SOLE SOLUTION

He brooded in darkness and there was no one else. Not a voice, not a whisper. Not the touch of a hand. Not the warmth of another heart.

Darkness.

Solitude.

Eternal confinement where all was black and silent and nothing stirred.Imprisonment without prior condemnation. Punishment without sin. The unbearable that had to be borne unless some mode of escape could be devised.

No hope of rescue from elsewhere. No sorrow or sympathy or pity in another soul, another mind. No doors to be opened, no locks to be turned, no bars to be sawn apart. Only the thick, deep sable night in which to fumble and find nothing.

Circle a hand to the right and there is nought. Sweep an arm to the left and discover emptiness utter and complete. Walk forward through the darkness like a blind man lost in a vast, forgotten hall and there is no floor, no echo of footsteps, nothing to bar one’s path.

He could touch and sense one thing only. And that was self.

Therefore the only available resources with which to overcome his predicament were those secreted within himself. He must be the instrument of his own salvation.

How?

No problem is beyond solution. By that thesis science lives. Without it, science dies. He was the ultimate scientist. As such, he could not refuse this challenge to his capabilities.

His torments were those of boredom, loneliness, mental and physical sterility. They were not to be endured. The easiest escape is via the imagination. One hangs in a strait-jacket and flees the corporeal trap by adventuring in a dreamland of one’s own.

But dreams are not enough. They are unreal and all too brief. The freedom to be gained must be genuine and of long duration. That meant he must make a stern reality of dreams, a reality so contrived that it would persist for all time. It must be self-perpetuating. Nothing less would make escape complete.

So he sat in the great dark and battled the problem. There was no clock, no calendar to mark the length of thought. There were no external data upon which to compute. There was nothing, nothing except the workings within his agile mind.

And one thesis: no problem is beyond solution.

He found it eventually. It meant escape from everlasting night. It would provide experience, companionship, adventure, mental exercise, entertainment, warmth, love, the sound of voices, the touch of hands.

The plan was anything but rudimentary. On the contrary it was complicated enough to defy untangling for endless aeons. It had to be like that to have permanence. The unwanted alternative was swift return to silence and the bitter dark.

It took a deal of working out. A million and one aspects had to be considered along with all their diverse effects upon each other. And when that was done he had to cope with the next million. And so on ... on ... on.

He created a mighty dream of his own, a place of infinite complexity schemed in every detail to the last dot and comma. Within this he would live anew. But not as himself. He was going to dissipate his person into numberless parts, a great multitude of variegated shapes and forms each of which would have to battle its own peculiar environment.

And he would toughen the struggle to the limit of endurance by unthinking himself, handicapping his parts with appalling ignorance and forcing them to learn afresh. He would seed enmity between them by dictating the basic rules of the game. Those who observed the rules would be called good. Those who did not would be called bad. Thus there would be endless delaying conflicts within the one great conflict.

When all was ready and prepared he intended to disrupt and become no longer one, but an enormous concourse of entities. Then his parts must fight back to unity and himself. But first he must make reality of the dream. Ah, that was the test!

The time was now. The experiment must begin. Leaning forward, he gazed into the dark and said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.

他沉浸在黑暗中，周围没有其他人。没有声音，没有低语。没有手的触碰，也没有另一颗心的温暖。 黑暗。 孤独。 永恒的禁锢，一切都是漆黑、寂静、毫无动静。没有经过审判的囚禁，没有罪过的惩罚。这无法忍受的境遇必须忍受，除非能找到一种逃脱的方法。 没有来自他处的救援希望。没有其他灵魂或心灵的悲伤、同情或怜悯。没有门可以打开，没有锁可以转动，没有栏杆可以锯断。只有浓重、深沉的漆黑夜晚，在其中摸索却一无所获。 向右转动手，什么也没有。向左挥动手臂，发现彻底的虚空。像盲人一样在黑暗中前行，仿佛迷失在一个巨大而遗忘的大厅中，没有地板，没有脚步声的回响，没有任何东西阻挡去路。 他只能触摸和感知一件事物，那就是他自己。 因此，克服困境的唯一可用资源，就是隐藏在他自身内部的那些力量。他必须成为自己救赎的工具。 如何做到？ 没有问题是无法解决的。科学正是基于这一论点而存在。没有它，科学就会消亡。他是终极科学家。因此，他不能拒绝这一对他能力的挑战。 他的痛苦源于无聊、孤独、精神和肉体的贫瘠。这些痛苦无法忍受。最简单的逃脱方式是通过想象力。一个人被束缚在紧身衣中，却通过在自己创造的梦境中冒险，逃离了肉体的陷阱。 但梦境是不够的。它们是虚幻的，且过于短暂。获得的自由必须是真实的，并且持久。这意味着他必须将梦境变为严酷的现实，这种现实必须经过精心设计，以使其永久存在。它必须是自我延续的。只有这样，逃脱才能彻底完成。 于是，他坐在巨大的黑暗中，与问题搏斗。没有时钟，没有日历来标记思考的长度。没有外部数据可供计算。什么都没有，只有他敏捷头脑中的运作。 以及一个论点：没有问题是无法解决的。 最终，他找到了解决方案。这意味着从永恒的黑夜中逃脱。它将提供经验、陪伴、冒险、精神锻炼、娱乐、温暖、爱、声音的响动和手的触碰。 这个计划绝非简单。相反，它复杂到足以在无尽的岁月中无法被解开。它必须如此，才能具有持久性。否则，唯一的替代选择就是迅速回归寂静和苦涩的黑暗。 这需要大量的努力。一百万个方面必须被考虑，连同它们彼此之间的各种影响。当这一切完成后，他还需要应对下一个百万。如此反复…… 他创造了一个属于自己的宏大梦境，一个无限复杂的地方，每一个细节都被精心设计到最后一个点和逗号。在这个世界中，他将重新生活。但不是以他自己的身份。他打算将自己的存在分散成无数的部分，形成大量多样化的形状和形式，每个部分都必须与自己的独特环境斗争。 他通过“遗忘自己”来加剧这种斗争，使他的部分陷入可怕的愚昧，并迫使它们重新学习。他通过在游戏中制定基本规则，在他的部分之间播下敌意。遵守规则的人被称为“好”，不遵守规则的人被称为“坏”。因此，在一场巨大的冲突中，将有无尽的延迟性冲突。 当一切准备就绪后，他打算分裂自己，不再是一个整体，而是成为一个巨大的实体集合。然后，他的部分必须战斗，回归统一，回归他自己。 但首先，他必须将梦境变为现实。啊，这才是考验！ 时机已到。实验必须开始。他向前倾身，凝视着黑暗，说道：“要有光。”于是，就有了光。