The Redemption of Time (The Three-Body Problem Series Book 4)

by Baoshu

Like all sentient beings, the Trisolarans occasionally made mistakes, but as their language consisted of the electrical patterns of thought being emitted directly, there was no way for them to speak of a known falsehood while pretending it was true. If a Trisolaran believed that a statement was false, the cognitive markers were immediately exhibited externally. Although in certain special situations, such as technology-enabled long-distance communication, it was possible to manufacture the signals of false brain activity, the deep biological instinct of the Trisolarans, inherited from their long evolutionary march up from primitive life-forms, prevented them from taking such a step.

“What do you think is the key to a successful lie?” Tianming countered. AA hesitated. “I guess … to account for the details? Or maybe to understand the other side’s psychology?” “No. It’s sincerity. To be so sincere that even the liar believes it.” Tianming sighed.

“Love?” The Trisolarans were confused. “Are you talking about … that emotion that encourages altruistic behavior in order to enhance the reproductive fitness of the species? We experience such emotions, too. But how could such an emotion be applied to an alien species from across the stars? Such an act has no benefit to the reproduction of her species!” “A man once said, ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.’” “What … what nonsense is that? That sounds like a paradox.” “No, this is a lesson from one of the greatest teachers of our species. Many still believe that this is the greatest truth in the universe, far more important than mere survival.” The Trisolarans did not respond for some time, as though sensing the spiritual power in those words. After a while, they said, “If every species in the cosmos believed this, perhaps there would be no dark forest.” “Perhaps,” Tianming said. He gazed at the darkness of space outside the portholes, and he suddenly wondered whether the dark forest existed in only this dim corner of the universe—perhaps only this galaxy, or maybe even the few hundred square light-years at the end of one spiral arm. In the rest of the grand universe, the light of love had long illuminated every leaf, every blade of grass, every trail in the forest. What would such a sunlit forest look like?

But no one had ever seriously suggested that Trisolarans were only a few millimeters in length. It seemed obvious that a creature about the size of an ant could not possibly evolve a complex brain or build an advanced civilization. In this matter, however, the human scholars committed a major error. Trisolaran cognition was very different from individual-based, human cognition. Because Trisolarans enjoyed a direct correspondence between thought and expression, their communication was highly efficient. They thus evolved a collective intelligence that was the foundation of the living-formation computer innovation.

This was why the Trisolarans were intent on exterminating the humans even at the risk of triggering a gravitational-wave universal broadcast. They well knew that even if the two species broke through the dark forest state between them to coexist peacefully, humans would soon catch up to and then surpass them technologically. In addition, the Trisolarans experienced an atavistic terror of the gigantic humans, each of whom could flatten hundreds of Trisolarans with a single palm. The relatively low intelligence level of individual Trisolarans had been masked from the humans by the unfamiliarity of their alien society. Humans simply could not imagine that a civilization far more advanced than theirs had been constructed by individuals who were much “stupider” than humans. This was the fundamental reason the Trisolarans had concealed from the humans their appearance, which they viewed as a weakness.

“Human scientists had already discovered that fundamental particles have ten dimensions, though only three dimensions are fully extended, with the rest curled up within the quantum realm. Scientists had proposed many theories explaining this fact, but they never guessed that this was the result of intelligent life waging destructive warfare, which led to the collapse of the fundamental structure of the universe.”

“Such as number of dimensions, physical constants, distribution of matter, proportion of basic elements, and so on. But please note that the mini-universe has a limited energy reserve, and once the basic parameters are set, they cannot be altered. If you decide to set the number of dimensions to be less than three, your body will be immediately reduced in dimension in the tide of creation. Although your body has been restructured, such reduction will still lead to instant death. If you decide to set the number of dimensions to six or greater, the geometry of the resulting universe will be smaller than the space needed by your body, and you will be instantly crushed into high-dimensional fragments. I suggest you choose from three, four, or five.” The explaining voice was patient.

“At the macro level, the grand universe right now is in a three-dimensional state. Higher dimensions still exist, but are imprisoned within the quantum realm as a result of the fundamental structure of matter in the three-dimensional universe. Dimension reversal is a process that takes advantage of vacuum decay to split existing matter at the most basic level so that fundamental particles could follow their natural state and reassemble in higher dimensions, thereby re-creating the ten-dimensional universe.” Sophon gently lifted the lid to the tea bowl and covered it again, as though she were discussing a simple task.

Struggling, he tried to crawl toward the King, but a massive stone tree fell in front of him, separating him from her. Sounds of alarm rang out all around, indicating that disaster had struck the whole city. Abruptly, Singer felt his body become weightless and float off, but the next moment it fell back heavily against the ground. He heard pitiable cries fill the air, and the whole palace grounds tilted, causing his vessel body to roll into a corner. Pain racked him as he came to understand that the earth-bearing turtle that carried the Thousand-Dimension Palace on its back had died.

“Scientists believe that the universe’s initial state is ten-dimensional, but it is in the process of collapsing into ever fewer dimensions. Each collapse leads to a dramatic imbalance between matter and energy, leading to space constantly expanding in the remaining dimensions. Since energy is unevenly distributed in the expanded universe, the high-entropy universe becomes low-entropy, which leads to directed transformation going from a low-entropy state back to a high-entropy state. This is the meaning of time.” “Are you saying that there was no time in the ten-dimensional universe?” Singer asked. “That is not an easy question to answer. The ten-dimensional universe was changeless, and so it could be described as lasting but an instant or for eternity. All we can say is that it had no time as we understand the concept.”

The Creator gave the universe time. Time not only brought change and progress, but also gave low-entropy entities existence. Time and the absolute-limit speed are two sides of the same blade that divided the universe, isolating most species of low-entropy entities and their civilizations in tiny corners of the vast cosmos. It was impossible for most to understand the true mystery of the world, and the madness of preemptive slaughter for the sake of survival became the norm. But in some sense, the condition in the universe was a kind of mercy. The darkness of space was a cloak for the protection of the weak. It meant that it was possible for those we loved to conceal and hide, rather than to lie exposed to the enemies’ strikes. Time was the Creator’s greatest gift. Time gave rise to life and everything that accompanied it. Time frustrated the ambition of tyrants who wished to conquer the universe and ground them into dust, and gave countless embryonic civilizations the space necessary to evolve and flourish. The only things sacrificed on the altar of time were dimensions—and the Exiled God of Death.

“My king, time is the Creator’s gift. Time made our rich and varied existence and society possible, but we had to pay a price for this gift: to be bound up in time. We had to submit to death and destruction. From the coddled interior of an eternal existence, we were pulled to the edge, where we must live and die in time. We are neither of existence nor of nonexistence, but always in a state of growth and change, ending with death.”

“Even the Master does not know. There are limits to what can be computed and predicted. But even the unpredictable unknown is better than an eternal recurrence of the same thing. It’s worth a try.”

“I’m not too sure about the details. But in our legends, all the heavenly bodies love each other and want to be together. But if they really do cluster together, they won’t be orbiting around the earth and illuminating everything on the ground. That’s why the Maker separated them from each other, giving order and restraint to their love. Since the Little Red Star is the child of both the Sun and the Yellow Moon, if it ever did return, the Sun and the Yellow Moon would fight over it, each demanding that the Little Red Star revolve around itself. In that case, the Sun and the Yellow Moon would no longer orbit around each other, twirling in their dance. Instead, they’d be fighting each other, and the Little Red Star might even fall into one of them, bringing chaos to the heavenly order.”

“Also, I don’t think cold-blooded Zhang Beihai is going to be very nice to me. The first thing he might do is to tie me up and hand me over to the Party to be dissected for research.