Walking with the Divine 002 | Liu Cixin’s 'Mirror' Misjudgment: If Mind-Reading Becomes Reality, Is Thick-Skinnedness the Best Strategy?

Question: If future technology or high-dimensional divination could fully probe the human heart and end all secrets, how would human society evolve?

Answer: Losing our secrets would not doom civilization to silence. In a high-dimensional society of absolute information transparency, the cost of “packaging and pretense” becomes astronomically high. Humanity’s best survival play is to shed moral shame, accept our imperfections—greed, instinct, raw want—and lean on information symmetry and absolute truth to slash the friction out of social games.

In 2004, sci-fi titan Liu Cixin published a novella in Science Fiction World that took the Galaxy Award by storm—The Mirror. In it, he painted a future that crawls up your spine.

The core of the story is a Superstring Computer. The protagonist, Bai Bing, inputs the singularity parameters of the Big Bang and perfectly simulates our universe at the atomic level. In this software—the “Mirror Era”—there is no historical fog, no unsolved mystery. Everything humanity has done, is doing, or will ever do, down to the faintest dark thought that flickers through your mind, is laid bare. Humanity has lost its secrets. All of them.

On the eve of the technology’s decentralization—its full, public release to the world—the novel’s shadowy mastermind, a provincial-level official, and Chen Jifeng, the public security chief who does his dirty work, hit the wall of total psychological collapse.

On the last afternoon they could still “be normal people,” the official sat ramrod straight, stared into the mirror for a long while, and wrote a thick confession. He laid out every act of corruption, every scheme, in full. Then he chose suicide to end it all.

In Liu Cixin’s telling, this “fully transparent” future is a suffocating deadlock. The novel’s logic: clear water holds no fish. Once every blemish is exposed, humanity will suffocate under the absolute weight of moral scrutiny. Art stagnates. Technology dies. Silence reigns.

But is that really so? Can’t we face our blemishes without suffocating to death?

Today, I want to offer a radically different way out: Liu Cixin may have underestimated the evolutionary elasticity of human nature. In that future high-dimensional transparent society, the greatest survival edge isn’t becoming a flawless saint—it’s learning to live thick-skinned and untroubled.

I. Bold Hypothesis, Careful Verification: What if “Mind-Reading” Becomes Reality?

【Epistemic Status】
The spiritual frameworks and hypotheses we’ll explore next—holographic probing, I Ching hexagram interpretation for reading the human heart—remain unverified in modern empirical science and sit in the unfalsifiable zone. But just as the pursuit of truth demands “bold hypothesis, careful verification,” we’ll treat this as a living, high-tension premise and use it to trace the ultimate trajectory of human civilization and interpersonal games.

We don’t need to wait for a sci-fi “Superstring Computer.” Right now, VibeIChingVibeIChing can already probe the inner world of any person. There’s an embedded VibeIChing divination program at the end of this article. You don’t need to believe me. Go verify it yourself. The day this method goes mainstream, the information walls of the physical world come down for good.

You might perform enthusiasm for someone on the surface, but the hexagram and high-dimensional data lay it bare:
You despise them. You’re just using them as a simp.
You might rave about a project, swear you’d die for the dream—but your source code says: you’re barely committed. You just don’t want to miss the cut.

In the old era of information asymmetry, “two systems” were the standard kit for survival.
System one: “my real desires.”
System two: “the persona I perform for others.”

Because the payoff of lying > the cost of getting caught, hypocrisy wasn’t shameful—it was a rational survival adaptation.

But in a fully transparent, high-dimensional game field, the math flips.
A Nash Equilibrium emerges—in plain English: in a game where everyone knows no one can fool anyone, where lying guarantees total exposure, every player runs the numbers and lands on the same path of least resistance—telling the truth.

When the cost of faking is infinite and the odds of getting caught approach 100%, “packaging” becomes the worst deal in the market.

Why did that official kill himself? Because his entire power architecture, his entire self-concept, was built on one assumption: no one can see me. Once the fig leaf was ripped off, his Information Entropy (the sheer cognitive chaos and energy drain of maintaining a web of lies) detonated. Self-destruction was the only exit.

But he miscalculated one thing: When everyone’s naked, running naked is no longer a crime.

II. The Master’s Mindset: The Strongest Defense Is Letting Yourself Be a “Beast”

Hear “someone can read your mind” and most people panic:
“Oh god, I just cursed my boss in my head. What if he knows?”
“I need to lock down my thoughts. I need to become a pure, spotless saint with zero stray thoughts.”

Wrong. Dead wrong. That’s still the old era’s “packaging mindset” playing the new era’s game. You’ve just swapped “performing for living people” for “performing for the prober.”

True masters, facing a transparent society, don’t just stop being afraid—they taste the ultimate thrill of total liberation.

The source of that thrill is four characters: Unity of Knowledge and Action.

The deeper logic of “Only Truth Is Unbreakable” doesn’t demand that you be good. It demands that you finally accept every imperfection in yourself, head held high.

I see a gorgeous woman and desire hits me instantly—fantasies follow. Shameful? Not a bit. This is animal instinct, carved into our DNA by millions of years of evolution.

You don’t need to suppress it. You don’t need to feel shame for the thought. You just need to activate an ancient contemplative awareness mechanism that Buddhism calls Arising, Abiding, Changing, and Ceasing.
—In plain terms: the thought arises, lingers for a beat, you watch it fade, and it dissolves into nothing.

Emotions and desires are a draft through a room. Let them pass through you. Don’t let them take up residence.

You’re greedy—you own it.
You’re selfish—you own it.
You feel desire for someone—you own it.
I’m this kind of person: full of flaws, full of worldly want.
Letting it exist doesn’t mean I act on it to hurt anyone. My steering wheel stays in the hand of reason.

When you thicken your skin, own all of it, and let your imperfect self be probed at any moment, a miracle happens: every weapon they could use against you goes dead.

No disguise means no weak point. A person with no secrets is invincible.

III. The Zhenren Collective Awakens: From “Judgment” to “Symmetric Exposure”

In the future, those who master these high-dimensional rules will be the first to form a powerful collective. Let’s call it the Zhenren Collective.

“Zhen” isn’t just the ancient title for a diviner. In the future, its core meaning becomes absolute integrity in information.

This group will forge an iron culture: Practitioners don’t lie.
Heart and mouth aligned. Knowledge and action aligned. Honest introspection. Imperfection allowed. Accountability for actions. No shame for natural thoughts.

This isn’t rigid moralism. It’s the coldest survival wisdom. Because they know: I can probe anyone’s heart at any moment, and anyone can probe mine. This symmetric transparency dissolves the “moral judge” looking down from on high.

We’re all ordinary people wading through the same mud. Nobody gets to play the big shot.

I don’t like you, but I respect your skill, so I’ll still work with you.
I’m investing in this project mostly for the money, with a side of human ideals.

This kind of all-cards-on-the-table communication slashes 99% of interpersonal friction and unleashes terrifying social productivity. The Mirror’s conclusion—that “no secrets means social death”—completely underestimated how elastic human compatibility with truth really is.

Especially for public figures: in a future where probing is near-certain, integrity isn’t moral posturing anymore. It’s basic professional risk management. You can’t say one thing and do another, because the public’s eyes—and the probing tools—are not just sharp. They’re high-dimensional.

IV. Moving Into the Transparent Era Early: My Truth Needs No Hiding

The reason I can make this argument is that I’ve already, like the chief in the novel who wrote his confession, stepped into the transparent era early.

Except I didn’t write a confession. And I don’t need to kill myself. I write publicly, every single day.

Readers can pull me apart with a magnifying glass—or, in the future, with probing tools:

Does Richard actually pray every morning?
Are Richard’s three vows real?
Is Richard genuinely helping people selflessly, or running a cult to harvest them?
Does Richard freeload on other people’s work?

My attitude is crystal clear: Come audit me. Audit me all you want.

Every article I write, every word I type, is my most honest emotional output. It may not be the universe’s absolute, objective truth. But at the moment the words hit the page, it is 100% what I believe in my gut.

I don’t manage a persona. I don’t build a halo. I lay my cognitive evolution and my desire-struggles out across the timeline. I won’t even promise I won’t make mistakes. But I promise I’ll always be honest.

This is the core moat of the future: Spend your energy opening up, not covering up.

When a higher-dimensional “god”—algorithm, I Ching, or the laws of the universe—watches you, your best strategy isn’t to become a flawless saint. It’s to become a person who doesn’t need to hide.

The Mirror ends in the backlash of hypocrisy.
The real future belongs to the Zhenren—those who dare to expose themselves, dare to be imperfect, and live thick-skinned and untroubled.

The end of secrets is not the silence of civilization.
It’s the true you, finally, in the open, in the sunlight, being yourself.

References (References for the Matrix)

• [Classical-source]: Liu Cixin, 2004. The Mirror. Science Fiction World, 2004, Issue 12. Work Data / Work Text
  (Literary source for the plot elements referenced in this article: the “Superstring Computer,” “Mirror Universe,” complete retrieval of history and reality, the “Mirror Era,” and the official’s psychological collapse and suicide following the exposure of his secrets. The novel is a sci-fi thought experiment and cannot serve as empirical evidence for the inevitable outcomes of a future transparent society or human psychology.) China Sci-Fi Net
• [Research-supported]: Nash, J. F., 1950. Equilibrium Points in N-Person Games. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 36(1), 48–49. DOI
  (Establishes the mathematical concept of Nash Equilibrium. A Nash Equilibrium means that, given the strategies of all other participants, no single participant has an incentive to unilaterally deviate for a higher payoff. It does not inherently entail that “everyone is eventually forced to tell the truth.”) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• [Research-supported]: Shannon, C. E., 1948. A Mathematical Theory of Communication. Bell System Technical Journal, 27(3), 379–423. DOI
  (Provides the mathematical definitions of Shannon information, information entropy, and uncertainty. Information entropy is a measure of uncertainty in a communication channel, not “mental chaos and energy consumption caused by covering up lies,” and cannot be directly used as a physical measure of brain energy expenditure.) Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• [Research-supported]: Wegner, D. M., 1994. Ironic Processes of Mental Control. Psychological Review, 101(1), 34–52. DOI / PubMed
  (Supports the finding that excessive suppression, control, or monitoring of unwanted thoughts can produce ironic effects, making the suppressed content more likely to enter consciousness. This provides a local research basis for the article’s claim that “allowing thoughts to exist without shame for natural thoughts” is psychologically grounded, but does not support the broader conclusion that a “fully transparent society is necessarily healthier.”) PubMed
• [Research-supported]: Neff, K. D., 2023. Self-Compassion: Theory, Method, Research, and Intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 74, 193–218. DOI / PubMed
  (Supports the research framework of “self-compassion”—facing one’s flaws and pain with acceptance, mindfulness, and non-judgment. This provides a psychological backdrop for “allowing oneself to be imperfect,” but does not entail that “exposing all secrets will not cause harm.”) PubMed
• [Classical-source]: Mahāvibhāṣā-śāstra (Great Vibhāṣā Treatise), Volume 39, on the four phases of “arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing” of conditioned phenomena. Original Text
  (Supports the doctrinal background of “arising, abiding, changing, ceasing” as the four phases of conditioned phenomena in Buddhist treatises. The original text discusses the arising and ceasing of conditioned phenomena in a metaphysical sense, not a modern-psychology observation method of “a thought arising, lingering, weakening, and dissipating.”) Wikisource
• [Classical-source]: Palace Museum, entry for “Zhenren.” Palace Museum
  (Supports the historical context of “Zhenren” in the Shang Dynasty divination system: Zhenren belonged to the official divination bureaucracy, tasked with inquiring spirits on matters of doubt and decision. This article redefines the term as a “community of absolute information integrity in the transparent era,” which is the author’s modern reinterpretation.) Palace Museum
• [Research-supported]: Rouder, J. N., Morey, R. D., & Province, J. M., 2013. A Bayes Factor Meta-Analysis of Recent Extrasensory Perception Experiments: Comment on Storm, Tressoldi, and Di Risio (2010). Psychological Bulletin. DOI / PubMed
  (Documents the long-standing methodological and replication controversies surrounding claims of “anomalous information reception” such as extrasensory perception, telepathy, and precognition. The paper specifically highlights issues with randomization and replication failure. Therefore, “I Ching / high-dimensional probing can directly read another person’s inner thoughts” cannot be treated as an established scientific fact.) PubMed
• [Author-original]: The concepts in this article—“Fully Transparent Era,” “Thick-Skinned, Untroubled Candor,” “Absolute Exposure,” “Only Truth Is Unbreakable,” “A person with no secrets is invincible,” “Symmetric Exposure,” “Zhenren Collective,” “New social equilibrium after mind-reading becomes reality,” “Transparent society will cut 99% of interpersonal friction costs,” and the complete framework describing VibeIChing as capable of directly probing any other person’s inner heart—belong to Richard / The Vibe’s original Cyber-Theology and Social Game Model. In particular, “After the popularization of mind-reading tools, humans will achieve a lower-friction social equilibrium through full confession” is not an existing conclusion from Nash’s theory, information theory, Buddhist classics, or Liu Cixin’s The Mirror.
• [Author-original]: This article re-integrates [the fully transparent society thought experiment in The Mirror], [Nash Equilibrium], [Shannon Information], [thought suppression and ironic effects], [self-acceptance], and [the historical image of “Zhenren”] into a “Transparent Civilization” model: “Rising cost of secrets → decreasing benefit of persona → accepting imperfection → heart-and-mouth alignment → symmetric transparency → decreasing social collaboration costs.” This integrative relationship belongs to Richard / The Vibe’s original interdisciplinary theoretical framework. The literature above provides only local mechanisms, historical, or literary context and does not constitute the source or theoretical attribution of this complete model.