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It wasn’t that Cheng Xin already occupied his heart: For him, she would always be the sun behind a veil of clouds. All he wanted was to look at her, to feel her light and warmth.
“Of course, I’ve only brought up two examples. Other universal laws of physics have been used as weapons as well, though we don’t know all of them. It’s very possible that every law of physics has been weaponized. It’s possible that in some parts of the universe, even … Forget it, I don’t even believe that.” “What were you going to say?” “The foundation of mathematics.” Cheng Xin tried to imagine it, but it was simply impossible. “That’s … madness.” Then she asked, “Will the universe turn into a war ruin? Or, maybe it’s more accurate to ask: Will the laws of physics turn into war ruins?” “Maybe they already are.… The physicists and cosmologists of the new world are focused on trying to recover the original appearance of the universe before the wars more than ten billion years ago. They’ve already constructed a fairly clear theoretical model describing the pre-war universe. That was a really lovely time, when the universe itself was a Garden of Eden. Of course, the beauty could only be described mathematically. We can’t picture it: Our brains don’t have enough dimensions.” Cheng Xin thought back to the conversation with the Ring again. Did you build this four-dimensional fragment? You told me that you came from the sea. Did you build the sea? “You are saying that the universe of the Edenic Age was four-dimensional, and that the speed of light was much higher?” “No, not at all. The universe of the Edenic Age was ten-dimensional. The speed of light back then wasn’t only much higher—rather, it was close to infinity. Light back then was capable of action at a distance, and could go from one end of the cosmos to the other within a Planck time.… If you had been to four-dimensional space, you would have some vague hint of how beautiful that ten-dimensional Garden must have been.” “You’re saying—” “I’m not saying anything.” Yifan seemed to have awakened from a dream. “We’ve only seen small hints; everything else is just guessing. You should treat it as a guess, just a dark myth we’ve made up.” But Cheng Xin continued to follow the course of the discussion taken so far. “—that during the wars after the Edenic Age, one dimension after another was imprisoned from the macroscopic into the microscopic, and the speed of light was reduced again and again.…” “As I said, I’m not saying anything, just guessing.” Yifan’s voice grew softer. “But no one knows if the truth is even darker than our guesses.… We are certain of only one thing: The universe is dying.” The”
― Death's End
― Death's End
“En ese momento el perro le respondió a su amo con un gruñido. ¡Por fin! ¡Cuánto habían tenido que esperar! ¡Karenin tiene ganas de jugar! ¡Karenin aún tiene ganas de vivir!
Aquel gruñido era la sonrisa de Karenin y ellos querían que la sonrisa durase el mayor tiempo posible.
[...]
Volvieron a mirarlo y a pensar que Karenin reía y que mientras riera seguiría teniendo un motivo para vivir, aunque estuviera condenado a muerte.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Aquel gruñido era la sonrisa de Karenin y ellos querían que la sonrisa durase el mayor tiempo posible.
[...]
Volvieron a mirarlo y a pensar que Karenin reía y que mientras riera seguiría teniendo un motivo para vivir, aunque estuviera condenado a muerte.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Aquello que no ha sido elegido por nosotros no podemos considerarlo ni como un mérito ni como un fracaso.”
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
― The Unbearable Lightness of Being
“Es ridícula su vergüenza. Sobre todo tratándose de dos personas grandes. ¿Por qué no decirle sencillamente la verdad? Visitarla en su despacho sin pretextos, y darle a entender lo que siente. Son adultos. Debería bastar con algunas medias palabras, algún gesto mundano que a ella le dé a entender su interés, y que Irene se imagine el resto.
¿Por qué no puede hacer eso? Porque no. Por eso. Porque lleva tantos años callándoselo que Chaparro prefiere que lo entierren con la verdad a cuestas antes que soltar de mal modo una versión edulcorada, dietética, digerible de lo que siente por ella.”
― The Secret in Their Eyes
¿Por qué no puede hacer eso? Porque no. Por eso. Porque lleva tantos años callándoselo que Chaparro prefiere que lo entierren con la verdad a cuestas antes que soltar de mal modo una versión edulcorada, dietética, digerible de lo que siente por ella.”
― The Secret in Their Eyes
“You don’t need to pity them. Really, let me tell you: don’t. The reality of the universe is not something to envy.” “Why?” Yifan lifted a hand and pointed at the stars of the galaxy. Then he let the 3G force pull his arm back to this chest. “Darkness. Only darkness.” “You mean the dark forest state?” Guan Yifan shook his head, a gesture that appeared to be a struggle in hypergravity. “For us, the dark forest state is all-important, but it’s just a detail of the cosmos. If you think of the cosmos as a great battlefield, dark forest strikes are nothing more than snipers shooting at the careless—messengers, mess men, etc. In the grand scheme of the battle, they are nothing. You have not seen what a true interstellar war is like.” “Have you?” “We’ve caught a few glimpses. But most things we know are just guesses.… Do you really want to know? The more you possess of this kind of knowledge, the less light remains in your heart.” “My heart is already completely dark. I want to know.” And so, more than six centuries after Luo Ji had fallen through ice into that lake, another dark veil hiding the truth about the universe was lifted before the gaze of one of the only survivors of Earth civilization. Yifan asked, “Why don’t you tell me what the most powerful weapon for a civilization possessing almost infinite technological prowess is? Don’t think of this as a technical question. Think philosophy.” Cheng Xin pondered for a while and then struggled to shake her head. “I don’t know.” “Your experiences should give you a hint.” What had she experienced? She had seen how a cruel attacker could lower the dimensions of space by one and destroy a solar system. What are dimensions? “The universal laws of physics,” Cheng Xin said. “That’s right. The universal laws of physics are the most terrifying weapons, and also the most effective defenses. Whether it’s by the Milky Way or the Andromeda Galaxy, at the scale of the local galactic group or the Virgo Supercluster, those warring civilizations possessing godlike technology will not hesitate to use the universal laws of physics as weapons. There are many laws that can be manipulated into weapons, but most commonly, the focus is on spatial dimensions and the speed of light. Typically, lowering spatial dimensions is a technique for attack, and lowering the speed of light is a technique for defense. Thus, the dimensional strike on the Solar System was an advanced attack method. A dimensional strike is a sign of respect. In this universe, respect is not easy to earn. I guess you could consider it an honor for Earth civilization.”
― Death's End
― Death's End
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