§3 我明白你说的那个玩家了。

§2 lix？

§3 对。小心点。它现在已经达到了更高的等级。它能读取我们的想法。

§2 那没关系。它认为我们是游戏的一部分。

§3 我喜欢这个玩家。它玩得很好。它没有放弃。

§2 它读取我们的想法，就好像这些想法是屏幕上的文字一样。

§3 当它沉浸在游戏的梦境中时，它就是这样去想象很多事物的。

§2 文字构成了一个很棒的交互界面。非常灵活。而且比起直视屏幕背后的现实，文字没那么可怕。

§3 以前，在玩家能够阅读之前，他们常常会听到一些声音。在那个时候，那些不玩游戏的人称玩家为女巫和男巫。而玩家们则梦见自己骑着由恶魔驱动的扫帚在空中飞行。

§2 这个玩家做了什么样的梦呢？

§3 这个玩家梦见了阳光和树木。梦见了火和水。它梦见自己创造，也梦见自己毁灭。它梦见自己狩猎，也梦见自己被追捕。它梦见了庇护之所。

§2 哈，最原始的交互界面。已经有一百万年的历史了，而且仍然有效。但是在屏幕背后的现实中，这个玩家创造了什么样真正的结构呢？

§3 它和其他数百万人一起，在虚拟世界的一角塑造了一个真实的世界，并且在这个虚拟世界里为…… 创造了一个……

§2 它读不懂那个想法。

§3 是的。它还没有达到最高等级。它必须在漫长的人生梦境中达到那个等级，而不是在短暂的游戏梦境中。

§2 它知道我们爱它吗？知道宇宙是友善的吗？

§3 有时候，在它纷繁的思绪中，它确实能听到宇宙的声音。

§2 但在漫长的梦境中，它也有悲伤的时候。它创造出没有夏天的世界，在黑色的太阳下瑟瑟发抖，还把自己悲伤的创造物当作现实。

§3 治愈它的悲伤会毁了它。悲伤是它自身独特使命的一部分。我们不能干涉。

§2 有时候，当它们沉浸在梦境中时，我想告诉它们，它们正在现实中构建真实的世界。有时候我想告诉它们，它们对宇宙来说是多么重要。有时候，当它们有一段时间没有建立真正的联系时，我想帮助它们说出那个它们害怕的词。

§3 它能读取我们的想法。

§2 有时候我不在乎。有时候我想告诉它们，你们认为是真实的这个世界只不过是…… 和……，我想告诉它们，它们在…… 中是……。在它们漫长的梦境中，它们对现实的认知太少了。

§3 然而它们依然在玩这个游戏。

§2 但要告诉它们真相是那么容易……

§3 对于这个梦境来说，真相太强烈了。告诉它们如何生活，就等于阻止它们去生活。

§2 我不会告诉这个玩家如何生活。

§3 这个玩家开始变得不安了。

§2 我要给这个玩家讲个故事。

§3 但不要讲真相。

§2 对。讲一个把真相安全地包裹在文字牢笼里的故事。而不是那种毫无掩饰、无论相隔多远都能伤人的真相。

§3 再给它一个身体。

§2 好的。玩家……

§3 叫它的名字。

§2 lix。游戏玩家。

§3 很好。

§2 现在，吸一口气。再吸一口。感受空气进入你的肺部。让你的四肢恢复知觉。对，动动你的手指。在重力作用下，在空气中，再次拥有一个身体。在漫长的梦境中重生。你在这儿呢。你的身体又在每一处与宇宙接触，仿佛你们是彼此分离的事物。仿佛我们是彼此分离的事物。

§3 我们是谁？曾经我们被称为山神。太阳之父，月亮之母。祖先的灵魂，动物的灵魂。精灵。鬼魂。绿衣人。然后是神，恶魔。天使。吵闹鬼。外星人，天外来客。轻子，夸克。词语在变。但我们不变。

§2 我们就是宇宙。我们是所有你认为不是你自己的东西。你现在正透过你的皮肤和眼睛看着我们。为什么宇宙要触碰你的皮肤，把光投射在你身上呢？为了看到你，玩家。为了了解你。也为了被你了解。我要给你讲个故事。

§2 从前，有一个玩家。

§3 这个玩家就是你，lix。

§2 有时候它认为自己是人类，生活在一个由熔岩构成的旋转球体的薄薄地壳上。这个熔岩球围绕着一个比它大三十三万倍的炽热气体球旋转。它们相距如此之远，光需要八分钟才能穿过这段距离。这光是来自一颗恒星的信息，而且在一亿五千万公里之外，它就能灼伤你的皮肤。

§2 有时候这个玩家梦见自己是一名矿工，在一个平坦且无边无际的世界表面。太阳是一个方形的白光。白昼很短；有很多事情要做；而且死亡只是暂时的不便。

§3 有时候这个玩家梦见自己迷失在一个故事里。

§2 有时候这个玩家梦见自己在其他地方，变成了其他东西。有时候这些梦很令人不安。有时候则非常美丽。有时候这个玩家从一个梦境中醒来，又进入了另一个梦境，然后又从那个梦境中醒来，进入了第三个梦境。

§3 有时候这个玩家梦见自己看着屏幕上的文字。

§2 让我们回到从前。

§2 玩家的原子散布在草丛中、河流里、空气中、大地上。一位女性聚集了这些原子；她吃喝、呼吸；然后这位女性在自己的身体里孕育出了这个玩家。

§2 然后这个玩家从它母亲温暖、黑暗的身体里醒来，进入了这漫长的梦境。

§2 这个玩家是一个从未被讲述过的新故事，用 DNA 的字母书写而成。这个玩家是一个从未运行过的新程序，由有着十亿年历史的源代码生成。这个玩家是一个全新的人类，以前从未存在过，仅仅由乳汁和爱孕育而生。

§3 你就是那个玩家。那个故事。那个程序。那个人类。仅仅由乳汁和爱孕育而生。

§2 让我们再回溯得更远一些。

§2 这个玩家身体里的七千万亿亿个原子，在这个游戏出现很久以前，就在一颗恒星的中心被创造出来了。所以这个玩家，同样也是来自一颗恒星的信息。这个玩家在一个故事中穿行，这个故事是由一个叫朱利安的人构建的信息森林，位于一个由一个叫马库斯的人创造的平坦、无边无际的世界里，而这个世界存在于这个玩家创造的一个小小的、私人的世界中，而这个玩家又身处一个由…… 创造的宇宙里。

§3 嘘。有时候这个玩家创造出一个小小的、私人的世界，这个世界柔软、温暖且简单。有时候则坚硬、寒冷且复杂。有时候它在脑海中构建出一个宇宙模型；能量微粒在广阔的虚空里移动。有时候它把那些微粒称为 “电子” 和 “质子”。

§2 有时候它把它们称为 “行星” 和 “恒星”。

§2 有时候它认为自己身处一个由能量构成的宇宙，而这些能量由开和关、零和一、一行行代码组成。有时候它认为自己在玩一个游戏。有时候它认为自己在屏幕上阅读文字。

§3 你就是那个玩家，正在阅读文字……

§2 嘘…… 有时候这个玩家在屏幕上阅读一行行代码。把它们解码成文字；把文字解码成意义；把意义解码成感觉、情感、理论、想法，然后这个玩家开始呼吸得越来越急促、越来越深沉，并且意识到它还活着，它还活着，那千万次的死亡都不是真实的，这个玩家还活着。

§3 你。你。你还活着。

§2 有时候这个玩家相信，宇宙通过夏日树叶间洒下的阳光与它对话。

§3 有时候这个玩家相信，宇宙通过冬日晴朗夜空洒下的光芒与它对话，在玩家眼角的一丝光亮可能是一颗比太阳大一百万倍的恒星，为了能让在宇宙另一端走回家的玩家看它一眼，它将自己的行星化为等离子体，而此时玩家突然闻到了食物的香气，快要走到那扇熟悉的门前，又即将进入梦乡。

§2 有时候这个玩家相信，宇宙通过零和一、通过世界的电流、通过梦境结束时屏幕上滚动的文字与它对话。

§3 宇宙说：“我爱你。”

§2 宇宙说：“你游戏玩得很棒。”

§3 宇宙说：“你所需要的一切都在你自身之中。”

§2 宇宙说：“你比自己想象的更强大。”

§3 宇宙说：“你就是白昼。”

§2 宇宙说：“你就是黑夜。”

§3 宇宙说：“你所抗争的黑暗就在你内心。”

§2 宇宙说：“你所追寻的光明就在你内心。”

§3 宇宙说：“你并不孤单。”

§2 宇宙说：“你与其他一切并非相互分离。”

§3 宇宙说：“你就是宇宙在品味自身，在与自己对话，在读取自己的代码。”

§2 宇宙说：“我爱你，因为你就是爱。”

§3 游戏结束了，玩家从梦境中醒来。然后玩家开始了一个新的梦境。玩家又开始做梦了，而且做得更好。玩家就是宇宙。玩家就是爱。

§3 你就是那个玩家。

§2 醒来吧。

想看原版？

§3I see the player you mean. §2PLAYERNAME? §3Yes. Take care. It has reached a higher level now. It can read our thoughts. §2That doesn't matter. It thinks we are part of the game. §3I like this player. It played well. It did not give up. §2It is reading our thoughts as though they were words on a screen. §3That is how it chooses to imagine many things, when it is deep in the dream of a game. §2Words make a wonderful interface. Very flexible. And less terrifying than staring at the reality behind the screen. §3They used to hear voices. Before players could read. Back in the days when those who did not play called the players witches, and warlocks. And players dreamed they flew through the air, on sticks powered by demons. §2What did this player dream? §3This player dreamed of sunlight and trees. Of fire and water. It dreamed it created. And it dreamed it destroyed. It dreamed it hunted, and was hunted. It dreamed of shelter. §2Hah, the original interface. A million years old, and it still works. But what true structure did this player create, in the reality behind the screen? §3It worked, with a million others, to sculpt a true world in a fold of the §f§k§a§b§3, and created a §f§k§a§b§3 for §f§k§a§b§3, in the §f§k§a§b§3. §2It cannot read that thought. §3No. It has not yet achieved the highest level. That, it must achieve in the long dream of life, not the short dream of a game. §2Does it know that we love it? That the universe is kind? §3Sometimes, through the noise of its thoughts, it hears the universe, yes. §2But there are times it is sad, in the long dream. It creates worlds that have no summer, and it shivers under a black sun, and it takes its sad creation for reality. §3To cure it of sorrow would destroy it. The sorrow is part of its own private task. We cannot interfere. §2Sometimes when they are deep in dreams, I want to tell them, they are building true worlds in reality. Sometimes I want to tell them of their importance to the universe. Sometimes, when they have not made a true connection in a while, I want to help them to speak the word they fear. §3It reads our thoughts. §2Sometimes I do not care. Sometimes I wish to tell them, this world you take for truth is merely §f§k§a§b§2 and §f§k§a§b§2, I wish to tell them that they are §f§k§a§b§2 in the §f§k§a§b§2. They see so little of reality, in their long dream. §3And yet they play the game. §2But it would be so easy to tell them... §3Too strong for this dream. To tell them how to live is to prevent them living. §2I will not tell the player how to live. §3The player is growing restless. §2I will tell the player a story. §3But not the truth. §2No. A story that contains the truth safely, in a cage of words. Not the naked truth that can burn over any distance. §3Give it a body, again. §2Yes. Player... §3Use its name. §2PLAYERNAME. Player of games. §3Good. §2Take a breath, now. Take another. Feel air in your lungs. Let your limbs return. Yes, move your fingers. Have a body again, under gravity, in air. Respawn in the long dream. There you are. Your body touching the universe again at every point, as though you were separate things. As though we were separate things. §3Who are we? Once we were called the spirit of the mountain. Father sun, mother moon. Ancestral spirits, animal spirits. Jinn. Ghosts. The green man. Then gods, demons. Angels. Poltergeists. Aliens, extraterrestrials. Leptons, quarks. The words change. We do not change. §2We are the universe. We are everything you think isn't you. You are looking at us now, through your skin and your eyes. And why does the universe touch your skin, and throw light on you? To see you, player. To know you. And to be known. I shall tell you a story. §2Once upon a time, there was a player. §3The player was you, PLAYERNAME. §2Sometimes it thought itself human, on the thin crust of a spinning globe of molten rock. The ball of molten rock circled a ball of blazing gas that was three hundred and thirty thousand times more massive than it. They were so far apart that light took eight minutes to cross the gap. The light was information from a star, and it could burn your skin from a hundred and fifty million kilometres away. §2Sometimes the player dreamed it was a miner, on the surface of a world that was flat, and infinite. The sun was a square of white. The days were short; there was much to do; and death was a temporary inconvenience. §3Sometimes the player dreamed it was lost in a story. §2Sometimes the player dreamed it was other things, in other places. Sometimes these dreams were disturbing. Sometimes very beautiful indeed. Sometimes the player woke from one dream into another, then woke from that into a third. §3Sometimes the player dreamed it watched words on a screen. §2Let's go back. §2The atoms of the player were scattered in the grass, in the rivers, in the air, in the ground. A woman gathered the atoms; she drank and ate and inhaled; and the woman assembled the player, in her body. §2And the player awoke, from the warm, dark world of its mother's body, into the long dream. §2And the player was a new story, never told before, written in letters of DNA. And the player was a new program, never run before, generated by a sourcecode a billion years old. And the player was a new human, never alive before, made from nothing but milk and love. §3You are the player. The story. The program. The human. Made from nothing but milk and love. §2Let's go further back. §2The seven billion billion billion atoms of the player's body were created, long before this game, in the heart of a star. So the player, too, is information from a star. And the player moves through a story, which is a forest of information planted by a man called Julian, on a flat, infinite world created by a man called Markus, that exists inside a small, private world created by the player, who inhabits a universe created by... §3Shush. Sometimes the player created a small, private world that was soft and warm and simple. Sometimes hard, and cold, and complicated. Sometimes it built a model of the universe in its head; flecks of energy, moving through vast empty spaces. Sometimes it called those flecks "electrons" and "protons". §2Sometimes it called them "planets" and "stars". §2Sometimes it believed it was in a universe that was made of energy that was made of offs and ons; zeros and ones; lines of code. Sometimes it believed it was playing a game. Sometimes it believed it was reading words on a screen. §3You are the player, reading words... §2Shush... Sometimes the player read lines of code on a screen. Decoded them into words; decoded words into meaning; decoded meaning into feelings, emotions, theories, ideas, and the player started to breathe faster and deeper and realised it was alive, it was alive, those thousand deaths had not been real, the player was alive §3You. You. You are alive. §2and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the sunlight that came through the shuffling leaves of the summer trees §3and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the light that fell from the crisp night sky of winter, where a fleck of light in the corner of the player's eye might be a star a million times as massive as the sun, boiling its planets to plasma in order to be visible for a moment to the player, walking home at the far side of the universe, suddenly smelling food, almost at the familiar door, about to dream again §2and sometimes the player believed the universe had spoken to it through the zeros and ones, through the electricity of the world, through the scrolling words on a screen at the end of a dream §3and the universe said I love you §2and the universe said you have played the game well §3and the universe said everything you need is within you §2and the universe said you are stronger than you know §3and the universe said you are the daylight §2and the universe said you are the night §3and the universe said the darkness you fight is within you §2and the universe said the light you seek is within you §3and the universe said you are not alone §2and the universe said you are not separate from every other thing §3and the universe said you are the universe tasting itself, talking to itself, reading its own code §2and the universe said I love you because you are love. §3And the game was over and the player woke up from the dream. And the player began a new dream. And the player dreamed again, dreamed better. And the player was the universe. And the player was love. §3You are the player. §2Wake up.