Chapter 7 - MIT Moves
Chapter 7 - MIT Moves
The next morning.
Jonathan Reed arrived at the MIT mathematics department conference room first.
The structure Yoon Siwoo had left behind the previous night was still written on the blackboard.
Common Coordinate System, Threshold, Connection Point, Alignment—it was just a few short words, but the air in the conference room felt as heavy as if it hadn't cooled down all night.
Andrew walked in carrying two cups of coffee, saw the blackboard, and let out a sigh.
"You haven't erased it yet?"
"I couldn't bring myself to."
"I looked over it again all night, too."
"And the conclusion?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Yes."
Andrew set the coffee down and walked up to the blackboard.
"It fits too well to say it's wrong, and it's too... to say it's right."
"That's the phrase a mathematician hates to say the most."
"I hate saying it too."
The conference room door opened, and the professors entered one by one.
The professors who had reviewed the materials the day before and Jonathan got straight to the point.
"We need to decide today."
The algebraic geometry professor crossed his arms.
"Are we going to call the kid in?"
"No."
"Then?"
"We go to him."
"You mean we're going to Virginia ourselves?"
"Yes."
"Are you that certain?"
Jonathan looked at the blackboard for a moment.
"It's not certainty."
"Then why go that far..."
"Because we need to verify it."
Andrew added quietly.
"And we shouldn't drag the kid here."
"He's keeping the two-hour time limit himself, and his family is managing that."
"If we bring him to campus, we'll end up pushing Siwoo harder, even if just out of curiosity."
"Us?"
"All of us."
An uncomfortable silence settled over the conference room. It was hard to refute.
The professors were people driven by intellectual curiosity, and it was difficult for them to stop once they saw a new path.
Especially if it was a new door opened in front of the Hodge Conjecture.
Jonathan said.
"That's why we have to go."
"In a familiar space, in front of his parents, while keeping the two-hour rule."
One professor asked in a low voice.
"And what if the kid can't explain it then?"
"Then we stop there."
"And if he can?"
Jonathan didn't answer immediately, and Andrew spoke instead.
"From that moment on, MIT needs to move."
The meeting didn't take long, and the conclusion was reached quickly.
Some of the faculty would go to Virginia in person. The purpose was not verification but listening; they would not pressure the child.
They would keep the two-hour limit and prioritize parental consent.
Jonathan picked up the phone as soon as the meeting ended.
Hyejin grew tense as soon as the phone rang.
Lately, if the home phone rang, it was rarely for anything ordinary.
Taesik looked up from drinking coffee at the dining table.
"Where is it from this time?"
Hyejin picked up the receiver.
"Hello."
A moment later, her expression stiffened.
"Yes. MIT?"
"MIT again?"
Hyejin covered the receiver and called Siwoo.
"Siwoo-ya, it's a call from the professor."
Siwoo looked up from reading a science magazine in the living room.
"Hello?"
Jonathan's voice came through.
"I looked over Siwoo's materials well."
"Yes."
"I want to talk to you in person."
"Over the phone?"
"No."
"We want to come to you."
Siwoo paused for a moment.
"You're coming here all the way from MIT?"
"Yes."
"All the professors?"
"Only a few of us will go."
"I have to ask my parents."
Jonathan's voice softened.
"Of course."
After hanging up, silence flowed in the living room for a moment, and Taesik asked first.
"What did they say?"
"The professors want to come here."
"Why?"
"To hear my explanation."
Hyejin sat down right in front of Siwoo.
"Siwoo-ya."
"You don't have to do it if you feel burdened."
"I'm a little burdened."
"Then don't do it."
"But I think I have to."
Taesik asked.
"Why?"
"It's meaningless if I'm the only one who sees it."
Hyejin let out a slow breath.
"There are conditions."
"The two hours?"
"That's the basic rule, and you have to take a break in the middle."
"Yes."
"And if you feel sick, you have to stop immediately."
"Yes."
Taesik chimed in too.
"And even if the professors say something, if you don't know, say you don't know."
"Yes."
"Don't force yourself to pretend you know."
"I don't do that."
"Yeah, that's true."
Taesik thought for a moment and added.
"And don't ignore your Appa too much even if you don't understand what he's saying."
Siwoo said very seriously.
"I can't promise that."
"Hey!"
Hyejin burst into laughter, and the tension eased a little.
The next morning, two black vehicles stopped in front of the house.
Jonathan Reed, Andrew Miller, algebraic geometry professor Bradley, topology professor Elliot, and one young research professor got out of the cars.
Hyejin had already tidied up the house three times, and Taesik fidgeted with his shirt buttons for no reason.
Siwoo was neatly laying out papers on the living room table.
A stopwatch was placed on the far right of the table, and Jonathan saw it as soon as he entered the living room.
"Is that a stopwatch?"
"Yes."
Jonathan nodded.
"We will definitely keep the time as well."
Hyejin's face relaxed a little.
"Please make sure you do."
"We promise."
The professors sat around the living room table, and Taesik and Hyejin sat on a sofa a little further away.
Taesik acted like it was nothing, but his hands kept moving on his knees.
Siwoo took out the first sheet, and a short sentence was written on the paper.
[It wasn't a wall]
Jonathan asked.
"Then what was it?"
"A threshold."
Bradley cut in immediately.
"Is the expression 'threshold' a metaphor?"
"A little, but it's accurate."
"How can you be sure?"
Siwoo drew a line on the paper.
"Everyone tries to cross over here."
"But if you cross it, it breaks."
"So you have to align it."
Andrew opened his notebook.
"Align what?"
Siwoo drew a small dot next to the line and connected it with an arrow.
"The baseline."
"If you cross this standard, the structure changes."
"So even if the calculation is correct, the meaning changes."
Elliot narrowed his eyebrows.
"Then, is the failure of the existing approach not a calculation problem, but a standard problem?"
"Yes."
"Bold."
Siwoo unfolded the second sheet.
"From here on is the Common Coordinate System."
Siwoo didn't drag out difficult words.
He drew lines, moved arrows, and marked the points of discrepancy.
And he didn't erase those discrepancies.
The professors asked questions at first.
"Why leave this point?"
"Because it doesn't disappear."
"Couldn't it be an error?"
"If it were an error, the explanation should become easier when you remove it, but it becomes more difficult."
"Then what is the basis for it being a connection point?"
"If you leave it, the next structure connects."
Bradley looked down at the paper without a word.
At first, he thought it was just the child's intuition, but as the explanation continued, that thought changed.
The method of catching the discrepancies and turning the remaining parts into connection points was rough, but it was consistent.
And above all, it explained the existing bottleneck.
That was the problem. It would have been better if it were wrong, but it wasn't easy to find a part to say was wrong.
When 50 minutes had passed, Bradley raised his hand.
"Wait."
"Is it wrong?"
"That's not it..."
Bradley looked at the paper and said.
"You're speaking too fast."
"...I'll go slowly."
Andrew bowed his head and held back laughter.
Bradley might have felt his pride hurt, but he didn't seem to have the luxury for that.
He was already lost in the paper.
When 1 hour and 20 minutes had passed, Jonathan asked.
"Siwoo."
"Yes."
"If you push this structure to the end, where do you think it will go?"
For a moment, the living room went quiet.
Hyejin held her breath, and Taesik also closed his mouth.
Siwoo looked down at the paper, and a few seconds later, he answered shortly.
"I think it will be solved."
Jonathan's voice lowered.
"The Hodge Conjecture?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Not sure yet."
"Then?"
"But there is a path."
That one sentence was enough.
Jonathan slowly closed his eyes.
It was a problem that countless mathematicians had challenged for decades.
But now, an eight-year-old child in front of the living room table said there was a path.
Beep beep beep
The stopwatch rang, and Siwoo stopped his hand.
The professors looked at the clock at the same time, but two hours had already passed, and Andrew said inadvertently.
"If we could hear just a little more..."
Hyejin's eyes immediately turned sharp.
"No."
"I'm sorry..."
Taesik laughed softly.
"In our house, the wife is the scariest."
Siwoo tidied up the papers, and the professors couldn't say anything.
They wanted to hear more, but they couldn't.
Since they had to keep the rules, Jonathan slowly stood up from his seat and bowed his head to Hyejin and Taesik.
"We will stop here for today."
Hyejin asked cautiously.
"Our Siwoo didn't do anything wrong, did he?"
Jonathan answered seriously.
"No. On the contrary, he might be doing something very big."
At those words, Hyejin's face became even more complicated.
It sounded like a good thing, but it wasn't necessarily a good thing for a parent.
Big things, great things—she was afraid those might take Siwoo further away.
That night, the MIT professors couldn't return to Boston, so they rented a conference room at a nearby hotel and spread out the materials again.
Jonathan transferred Siwoo's structure to the blackboard, and Andrew organized the explanation they had heard in the living room.
Bradley sat silently for a long time before finally opening his mouth.
"There is a path."
Jonathan looked up.
"Say that again."
"The kid is right."
"It's not a proof yet, but there is a path."
The conference room went quiet.
Everyone was exhausted, but their eyes were alive, and Jonathan looked at the blackboard.
Common Coordinate System, Threshold, Connection Point, and the sentence written at the end: There is a path.
Since that day, the name Yoon Siwoo was no longer just the name of an interesting prodigy within the MIT mathematics department.
It became the name of the child who drew a different door for the first time in front of an unsolvable problem.
The next morning, Jonathan Reed submitted a formal report to MIT headquarters, and the title was short.
[Yoon Siwoo Research Support Special Program Proposal]