Rebirth in America

In the second half of 1952, both the government and the opposition in the United States were busy preparing for next year's general election. At this time, General Truman, who had been reelected for two terms, announced that he would no longer run for office, and the Republican Party introduced the 62-year-old General Eisenhower as the presidential candidate.

In the history of the US military, Eisenhower is a legendary figure full of drama. He has won many firsts.

For example, the U.S. military has awarded a total of 10 five-star generals, and he was indeed the one who was promoted the fastest.

At the same time, he was still the poorest among so many generals.

He was the first man to command the largest campaign of the United States Army. He was also the first to serve as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. He is the first retired senior general of the US military to serve as president of Columbia University.

Even so, no one is optimistic about his candidacy for the presidency. On the contrary, he believes that the Democratic candidate, the famous speaker Adlai Stevenson, is more certain to become the president. Especially the news media at that time were generally optimistic about Adlai and believed that Adlai must win.

At the same time, the sales of the "first generation" computers produced by CPT were affected by IBM. Thanks to Watson's powerful connections, the government department only accounted for 30% of the "first-generation" computers in its most recent computer procurement plan.

On the other hand, IBM's computers accounted for more than 60%. We have to admit that IBM's public relations capabilities are so powerful that sometimes whether a product can be sold or not depends on whether it matters.

What's even more serious is the rumor that came from nowhere, saying that the "first generation" computers had no computing speed, but their accuracy was not as accurate as vacuum tube computers. Anyone who understands will know what's going on at a glance. However, some people believe the rumors that are obviously aimed at the "first generation" transistor computer.

At the same time, IBM has been making rumors that their "defense computer" will be launched soon. This makes many large companies that want to buy computers stop and wait and see.

Continuous shocks caused sales of the "first-generation" computers to fall again and again.

Faced with this serious situation, Bart and Lao Qiao were as anxious as ants on a hot pot, and they were in a mess. At a dinner table, Alex learned about the current situation of CPT Company from Bart. He didn't want to care about this kind of thing. He believed that as long as he continuously launched computers with better performance than IBM, he could occupy a place in this market.

"After all, with Seymour Clay at your disposal, why are you still worried about IBM? At least before the 1970s, you didn't have to worry about your own computers falling behind other companies."

But seeing Bart looking so anxious, and the fact that IBM was obviously behind it, made Alex a little annoyed. He thought for a moment and suddenly thought that next year would be an election year and many people would be paying attention to this election. If you can plan carefully, you may be able to defeat this rumor about the "first generation" computer.

Thinking of this, Alex smiled mysteriously and said, "Want to change people's views on the 'first generation' computers?"

Bart's eyes lit up after hearing this, and he quickly asked: "What can you do?"

"There is a way. Send me a eloquent computer engineer. I will ask him to create a presidential election prediction program. As long as he can successfully predict who will be the president next year, then what reason do they have to question that our computer is not accurate enough? ?”

Bart was shocked, and he stammered: "Well, wouldn't it be worse if the prediction fails?"

Alex rolled his eyes at Bart and smiled: "Predictions are all lies. Do you think machines are smarter than people?"

"You, you mean, you want to predict it yourself?"

Bart didn't expect Alex to be able to predict the presidential election. If this could really be done, wouldn't it be scary? The presidential election is a matter of national concern. Everyone is participating, and no one knows who the final president will be.

"Yes, I will predict the outcome of this presidential term."

"How is that possible! Are you sure?"

Angel had been listening, and it was only now that he couldn't help but interject a word.

"Don't be stupid. Who dares to say 100% that he can predict tomorrow's events. Of course, I will carefully weigh the strengths of both parties and choose the one with the highest probability."

Of course Alex knew who the president was, but he couldn't say that he knew it, so he had to pretend to be confident to reassure them. However, this explanation is obviously unacceptable.

"It sounds fun, so let me predict next year's president."

Richard was afraid that the world would be in chaos and wanted to get involved. Fortunately, Karen didn't understand what they were saying. Otherwise, if she joined in, the world would really be in chaos.

Bart quickly stopped Richard from talking. He patted the table: "Don't make trouble, don't make trouble! You all should be quiet and let me have a good talk with Alex."

After hearing this, everyone became quiet and stared at Alex. They want to know how Alex can predict who the president is.

Alex shrugged his shoulders. He knew that his parents had not been convinced yet, so he said in a hurry: "If we do nothing now, there is no way to solve the rumors about the 'first generation' computer. Will the situation get worse and worse?" ?”

Bart nodded and said, "Yes, it will indeed become harder and harder to sell."

"So let me ask you, what are the odds of guessing who the president will be next year?"

"Uh, how do I know this? Oh, it must be very small."

"Yeah, I don't think it's possible to guess it right. Unless there really is a supercomputer to calculate it like what is written in the novel."

"Richard, don't talk. Listen to what your brother has to say."

Alex then continued his analysis: "In fact, the probability is very high, at least higher than 50%."

"Ah! There is such a high probability!"

"Yes, you see, there are quite a lot of presidential candidates. In fact, except for the Republican and Democratic candidates, others have no chance of being elected. In that case, you have to choose one of these two candidates. Then combined with the comparative analysis of the strengths of both sides, do you think the probability is over 50%?"

After everyone listened, they suddenly realized that this was the case. What Alex means is that since the sales situation of the "first generation" has been so bad, it is better to give it a try, because the winning rate must be higher than 50%.

It's just that Bart is a very conservative person and he doesn't want to use gambling to solve problems. If relying on luck becomes a habit, you will tend to do things in the wrong direction in the future, and you will not be able to achieve great things in this way.

Alex also knew Bart's concerns, but this was not gambling at all. He was sure of winning. He knew that his parents were still worried, so he deliberately said: "You have forgotten, didn't I claim to have an IQ of 220? Since it is predicted by a computer, of course it must be programmed by humans to predict. In other words, I am the one making the predictions. You have to have some confidence in me, okay? I'm afraid my predictions will be too accurate and scare you to death."

"Ha ha!"

After everyone heard this, they all laughed. At this time, Bart also figured out that the "first generation" computer was designed by Alex anyway, so he might as well let him do it. Even if you accidentally mispredict and fail, it’s not a big deal. Just think that the "first generation" computers have been eliminated. In fact, the situation is not that serious. Many smaller companies still like their high-quality and low-priced transistor computers.

Through things like this, the Carpenter family also began to feel pressure to develop their company. These pressures come from vested interests. CPT's computers are only one aspect. It is expected that other companies will encounter similar problems in the future. At that time, if they can no longer solve the problem, they will swim against the current and retreat if they do not advance.

Bart quickly sent a computer engineer from CPT Company over. The engineer wore a pair of thick glasses and looked a little thin. Alex's first impression was not very good. He was afraid that the engineer's eloquence was not good enough.

The man with glasses introduced himself: "Hello, my name is Evan!"

Alex had a little contact and soon discovered that this engineer named Evan was indeed a good talker. It can be connected almost from all over the world, and there is nothing that cannot be connected. Seeing this situation, Alex felt relieved.

"Do you know how to program?"

"Procedure? Of course I understand. What kind of program do you want?"

“It doesn’t have to be complicated, you just model the number of votes cast in each state’s presidential race.”

Evan was very depressed when he heard it. He said in surprise: "Isn't this complicated? Then I really don't know what kind of program is simple."

Alex laughed, knowing that the other party had misunderstood what he meant and thought he was really trying to predict the outcome of the presidential election. So I took out a piece of paper and started reading www. uukanshu． NET drew several flow charts and then explained them to the other party.

Evan immediately understood that the program Alex wanted was completely deceptive. It relied on input parameters to display a simulated voting result. This is very simple and can be done in just half a day.

The procedure is just a small problem, the key is that Evan can fool other people. So Alex prepared a variety of information for him, and also acted as a reporter to ask Evan some "key" questions.

Evan is indeed capable of blowing, and under Alex's guidance, he quickly mastered the method. That is, as long as you ask how to predict the result, all inquiries will be directed to the "first generation" computer.

Why were “first-generation” computers able to predict so accurately? Because it is the fastest computer in the world.

Why did the "first generation" computers know who the president was so early? Because it is the fastest computer in the world.

Why do the results of “first-generation” computer simulations look so similar to reality? Because it is the fastest computer in the world.

No matter what the problem is, it must be related to the "first generation" computers. Even if you question the authenticity of the prediction results, you have to say: "The 'first generation' computer is as high-tech as nuclear weapons. Do you think the lethality of nuclear weapons is fake?"

In order to make Evan stand the test of big scenes, Alex hired a person to train him. During this period, Evan's eloquence became more and more fluent. No matter how others asked, they could not get anything out of his mouth. Instead, he dominated the topic.