📚心得【Children of Time #1】 by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2015

#異種族視角 #末日 #uplifting #文明創造 #世代船 #跨越多時代 #bio_engineering #symbiosis

"Humanity is overrated." 人類被自己過度美化了。

一直以來Adrian都很會以「生物擬人化」、不同於人類的角度來寫故事，《Children of Time》毫無疑問的是至今為止他筆下最成功的經典。我一直覺得，當其他生物也開始有感官、智慧時，「應該以何者為本位來思考」就成為很兩難的問題，如《寂靜春天》的例子，殺蟲劑與農藥撐起了人類人口數的成長，卻也殺了更多昆蟲與鳥類的生命，而善惡只是主觀角度的問題罷了。

首先，這是我心目中的神作，也是第二本讓我追買實體書的小說，希望有興趣的人能自己體會，這段就當防雷，read at your own risk.

故事背景發生在人類尚未完成任何一個星球改造計畫卻已面臨文明崩解危機，當戰爭失控、地球核塵埃未定、電子病毒又肆虐了所有太空站與殖民地的維生系統，沒有完整生態系的生活環境雪崩式浩劫，人類只能在核冬天的地球上苟延殘喘時，幾個正在進行中的Terraforming Project就成為了最後能讓人類長存、定居的希望，《Children of Time》就發生在完成度最高的綠星上：人類老早就派出了無人世代船、丟下感染了奈米病毒的猴子，這些病毒會將上一代的記憶透過類似CRISPR的方式刻在DNA上傳承給下一代，促使知識在猴子傳宗接代的過程中透過病毒延續，希望能縮短猴子演化成人類程度智慧所花費的時間，並讓一個AI人造衛星監控、發訊，來觀測、檢驗底下生物的智慧演化程度。

當然，一切都沒那麼順利，因為最後完成智慧演化的是：蜘蛛，而世代船上的人類總得有個有完整生態圈的家，衝突貌似無法避免。

故事視角不斷在人類僅存的世代船與從原始生活逐漸進化到工業文明的蜘蛛間切換，形成強烈的對比：high tech, low life的逐漸退化、不得已之下不理性的人類，與low tech, low life的逐漸進化、為邏輯著迷的蜘蛛，讓讀者不感到絲毫無趣，不斷想知道最後人蛛之爭會如何收尾。

蜘蛛文明在成長的過程中，學會了與其他種族共生、繁榮；人類文明則在觀察其他生物的做法後，以人工方式效仿、改進，無意之間拉大了雙方文化上的差距：是否在意共生種族的生活品質。

人類的自私、不顧自然中的其他生物是有目共睹，社會中人人在意相互之間外溢的外部成本，卻很少人認真思考為了自己的方便、讓多少生物絕跡；蜘蛛們同樣將其他生物當成物品看待，卻知道這些物品也能有自己能利用、一同合作的未來，打從心底珍惜存在本身，兩者造就了完全不同的文化發展方向。

故事中，雙方都歷經種種苦難，也都有大義滅親、大公無私、故步自封之"人"，經過也許數世紀，才走到面對賽局理論、不得不戰的地步，卻有著近乎不可能卻合理的美好結局，整本看完真的神清氣爽。

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IMO總分：92分，深切傳達人類作為智慧生物的不完美與破除人類永存印象的神作。

核心思想：★★★★★ 核心討論議題是否有趣*5

劇情細節：★★★★★ 綜觀整體劇情的質與量*4

角色刻畫：★★★★☆ 角色群的必要性與深度*3

科學軟硬：★★★★☆ 是否符合現實物理現象*3

結局滿意：★★★★★ 結局滿意度與有無餘韻*3

易讀程度：★★★★☆ 閱讀時章節是否難消化*2

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#Alien_Perspectives #Apocalypse #Uplifting #Civilization_Building #Generation_Ships #Spanning_Eras #Bio_Engineering #Symbiosis #Masterpiece

"Humanity is overrated."

Adrian always excels at writing stories from a "bio-thropomorphism" angle, viewing things differently than humans do.《Children of Time》is undoubtedly his most successful and classic work to date. I've always felt that when other creatures also possess consciousness and intelligence, it becomes extremely challenging to determine which perspective should take precedence. For example, in the case of《Silent Spring》, pesticides supported human population growth but also wiped out countless insects and birds, where the good and evil are merely subjective judgments by each side.

First off, this is my favorite masterpiece, and it's the second book for which I bought a physical copy. I hope those interested can experience it firsthand. This section serves as a spoiler warning: read at your own risk.

The story unfolds before any of humanity's planetary transformation projects are completed. When war spirals out of control, Earth is blanketed in nuclear fallout, and electronic viruses ravage all space stations and colony life support systems, humanity barely survives in the nuclear winter on Earth. The Terraforming Project becomes their last hope for survival and a place to settle down.《Children of Time》takes place on the most advanced terraformed planet, the "Green Star". Long ago, they had put monkeys infected with DNA-editing nanoviruses there from Earth, hoping knowledge would be passed down through generations via the virus, thereby reducing the time needed for monkeys to evolve into humans with comparable intelligence. An AI satellite monitors and communicates to observe and assess the evolution of sentient life below.

Of course, nothing goes as planned because it's the spiders that ended up evolving into the conquering sentient species of the planet, while the generational ship-dwelling humans need a complete ecosystem for their home — conflict seems inevitable.

The narrative constantly switches between the remaining human generation ships and the gradually evolving spiders, creating strong contrasts: human's degrading high tech, low life on ships suffering from irrationality and desperation; versus spiders' logical obsession with gradual civilization. Readers will never get bored through all these and will be compelled to find out how the human vs spider conflict concludes.

As the spider civilization grows, they learn to coexist and thrive with other species. The human civilization, after observing other creatures, imitates and improves their ways artificially, unintentionally widening the cultural gap between them: whether one cares about the living quality of symbiotic species.

Human selfishness and disregard for other life forms in nature are evident; people care about the external costs imposed on each other but rarely reflect on how many species have been pushed to extinction for their own convenience. The spiders similarly treat other creatures as objects but recognize these "objects" can be utilized and cooperated with for a shared future, deeply valuing existence of life itself. This leads to entirely different cultural development paths.

Throughout the story, both sides endure numerous hardships and have individuals who make great sacrifices for the greater good, and others who remain conservative and stubborn. It takes centuries to reach a point where they must confront in game theory fashion and face each other. Yet, they arrive at an almost impossible surprisingly reasonable good ending. This book had given me so many surprises, reading through it truly feels refreshing.

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IMO Total Score: 92. A work that profoundly conveys the imperfection of humanity as a wise species and demolishes the notion of human permanence — a sincerely true masterpiece. MUST READ!

Core Theme: ★★★★★ (*5)

Plot Quality: ★★★★★ (*4)

Character Development: ★★★★☆ (*3)

Science Validity: ★★★★☆ (*3)

Ending Satisfaction: ★★★★★ (*3)

Readability: ★★★★☆ (*2)