The Dark Forest Read Free

I’ve learned that you can’t actually understand a significant amount of the reference materials on humanity we’ve given you.”
    Yes. You’ve explained the parts very clearly, but we are unable to understand the whole. Something is different.
    “Just one thing?”
    Yes. But it sometimes seems as if your world is missing something, other times that it has something extra, and we don’t know which.
    “What is the area of confusion?”
    We’ve carefully studied your documents and have discovered that the key to understanding the problem lies in a pair of synonyms.
    “Synonyms?”
    There are many synonyms and near-synonyms in your languages. In the first language we received from you, Chinese, there were words that expressed the same meaning, like “cold” and “chill,” “heavy” and “weighty,” “long” and “far.”
    “What pair of synonyms created the obstacle to understanding you’ve just mentioned?”
    “Think” and “say.” We’ve just learned, to our surprise, that they are not, in fact, synonyms.
    “They are not synonyms at all.”
    In our understanding, they ought to be. “Think” means using thought organs to conduct mental activity. “Say” means communicating the content of thoughts to a counterpart. The latter, in your world, is accomplished through the modulation of vibrations in the air produced by the vocal cords. Are these definitions correct?
    “They are. But doesn’t this demonstrate that ‘think’ and ‘say’ aren’t synonyms?”
    In our understanding, this shows that they are synonyms.
    “May I think about this for a moment?”
    Very well. We both need to think about it.
    For two minutes, Evans gazed in thought at the waves undulating beneath the starlight.
    “My Lord, what are your organs of communication?”
    We do not have organs of communication. Our brains can display our thoughts to the outside world, thereby achieving communication.
    “Display thoughts? How is that done?”
    The thoughts in our brains emit electromagnetic waves on all frequencies, including what is visible light to us. They can be displayed at a significant distance.
    “So that means that to you, thinking is speaking?”
    Hence they are synonyms.
    “Oh … That is not the case for us, but even so, that shouldn’t present an obstacle to understanding those documents.”
    True. In the areas of thought and communication, the differences between us are not large. We both have brains, and our brains produce intelligence through huge numbers of neural connections. The only difference is that our brain waves are stronger and can be directly received by our counterparts, eliminating the need for communication organs. That’s the only difference.
    “No. I suspect a major difference might be getting lost. My Lord, let me think about it again.”
    Very well.
    Evans left the bow and strolled along the deck. Over the gunwale, the Pacific rose and fell silently in the night. He imagined it as a thinking brain.
    “My Lord, let me tell you a story. To prepare for it, you need to understand the following elements: wolf, child, grandmother, and a house in the forest.”
    These elements are all easy to understand, except for “grandmother.” I know that this is a blood relation among humans, and usually means a woman of advanced age. But her actual kinship status requires more explanation.
    “Lord, that is not important. All you need to know is that she and the children have a close relationship. She is one of the only people the children trust.”
    Understood.
    “I’ll make it simple. Grandmother had to go out, so she left the children in the house, telling them they must make sure the door is shut and not to open it to anyone but her. On the road, Grandmother met a wolf, which ate her, and then put on her clothing and assumed her appearance. Then it went to the house and came up to the door, and said to the children, ‘I’m your grandmother. I’ve come back. Open the door for me.’ The