Chapter 346: Negotiations with Dinosaurs

If the Trisolarans had witnessed this war's outcome, they would surely have exclaimed, "Cutting, cutting, and more cutting," as if humanity intended to take cutting to the extreme.

From the nanofilament slicing through the ETO's headquarters, the Judicator, to the merciless severing of the Quantum Research Base of the First Emperor of Qin by the Nanonet, even the most defensively robust Trisolaran Droplets were cut open under the strike of the high-energy particle beams.

Now, the Dinosaur Empire finally experienced the agony once felt by the Trisolarans; their magnificent warships were shattered into pieces by the low-lightspeed curved surface cutting. The Trisolarans, if watching, would probably want to say, 'We are not alone in this path'.

A hundred thousand warships turned to ash in the blink of an eye, a scene that instilled unprecedented fear in all the dinosaurs. And humanity, merely by deploying 2000 warships, had achieved such a victory!

The dinosaurs had lost their last chip for deterring humanity; now they no longer had any chips to play.

Some might say that the dinosaurs still had the deterrence of the Dark Forest, with a second or two of response time from detecting a human attack to its actual arrival. Knowing extinction was imminent, they could completely press the button broadcasting the Solar System's coordinates in that brief window, thereby forcing humanity to refrain from launching attacks lightly.

However, despite the reality of this one to two seconds of reaction time, the dinosaurs would not have the resolute courage to send out such a broadcast.

First, once the broadcast was sent, an unending battle to the death between dinosaurs and humans would be set in stone. Given the current situation, where the dinosaurs were far weaker than humans, humanity would seize this opportunity to completely annihilate the dinosaur race. Thus, the dinosaurs would never make such a decision lightly unless it was the very last moment.

Faced with such a choice, the dinosaurs would hesitate. Just a second or two of hesitation, and they would have no opportunity left.

Second, even if the dinosaurs sent the broadcast, humans would still have time to escape and would not be extinguished, while the fate of the dinosaurs would be sealed.

Therefore, sending the broadcast would be more like an act of revenge against humanity as the dinosaur empire acknowledged its imminent doom.

Lastly, even if the dinosaurs used an intelligent program to control the launch button, it would not give them any advantage in the game, as intelligent programs might not be reliable for the dinosaurs at crucial moments.

On one hand, intelligent programs can't discern many situations; what if it's just a probing attack by the humans themselves? On the other hand, there was a risk of Sophon programs being hacked, as humanity was constantly being monitored by Sophons.

In this game, even though the dinosaur's motherships and their warships seemed uncommitted, the dinosaurs had undoubtedly lost everything.

Lin Sen spoke again, "Now, do we have the credentials to talk with you?"

The Dinosaur King and the assembly of elder ministers gradually recovered from their initial shock. Anger would not help, and sorrow was the moan of the powerless.

This moment was the most critical for Dinosaur Civilization; as the king of the Dinosaur Empire, he had to pull himself together and find a path of hope for the survival of their civilization.

The Dinosaur King took a deep breath and responded with unprecedented calmness and honesty,

"Of course, Mr. Lin Sen."

"From the moment we decided to come to the Solar System, we were wrong. We should not have provoked a mighty civilization like humanity.

"With your power, you could defeat us even before our motherships entered the Solar System. If you had ambushed us in the interstellar, we might not even know who attacked us before our civilization perished.

"Yet, you specifically drew us into the Solar System, which also indicates you must have other intentions for us, intentions that ought to be benign.

"Not destroying us directly is the greatest kindness you could show us.

"Additionally, we need to clarify that from the beginning, we had no malice towards you. Although arrogant, we never thought about wiping you out.

"Our expectation was to make some of you leave the Solar System to wander the stars, and some to enter the Devouring Empire and become our citizens. That was what we considered the ultimate treatment for the defeated.

"We just wanted to go home, and were heartened that intelligent life had once again emerged on Earth.

"Please state your demands, whatever they are, because we don't have much room to negotiate anymore."

The Dinosaur King understood that bargaining with Lin Sen was meaningless; it would be relevant only if there wasn't a significant disparity between the two sides.

Although the Dinosaur Empire still possesses many advanced weapons such as planet-level gamma-ray bursts and dark energy prisons... etc., they all seem meaningless now. These weapons appear quite naive in front of the neutron star warships.

The current situation is like being fish on a chopping board with humans wielding the knife. The only thing the dinosaurs can do is listen to Lin Sen's suggestions or demands.

If they cannot accept, the Dinosaur Empire will disappear into the long river of history. However, given the current circumstances, this possibility does not seem large.

The Dinosaur King also urgently needs humans to put forward specific demands because as long as demands are made, it means that humans do not intend to destroy the Dinosaur Civilization. Conversely, if humans do not even put forward demands, that would be the most dangerous for Dinosaur Civilization.

Lin Sen naturally also discerned the purpose of the Dinosaur King's probing, but he indeed had no intention of annihilating the Dinosaur Civilization.

Perhaps in some people's minds, crippling the Dinosaur Civilization and then, over a long period, having the small surviving population of dinosaurs truly assimilated and integrated into human society is the most correct choice.

On one hand, humans would not have to worry about future threats from the dinosaurs, and if the dinosaurs were to act against humans, it would be akin to a rebellion within the civilization. With proper vigilance, it would be possible to avoid major losses to Human Civilization. At least, there would be no risk of extinction.

On the other hand, the addition of the dinosaurs would be tantamount to another diversification in the development of Human Civilization. This would immeasurably promote the development of human technology, culture, and thought, a deeper level of societal advancement than the contact with semiotics.

Indeed, this approach might be the most "rational," enabling the advancement of one's own civilization while also ensuring its security.

But is "rational" necessarily the choice of civilization? Is rational really synonymous with "correct"?

Perhaps so-called rationality is just a reflection of our submission to reality and the contradictions of survival in our hearts—its essence is to maintain the status quo and seek security, a psychological state of finding some comfort in adversity.

Breaking the Dark Forest may not be a simple accumulation of technological breakthroughs over time. If it were, the Dark Forest would not exist.

From the state of the Dark Forest, Sweepers typically do not dare to venture close to a stellar system. It is a very dangerous thing. Launching a Dark Forest Strike usually requires specific "information referencing."

This means that during the independent development process, most civilizations should be able to avoid emitting such "information references," thereby avoiding the Dark Forest Strike. Even if only a small number of civilizations can avoid it, on the cosmic stage, that would still be a significant number.

However, this raises a major question: If the efficiency of Dark Forest Strikes is so low, and even the meaning is not significant, why then do High-Level Civilizations, aside from that pathological self-protection desire, still insist on carrying out Dark Forest Strikes?

Therefore, Lin Sen is more inclined to believe that the emergence of the Dark Forest is not only due to civilization constraints, chains of suspicion, and technological explosions but more importantly, the reasons lie in the social psychological phenomena of the universe.

Just like in the fleeing warships, the psychology of the fleeing humans had changed, and at this moment, they have transformed into beasts struggling for survival. If they could continue to develop and eventually become a High-Level Civilization, they would likely, like other High-Level Civilizations, launch Dark Forest Strikes against other civilizations. This is already deeply ingrained in their genes.

A civilization without a home, left wandering in the universe with no legal or moral constraints, loses its respect and awe for the universe.

In such a state, a civilization becomes akin to a virus, caring only for barbaric competition and development. At that time, they might no longer be called a civilization, but rather a group of beasts wielding apocalyptic weapons.

Of course, this is not to say their actions are wrong. In the cruel competition of the universe, if not for these measures, they probably would have been destroyed long ago. Perhaps this is the contradiction of survival: survival is incompatible with civilization.

Certainly, in the universe, there must be countless civilizations all trying hard to break free from the shackles of the Dark Forest. Many civilizations have also tried integration, but integration is not such a simple matter.

As with the example of dinosaurs and ants, even if two civilizations are to some extent symbiotic, they could ultimately, due to a variety of complex reasons, move towards a war of civilizations, even to the destruction of both.

But Lin Sen still hopes to change, to change this cosmic social psychological phenomenon, starting with the Dinosaur Civilization.

Perhaps there are other forms of alliance between civilizations. Lin Sen's wish is not simply to have the Dinosaur Civilization join Human Civilization, but also to maintain a certain degree of independence for the Dinosaur Civilization. Directly becoming part of Human Society doesn't make much sense for them.

However, this also means that the Dinosaur Civilization could become a threat to Human Civilization at any time, which is, of course, immensely dangerous. But Lin Sen repeats his stance, civilization by its nature is a process of moving towards demise.

Inside a civilization, a multitude of complex interest groups fill its fabric, and the strife and games between them constitute the internal driving force of civilization's development. However, there is no such related interest between civilizations, making exchange or cooperation extremely difficult.

If there are no related interests, then we must cultivate them; if that doesn't work, then we create them.

If humans cannot even change the Dinosaur Civilization born of the same homeland, how can they dream of changing others.