Genius Club

Chapter 998: Chapter 57 Third Question_4

Jask had made it clear that if the invitation was acquired through “conventional” means, the three test questions would be a giveaway.

Cough cough.

Who let oneself cheat to get this invitation?

One has to make up for this after all.

Thinking about it carefully, the second question, which is to perform as great a historical revision as possible… actually isn’t that difficult.

After all, it just asks for it to be as great as possible.

If everyone had to sacrifice a member of the Genius Club to answer the question as I did… then probably most members of the Genius Club would be dead.

“Maybe I went overboard.”

Lin Xian smiled helplessly.

But an abomination like Turing, so despicable and hypocritical, was doomed not to stay; it harms others as well as oneself, better to get rid of it sooner rather than later.

He recalled the first two questions.

The first question asked about [space-time] knowledge points;

The second question asked about [history] knowledge points;

Then the third question…

What should it ask?

Suddenly.

The webpage on the phone screen stopped jumping and stabilized with a black background and white text.

At the top of the page, it showed 3/3, indicating that I had passed the test for the second question and qualified to face the third question.

Lin Xian, with curiosity and anticipation, looked towards the center of the screen…

Huh?

Unlike the fill-in-the-blank question first and the short answer question second.

The third question…

Turned out to be a multiple-choice question!

This really surprised Lin Xian.

He thought the final question of the series, the third question… could it be this simple?

The black background and white text wrote a single, exceptionally succinct question stem—

[Does humanity still have a future?]

Such a simple question.

Below it were two gray buttons:

[YES], [NO]

Lin Xian tried to swipe up on the screen to see if there were other hints but found the page could not scroll. It seemed that this was already the complete question.

“Isn’t this too simple?”

Lin Xian didn’t know how to choose for a moment.

Sometimes it’s like this; when the question is too simple, people tend to overcomplicate things, making it hard to decide.

A choice between two…

Which one to choose?

[Does humanity still have a future?]

He gazed at this sentence, recalling the painting he saw twice at the East Sea exhibition and in Princeton at Einstein’s House—

“The Sorrowful Einstein”

Both times he saw this oil painting, it was with Chu Anqing, especially the first time at the East Sea exhibition where he explained to Chu Anqing the background of the painting’s creation:

“Einstein believed it was his mass-energy equivalence formula that opened Pandora’s box, allowing humankind to possess nuclear energy that they could not control, leading to the creation of mass killing weapons like nuclear weapons, causing the death of millions.”

“But his concerns were not just that, he also worried about the future of humanity, often lamenting ‘Does humanity still have a future?’ He feared that if another global-scale war broke out… countless nuclear weapons would rain down from the sky, directly leading to the extinction of humankind and the destruction of civilization.”

“Thus, in 1952, realist painter Henry Dawson met with Einstein in Brooklyn and painted this oil painting of the sorrowful great man, ‘The Sorrowful Einstein.’”

That’s how Lin Xian narrated to Chu Anqing at the time.

Until later, it was Angelica who told him that there are actually eight genuine paintings of “The Sorrowful Einstein,” all created by Henry Dawson’s hand.

And on each painting, there is a unique code hidden.

The painting left by Ji Lin is still sitting in the laboratory at Donghai University collecting dust.

The code on it is too difficult.

Liu Feng and VV both attempted to crack it but ultimately failed, so they gave up.

Lin Xian really did not expect…

That the Genius Club’s third test question would be related to Einstein’s late-life melancholy and the painting “The Sorrowful Einstein!”

Einstein in 1952 was already in the twilight of his life.

Regret, depression, remorse, self-blame… these negative emotions continuously tormented his spirit and body, both physically and mentally exhausted, teetering on the edge.

[Does humanity still have a future?]

This was Einstein’s heartfelt self-inquiry.

He did not arrive at a precise answer, but his concerns and worries said it all, indicating… he had no hope for the future of humanity, only worry.

Standing in the year 2024, Lin Xian looked back at this question once again.

He indeed felt that Einstein’s concerns from those years were a bit of an overreaction.

Nuclear weapons are indeed terrifying.

But after Einstein passed away, hydrogen bombs, which are ten to a hundred times more terrifying than atomic bombs, were also created.

Yet to date, no hydrogen bomb has been used in warfare; and after World War II, no atomic bombs have been dropped in war.

Instead, thanks to the formation of nuclear deterrence, Earth has experienced the longest period of peace in history.

It’s hard to say, Einstein, and the Manhattan Project of those times, whether they are heroes or villains of human civilization… after all, it’s still too early to say, still no way to definitively conclude.

“So, what should I choose for this question?”

Lin Xian’s gaze wandered between the YES and NO buttons.

He felt…

This was actually a subjective question; choosing YES or NO were both considered correct answers, just representing different personal stances and views.

“So, am I to choose my own stance?”

“Optimist or pessimist?”

Lin Xian wasn’t sure what the Genius Club’s purpose was in making such a choice question the last one.

But he had always followed his heart and never lost hope for the future of mankind.

Even if asked a thousand times, ten thousand times…

Lin Xian firmly believed—

[Humanity, does have a future.]

So he didn’t hesitate.

He directly pressed the [YES] button.

Click.

This time, the webpage made a crisp sound, and it didn’t keep jumping around as before, but immediately popped up a text box.

Above the text box, with black background and white text, was written the second half of the third question—

[What kind of future is the best future?]