The Supernova Era

by Liu Cixin

It’s quite possible that a children’s world might be a play-based world.” Xiaomeng said, “But how’s that related to the breakthroughs and advancement for civilization? Will play be able to produce those?” “How do you imagine human civilization advances?” Specs shot back. “Through hard work?” “It doesn’t?” “Ants and bees are industrious, but how advanced is their civilization? Humanity’s dim-witted ancestors cleared the earth with crude stone shovels, and then when they found that tiring, learned how to refine bronze and iron. When they found that tiring, they wondered whether they could find anything to do the work in their stead, and so they invented steam engines, electricity, and nuclear energy. Then even thinking became tiresome, so they looked for something to do it for them, and thus computers were invented. . . . ​Civilization progresses not due to humans’ hard work, but because of their laziness. One look at the natural world will show you that humans are the laziest of all creatures.”