Chapter 158 Breaking the Cage of Rules_1

Leader: "An irresistible reason?

"Strategy Governor, what do you think this reason might be?"

No. 7: "The development of humanity in this half-century's great depression has at times truly terrified us; they've progressed too rapidly.

"Prior to the great depression, we also conducted simulations; in our simulations, even if the Moon could continuously supply food to all Earth's inhabitants, humans would inevitably collapse.

"During the great depression, the development of various technologies would be restricted, social environments would sharply deteriorate, and the combination of economic contraction and widespread panic would form a cruel, bleak era.

"However, Lin Sen, utilizing the Island Project, found a new path to rebirth, not only spurring a rapid development of human technology but also tempering their will with incomparable firmness.

"Lin Sen found that path we dare not even contemplate, the one that changed human destiny.

"It is through these actions that Lin Sen is telling us, he can change the human world's great depression, and he can also change the relationship between the Moon Base and the Earth Alliance.

"Both of these inherently resemble a miniature Dark Forest, Lin Sen—the name seems to intend to overturn the Dark Forest, to subvert it."

Science Governor: "To subvert the Dark Forest is impossible; it would undoubtedly be akin to the farmer working with the snake.

"In fact, the difference between us and humans is like that between the farmer and the snake. Humanity is the snake that could kill us at any moment; how could we possibly cooperate with them?

"The most rational choice, to prevent them from bringing us to our demise at any moment, is to kill them first.

"Even if we put aside our fears and temporarily reach cooperation, both parties will maintain a safe distance, and so the chain of suspicion will not be broken. The rationality of civilization can't be sustained indefinitely; in the end, we will still head towards the Dark Forest."

No. 7: "The Science Governor's analysis is correct; it's a rational assessment.

"However, under certain conditions, rationality could also become our greatest obstacle to survival.

"The relationship between the Moon Base and the Earth Alliance is similar to that between the farmer and the snake.

"We all know that the relationship between the Moon Base and the Earth Alliance was facilitated by Lin Sen as part of his plan.

"Lin Sen's actions may appear to us as highly irrational, and this irrationality might be what we need. But if we can find a new path, it would be irresistible to us as well."

Leader: "What you're saying is certainly enticing; this road is also what we desire, but the more tempting it is, the more likely it is to be poisonous.

"We must not relax our vigilance toward Lin Sen, and we could also quietly observe his methods and learn from them, as we've been doing for years."

No. 7: "Quiet observation has always been our consistent choice, because we fear being bitten by poisonous snakes like Lin Sen.

"But from another perspective, given the chance, Lin Sen would definitely act; we've always needed to maintain the highest level of vigilance against Lin Sen.

"But we must not let fear prevent us from contacting him; we need to conquer our fear of him, we can't lack even this amount of courage.

"From the perspective of the development of life species, rapid environmental changes are the key factor for life explosions, whether on Earth or on Trisolaris.

"Whenever super-scale climate changes occur on Earth, like continental drifts or ice ages... they always lead to a burst of life following a mass extinction of species.

"On Trisolaris it's even more so; although our civilization's technology developed slowly, the harsh and changeable climate of Trisolaris led to the fastest life evolution.

"After the Great Rip, there was no life left on Trisolaris, until the birth of the first life 70 million years later.

"Yet within just a few million years, we gave birth to a new Trisolaran civilization; on Earth, it took 3 billion years from the first life to evolve into human civilization. Is this luck or misfortune? Our luck, or the luck of human civilization...

"Looking at the development of civilizations, major changes in social environment will also lead to rapid development of civilizations. This somewhat resembles Lin Sen's 'Civilizational Cyclic Historiography.'

"The encounter between humanity and Trisolaris, for both of us, is the biggest change in history.

"Both face unprecedented challenges and opportunities. In this era of major changes, whoever dares to confront change, to bravely transcend and achieve a breakthrough of the self, will lead this era into a new future."

"In the past half-century, humanity has done it, Lin Sen has done it with his own strength, done it in the midst of calamities; without great determination, resolution, and fearlessness it would have been impossible.

"If we had remained insular, Earthlings would have had another 130 Earth years to develop before the arrival of the Waterdrop, by which time their technology might even have developed to counter our 'Droplets'.

"The greatest power of the 'Droplets' is that they have never appeared before humans, once used, we must annihilate humanity, otherwise, they would surely decipher it.

"Human schemes are endless; the outcome of the final battle is actually very hard to predict.

"What we must face will be faced sooner or later; by actively confronting 'disaster', we can find the opportunity to break through ourselves.

"Weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival; cowardice is!

"This is what Lin Sen also said; he has the qualifications to talk with us, and we need to talk to him as well.

"Even if Lin Sen did not contact us, we have also reached the point where we must take that step to change ourselves."

The Leader: "The voyage of civilization is like a flat boat, any storm might capsize her.

"Every decision is like dancing on a tightrope suspended over a cliff.

"Our Trisolaran civilization has gone through more than 200 cycles of civilizational rotation; why would we fear such a choice.

"I rather like something Lin Sen said 'Always be prepared.'

"In the past, we dared not respond to humans, because we had inherent deficiencies and were not ready, not because we were truly afraid.

"The Strategy Governor believes that humans have made too much progress in the past half-century, but have our advances in the same period been small?

"From the analysis you just gave, I can see we have also made a leap in our strategies.

"Now, we are ready, face Lin Sen head-on!"

No. 7 realized then that the Leader also thought it was time to face Lin Sen head-on; fear is useless, the only path to survival is to find the opportunity to break through amidst it.

Lin Sen has utterly changed the human world with the help of natural disasters and the Great Depression, and the Leader also wants to use Lin Sen to change the Trisolaran world.

In the Trisolaran simulations of their final battle, they currently see a 98% chance of successfully achieving all strategic goals, with their previous probability of victory always being infinitely close to 100%.

If you add the many schemes of humanity, what is that probability of victory, no one really knows.

The Trisolarans must also consider what would become of them if they fail to meet their strategic goals in the final battle, and what would become of the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet on its way.

The Trisolarans are too rational; rationality could also become the largest obstacle to survival.

Therefore, the Trisolarans need change, their social model needs change, and they may even embrace a Trisolaran revolution.

Undoubtedly this is a disaster, but vitality also lies within disaster; if the Trisolarans can achieve a breakthrough before the final battle, will they still be able to triumph then?

No. 7: "If we agree to respond to Lin Sen, it means establishing cooperation with him.

"We will need to consider how to cooperate."

The Leader: "Lin Sen seeks a path that alters the Earth-Moon relationship, so he probably does not want either the Moon Base or the Earth Alliance to be completely annihilated.

"He will certainly want us to provide a lot of intelligence on the Earth Alliance, make multiple deployments, and maintain the balance of the war, just like the Island Project maintained the balanced warfare of the Underground City.

"The maintenance of this balanced warfare is also what we need; after all, when one side nears extinction, the likelihood of someone broadcasting the coordinates to the universe is quite high."

No. 7: "No, that's far from enough. This way, we gain nothing; Lin Sen can deter us, but deterrence is mutual, we can strike back."

The Leader: "How would you strike back?"