I Got an Omnipotent Brain

”Whew.”

Seo-ha let out a deep breath.

His heart pounded violently, pumping the massive amount of oxygen his brain demanded.

The surrounding noise sank beneath the surface. His peripheral vision gradually blurred until only the blackboard remained in sharp focus.

Seo-ha felt as though the entire space were being pulled into his mind.

”Almost there.”

Why had the Minimal Energy Surface remained unsolved until now?

An elastic plate where torsion and curvature act simultaneously,

a fixed boundary,

a surface that satisfies that boundary while minimizing the energy encompassing all internal deformations.

If it were curvature alone, classical geometry would work.

If it were torsion alone, it could be simplified into a specific mechanical model.

At the boundary, techniques existed for tracing that line precisely to obtain a relaxed solution.

But the moment all three conditions entered at once, every equation tangled together as if seizing each other by the throat.

Torsion disturbed curvature, curvature shook the energy, and energy pulled back on the boundary.

Unless this cycle could be broken, the equations grew infinitely complex and no structure could be pinned down.

’Reminds me of the Four Color Theorem.’

A notorious problem where the boundary itself had been the crux.

Seo-ha was especially confident in handling that.

He walked to the edge of the blackboard.

Swish.

Then he picked up three different colored pieces of chalk and began isolating every term related to the boundary.

Fragments flowing from the curvature terms into the boundary, differential terms originating from torsion, traces of the boundary hiding in the corners of the energy functional.

He peeled them off one by one and gathered them separately on the right side of the blackboard.

”Position.”

He drew a line with the first piece of chalk.

This was the original shape of the boundary itself.

”Direction (tangent vector).”

The second piece of chalk laid a thin layer on top.

The direction the boundary moved, the tangent vector, revealed itself.

”Bending (curvature).”

The third piece of chalk traced a smooth curve.

Only now did the boundary’s curvature become clearly visible. All this time, Seo-ha had assumed that twisting (torsion) was the one wreaking havoc from the inside.

But after organizing everything to this point, the hidden truth emerged.

”You were never a variable that could be controlled from the interior.”

Seo-ha detached the entire torsion term and brought it over to the boundary side.

It was as if a puzzle piece that had spent decades searching for its place had finally returned to where it belonged, falling into harmony.

With that, the equations that had stubbornly interfered with one another stopped colliding.

The boundary of the tangled system of equations was fixed at last.

Swoosh-

The fog that had blocked his vision began to lift.

”So this is what you looked like?”

A vast geometric landscape, forged by equations and energy folding upon themselves hundreds of millions of times.

Seo-ha stood at a distance and gazed upon it.

Sharp ridges and valleys as deep as darkness, intersecting crests each carrying their own laws, breathing as though they were a single living organism.

”What a sight.”

The thought of stepping into that place set his chest ablaze.

Whoooosh-

A storm of energy swept through in an instant.

But the tempest, which had surged forward as if to obliterate everything, lost its force at the boundary and died away.

Seeing this, Seo-ha smirked.

”Now you can’t escape. The boundary has been set.”

With nowhere left to flee, the energy had no choice but to reach a local minimum.

Therefore...

”A solution must exist.”

After months of effort, Seo-ha had finally succeeded in proving the Existence of Solutions.

* * *

-Seo-eun, wake up! If you don’t get up right now, Mom might come upstairs and smack your butt!

”...Okay.”

Seo-eun squirmed in bed before barely sitting herself up.

”Justin, what’s the weather today?”

-X month, XX day. Clear skies. Humidity 55%, chance of rain 20%. A great day to be active.

”Thanks.”

After struggling to get up, Seo-eun rolled sideways off the bed and landed on the floor. Then she nuzzled her cheek against Justin, who was resting on the chair, before hurrying off to the bathroom.

”Hehe!”

The laugh came out on its own.

Seo-eun always played and chatted with Justin. She carried him around in her arms and talked to him about all sorts of things, but the replies that came back were limited to a few set phrases.

-Good morning.

-Thank you.

-I love you.

Even so, Seo-eun loved this doll her brother had given her.

Thanks to Justin, she never felt lonely even when she was home alone, and whenever something upset her, hugging the doll tight always made her feel better.

Then one day.

”Seo-eun, would it be okay if I borrowed Justin for a bit?”

If it had been anyone else, there was no chance. But Seo-eun willingly handed the doll over to Seo-ha.

A few days later, the Justin that came back was astonishingly smarter.

”Oppa, you’re the best!”

Calling his name activated the voice function.

It was only a basic voice module with an alarm, weather function, and the ability to recognize a handful of keywords, but Seo-eun could not have been happier.

Today was Saturday.

Seo-eun scurried downstairs to the first floor and filled her watering can.

When she went out to the garden, the small plants she had put in a week ago were standing in a row, soaking up the sunlight side by side.

”Did you all sleep well too?”

Seo-eun crouched down in the garden and stroked the leaves.

Tomatoes, mint, lavender.

They were all still sprouts, but she could see them growing a little more each day, and tending to them every morning was an absolute joy.

”Seo-eun, come eat!”

”Coming!”

Seo-eun hopped up, finished watering, and sat down at the table.

Seasoned eggplant, cucumber salad, stir-fried seaweed stems, braised lotus root. The table was once again full of the side dishes she loved.

”Mmm, it’s so good, Mom!”

”Eat up.”

Seo-ha watched Seo-eun with a warm, contented gaze.

When the meal was over, Seo-eun brought over the newspaper.

”Oppa, let’s do a puzzle!”

Seo-eun’s closest friend, from the day she was born, had been her brother.

Other kids ran around on playgrounds with children their age, but Seo-eun found being with her brother the most fun of all.

Crossword puzzles.

It was a game the family had started after moving to the United States.

One a day. Whenever an unfamiliar word came up, Seo-ha would explain its meaning, and sometimes they would flip through the dictionary together.

After a few months of this, Seo-eun’s English had improved to an almost unbelievable degree.

Once the puzzle was done, they played with a Rubik’s cube.

But the way the siblings handled the cube was distinctly different from how most people did it.

”Now, how many moves will it take to solve this cube?”

For Seo-eun, who had been comfortable with geometric shapes since she was little, simply solving a regular cube was not an interesting enough game.

When Seo-ha showed her the cube, Seo-eun stared at it intently.

Soon, an invisible cube appeared before her eyes.

Click, click, click....

Inside Seo-eun’s mind, the cube spun furiously, testing possibilities.

”Seventeen.”

”That’s possible, but there’s a faster way.”

Seo-eun thought hard about something, then broke into a bright smile.

”Thirteen.”

”That’s right. Go ahead, try it!”

Seo-ha handed over the cube, and Seo-eun solved it in exactly thirteen moves.

”Hehe! I did it!”

Solving a cube with eyes closed was something any blind cuber could do without much difficulty. But Seo-ha had added a rule on top of that: find the optimal solution.

”Does she really enjoy that so much?”

Watching Seo-eun bounce around with joy, Mi-young shook her head in disbelief.

Seo-ha did not teach Seo-eun math. In fact, he did not directly teach her any school subject at all.

”Are you really not going to let Seo-eun do grade skipping?”

Last week, an official recommendation had come from Seo-eun’s school.

-Top 1% on the MAP (Math Achievement Program) assessment

-Top 3% in reading comprehension

-Top 1% on the problem-solving aptitude test

-Emotional stability sufficient for accelerated learning: satisfactory.

The proposal was to advance Seo-eun by two grades.

”Huh? I don’t wanna.

I just barely taught the kids the prime number game. Sally gave me lavender seeds, and Susan and I swap lunches every day. I don’t like turkey, and she won’t eat her vegetables.”

Seo-eun shot them a look as if to say don’t even suggest something so terrible.

”I’m with Seo-eun on this!”

With both children saying so, Mi-young had nothing more to say.

Seo-ha simply wanted his sister to be happy.

* * *

”Done?”

”Yeah, I think we’ve finally got it.”

Theo and Sri let out a simultaneous sigh.

On the blackboard, the traces of the proof Seo-ha had left behind remained exactly as they were.

A few days ago, Seo-ha had poured out all of these equations in just a few hours, then left for home with a satisfied look on his face.

Theo pressed a hand to his forehead.

His brain was overheated; he had no mental energy left for any further thought.

”I can’t believe it took us this long to understand it.”

”If I’m being honest, I’m not at a hundred percent.”

”Same here. I’ve just gotten to the point where I can follow the flow.”

”All the research we’ve done up to now wasn’t for nothing. If it hadn’t been for that, we never could have understood this.”

Seo-ha had produced a clean, elegant proof of the Existence of Solutions.

This alone was an achievement that would send ripples through mathematics, no, the entire scientific community.

”He’s not going to publish it as a paper, is he?”

Theo shook his head.

”Seo-ha has never done anything like an interim publication. To him, this is only the beginning.”

Sri made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a laugh.

Beep beep-

”Hello!”

Seo-ha walked into the lab with a bright smile. Then he caught sight of the haggard state of the two and his eyes went wide.

”What happened? You both look awful....”

Looking at Seo-ha’s innocent face, something hot surged up from deep inside them.

”...That thing you left behind. The two of us spent three days wrestling with it.”

”We’re okay now. I think we’re ready to move on to the next step.”

The two had been desperate to understand it.

The fear that if they lost their grasp here, they would never catch up again had driven them relentlessly.

”Oh! I’m sorry. I had a good offer come in and completely forgot about that.”

Seo-ha rummaged through his bag and pulled out an envelope.

”Ta-da!”

”What’s that?”

”Some kind of invitation?”

Seo-ha cleared his throat with an ahem.

”Our team got a commission. Apparently the Mayor of New York wants to overhaul every traffic signal in Manhattan?”

Theo thought for a moment, then quietly raised his hand.

”It’s because of what you did in Boston, isn’t it? This isn’t a commission addressed to you personally?”

”I told them I wouldn’t do it unless it was as a team. So they sent an official letter.”

”Th-then...”

Sri’s expression grew tense.

Seo-ha went to the corner of the lab and started digging through the stacked boxes.

Rummage, rummage.

”Ah! Here it is!”

Thud!

A massive box was placed on the desk.

Seo-ha opened the lid without a hint of ceremony.

Papers on graph-theory-based signal control, papers on urban flow simulation, Seo-ha’s own algorithm paper, the final research report sent by the Boston Transportation Department, the notes he had jotted down during the Boston project....

A mountain of materials appeared.

”No... don’t tell me.”

”He wouldn’t... right?”

Seo-ha flashed a bright smile.

”I’d like the two of you to take the lead on this project.”

It was the result of a great deal of thought on Seo-ha’s part.

He had never cared much about money. Between the monthly licensing fees and consulting payments, his accounts were already more than comfortable. On top of that, his mother’s book still hadn’t budged from its bestseller spot.

The two of them, on the other hand, were not in a financially comfortable position.

”I believe Theo and Sri are more than capable of pulling this off.”

At the sight of Seo-ha smiling without a shred of ulterior motive, the color drained from both their faces.