I Got an Omnipotent Brain

Even after solving all of the Smale problems, Seo-ha could not fall asleep.

The feeling that he had missed something lingered stubbornly in his mind and tormented him. However, he couldn’t figure out what it was.

”What is it? It’s really nagging at me.”

Chika chika.

When he came to his senses, he realized he had been brushing his teeth for over ten minutes.

Whether eating at the cafeteria or walking through the streets, Seo-ha could not shake that thought.

The sensation grew even sharper as night fell.

When he closed his eyes, the equations written on the chalkboard squirmed. Then, like snakes, they slithered toward him, coiling around his body and tightening.

Seo-ha felt as though his chest would burst from the frustration.

”What on earth is the problem?”

He got out of bed and opened the window.

Cold night air rushed over him. The biting chill seemed to cool his overheated mind. With his thoughts sharpened, he was able to pinpoint the part that had been bothering him.

’I’m sure of it. This unsettling feeling.’

Seo-ha stayed awake through the entire night with his eyes wide open.

And the moment dawn broke, he dashed to the lab.

* * *

Buzz-

A cheap motel in Cambridge.

Theo picked up his phone while reviewing his master’s thesis.

-Hello, this is Seo-ha’s mother. It’s dinner time, but I haven’t been able to reach Seo-ha, so I’m sending a text. I made braised short ribs for the first time in a while.... Are you two together by any chance? If so, please come along too, Theo.

”What is that kid doing?”

Theo frowned, then sent the most polite reply he could manage.

-I’ll go find him.

He threw on the thick jacket he had bought during the Christmas sale and stepped out of the motel.

Because he had been going in and out of the house frequently while writing his thesis, Theo had become close with Seo-ha’s family before he knew it. They were now comfortable enough to share meals together.

Winter in Cambridge grew dark unusually early.

With exams over and the end of the year approaching, the campus had fallen quiet. Most of the lab lights were off, and Christmas decorations hung in the hallways.

Many students had gone back to their home countries or hometowns. More than half of MIT’s buildings were already empty.

”I’m not even a student at this school....”

He fiddled with the temporary access pass issued by the mathematics department. He could now come and go freely until the colloquium was over.

Had he already grown accustomed to this school?

It was dark, but finding his way was not difficult.

When he entered the mathematics building, the distinctive smell of chalk greeted him.

It was quiet. Labs, lecture halls, even the library, all closed and nearly devoid of any sign of people. But after walking a bit further, a faint light seeped out from the end of the second-floor hallway.

Creak.

Theo spotted light leaking through the gap in the door and opened it.

Symbols, sequences, graphs, and Smale problems filled the chalkboard to the brim.

Seo-ha was standing beneath the window-side lamp. He must have written and erased an enormous amount, because his sleeves were caked with chalk dust.

”Your mother is looking for you.”

Theo sighed and walked closer.

Instead of answering, Seo-ha pointed a fingertip at one section of the chalkboard.

’Hm?’

Incomprehensible equations were written there.

Theo stood for a long while, reading through them.

’What is this?’

The formulas didn’t make sense to him.

The only thing Theo could make out was that they were related to the Riemann zeta function.

Seo-ha’s dry lips parted slightly, then he picked up the chalk again and began writing symbols from the corner of the chalkboard.

The rhythmic sound of chalk echoed through the room.

Scratch, scratch.

”While solving the Smale problems, I realized something.”

Seo-ha filled in the remaining empty edge of the chalkboard.

”Smale’s conjecture is premised on the idea that ’even if the shape of a space changes, its essence is preserved.’ But in reality, that’s not the case.”

”Because continuity breaks down at boundary surfaces.”

Seo-ha nodded.

”If you transpose Smale’s stability conditions into the space of the zeta function, something interesting happens.

The zeros of the Riemann zeta function only reveal themselves under analytically stable conditions.”

Theo was deeply surprised.

The two spaces were fundamentally different in structure. Direct application should have been impossible....

”Is that even possible?”

“If you extract only the conditions and apply them roughly, it works.”

Theo was genuinely in awe.

The power to bend space-time at will.

Where on earth was the limit of this boy’s mathematical ability?

”Even so, that’s an incredible discovery.”

Since it could not be proven, it would remain merely a compelling conjecture, but still.

”It’s enough for a paper, at least.

But unfortunately, there’s currently no way to move between the two worlds without error. To do that, you’d need a common language that unifies topology and analysis, space and sequences....”

What on earth was this kid trying to accomplish?

Theo let out a hollow laugh.

”That’s essentially the level of creating an entirely new branch of mathematics.”

Seo-ha smiled as if he found that amusing, then stretched both arms high above his head.

”Someday I’ll manage it.

Ah! That feels so much better. It’s like a thorn that was lodged in my head has been pulled out. I think I can finally relax.”

”You’re a severe case too.”

Watching Seo-ha, Theo was reminded of an anecdote about Euler.

’V − E + F = 2’

Euler had revised this formula for over thirty years. Because for certain complex polyhedra, the equation did not hold.

Everyone around him said it was good enough, but the standard for ”enough” differs from person to person. He must have needed to know the reason no matter what.

Seo-ha was fundamentally the same.

He would never stop until he had unearthed the order hidden within the Riemann zeta function.

”Theo, you’re quite familiar with unsolved problems, right?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Theo stammered.

”Huh? Yeah. Fairly so.”

As if lost in thought, Seo-ha was silent for a moment.

Then he spoke, choosing his words carefully.

”I’m... planning to take on as many unsolved problems as I can from here on.”

His gaze was resolute, as though his mind was already made up.

“All of a sudden?”

”There’s something I’ve come to feel through encountering these problems so far. They all looked different on the surface, but at their core, they might share the same origin.”

The unsolved problems Seo-ha had tackled were the Four Color Theorem and the Smale problems. And he was deeply involved with the Riemann Hypothesis as well.

His experience with such problems was already far deeper than that of ordinary mathematicians.

”In what sense?”

”That the answers lie in a domain beyond human awareness? You could say they exploit the gaps in the way we understand the world.”

It was a convincing explanation.

”That’s a fascinating idea. And it makes sense. Unsolved problems are often solved by changing the approach entirely.

So you’re saying you’ll try to fill those gaps?”

Seo-ha nodded.

”I have a feeling that doing so will bring me a little closer to proving the Riemann Hypothesis.”

Theo was left speechless.

Anyone who heard this would think it was the delusion of a genius. And yet Theo could not dismiss his words. The moment he heard them, the thought ”that’s actually convincing” had already taken root.

’No, is it that I want to believe it?’

Seo-ha possessed a strange power.

A peculiar pull that transcended logic.

There was something almost mystical about him, as if everything he said would become reality.

”I also finished my master’s thesis thanks to you. I’d been stuck on it for two years with nothing to show for it, and then in just a few weeks.”

Theo gave a rueful smile.

”Really?”

Seo-ha looked as happy as if it were his own accomplishment.

Theo gazed at Seo-ha with a complicated expression.

How many unsolved problems would this boy end up solving in the future?

’I want to see it.’

He wanted to see for himself what path this boy would walk and what awaited at the end of it.

Just as he had when the Smale problems were solved, he wanted to witness every step of the process right by his side. And if possible, he wanted to be of help to him. That was his honest feeling.

”Ah! Mom!”

Seo-ha jolted as if only just remembering.

The two of them hurriedly tidied up the lab and headed outside.

On the way home, Seo-ha glanced at Theo.

“Are you coming?”

”She said dinner is braised short ribs.”

Theo could never forget the day he first tasted Mi-young’s braised short ribs.

He had expected something like a stew, similar to Beef Bourguignon, but braised short ribs was a dish of a different character entirely.

A wondrous flavor sitting somewhere between barbecue and stew.

The slowly reduced sauce seeped between the tender grain of the meat, producing a sublime taste.

Theo was already thoroughly captivated by Korean cuisine.

* * *

When the end of the year arrived, everything in America came to a standstill.

Companies went on vacation starting Christmas week, and schools closed their doors.

The once-bustling roads grew quiet, and even cafes and restaurants operated on reduced hours.

But in the afternoon, the sleepy city transformed. Trees lit up with lights, shops playing carols, people carrying shopping bags in both hands.

For the retail industry, this was the biggest season of the year.

Department store and outlet parking lots were always full, and shopping districts were packed with people hunting for Christmas and year-end sales.

Discounts reached over fifty percent.

It was common to see people lining up outside stores from dawn.

Seo-ha, too, had come out to downtown Boston with his family to enjoy the end of the year.

”Oppa! Look over there! It’s a huge tree.”

A massive Christmas tree erected in the center of Boston Common radiated a grand presence. [TL: Boston Common is a large public park in the heart of downtown Boston.]

The countless bulbs wrapped around the tree sparkled like jewels.

Seo-eun looked as though she had stepped into another world, her face struck with awe.

The gap between the Christmas scenery of downtown Okcheon and Boston was just that vast.

”Isn’t it pretty? Let’s hang out here for a bit.”

Mi-young said.

Seo-ha held Seo-eun’s hand tightly so he would not lose his sister in the crowd.

Seo-eun’s eyes went wide as she looked around in every direction.

A carol drifted from somewhere.

-Jingle bells- Jingle bells- Jingle all the way!

Seo-eun sang along in an excited voice.

The couple fought through the crowds and managed to snag children’s clothes from a luxury brand they had been eyeing for a while.

”Hurry, try it on!”

”Seo-ha, take off your coat quickly too.”

A bright yellow puffer jacket; Seo-eun’s was a bold red.

When the two changed into the jackets, their parents smiled warmly.

”No way we’ll lose them anywhere now.”

”Right. They really stand out.”

Seo-ha made an awkward face.

He normally wore whatever was given to him without complaint, but the solid primary color of this jacket was a bit much. He imagined himself walking around MIT in it.

A vivid yellow standing out conspicuously among the monochrome nerds.

’Ah....’

He felt like he would be too embarrassed to lift his head.

”It matches oppa’s?”

For some reason overjoyed, Seo-eun flapped her hands and bounced around.

Watching her, he could not help but laugh.

’Maybe it’s not so bad.’

Seo-ha chuckled softly and zipped the jacket all the way up.

The family came home, lit a candle on a small cake, and celebrated their first Christmas in America.

The year passed, and the new year dawned.

Mi-young traveled all the way to Allston to find a rice cake shop in Koreatown. She wanted to feed her family freshly made rice cakes.

”The rice cake soup is delicious, Mom!”

Seo-eun blew on the steaming rice cake soup, cooling it with little puffs before eating.

Chomp-

With every bite, a happy smile spread across her face.

”Hehe, of course it is. I made the broth myself from brisket.”

Mi-young smiled brightly, looking pleased just to watch.

”Thank you, Mom. It’s really delicious.”

Seo-ha gave a thumbs-up as well.

Eating rice cake soup in a foreign country on New Year’s morning felt both unfamiliar and heartwarming at the same time.

A few days later, the city that had been at a standstill began to stir again.

The festive air of the year’s end settled down, and the campus gradually returned to its usual state.

And the MIT mathematics department had to move more urgently than anywhere else.

Messages confirming attendance flooded in like a tidal wave from universities and research institutes around the world.

Click.

Click.

Seo-ha, dressed in a rented suit, struck the poses the cameraman requested.

Holding a piece of chalk, standing coolly in front of the chalkboard with his hand just so....

”Yes, that’s perfect! Smile!”

Click.

Seo-ha’s face looked as though his soul had left his body.

He had never imagined this.

That he would end up as the model for the colloquium poster.