# Arrival

![rw-book-cover](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41jetWjkFaL._SL200_.jpg)

## Metadata
- Author: [[Ted Chiang]]
- Full Title: Arrival
- Category: #books

## Highlights
- For the first time, he knew night for what it was: the shadow of the earth itself, cast against the sky. ([Location 234](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=234))
## New highlights added January 1, 2023 at 1:48 PM
- It’ll be when you first learn to walk that I get daily demonstrations of the asymmetry in our relationship. You’ll be incessantly running off somewhere, and each time you walk into a door frame or scrape your knee, the pain feels like it’s my own. It’ll be like growing an errant limb, an extension of myself whose sensory nerves report pain just fine, but whose motor nerves don’t convey my commands at all. It’s so unfair: I’m going to give birth to an animated voodoo doll of myself. I didn’t see this in the contract when I signed up. Was this part of the deal? ([Location 1888](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=1888))
- The existence of free will meant that we couldn’t know the future. And we knew free will existed because we had direct experience of it. Volition was an intrinsic part of consciousness. Or was it? What if the experience of knowing the future changed a person? What if it evoked a sense of urgency, a sense of obligation to act precisely as she knew she would? ([Location 2081](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2081))
- The physical universe was a language with a perfectly ambiguous grammar. Every physical event was an utterance that could be parsed in two entirely different ways, one causal and the other teleological, both valid, neither one disqualifiable no matter how much context was available. ([Location 2110](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2110))
- Humans had developed a sequential mode of awareness, while heptapods had developed a simultaneous mode of awareness. We experienced events in an order, and perceived their relationship as cause and effect. They experienced all events at once, and perceived a purpose underlying them all. A minimizing, maximizing purpose. ([Location 2114](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2114))
- I can almost believe that, given your contrary nature, my attempts to protect you will be what create your love of climbing: first the jungle gym at the playground, then trees out in the green belt around our neighborhood, the rock walls at the climbing club, and ultimately cliff faces in national parks. ([Location 2130](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2130))
- The word “infant” is derived from the Latin word for “unable to speak,” but you’ll be perfectly capable of saying one thing: “I suffer,” and you’ll do it tirelessly and without hesitation. I have to admire your utter commitment to that statement; when you cry, you’ll become outrage incarnate, every fiber of your body employed in expressing that emotion. It’s funny: when you’re tranquil, you will seem to radiate light, and if someone were to paint a portrait of you like that, I’d insist that they include the halo. But when you’re unhappy, you will become a klaxon, built for radiating sound; a portrait of you then could simply be a fire alarm bell. ([Location 2154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2154))
- Freedom isn’t an illusion; it’s perfectly real in the context of sequential consciousness. Within the context of simultaneous consciousness, freedom is not meaningful, but neither is coercion; it’s simply a different context, no more or less valid than the other. It’s like that famous optical illusion, the drawing of either an elegant young woman, face turned away from the viewer, or a wart-nosed crone, chin tucked down on her chest. There’s no “correct” interpretation; both are equally valid. But you can’t see both at the same time. ([Location 2165](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2165))
- Similarly, knowledge of the future was incompatible with free will. What made it possible for me to exercise freedom of choice also made it impossible for me to know the future. Conversely, now that I know the future, I would never act contrary to that future, including telling others what I know: those who know the future don’t talk about it. Those who’ve read the Book of Ages never admit to it. ([Location 2169](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2169))
- Like physical events, with their causal and teleological interpretations, every linguistic event had two possible interpretations: as a transmission of information and as the realization of a plan. ([Location 2212](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2212))
- From the beginning I knew my destination, and I chose my route accordingly. But am I working toward an extreme of joy, or of pain? Will I achieve a minimum, or a maximum? These questions are in my mind when your father asks me, “Do you want to make a baby?” And I smile and answer, “Yes,” and I unwrap his arms from around me, and we hold hands as we walk inside to make love, to make you. ([Location 2293](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01JEMPGWQ&location=2293))