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

by Baoshu

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.