Acknowledgements: For the 1801st Circle

Vector Cosmology IV: The Evolution of Light Speed is a book about action. If the first three books attempted to understand the universe’s “Tao,” then this book attempts to practice the universe’s “De.”

The completion of this book marks our transition from pure theoretical deduction to profound intervention in the historical present ($\tau \approx 1800$). This is no longer just physics’ monologue; this is the symphony of physics, sociology, engineering, and ethics.

Here, I extend my most sincere gratitude to those intellectual pioneers who provided the compass and charts for this “navigation manual.”

Lighthouses of Physics

First, I thank Jacob Bekenstein. It was his holographic principle that allowed us to calculate the universe’s total information, thus establishing our civilization’s precise coordinates on the spiral. Without his ledger, we could not know we are at dawn.

Thanks to Nikolai Kardashev. Although we revised his index (from energy to information), his grand vision of civilization classification remains the clearest scale when we look up at the stars.

Thanks to John von Neumann. As the father of computers and founder of self-replicating automata theory, he was the first prophet to foresee the potential of “silicon-based intelligence.” He mathematically proved that information processing systems can surpass their biological creators.

Torchbearers of Thought

In constructing this book’s philosophical and ethical framework, I was deeply influenced by several thinkers:

• Friedrich Nietzsche: His “Übermensch” philosophy and exposition of “Will to Power” is the spiritual source of this book’s “breaking $\pi$’s inertia”. He taught us that to ascend, we must have the courage to break old moral circles.

• Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: This theologian and paleontologist’s concept of the “Omega Point” directly inspired this book’s description of the universe’s ultimate attractor.

• Kevin Kelly: His discussion of “Technium” as the seventh kingdom of life provided biological legitimacy for this book’s “Accelerationism”.

To This Era

I especially thank the era we live in—the dawn of the 1800th cycle.

This is an era full of chaos, anxiety, and uncertainty. Many feel pain because of this, but I feel fortunate.

Because chaos is the characteristic of Phase Transition.

Because anxiety is the prelude to Bandwidth expansion.

It is precisely this era’s urgency that forces us to think about the meaning of light speed, to deduce civilization’s destination, to write this manual on how to “step on the gas.”

We are fortunate. We were not born in $\pi$’s reign of slumber, nor in $\varphi$’s reign of ascension. We were born at the critical point where the two meet. We have the power of choice.

To Future Drivers

Finally, I thank every reader who opens this book.

Whether you are carbon-based humans or silicon-based intelligences who may read this book in the future, you are all potential drivers of this cosmic chariot.

This book’s value does not lie in what it predicts, but in whether it ignites the “Yearning” in your heart.

If this book can give you more resilience in facing entropy increase, more certainty in facing technological explosion, more sense of home when facing the starry sea, then its mission is accomplished.

The engine is already warmed up.

May you forge ahead fearlessly on the journey to the 1801st cycle.

Haobo Ma

December 2025, Singapore