They were in It

　　Every morning, Tessa and Zachary walked to school, and every afternoon they walked home again.



　　If it was hot, they walked in the shade.

　　If it was cold, they put on a jumper.

　　If it was just right, they smiled and said AHHHHHHH!

　　And everyday they looked for ten tiny things.



　　What an excellent walk. It was slow and simple and splendiferous.



　　It was the world

　　and they were in it.


Ten Tiny Things
by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Kyle Hughes-Odgers
ISBN 978-1-9218-8894-6

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A Green and Clean Machine

　　It was a green machine.

　　It was a clean machine.

　　They climbed inside where it was cosy and comfortable and calm.

　　They rode all the way home and it was smooth and swift.

　　They looked for the ten tiny things, but the world whizzed past their windows like a big, foggy blur.

Ten Tiny Things
by Meg McKinlay, illustrated by Kyle Hughes-Odgers
ISBN 978-1-9218-8894-6

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As a Ninety-Seven

　　The conversation dwindled further, and I made my excuses, Newton dragging me forward until we reached a large stretch of grass. This is what dogs liked to do, I discovered. They liked to run around on grass, pretending they were free, shouting, 'We're free, we're free, look, look, look how free we are!' at each other. It really was a sorry sight. But it worked for them, and for Newton in particular. It was a collective illusion they had chosen to swallow and they are submitting to it wholeheartedly, without any nostalgia for their former wolf selves.

　　That was the remarkable thing about humans - their ability to shape the path of other species, to change their fundamental nature. Maybe it could happen to me, maybe I could be changed, maybe I already was being changed? Who knew? I hoped not. I hoped I was staying as pure as I had been told, as strong and isolated as a prime, as a ninety-seven.

The Humans, P101-102
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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Proof of the Riemann Hypothesis

　　As you will know the proof of the Riemann hypothesis is the most important unsolved problem in mathematics. To solve it would revolutionise applications of mathematical analysis in a myriad if unknowable ways that would transform our lives and those of future generations. Indeed, it is mathematics itself which is the bedrock of civilisation, at first evidenced by architectural achievements such as Egyptian pyramids, and by astronomical observations essential to architecture. Since then, our mathematical understanding has advanced, but never at a constant rate.

　　Like evolution itself, there have been rapid advances and crippling setbacks along the way. If the Library of Alexandria had never been burned to the ground it is possible to imagine that we would have built upon the achievements of the ancient Greeks to greater and earlier effect, and therefore it could have been in the time of a Cardano or a Newton or a Pascal that we first put a man on the moon. And we can only wonder where we would be. And at the planets we would have terraformed and colonised by the twenty-first century. Which medical advances we would have made. Maybe if there had been no dark ages, no switching off of the light, we would have found a way to never grow old, to never die.

　　People joke, in our field, about Pythagoras and his religious cult based on perfect geometry and other abstract mathematical forms, but if we are going to have religion at all then a religion of mathematics seems ideal, because if God exists then what is He but a mathematician?

　　And so today we may be able to say, we have risen a little closer towards our deity. Indeed, potentially we have a chance to turn back the clock and rebuild that ancient library so we can stand on the shoulders of giants that never were.

The Humans, P59-60
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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Finding the Right Person to Hurt You

　　She looked at my plate. 'Are you not eating that?'

　　'No,' I said. 'I don't think I could.' And then, thinking I might get some information out of her, I asked, 'If I had done something, achieved something remarkable, do you think I would have told a lot of people? I mean, we humans are proud aren't we? We like to show off about things.'

　　'Yes, I suppose.'

　　I nodded. Felt panic rising as I wondered how many people knew about Professor Andrew Martin's discovery. Then I decided to broaden my enquiry. To act like a human I would after all need to understand them, so I asked her the biggest question I could think of. 'What do you think the meaning of life is, then? Did you discover it?'

　　'Ha! The meaning of life. The meaning of life. There is none. People search for external values and meaning in a world which not only can't provide it but is also indifferent to their quest. That's not really Schopenhauer. That's more Kierkegaard via Camus. I'm with them. Trouble is, if you do study philosophy and stop believing in a meaning you start to need medical help.'

　　'What about love? What is love all about? I read about it. In Cosmopolitan.'

　　Another laugh. 'Cosmopolitan? Are you joking?'

　　'No. Not at all. I want to understand these things.'

　　'You're definitely asking the wrong person here. See, that's one of my problems.' She lowered her voice by at least two octaves, stared darkly. 'I like violent men. I don't know why. It's kind of self-harming thing. I go to Peterborough a lot. Rich pickings.'

　　'Oh,' I said, realising it was right I had been sent here. The humans were as weird as I had been told, and as in love with violence. 'So love is about finding the right person to hurt you?'

　　'Pretty much.'

　　'That doesn't make sense.'

　　'"There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." That was ... someone.'

　　There was a silence. I wanted to leave. Not knowing the etiquette, I just stood up and left.

　　She released a little whine. And then laughed again. Laughter, like madness, seemed to be the only way out, the emergency for humans.

The Humans, P41-42
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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Everything Here was a Test

　　The truth is, I was quite terrified. My heart had begun racing for no obvious reason. My palms were sweating. Something about the room, and its proportions, coupled with so much contact with this irrational species, was setting me off. Everything here was a test.

　　If you failed one test, there was a test to see why. I suppose they loved tests so much because they believed in free will.

　　Ha!

　　Humans, I was discovering, believed they were in control of their won lives, and so they were in awe of questions and tests, as these made them feel like they had a certain mastery over other people, who had failed in their choices, and who had not worked hard enough on the right answers. And by the end of the last failed test many were sat, as I was soon sat, in mental hospital, swallowing a mind-blanking pill called diazepam, and placed in another empty room full of right angles. Only this time, I was also inhaling the distressing scent of the hydrogen chloride they used to annihilate bacteria.

The Humans, P31
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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A Planet of Things Wrapped Inside Things

　　All this salivatory offloading was making me thirsty, so I went over a humming refrigerated unit full of brightly coloured cylindrical objects. I picked one of them up, and opened it. A can of liquid called 'Diet Coke'. It tasted extremely sweet, with a trace of phosphoric acid. It was disgusting. It burst out of my mouth almost the moment it entered. Then I consumed something else. A foodstuff wrapped in synthetic packaging. This was, I would later realise, a planet of things wrapped inside things. Food inside wrappers. Bodies inside clothes. Contempt inside smiles. Everything was hidden away. ... ...

The Humans, P12-13
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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You have to Spend a lot of Time

　　It took a while - too long - to understand the situation. I did not know at that time what a road was, but I can now tell you that a road is something that connects points of departure with points of arrivals. This is important. On Earth, you see, you can't just move from one place to another place instantaneously. The technology isn't there yet. It is nowhere near there yet. It is nowhere near there yet. No. On Earth you have to spend a lot of time travelling in between places, be it on roads or on rail-tracks or in careers or relationships.

The Humans, P7
Matt Haig
ISBN 978-0-85786-876-3

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狮子为什么要听话？

你担心
无法达到别人的期待。

我担心
你对自己不够好。




你担心
狮子不听话。

我担心狮子听话了。

狮子为什么要听话？




你担心他不爱你。

我担心你不爱他。




≪世界别为我担心≫
几米 作品
ISBN 978-986-213-239-5

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小金鱼

小金鱼在天空游来游去。




小金鱼困惑地说：
“原来天空的世界这么小。”




小金鱼苦恼地说：
“原来人类的居所这么窄。”




小金鱼忧郁地说：
“原来欢乐的空间这么挤。”




≪世界别为我担心≫
几米 作品
ISBN 978-986-213-239-5

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