Rebirth in America

On the surface, Alex sent Ark to talk to AT\u0026T.

In reality, he knew it probably wouldn't work. Because there is actually a very strong backing behind AT\u0026T, a backing that even Alex can't handle. That is Alexander Bell, who invented the telephone. Like Alex, he was also a "master of people".

On some previous occasions, Alex had met Mr. Bell, who was known as the "Father of the Telephone" by the world. He has a handsome appearance, with white beard and hair, and a serious expression. He seemed to be keeping strangers away. He spoke very little and almost never heard him speak.

Bell himself was an acoustic physiologist and teacher of deaf and mute languages. Before him, the German Philip Reiss had invented a telephone, but its sound transmission effect was so poor that it could not be used in practice. On March 10, 1876, Bell and his colleagues tested the world's first usable telephone.

In addition, Bell also invented an instrument for measuring hearing, an instrument that can be used to find metals in the human body, and other inventions.

In addition to inventing the telephone, Alexander Bell also invented a giant manned kite, invented a hydrofoil for the Canadian Navy to compete with German U-boats during World War II, and improved the phonograph.

Bell is also an American blind and deaf female writer, educator, philanthropist, social activist, and Helen Keller's longest-lasting and best friend.

According to Alex's understanding, Bell did not choose to transform into a vampire, but instead practiced some kind of Christian technique. Although Bell looks old on the outside, he is still in good spirits and is expected to live for a long time.

Perhaps due to his personality, Bell doesn't like noisy environments and chooses to live in seclusion and isolate himself from the world.

It was really difficult for Alex to contact the other party. Fortunately, he found John Rockefeller through Janis, and then contacted Mr. Bell through the old vampire.

As outstanding figures of their generation, John and Bell were once good friends, and the Rockefeller Foundation also secretly controlled a portion of AT\u0026T's shares. only. John thought Alex was wasting his efforts.

"Friend Bell has long since stopped caring about worldly matters. He won't pay attention to your trivial matters." John said to Alex, but Alex didn't want to back down in the end. Insisted on contacting Bell.

"If he didn't care about AT\u0026T, wouldn't this company have been swallowed up by other families long ago?" Alex thought so. He felt that without the support of the "Shangren" behind him, maybe this company The company already belongs to the Rockefeller family.

John couldn't deny it. He didn't answer the question, and he didn't want to spend too much energy on such things. It's like when monkeys become humans, they won't want to go back and interfere with the living conditions of the monkey group, but focus on the humans themselves. In his opinion, Alex is still too young. He only has the status of "people are superior to others" but does not have the mentality of "people are superior to others".

as expected. Alexander Bell ignored Alex's thoughts at all, but let someone convey a sentence: "Leave me alone!"

Judging from the other party's words, Bell really ignored AT\u0026T's affairs. There is nothing incomprehensible about this, for people like them. No matter how much power and prestige one has in the world, it is not stronger than any one of them.

Alex felt a little scratched by this. The upper route was unavailable, so he could only take the lower route.

Not long after, AT\u0026T came up with a cooperation plan. After a heated debate between the two parties, and because the Rockefeller Foundation played some role, they finally came up with a 60-40 share plan.

Of course, AT\u0026T takes the lion's share, and Ark's ability to take 40% has made many people exclaim that it's incredible.

Even Noyce, Moore and others were surprised. They never thought that the other party would make such a big concession. In their view, it was already great that they could get 30% of the benefits. .

It's just that Alex feels very dissatisfied, not because he gets less, because if he cooperates with the other party, he will slowly lose his leading role and eventually become a spectator.

Finally, at the meeting, Alex finally made the decision and said: "We'd better get fiber optic!"

"optical fiber!"

Everyone was a little panicked after hearing this. They did not expect that Alex decided to take the road of "fiber optic network" under such "generous" conditions given by AT\u0026T.

You know, this was the 1960s! If there were no Alex and no Ark Company, optical signal transmission might still be a fantasy technology.

Even with the golden finger, the optical fiber technology developed by Ark Company can at best be used, but it will be very difficult to mass-produce it. The first thing encountered was the financial problem, and then the technical problem.

"Yes, optical fiber!" Alex reiterated once, he said: "Of course, it is impossible to realize optical fiber Internet quickly just by relying on Ark Company. We must rely on the power of the country and let the government and the military bear part of it. R\u0026D investment.”

"Is it the same as the rocket and satellite technology that the company is researching?" Moore quickly understood the meaning. He had also thought about taking this path, but he couldn't do it without connections.

"Yes, just like the company, we first send some people to contact the Pentagon to see if they are interested in this Internet technology."

Under Alex's order, Ark Company immediately organized public relations personnel to lobby the Pentagon. In addition, Ark Company also separated its optical fiber R\u0026D department and established another optical fiber company.

Soon, an Asian with yellow skin and black hair came to the company to report. He was carrying a black briefcase, looked up at the company's plaque, and murmured: "American Light Giant!"

His name is Gao Kun, and he is of Chinese descent.

As early as a few months ago, Kao Kun was a member of the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, working in the British subsidiary as a senior engineer. He was very interested in various advanced technologies. When he joined the International Telephone and Telegraph Company, he was still studying for a doctorate. Even after working, I never put down my research.

Kao Kun is extremely interested in the "optical fiber technology" developed by Ark Company. He has also written relevant papers and discussed this technology.

However, a month ago. Ark Company actually sent someone to contact him. Want to hire him to join a new company to develop the latest fiber optic technology for them.

at the very beginning. He declined for various reasons.

However, the other party was persistent and kept persuading him, and Ark Company promised to invest up to 40 million US dollars in optical fiber research. At the same time, he was shown an "Internet" plan document.

As long as he agrees, he can completely control this huge amount of research and development funds.

More importantly, the "Internet" plan is entirely based on his fiber optic technology. Once this plan is realized, it will definitely change the world completely.

Gao Kun is a man with dreams.

He wants to make the world a better place, and he wants to change the world for him.

What he values ​​​​is not a generous annual salary. It's not the option dividend, but the influence of this job, which can make his life no longer regretful. He didn't want to regret not accepting this job when he was older.

Now he is here. He saw the company he would work for in the future.

"Mr. Gao! Hello!"

Soon someone came to greet him. It was a well-known person, Mr. Moore, a computer expert and the department head of Ark Company.

"Hello, Mr. Moore!"

Gao Kun recognized More immediately. He quickly walked over and the two shook hands.

"This company has just been established, and there may be many areas that are not perfect. If you have any needs, just ask." Moore said to Gao Kun with a smile and led him around.

Along the way, Gao Kun saw that most of the people around him were white people, and everyone looked very busy, as if they were on wheels and never stopped.

Many people did not quite understand Alex's hiring of Kao Kun, thinking that this little-known Asian could not shoulder such an important responsibility. However, since the people had been invited, they stopped saying anything. Westerners may have various problems, such as arrogance, racial discrimination, etc., but once their status is determined, they will not secretly use dirty tricks to hold them back.

Kao Kun has lived in Western countries for many years, so he naturally knows how to convince others. By setting an example and showing his professional knowledge and skills, he soon gained the trust and obedience of his colleagues around him.

Under Alex's guidance, Kao Kun's research on optical fiber technology has made rapid progress. Various ultra-era theories and technologies have been released one after another, and breakthrough successes have been achieved in optical fiber physics, which have reduced the cost of long-distance transmission of optical fibers. In less than half a year, more than 100 key patents have been obtained.

But this only solves the technical obstacles, and there is still a problem of funding.

Judging from the news coming from the Pentagon, the U.S. government and military are hesitant about this kind of information integration network. The debate is very big and the opinions cannot be unified.

The main thing is that people in this era cannot see the benefits of the Internet. After all, there are only a few people who have a vision beyond the times. Most of those politicians and military personnel only focus on current interests and cannot see the future direction of technological development more than ten years later.

The public relations people sent by Alex had no choice in dealing with the resistance of this conservative force. The best they could do was to make the other party maintain a neutral attitude, but not allow the other party to actively promote the project.

In fact, this is already quite remarkable. If Alex was not a member of the "Shangrenren", his actions would have attracted attacks from all sides. Once they find something profitable, the forces lurking in the dark will immediately pounce on you and take a few bites.

Not to mention, Alex is trying to bypass AT\u0026T and keep the profits for himself. In fact, when Alex sent people to lobby the government, several families and consortiums had already come to inquire about cooperation.

Especially the Rockefeller Foundation and the Hughes Group. The Carpenter family is inextricably linked to them, and it is difficult to reject them outright. So, Alex threw over the "Optical Fiber Network Plan", which had the largest investment and the slowest recovery cost. When those people saw it, most of them ran away immediately, and then the remaining half continued to ask about the content of the cooperation. Went away one after another.

Because what Alex throws out is a tough nut to crack, if you want to join in and cooperate, the investment will definitely be quite large. More importantly, Alex will not give up his dominant power. Because of this, he is unwilling to cooperate with AT\u0026T.

Otherwise, he would have just slapped his butt and left it to the people below to fiddle with, why bother to do this thing himself.

In the end, the Hughes Group also retreated. Although Hughes and Alex made a lot of money in the aerospace field, there were also many places to spend money. Hughes vacillated for a long time before deciding to turn to aerospace and no longer be distracted by other major projects.

Only the Rockefeller Foundation was determined to follow through. Even though they had no way of getting the biggest piece of the cake or taking the lead, they seemed to have decided to leave. Although Alex deliberately made things difficult for the other party and offered more stringent conditions, the Rockefeller Foundation would not let go even if they beat him to death.

"what happened!"

Alex immediately felt that there was a problem, so he bypassed the Rockefeller family and communicated directly with John Rockefeller: "Did you intervene in it? Otherwise, how could they accept such harsh conditions?"

John Rockefeller chuckled and said: "I have also seen your Internet plan, and I feel that if it is completed, it will have a great impact on the world and the benefits will definitely be very high. So I made a small bet. , I’m betting that your eyes won’t be wrong!”

"Then buy it and leave, don't regret it whether you win or lose!"

After hearing this, Alex was at a loss. Since John said so shamelessly that "he has a good taste", how could he slap himself in the face? The most important thing is that with the participation of the Rockefeller Foundation, Ark Company's research funds will basically not have any problems.

The most important thing is to convince the government and the military. If we follow the normal historical trajectory, by 1969, the U.S. Department of Defense will also have a small network of its own. It was a network with only 4 nodes built by the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The network is distributed on 4 large computers at the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of California, Stanford University, and the University of Utah.

After nearly 20 years of historical evolution, the Internet was finally formed and the Internet was connected to thousands of households.

It’s just that it’s just the early 1960s, and Alex’s Internet plan was launched too early. Even though a small local area network has been realized, UU Reading www.uukanshu.net and several networking technologies have been successfully developed, it is still too early. A little too radical.

"For the current plan, we can only find ways to convince those conservatives, and it is best to let them actively participate in this plan."

Alex frowned, and a bold idea came to him. What those conservatives fear most is the Soviet Union. Historically, the reason why the U.S. Department of Defense invested in the development of network technology was a plan to prevent attacks from the Soviet Union.

"Red Dawn!"

Since conveying benefits and donating political funds cannot convince the other party, the only way to intimidate them is to throw out the Soviet threat theory to make those people realize the necessity of Internet technology.

If you want to arouse a topic and form a public opinion in a short period of time, in addition to sending experts and public figures to build momentum in newspapers and TV, there is a faster and more convenient way, and that is to make a movie.

Alex wanted to describe the threat from the Soviet Union by shooting a movie called "Red Dawn", and through this movie to show the role of Internet technology, and then promote the development of the Internet.