Bill Hines
Names: Bill HinesHinesThird WallfacerBill
First appears in Book 2: The Dark Forest, chapter 2 (Year 3, Crisis Era)
Appearances
What you know
Book 2: The Dark Forest
- Ch 2English former scientist and EU president; named Third Wallfacer. Discovered brain activity operates at quantum level and was twice Nobel-nominated.
- Ch 3Hines cannot devise an ultimate victory plan, so he decides to fund a vast neuroscience project to enhance human intelligence over generations, hoping descendants can break the sophons' blockade.
- Ch 3Hines and his wife Keiko Yamasuki are brain researchers who think in their bamboo grove; he prefers their Japanese home.
- Ch 3Hines agrees with scaling back attacks on the ETO but objects that a Wallfacer should not propose it, for the Wallfacers' reputation.
- Ch 4Hines's Wallfacer plan involves a Resolving Imager to scan brain activity at neuron level; he chose hibernation until computers suffice.
- Ch 6Awakened from hibernation in Year 20, Hines learns the technology he awaited has arrived after only eight years; he is a Wallfacer.
- Ch 6Hines and Yamasuki's teams found critical thinking is a particular dynamic pattern of nerve impulses, locatable in the brain's neural network with the supercomputer.
- Ch 6Hines repeated the enhanced-scan experiment on himself, answering 'false' to 'Water is toxic', and afterwards truly believed water was toxic, though he knew it was absurd.
- Ch 6Hines warns that defeatism is resurging, driven by worsened living conditions and affecting the military, and offers to help Chang Weisi.
- Ch 6Hines once used the mental seal on himself and became convinced water was toxic, needing two months of psychotherapy to drink again.
- Ch 6Hines persuades the PDC to accept the mental seal by reframing it as a voluntary facility limited to space force members, with one proposition: belief in victory.
- Ch 6Hines wrote 'God is dead' as a proposition for himself but hesitated and never applied it; he openly shows contempt for Wu Yue's wish for faith in God.
- Ch 7Hines says his mental upgrade plan did not raise human intelligence; at most it boosted some people's confidence. His true intent remains unrevealed.
- Ch 7Hines is a deep-rooted defeatist and Escapist whose Wallfacer goal was an exodus of humanity, hidden behind a plan of elevating human intelligence.
- Ch 7Hines discovered the quantum structure of the brain and the neural models for judging a proposition true and false.
- Ch 7Hines used the mental seal on himself to believe that everything about his Wallfacer plan is entirely correct, so he cannot repent.
- Ch 7Hines now says he believes humanity will win the war, though he cannot repent his actions.
- Ch 7The former Wallfacer is tormented: he is happy about human victory but cannot believe in it, still marked by defeatism.
- Ch 8Recovered from his mental breakdown after the fleet's destruction matched his mental seal; he had been fed fake news of human defeat.
- Ch 8Hines is Luo Ji's newly appointed liaison to the UN Wallfacer Project Commission and expresses shame over his former self.
Connections
- family ofKeiko Yamasukiwife
- enemy ofAristotleWallbreaker of
- partner ofKeiko Yamasukihusband and wife
- enemy ofManuel Rey Diaz
- member ofWallfacer Project
- ally ofChang Weisi
- ally ofKeiko Yamasukico-lead research teams
- createdMental sealdeveloped with Yamasuki
- enemy ofKeiko Yamasukihis Wallbreaker
- related toLuo Jiliaison to the UN Wallfacer Project Commission
Key moments
- Book 2 · Ch 2Say announces the Wallfacer Project
At the UN, Secretary General Say explains the Wallfacer Project and names Tyler, Rey Diaz and Hines as Wallfacers, then reveals Luo Ji as the Fourth Wallfacer.
- Book 2 · Ch 2Luo Ji named Wallfacer and refuses
Frozen at the UN rostrum, Luo Ji is named a Wallfacer. Afterwards he tells Say he refuses the role and she replies he may.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Hines resolves on intelligence enhancement
Hines and Keiko agree he will pursue a century-scale project to enhance human intelligence via brain research as his Wallfacer plan.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Tyler presents mosquito swarm plan
At the PDC hearing, Tyler discloses his plan of a thousand hydrogen-bomb fighters with hibernating pilots; Wallfacers bicker and Luo Ji is absent.
- Book 2 · Ch 3Fourth PDC Wallfacer Hearing
Tyler submits revisions to his mosquito swarm plan, including drone control, personal studies of Europa, Ceres and comets, and easing attacks on the ETO. Diaz objects, and a vote is deferred.
- Book 2 · Ch 4Hines and Rey Diaz hibernate
At PDC Hearing #89, with computing power insufficient for their plans, Hines and Rey Diaz agree to hibernate and enter a secret underground facility.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Awakening and the virtual brain
Hines awakens and meets Yamasuki, who shows him the supercomputer's holographic display of her own brain scanned by the Resolving Imager.
- Book 2 · Ch 6The water-is-toxic experiment
After Subject 104 develops a belief that water is toxic following an enhanced scan, Hines repeats the experiment on himself and acquires the same delusion.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Hines tells Chang Weisi of the mental seal
On Space Command's balcony, Hines offers help against defeatism and reveals the mental seal, which can implant belief directly.
- Book 2 · Ch 6PDC hearing approves a restricted mental seal
After outrage from the delegates, Hines proposes a voluntary, supervised facility with one victory proposition, limited to space forces. The assembly drafts a motion and the facility is named the Faith Center.
- Book 2 · Ch 6Wu Yue is refused
Wu Yue asks to have a belief in God implanted. Hines refuses because only the victory proposition is allowed, then reveals his own unused 'God is dead' proposition and expresses contempt for Wu Yue.
- Book 2 · Ch 6First space force volunteers receive faith
Four officers undergo the mental seal and leave serene; within a week over a hundred space force members follow. Hines and Yamasuki then decide to hibernate until the Trisolaran probes arrive.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Wallfacer Project terminated
The SFJC votes unanimously for Proposition 649, ending the Wallfacer Project and Act and revoking Luo Ji's and Hines's status. Jonathan then briefs Luo Ji.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Yamasuki reveals herself as Hines's Wallbreaker
Before the Joint Conference, Yamasuki exposes that Hines's real plan was Escapism via the mental seal, with a hidden negative sign in all five devices, and that the Imprinted may still exist.
- Book 2 · Ch 7Hines confesses self-imprinting
Hines admits he used the mental seal on himself so he can never repent his plan, while believing humanity will win. The delegates debate that the lack of signs of the Imprinted may be the most frightening part.
- Book 2 · Ch 8Earth reels from the fleet's destruction
Mass mental breakdown sweeps Earth after the fleet's destruction is seen. Shi Qiang, in charge of a hibernator neighborhood, urges migration to the northwest and agricultural preparation.
- Book 2 · Ch 8The crowd kneels to Luo Ji
A glowing crowd near New Life Village waits for Luo Ji, kneels to him as an angel or spokesman, and Hines and Jonathan announce the Wallfacer Project's revival and 187J3X1's destruction. Luo Ji asks for order to be restored and everyone to go home.