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

by Baoshu

To hold on to one’s independent will, to refuse to submit to enslavement, to despise enticements as well as threats—such was the dignity and pride of each individual human being.

You’re nothing but a bug. No matter how you struggle, in the end we will win.

“The work wasn’t that hard,” said a smiling Tianming. “When you have only limited time, somehow all you want to do is to procrastinate, nap, waste time. But when the time available to you is unlimited, you don’t want to do anything else except create. Those fairy tales were an insignificant portion of my output.”

a fait accompli,

“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.’”

“If every species in the cosmos believed this, perhaps there would be no dark forest.”

Each cubby contained numerous tiny apparatuses or devices glowing with an eerie light, each about the size of a grain of rice. Some of the grains squirmed and writhed on the floor … They are bugs. Tianming sucked in a breath. Everything finally made sense. Those silvery “devices” were the Trisolarans, each not much bigger than an ant.

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. Although each individual Trisolaran could to some degree think independently, they primarily relied on exchanging information with each other to build up a large collective databank that was their primary source of intelligence. Moreover, after joining during mating, each set of Trisolaran parents split into multiple larvae who each possessed some memories inherited from the parents. This adaptation allowed young Trisolarans to acquire basic living skills in a very short period of time, because their relatively simple brains handled modular memory effectively.

Only a dread of inescapable doom was left in Tianming’s mind. Though he couldn’t recall exactly what he was afraid of, the sense of foreboding persisted and often woke him at night.

We are moved most not by the grand mysteries of the universe, but by the emotional personal truths that define our individual pasts.

“I don’t think you mean ‘Facelook,’” Tianming said. “I think it was ‘Facebook.’” “I think you’re right. What kind of website was it?” “It was a—” As Tianming struggled to explain the ancient technology, he also tried to remember when he had signed up for such a thing. He didn’t remember doing much with it. It probably just contained some basic information about himself. “I see,” said AA. “I think you also linked yourself to a friend named Hu Wen? He seemed to be a good friend in college—” “My only friend,” Tianming interrupted.

“There is a cause for every effect, AA, but not all causes are responsible for all effects. To trace all causes and all effects is to end up in a twisted web with no end.

The two pairs of lovers, divided by the river of time, grew farther and farther apart. Perhaps they would never meet again.

E=mc2.

Curiosity died in him; he already knew too much.

“The Master is not an individual like a human being; rather, it is the sum of an infinite number of self-aware consciousnesses. Every consciousness shares the awareness of every other consciousness as well as the presence of the universe itself, and yet each possesses an independent will. This is a state of existence simply unimaginable by humans: individual presence absolutely, seamlessly harmonized with the universe, akin to the geometric construction of the Spirit you saw.”

“The history of the nine-dimensional universe was a continuation of the ten-dimensional universe. Unlike dimension reduction for lower-dimension universes, the unified life of the ten-dimensional universe did not die after being reduced to nine dimensions; rather, the consciousnesses split and became divided from one another, turning into countless parallel civilizations. Most of them, however, kept the memory and civilization inherited from the ten-dimensional universe, and a large number of them came together to try to revive the ten-dimensional universe. But some of them were deceived and seduced by the Lurker and joined the enemy camp.”

True life could only exist in the cruel and severe dark forest; death was the required condition for life.

“A dead balance bird is easy to cure.”

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.