Time Frame (Split Second, #2)

by Douglas E. Richards

“Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care—about time? If so, I can’t imagine why We’ve all got time enough to cry.”

The universe used a different logic. It could not have cared less how the second Knight had come into existence. It just accepted his presence in the new reality, resetting time in its general vicinity and moving forward once again from there, as if there had always been two Knights—forging a brand-new future.

If the computer had not aborted, when the universe moved forward forty-five microseconds it would send him back in time yet again, introducing a third copy into the past. And then a fourth. And then a fifth . . .

“Compassion is great,” continued his predecessor. “I’m all for it. But if we let it paralyze us from making rational, logical . . . necessary decisions, we deserve to go extinct as a species.”

“Compassion will make sure we don’t go extinct.”

Shakespeare had written, Heavy is the head that wears the crown,

One of the critical elements of lying effectively was to fool even yourself that you were telling the truth, thereby reacting to others the same way you would if your story were true, with the same indignation, surprise, concern, or

outrage.

Sometimes there are no good decisions, only impossible ones.

But it was also likely to have been the right call, the unavoidable call.”

‘if you’re going to shoot at the king, you better make damn sure you don’t miss.’”

“Luck favors the prepared mind, Major Long,” said Li, quoting Louis Pasteur.

“The first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world where none suffered. Where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster.”

sperm is cheap.

Sperm cost so little to produce, why not spread it far and wide?

Women, on the other hand, had limited opportunities to reproduce, and each act of reproduction came at a very high cost. While a man could zip up his pants and walk away, the same was not true for a woman. Once pregnant, a woman had to put up with morning sickness, provide energy to a growing life within her, spend nine months carrying this life—increasing her physical vulnerability to environmental dangers—and risk death during childbirth.

Afterward, a woman required extra calories to produce milk to feed her offspring, at least for many thousands of years ...

Given the high cost of reproduction for a woman, and the limited number of offspring that were possible for her, proponents of this theory argued that it was in a woman’s genetic best interest to be more selective than a man. To choose mates with good genes, improving the chances that her offspring would survive. And to choose a man who was strong, aggressive, and self-assured. A man who could fend off the cannibal tribe over the hill while she was giving birth, and therefore...

Genetic studies had found that about eighty percent of women throughout history had managed to reproduce, while only about forty percent of men had.

This finding was stunning at first,

but made sense once human societies were examined through the lens of history. Kings, nobility, and sheikhs all had harems, hoarding numerous women all for themselves. Historically...

Which could also explain why men were more aggressive and risk-seeking than women, on average. How did a man get to be a king? By taking risks. Winning wars. Embarking on dangerous journeys to explore and conquer new lands.

Passive men, nice guys, never earned enough resources and power, never showed a great enough ability to protect and sustain a woman through childbirth and beyond, to compete against those who did. Harsh, yes, but in earlier ages, life was short and often brutal, and competition for women could be one-sided when even the ability to bathe with regularity could be resource-dependent.

Women who were genetically attracted to powerful men, men capable of feeding and ...

offspring, had greater success passing on their genes than those attracted to nice guys, who in more primitive, barba...

At the genetic level, proponents of this controversial theory argued, a woman would be drawn to a well-heeled badass who cared enough about her to stick around.

At the genetic level, a man would be drawn to a woman he thought would be sexually faithful. When choosing to settle down with a mate, the theory argued, a man placed a high value on sexual fidelity because there were no paternity tests in nature. When a woman gave birth, she knew she was the mother. But a man . . . well, he never really knew for sure.

If a woman had been unfaithful and was carrying another man’s baby, the fooled father would spend valuable resources raising a set of genes that were unrelated to his own. Evolution would thus reward a man who favored a chaste woman as a p...

Brains and talents beyond just physical strength and ruthlessness could lead men to power and success.

“Q5 is already doing that,” said Wexler. “Who says the dark energy field isn’t the force from Star Wars? It’s a mysterious force that pervades the universe, right? And we’ve found a way to tap it. So we and Luke Skywalker have something in common. The force is with us all.”

Time on top of a mountain runs faster than time at sea level, because the gravitational field is slightly less on the mountain. We now have clocks sophisticated enough to confirm this.”

“If every comfort is taken care of, what would be the incentive to advance any further? What would motivate people? Jenna mentioned that no one would ever need to work again, and Joe said that this didn’t sound so terrible. But I disagree, and I think Jenna does too. It could be a devastating blow to the species. There are some who think we handle hell better than we handle paradise.”

Unending leisure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It would drive me mad very quickly. And while it would take a lot longer for most people to grow bored and listless and unhappy, it would eventually happen to everyone.

We’re wired to get the most satisfaction from striving toward goals, from overcoming challenges.

humanity isn’t built for perfection. Our psyches aren’t ready for everything to be handed to us.”

“Until recently, I always thought that bringing about heaven on earth would be a good thing. Utopia. The goal of humanity throughout the ages. But it’s possible unlimited wealth and leisure might not be utopia, after all. Might even be a bad thing.”

even the best marksman can’t hit the target unless he knows what he’s supposed to be shooting at.”

“Too many cooks spoil the broth. You can only have a single brain, a single

CEO. Multiple limbs are okay, like Rourk, but only one of me is allowed.”

United Countries of the World.

‘Kill one man

and you’re a murderer. Kill millions of men, and you’re a conqueror. Kill them all, and you’re a god.”

“There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of his knowledge.”

“You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind.”

mankind had evolved to live in the great outdoors, not inside a mountain.

We’re incapable of perceiving things that are extremely small, or of comprehending things that are extremely large.”

Edwin Abbott, in 1884. A book called Flatland.

“It’s possible that God is a fifth-dimensional being.

Or maybe more correctly, any being living in a fifth dimension would seem like a god to us.

“I’ve got too much time on my hands It’s ticking away with my sanity I’ve got too much time on my hands It’s hard to believe such a calamity I’ve got too much time on my hands And it’s ticking away, ticking away from me” —Styx, Too Much Time on my Hands