Old Liu was somewhat speechless. Although materials science was not a fundamental discipline, it was extremely complex. Many of humanity's materials had actually been discovered by accident. That was not to say none had come from specialized research, of course—that would be impossible.
In fact, the algorithms Jiang Yan Hai mentioned did exist in the modern era, but they were more often aimed at individual material elements. For example, the properties of metallic elements such as iron and carbon could be entered, then computer simulations could be used to see how many kinds of alloy steel and the like could be produced.
The problem was that such algorithms could only extrapolate within known laws. Yet humanity did not dare claim to fully understand any metal, because theoretically, humanity currently had no way to purify any elemental metal completely.
This was something humanity could not yet achieve. Theoretically speaking, even if human technology advanced for several thousand more years, no one knew whether it could be done.
Unless humanity could directly manipulate particles at the level of electrons, protons, and so on. Perhaps then it could be achieved.
Therefore, such an algorithm was virtually impossible to realize. Jiang Yan Hai was simply indulging in fantasy. If it could truly be done, what would be the point of materials science? Wouldn't computers be able to calculate every material directly?
Whatever material humanity needed could simply be calculated, because once such an algorithm existed, it could theoretically work backward from the desired material properties to determine how that material could be produced.
That was the wonder of data. Wasn't that why people said mathematics was the foundation of the entire universe? Everything consisted of data.
"Fine. The database is enormous anyway, so it's not a problem if you need it. But do you