, getting this application approved will take a very long time."
"Thank you." Li Jianai's voice was as soft as a mosquito's. "It's alright. I'm willing to wait."
(End of Chapter)