Chapter 168 - 124: God’s Draft
The mathematics in this paper was perfect.
Terence Tao’s first reaction was to deny this conclusion.
As a mathematician, he preferred to believe that within this seemingly flawless proof, there had to be a hidden logical trap—one so ingenious it could deceive the vast majority of peer reviewers.
’Could it really fool me?’
’Interesting.’
A barely perceptible smile touched his lips. A fire ignited in his deep-set eyes—the fighting spirit of one who has finally met their match.
𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢
Time ticked by, second by second.
An hour passed in silence.
When Terence Tao’s pen made its final stroke on the scratch paper, he fell completely silent.
He looked at the printed paper in front of him, still open to the first page. Then he glanced at the sheets of scratch paper beside it, now covered in calculations. After a long moment, he slowly leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath.
That single breath carried a trace of defeat—one he hadn’t even noticed himself—and... astonishment.
"Amazing..."
He murmured the word, his voice filled with an indescribable mix of emotions.
An hour ago, he had been full of doubt, confident he could find the critical flaw hidden within the perfect proof.
But now, after an hour of nonstop, high-intensity verification and deconstruction, he was all but certain—the paper’s reasoning was truly without issue.
So perfect, it was as if God himself had written the draft.
Beyond "amazing," he honestly couldn’t find a better word to describe his current state of mind.
If it were possible, he would have loved to meet the author of this paper immediately and have a good long talk.
However, Terence Tao also knew that he wouldn’t have the chance anytime soon. For the next month, he would be in Silicon Valley, swamped with work at Jask’s AI company.
...
In the living room, a thoroughly bored Bob had taken the sport of pacing back and forth to its absolute limit.
Finally, his attention shifted to the glass fish tank on the entryway cabinet. He started flicking the glass with his finger out of boredom, teasing the few leisurely goldfish inside to pass the agonizing wait.
Just then, the heavy, solid wood door to the study was pushed open from the inside with a CLICK.
Dressed in casual clothes and holding the printed paper, Terence Tao walked out.
"Professor Tao?"
Seeing this, Bob’s spirits lifted. He hurried over, his voice laced with nervousness and anticipation. "Well? How is it?"
Terence Tao didn’t answer him directly.
He walked straight to the wall, pulled up his suitcase, and carefully tucked the printout into a compartment inside. Only then did he speak, without looking up:
"I need some time. I’ll give you an answer by the day after tomorrow at the latest."
Hearing this, Bob’s breath caught for a second.
Immediately after, a wave of irrepressible ecstasy surged from the depths of his heart straight to his brain!
’It’s a go! It’s really happening!’
’After working together for so many years, he knew this professor all too well!’
’If he didn’t smile and hand a paper back after the first read, it was proof enough: the paper’s contents had successfully captured his attention!’
’What’s two or three days?’
’For a heavyweight paper that could have a profound impact on the entire industry, no peer review process could be too rigorous!’
’Prolonged, repeated deliberation and verification—this wasn’t just the rigor expected of a top-tier mathematician; it was the most fundamental respect a scholar could show for his field of study!’
Bob could almost foresee the colossal waves this paper’s publication would create in the next issue of JAMS, not just in academia, but across the entire tech world.
In the globally watched field of artificial intelligence, the hallucination problem that had long plagued all its practitioners would now have a clear potential solution!
And JAMS would be the pioneer, the one to erect the signpost at the start of this new path and capture everyone’s attention.
This wasn’t just a huge boost to the academic value of JAMS!
It was also the greatest reward for editors like him, who had, for years, consistently championed groundbreaking manuscripts from the most cutting-edge fields!