Dr. Einstein

Wilhelm originally wanted to learn from courtesy to the virtuous, vainly appointing the virtuous (whether it was for show or not), but he did not know that he had come at the wrong time, and the lecture, which Dr Einstein had started only ten minutes ago, lasted for two hours.

As a result, he was not good enough to stop midway, and his back was aching when Dr Einstein announced the end of the class.

Watching the students leave the classroom in an orderly manner and return to their respective classes to prepare for the next lesson, Wilhelm could not help but sigh with relief, move his somewhat stiff limbs and walk into the classroom.

Dr Einstein, who was organizing the lesson plans on the podium, noticed the two people walking by and opened his mouth to ask. "May I ask what the two of you can do for me?"

Wilhelm gave the standard aristocratic gentleman's salute. "Greetings, Dr Einstein, I am Wilhelm Hohenzollern and have come to pay you a special visit."

"Hohenzollern?" Dr Einstein didn't seem to react at once and muttered twice before snapping to attention. "His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince!"

What are you doing so loud, Wilhelm subconsciously looked around to make sure no one else was around before nodding. "Exactly."

Dr Einstein asked with a slight sense of urgency. "I wonder what Your Royal Highness wants to see me about?"

Although Einstein opposed the imperial system, this decade also allowed him to see the incompetence of the government and the indifference of the common people, and his perceptions changed a little. The German people were still living in dire straits, far worse than during the reign of Wilhelm II. And recently there were rumours everywhere that if Germany restored the emperor system, then the situation might be much better. Einstein was not averse to such rumours, and he thought that if Wilhelm II could completely give up his crazy ambition to conquer the world and focus on governing Germany, the situation in Germany might really improve a lot.

Therefore, he did not hold any hostility towards Wilhelm's visit but was just curious about its purpose.

Wilhelm looked at the time, it was still early before lunchtime, and it was not good enough to invite him to talk over lunch, so he simply spoke in a straightforward manner. "Doctor, I have studied your proposed mass-energy formula E = mc2. From that formula, it can be deduced that we can convert part of the mass of matter directly into a huge and directly usable energy by human beings."

Einstein seemed to be stimulated by the words "great energy", a frown invisible, cautiously asked. "And how does the Crown Prince want to use this energy?"

Hmph, if I say it's used to make mushroom bombs for other countries to grow mushrooms, you'll definitely jump up and object, right? "I think this energy will replace coal and oil and become the new energy source. It's easy to see that the heat given off by this reaction is much higher than the energy given off by burning fossil fuels (a difference of about a million times)." For example, a nuclear power plant uses 80 tons of nuclear fuel per year, and it would only take 2 standard cargo containers to carry it. If you switch to coal, it would take 5.15 million tons, and it would take a large 20-ton truck to carry 705 cars per day. If you use natural gas, you need 1.43 million tons, which is equivalent to burning 200,000 barrels of domestic gas per day.

Wilhelm stated the purpose of his trip. "I want to establish a super energy research department and hire you as the head."

Einstein namely did not say yes or no, but only gave an ambiguous answer. "Will Your Royal Highness Wilhelm allow me to think about it for a few days?"

Consider your sister. Wilhelm didn't want to beat around the bush with him, so he simply said. "The doctor is worried about the energy being used for weapons, right?"

"..." Although Einstein now has no concept of nuclear weapons, genius is not called for anything. He can fully imagine if this energy is used for military weapons, it must be comparable to pandora's box of the destruction of the super weapons. Once this weapon appears, it may bring a great threat to the survival of mankind.

If the future is to be developed to the extent that a rifle bullet has the power of a cannonball, an aerial bomb is enough to destroy a city, then the extinction of mankind is not alarming

"Doctor, do you know why human society is constantly at war?" Wilhelm, also without waiting for Einstein to speak, preempted him. "I think the war is based on geography, that is, for certain living spaces and natural resources caused by the competition. But if one day we suddenly have inexhaustible land, inexhaustible mineral deposits, inexhaustible energy, then do we still need to go to war?"

Dr Einstein shook his head somewhat puzzled. "But Your Highness, our planet is just this big, and energy is limited, while our population keeps growing."

Wilhelm couldn't help but snap his fingers. "You're really right when you talk about how the population will keep growing. Did you know that the world population broke the 1 billion mark in 1830, and now the world population is over 2 billion. With the progress of medicine, the birth rate will increase and the death rate will decrease. We can boldly predict that the world population will break through 3 billion in 30 years and 6 billion in 50 years. How much population do you think our planet can withstand?"

"..." Einstein, who had never considered the question, did some serious math. Halfway through the calculation, he found another problem. "Your Highness Wilhelm, I think the number of people on Earth is not the problem, the biggest problem is the scale and nature of consumption of resources is the root." The population may indeed keep growing, but the earth does not get bigger with it, the resources in every aspect - food, water, energy - are limited, and the number of people depends on their support, once these resources are depleted, the end of mankind will come.

Wilhelm nodded his head. "That's right, so we need to find endless resources so that the human race can continue to reproduce and survive ."

With Wilhelm's emphasis on endless resources, Einstein couldn't help but wonder. "Where are the endless resources you speak of? Under the sea or underground?"

"All you have to do is look up and you will see it." Wilhelm smiled faintly and raised his finger to the sky. "The endless resource I am talking about is the starry sky above our heads. The universe will be the last frontier of humanity, and only by stepping into it can we avoid the fate of extinction."

Looking at Einstein's shocked expression, Wilhelm's heart could not help but be secretly pleased. "Humans who want to explore the universe will have to leave the Earth, this is only the first step, the second is on the moon, and then after that is Mars, and then the entire solar system. And farther in the future our pace will eventually step out of the solar system and set foot on the starry sea. And the super energy in your formula may be the driving force for our human exploration of the universe."

Said the mouth dry are not seen each other have a painful response, Wilhelm gradually some impatience. "If Dr Einstein has always insisted on your narrow-minded and pedantic worldview, then I have nothing to say. But I have something to say to you, you and I are just a grain of dust in the universe, if you think you can change the course of history with your own power is very wrong. It is like no one can change the flow of a big river. It may change the course of a river by chance, but in the end, it will return to the direction it was meant to go. This is the law of nature, the inevitability of history! Those who cannot follow the trend of history can only be called pedantic!

After dropping these words Wilhelm saluted the dumbfounded Dr Einstein and turned to leave.