The Three Body Problem
WARNING
Potential spoilers ahead.
I recently finished reading The Three-Body problem by Cixin Liu. It is a first contact book like no other, filled with elements of science, mystery and culture fued.
The book begins in a dramatic fashion. Liberal and Western teachings were shunned in China during the Cultural Revolution. “Ohm’s law is the “resistance law,” whereas Faraday’s law is the “direction law.” Capitalist ideology is viewed as evil, and the westerners who give these concepts names are the source of this evil.
Attack on a scientist, with young students interrogating and beating him in front of his wife and young daughter. The daughter is the protagonist of the story and is named Ye Wenjie.
In the Mongolian mountains, a group of revolutionary corps members are clearing forests and building roads. They believe they are doing “revolutionary work,” but they are actually labourers. One astrophysicist has some crazy ideas after reading Rachel Carlson’s “Western book,” Silence Spring. She tries to send a letter to Beijing, telling them to be better than this, but she is ignored.
She avoids trouble by signing up for a project with her father’s student, who is the chief engineer at a secret military facility, with the overall theme of “questioning reality”.
“A force outside of humanity is need to create an awakening amongst humans”
Skip 40 years into the future
We are introduced to The Frontiers of Science, an organization that, as the name implies, is at the cutting edge of scientific thought. A group of many scientists around the world. Wang Miao, a nanoscience researcher, is taken to a facility where they are investigating something. Suicides by members of The Frontiers of Science. The leading scientists in the world have been dying under mysterious circumstances. He is perplexed and worried.
He contacts Yang Dong, the protagonist’s daughter, and her boyfriend, Ding Yi. He conducts a thought experiment with him about how the laws of physics are not fundamental anywhere. “Pool game”. The premise of the argument is that fundamental theories are a farce.
“To be or not to be”
The Shooter and Farmer hypothesis described in the book, foreshadows what is coming next: Reddit post
Significant events begin to unfold, propelling the narrative forward and introducing key elements of the mystery. Wang Miao, the protagonist, begins to notice an unusual phenomenon: a countdown appears in photographs he has taken and even manifests in his own vision. This mysterious interference with his perception is emphasized by the cryptic message, “The universe is about to flicker for you,” implying the impending revelation of a greater cosmic truth.
The reader is also introduced to “Three Body,” an immersive virtual reality game hosted on the website 3body.net. Players wear a V-suit, which transports them to an alternate reality where the environment is hostile to human life. The objective is to guide a civilization to advance as much as possible under these challenging conditions. This game serves as a brilliant narrative device, allowing the author to explore complex scientific concepts and philosophical questions within the context of the story. As Wang Miao delves deeper into the game, he discovers that the “three-body problem” refers to a planet orbiting three stars. The erratic movements of these stars create unpredictable and often devastating conditions on the planet’s surface. This revelation notonly adds depth to the game’s narrative but also foreshadows the greater cosmic conflict that lies at the heart of the novel.
I’d highly recommend checking out this GitHub repo to run your own 3 body simulation.
non linear timeline begins
flashback
The focus then shifts to China’s search for extraterrestrial life and the history of Red Coast, an isolated research facility. Various files related to this endeavor have been classified, adding to the project’s sense of mystery. We are informed that the base was able to send and receive signals from extraterrestrials.
First Contact
Donot answer! Donot answer! Donot answer!
The narrative also emphasizes the concept of civilization as a whole, with the Chinese promising a society where everyone reaps the fruits of their labor.
Ye Wenjie responds without taking the warning because she believes that the human race should be eradicated.
back to the present
As the story progresses through chapters 15-19, the book’s title, “The Three-Body Problem,” becomes more prominent. Newton’s three-body problem is defined as the following: given three bodies’ momenta, solve for their subsequent motion. At this point, the reader meets Wei Cheng, a genius, and his wife, who are dedicated to solving the three-body problem.
Wang Miao plays the Three Body Game with scientists from various eras, including Copernicus, Newton, Von Neumann, and Einstein, attempting to solve the three-body problem. Despite their efforts, they fail each time, concluding that greater computing power is required to arrive at a solution. It is important to note that there is no general closed-form solution to the three-body problem.
WARNING
Tread carefully, MAJOR spoilers ahead
After certain events take place, it is revealed that the Three Body game was inspired by the same alien civilization that responded to the Red Coast base. Despite being technologically advanced in comparison to humans, this civilization was unable to solve the three-body problem and establish its own stable world. They have extensive knowledge of Earth after communicating with the Red Coast base, whereas humans are unaware of them.
Two opposing groups emerge: the Adventists, who view the aliens as gods, and the Redemptionists, who consider them humanity’s saviors. These factions are at war with each other, and their movement is called the Earth-Trisolaris movement.
It is further revealed that the Trisolaris civilization sent a sophisticated technology called Sophons, tiny, proton-sized supercomputers, to Earth. Using quantum entanglement to communicate over great distances, Sophons has halted all of Earth’s scientific advancements by perturbing measurements taken at the quantum scale, explaining why experiments recently claimed that the basic laws of physics were being violated.
The Trisolaris civilization is now heading towards Earth and will arrive in 450 years. With scientific advancements being hindered, it will be challenging for humans to defend themselves against this impending threat.
The story then transitions to the next book in the series, “The Dark Forest,” setting the stage for the continuation of this captivating science fiction saga.
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