《The Three-Body Problem》 Reading Notes

1 Introduction

Recently, I finished watching “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin. It took me more than 40 hours, half a month, and I have been immersed in the world of the Three-Body Problem until today. I seldom watch science fiction books and movies, mainly because I feel that they are too unrealistic, and my imagination is too unconstrained, and I can’t keep up with the rhythm of the plot, but I really fell in love with The Three-Body Problem. Although it is a long science fiction novel, But the whole storyline is conceived on the basis of reality, and the plot is not completely divorced from reality. The shaping of the characters and the analysis of human nature make the whole book not look like just a science fiction book. In short, it is definitely a book worth reading, whether you are a science fiction fan or not.

2 “The Three-Body Problem” and Teacher Liu Cixin

"Three-Body" is a total of three parts: the past on earth, the dark forest, and the eternal life of death. The plot can be simply summarized as a story of the struggle between the earth civilization and the three-body civilization in outer space and the ultimate destruction of the universe, which is interspersed with the red shore base broadcasting information to outer space, the three-body man's reply, and the three-body man's fleet to capture the earth , the Wallfacer Project in the Era of Crisis, the dimensionality reduction strike of water droplets on space battleships, the law of the dark forest of logic, the Swordbearer Project, the exposure of the coordinates of the Trisolaran civilization, the Earth Bunker Project, the destruction of the solar system, and the earth civilization that escaped from the solar system continue. The whole storyline is done in one go, and it is enjoyable to watch.

Here I have to mention the inhuman imagination of Mr. Liu Cixin. When Mr. Liu Cixin created “Three-Body Problem”, he was working as a computer engineer in a power plant in Yangquan City, Shanxi. It is hard to imagine that in such a small city, the staff of a power plant can have such The imagination of the vast universe, some jokes on the Internet say that Liu is the originator of Moyu, hahaha, it is true, creating such an excellent work during work is indeed the ultimate in Moyu, Liu’s “Three-Body” It also created a precedent for Chinese science fiction works, giving Chinese science fiction a place on the world stage. There is a short story that Obama, then President of the United States, felt unsatisfied after watching the first two parts of “The Three-Body Problem”, and urged Liu to release the third part as soon as possible. Super attractive.

3 Stories beyond “The Three-Body Problem” – Some history of human exploration of outer space

I have always had a problem before, why some developed countries, including China, should vigorously develop aerospace, such as some lunar exploration programs, Mars programs, and satellite rocket launches from time to time. These are very laborious and costly. Is it not good to use this money to build a well-off society? After all, there are still many places that have not yet escaped poverty, or to build and protect our own living environment-is the earth bad? Readers can also give themselves a minute to think about it here.

Let’s talk about some things about humans and Mars first. The 9 major planets in the solar system (after removing Pluto in 2006, the 8 major planets) Mars is the closest planet to the earth. Human beings have always been very interested in this neighbor. As early as the 1960s, they began to observe Mars with telescopes. In 1971, the Soviet Union Mars The No. 3 lander successfully landed on Mars and became the first probe to reach Mars. Then the American lander also landed on Mars. On May 15, 2021, China’s Zhu Rong also successfully landed on Mars.

Of course, the research on Mars is also clear. The size of Mars is 1/6 of the Earth, and the weight is 1/10 of the Earth. The surface environment is the closest to the Earth among the 9 planets. Like the Earth, it has four seasons. The temperature It is also very close to the earth, and it is also observed that large-scale sandstorms often occur on the surface of Mars, indicating that there is a flow of air, mainly carbon dioxide. These detection results are of great significance to human beings, including the human migration plan to Mars, Mars mining, etc. There are infinite possibilities. Compared with the money and manpower invested, the return value is really infinite. See, I gave this example to answer the question I asked before. Of course, this is just Mars. Think deeper, look at the entire Milky Way and the entire universe, what if there are other alien civilizations, and the evolution of other civilizations is much higher than ours? explain.

4 Stories other than “The Three-Body Problem” – Searching for extraterrestrial civilizations

Friends who have watched “The Three-Body Problem” should have the impression that Ye Wenjie sent his first call to the vast universe through the solar antenna at the Red Bank Base. A few years later, he received a reply from the Three-Body Civilization: Don’t answer! Don’t answer! Don’t answer! At that time, I was really shocked when I read this. I have always been concerned about my one-acre three-point land, work and life friends, and bigger things, such as the country and the earth’s environment, but I never thought about it, except for the earth. Besides civilization, are there other civilizations in the vast universe? There is another civilization similar to human beings, with a lower or higher level of evolution, and they are always looking for other civilizations. Wow, that’s so exciting to think about. In fact, in real life, the exploration and search for alien civilizations have been going on.

• SETI: Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence. This project was originally an experimental project initiated by American astronomer Frank Drake in 1960, using radio telescopes to detect the entire outer sky. Explain that radio telescopes are not detected by conventional optical telescopes through observation, but by receiving signals. In the Red Shore base in “Three-Body Problem”, there is a monitoring base station that receives signals from outer space, which is similar to that. Normally, it is noise. If there is a regular signal from outer space, it can be captured for interpretation and analysis. Radio telescopes It is similar to this. After this project has been going on for many years, it is a pity that there is no gain. After that, it is not enough to just listen to it, and you have to go out to find it, so there are some new actions in the follow-up.

In 1972, the United States launched the unmanned planetary probe Pioneer 10. This probe flew freely into outer space. Of course, it also carried some gold leaf of human information. Now it seems to have flown out of Pluto, and we have to wait for the reply Hundreds of years.

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The dividing line, back to the book “Three-Body Problem”, let’s talk about some of the more impressive plots in the book.

5 Dark Forest Law

The law of the dark forest should be the main thread running through the entire “Three-Body Problem”. The title of the second book is “Dark Forest”. Luo Ji also delayed the destruction of the earth through the law of the dark forest. It can be said that the law of the dark forest is the law of survival in the universe. Let me tell you about this.

Cosmic civilization has two axioms: 1) Survival is the first need of civilization. 2) Civilizations keep growing and expanding, but the total amount of matter in the universe remains constant.

Based on these two theorems, we can speculate and deduce the whole picture of the whole universe society. The first one is easy to understand, but the second one might say that the universe is so vast that there is no shortage of matter. Yes, the universe is big, but life is even bigger. The total amount of matter in the universe is basically constant, but life is growing exponentially. If we take a longer-term view, one million or ten million years from now, according to the current The development speed of the earth civilization can crowd the entire galaxy.

Let’s list a few more concepts:

• **The goodwill and malice in civilizations impose restrictions on goodwill and malice in cosmic civilizations. Goodwill means not actively attacking and destroying other civilizations, while maliciousness is the opposite. **

• **Chain of Suspicion. It refers to the endless suspicion established based on the axioms of cosmic civilization after the two civilizations formed exchanges. ** It’s hard to understand, right? It can be understood like this. For example, the earth has detected another civilization in outer space. The earth is a benevolent civilization, but the earth civilization doesn’t know what the other party thinks of me. I don’t know what the other party thinks and what I think about you. This chain of suspicion will continue to extend. This extension is related to the ecological circle we live in. On the earth, everyone belongs to the same species and lives in the same environment. The chain of suspicion may end at the third or third floor, but in the universe, each civilization is completely independent. In this case, the chain of suspicion will be infinitely magnified.

• Technology Explosion. This should be easy to understand. Human civilization has a history of 5,000 years, and the history of life on the earth lasts for billions of years. Modern technology has only been developed in 300 years. If you think about it, technological changes in 300 years have It is so big, and the earth is 300 years old. You have no reason to think that there is no civilization in the universe that is faster than the earth. So if a civilization knows that the civilization on the earth exists, even if it is weaker than you, it does not rule out the possibility of a technological explosion. It’s ahead of you. The technological explosion is irregular and instantaneous on the cosmic timeline.

Having said the above, it is very easy to understand the law of the dark forest:

**The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is a hunter with a gun, sneaking in the forest like a ghost, gently pushing aside the branches blocking the way, trying not to let the footsteps make a sound, and even breathing carefully.. …he must be careful, because the forest is full of hunters who are as sneaky as he is. If he finds any other life, hunter or not, angel or devil, tender baby or shambling old man, celestial maiden or celestial boy, there’s only one thing he can do : Shoot and destroy it. In this forest, hell is other people, an eternal threat, and any life that exposes its existence will be quickly wiped out. This is also an explanation of the Fermi paradox. **

This is the famous law of the dark forest, because Luo Ji has studied cosmic sociology and is well versed in this law, and of course the Trisolaran civilization, which is a higher civilization, is also well versed in this law. So Luo Ji has always been the most feared enemy of the Trisolarans, and at the same time made the entire Trisolaran civilization disappear in the universe by exposing the coordinates of the Trisolaran star.

6 Don’t answer! Don’t answer! Don’t answer!

The whole story starts from Ye Wenjie, a human on earth, and Trisolaris 1379, and the most ordinary ordinary people on these two planets decide the development and demise of two civilizations. After seeing this episode, I suddenly woke up from the drowsy plot before. The previous plot of the first part seemed a bit incomprehensible, but here the story reached its climax. A greeting was overheard by monitor 1379 on Trisolaran, and this life may change the crumbling civilization environment of Trisolaran. Since Trisolaris has three stars, their epochs are irregular. Constant epochs and chaotic epochs appear alternately, and there is no time law. The civilizations on Trisolarans have always been living in dire straits, and they must be dehydrated at any time. preparation. Due to the special living environment, Trisolarans are highly centralized and have no emotions. The way of communication is direct exchange of ideas without language packaging. Therefore, Trisolarans has been monitoring and exploring other civilizations in the universe, whether there is a better place to live environment of. According to common sense, this greeting from the earth is the life-saving straw of Trisolaran, which has been waiting for tens of thousands of years for an opportunity, but such a peace messenger like No. 1379, such a kind Trisolaran, reminded the earth out of kindness. Civilization does not answer, do not expose their position, this is how selfless, what a height of thought.

When Ye Wenjie received the bad living conditions of Trisolarans introduced by No. 1379, Ye Wenjie finally sent a reply: **Come here, I will help you get this world, my civilization has been unable to solve its own problems, and needs Your power to intervene. **

Years later, Ye Wenjie became the spiritual leader of the Three-Body Rebel Army on Earth. She was an idealist, an extreme idealist. Her own miserable experience in society made her firmly believe that only a higher civilization can save the civilization of the earth, but that’s it. I also find it strange that a creator of disasters cannot be hated. In the last stage of her life, she was also the one who taught Luo Ji the law of the dark forest.

7 You are bugs!

Hahaha, I was so shocked when I saw the message that Sophon sent to the earth with only these 5 words, bug, how contemptuous it is. The earth has always been biased towards one even, and various spaceship detectors go to detect outer space.The empty civilization thinks that it is the master of the universe, but after knowing the existence of another alien civilization and intercepting their dynamics and information with some progress, I think the people on earth are still thinking in their hearts that their civilization must be Lower than the earth civilization, waiting for the earth civilization to rescue. Received such a taunt from another Trisolaran civilization with such a bad living condition: You are bugs! What kind of contempt is this, at that moment, the dignity and self-confidence of the people on earth must have been shattered.

It was Da Shi’s words that regained the confidence that had been extinguished: human beings have been fighting against locusts, using various methods, exhausting all kinds of poisons, spraying them with airplanes, introducing and cultivating their natural enemies, searching for and destroying them eggs, sterilizing them with genetic modification, etc., but in this long struggle accompanied by the entire human civilization, the outcome is still undecided, and the bugs have not been exterminated. Bugs have never really been defeated.

8 Wall-Facing Project

I really admire Liu’s imagination for coming up with such a plot as the wall-facing plan. In response to Sophon’s surveillance of the earth and the special communication methods of the Trisolarans, the Wall-Facing Project came into being. The strategies of the four Wall-facers of the Wall-Facing Project against the Trisolarans also opened my mind. The first Taylor thought was to use the Space Expendables and Star Lightning to turn the Earth Army into a ghost army, so that this undead ghost army could fight against the Trisolaran Army. Hahaha, I feel that this paragraph is very American, using the strong to touch the strong. The second is Rediazi, who plans to plant an astonishing number of nuclear weapons on the back of Mercury, and use this as a threat to negotiate with the Trisolaran Army. If they insist on attacking the earth, they will die together. The third is Hines, the ideological seal, this thing is really strong, using the ideological seal to strengthen the confidence of the earth army to win, can effectively resist the escapers and pessimists, this brain hole is too big. The fourth place is Luo Ji. Luo Ji didn’t take any measures in the early stage, and he didn’t know why he was selected as the wallfacer, but in the end it was his wallfacer plan that was the most effective, which was the law of the dark forest.

Of course, there is a mantra that comes with it: I am your wall breaker.

9 It’s okay, it’s all the same

Zhang Beihai is my favorite character in the whole play besides Luo Ji. Of course, Zhang Beihai and Wade are of the same kind, with advanced predictions and firm beliefs, and they can do anything for their beliefs and firmly believe in their own judgment.

When I was reading, I often put myself into the world of the three-body problem. I was thinking about what I would think if I were in that kind of earth catastrophe, how many people on the whole earth can maintain rationality and firm belief, and can accurately predict the future. Zhang Beihai’s lonely and stern back often appears in my mind. Although he is only a soldier and has no real power to change anything, he firmly believes in himself, fights for his beliefs and even sacrifices himself. In the early days, he pretended to be a staunch optimist who is determined to win the Earth Army, in stark contrast to the fugitives, making everyone think he is a staunch triumphant. In the later period, he was hibernated and transported to participate in the final doomsday battle. When choosing between chemical rockets and nuclear-powered rockets, he resolutely killed the experts of chemical rockets, making the subsequent production of nuclear-powered rockets possible. Finally, he was elected as the captain to lead Natural Selection fled Earth like a wolf leading a herd of sheep. Finally, in the dark battle, the Natural Selection was destroyed, Zhang Beihai was finally freed, he could finally be himself, he was an escapist, but it didn’t matter, it was all the same.

Zhang Beihai has fulfilled his own mission, he is a lonely hero!

10 I speak to the three-body world

When Luo Ji stood at the crossroads of the earth’s destiny, he had to face up to the Trisolaran civilization and say: I speak to the Trisolaran world. My emotions have reached their peak, and I just want to say that Luo Ji is the only man on earth, and he is also the character I admire and like the most in the whole play.

Luo Ji is not a perfect protagonist. He has never advertised himself as a superhero, nor does he have that righteous and charismatic image. It is precisely because of this that he is sought after by many people. Before he became a Wallfacer, he was bohemian and unrestrained. He was proud of his talents. Not only was he proficient in physics, but he was also familiar with sociology and literature. Studying cosmic sociology was also because his unpopularity was beneficial to future job hunting. Little people of subsection. When the little people are chosen by history to shoulder the mission of saving the earth, how many people can maintain their original aspirations or bear the pressure? When Luo Ji was selected as a Wallfacer, his first reaction was to resolutely give up this mission and privilege. When he knew that he could not give up this identity, he was a very badass. He used the privilege to live his ideal life. What does the future of the earth have to do with me? ? There are still four centuries to go, isn’t it good to enjoy the present? Hahaha, it’s really too real, there are many ways to live in life, and grasping the present is obviously the best way to live. Later, he really worked hard to find a solution for his lover and children. Wow, this is true, how close to us, to be honest, isn’t the biggest thing for an ordinary person is that his wife and children are hot on the bed? What does the fate of the country and the earth have to do with me? Isn’t this the great wisdom of life? Seeing this is really touching. Many of us work hard every day, work hard overtime, and are overwhelmed by work every day. We have to compare with others, desperately buy and change houses, post on Moments to gain that little vanity, overdraft I used my family time to spend some time in the mirror, but in the end it actually ran counter to my original intention.

Luo Ji’s life is too real, a bit like a true portrayal of Da Liu. I watched Liu’s interview before, talking about his views on fame, popularity, and literature. He also expressed very honestly that he wanted to sell more books and earn more money. It was so true. But Luo Ji’s strength is far more than that. When he changed from being a hero who saved mankind to being excluded by everyone, he still used his last strength to save mankind. I want to talk to the three-body world.

Later, he became a sword holder, silently facing the wall and guarding the civilization of the earth for 50 years, and later the guardian of the earth’s tomb, ah, I just want to say: Looking at the history of mankind, his victory is unmatched.

It is true that Luo Ji is more real than Cheng Xin. He can live for himself, and he can give his all when he is required to shoulder responsibilities. He is a wise man full of wisdom, neither humble nor overbearing, and calmly faces everything!

When can I, like Luo Ji, grasp the true meaning of life and live my life wisely.

11 Forward! go ahead! Go ahead by any means!

Wade and Zhang Beihai are the same kind of people, with firm goals and firm beliefs. Sometimes this kind of spirit is needed, especially when you are confused and have no direction, and when you are moaning for the future, you need this kind of spirit, go forward, go forward, and go forward by whatever means. There is nothing to be afraid of, just go forward bravely. Many people’s fears are imposed by themselves. The only way to overcome fear is to face it. When you face it, you will no longer be afraid. So like Wade and Zhang Beihai, I will use them to motivate myself in the future on my life path. There is nothing to be afraid of, just do it.

12 Weakness and ignorance are not obstacles to survival, arrogance is!

There are two stories:

**There is a sharpshooter who is practicing target shooting and punches a hole every 10cm. Imagine a two-dimensional intelligent creature living on this target. The scientists among them discovered a great law after observing their own universe: There must be a hole every 10cm, and they regard the random behavior of this sharpshooter as the iron law of their own civilization. **

** There is a group of turkeys in a farm, and the farmer will feed them on time at 10 o’clock every morning. A scientist among the turkeys observed that this phenomenon has not changed for a year, so it also discovered the iron in the universe. Lil: Food arrives at 10 every morning. It announced this law to everyone on Thanksgiving, but this morning the food did not come at 10 o’clock, and the farmers came in and caught them all and killed them. **

These two interesting stories can also be compared to the civilization of the earth. We think that we are the center of the entire universe, and we are the highest civilization, but have you ever thought that the civilization of the earth may also be an accidental hole. In the face of a higher civilization, we A turkey at the mercy of others.

There are many plots in “The Three-Body Problem” that describe the arrogance of human beings. The most impressive thing is that after the great trough, human industry has entered a new height, space technology is booming, and the space fleet is seriously waiting for the arrival of the Three-Body Fleet. Can wipe out the Trisolaran fleet with little effort. When I saw this paragraph, I thought that all the human beings on the earth had been stamped with ideological stamps, that is, the kind of stamps that firmly believe that human beings will win, but in fact there are no such stamps. This kind of arrogance is also the root of human beings. If the scars are healed, the pain is forgotten. After all, the earth civilization has been relatively peaceful since human beings, and there is no very harsh natural living environment. In this hotbed, it is inevitable to get carried away. When the drops of Trisolaran wiped out the human spaceships with little effort, everyone collapsed, the kind of hopeless collapse. There are also three-body water droplets threatening the earth. Luo Ji used the dark forest to deter the three-body army. The earth gained a short-term peace, and human beings were immersed in arrogance. The scars were healed and the pain was forgotten. Trisolarans did not give up any chance to occupy the heaven on earth in their eyes. They worked hard to learn the civilization of the earth, the culture of the earth, to supplement the disadvantages of their own civilization, etc., and finally found the opportunity. The earth army was defeated in one blow.

Weakness and ignorance are not barriers to survival, arrogance is! Weak I can gradually become stronger, and ignorant I can learn knowledge, but if I take the initiative to expose myself because I feel that I am the king of the universe, this is arrogance to the civilization of the universe, and this arrogance will also pay a heavy price!

13 Request a two-way foil for cleanup

shock! The earth civilization that we are proud of through painstaking efforts is an ant in front of a higher civilization, and a piece of two-way foil can clean up the entire solar system!

Just like in the hot summer, you found a group of ants in your backyard, and then in order to drive away the group of ants, you returned home and took out a pot of hot water and poured it on the group of ants. The civilization has just encountered a catastrophe. The homeland they have painstakingly managed is destroyed by a mysterious force from outside, and they have spent their entire lives unable to find a way to resist this mysterious force. But for you, ants are too small, you can easily control their fate, this is the blow of dimensionality reduction.

What I admire is Teacher Liu Cixin’s powerful imagination. It is not the law of the dark forest that defeats human beings in the end, but the high-dimensional strike. The law of the dark forest is applicable between the same dimensions, but it is not applicable in higher dimensions, because low latitudes cannot threaten high dimensions at all, so the attack of high dimensions on low dimensions will directly reduce the dimension.

14 Totalitarianism in five minutes

Space is a magnifying glass, which can instantly magnify the dark side of human beings. When human beings really live in space, totalitarianism only takes five minutes.

The identity given to people by society is too important. We live in society and have our own country, identity, etc., but if one day you don’t belong to any country, you have no human identity, and there are a lot of people like you, what would you think For example, in outer space, you will never return to the earth, what would you think? In fact, at this time, you are an outer space civilization, and you are no longer part of the earth. You can do anything in your civilization, including creating your own laws, systems, and culture. At this time, the nature of human beings is the greatest Exposure, totalitarianism was formed within 5 minutes.

15 My whole life is climbing a ladder of responsibility

I don’t know how to evaluate Cheng Xin, it’s very complicated, her image is so positive, she has such a sense of responsibility, and she fits the current human moral norms, but she is such a person with such a sense of morality and responsibility, who keeps the earth Civilization has plunged into the abyss. i don’t I understand too well the intention of Teacher Liu Cixin in designing the role of Cheng Xin. Maybe it is an insinuation that this kind of moral packaging of human beings is not conducive to the progress of civilization? But if in reality everyone communicates without any emotion like the Trisolarans, and puts the interests of survival first, then the whole society will be even darker. Maybe this kind of civilization can promote the development of civilization, but living in such a civilization is also in dire straits.

In Yun Tianming’s eyes, Cheng Xin was the goddess he could never get close to, and he just silently protected the goddess in his heart until the destruction of the earth. As a sword holder, she was broken by the Trisolaran in just 1 second. Knowing that she couldn’t bear this heavy responsibility, the result was indeed unbearable. When I saw this paragraph, I also compared myself to the sword holder, whether I have the courage to press that button, I don’t know, but what I know is that this pressure is very high, and it is related to the life and death of the entire earth. Human beings are rational and emotional, and if they make decisions solely by reason, they are machines. Only Luo Ji, Wei De, and Zhang Beihai are capable of this kind of rationality, belief, and determination.

Later, the termination of the light speed spacecraft project extinguished the last chance of human survival. But whenever risks threaten the survival of the earth, Cheng Xin is like a mother relying on this responsibility to take care of her children, so she will always be fulfilling her responsibility.

16 Carve words on stone

Technology is developing faster and faster, and the information that our storage media can store is also increasing, but how can it be preserved forever? All storage media such as optical discs and hard disks have a storage period. In human history, this storage period is enough, but what about the entire universe? This period of human history is too short, and the ultimate method is to return to the essence, use stones to preserve, return to the most primitive method, to carve and record.

The development of science and technology has brought great convenience and diversity to our lives. Our communication speed is getting faster and faster. A WeChat message and a phone call can send information to the other end of the world. We can grasp all the things that happen in the world, drive map navigation to take us anywhere, and smart bracelet records take care of our health… While these technological developments bring us convenience and happiness, they also Wearing down our will. Has the distance between people really shortened because of the speeding up of information transmission? Does swiping videos and watching the news every day really make us happy? Is there no war in the world because of the development of science and technology? Are our bodies healthier too? No, I often think back to my childhood. At that time, the development of science and technology was not fast, but I was really happy. I could bathe and touch fish in the clear river, I could run and play with my friends in the countryside, and I could always be with my parents. The development of science and technology has brought us a lot of mental pressure. Returning to the original source may bring us the most simple happiness.

17 Epilogue

I have been immersed in the three-body problem for the past few days, searching for related videos, Zhihu Q&A about the three-body problem, and I feel that this is the charm of a good book. After reading this book, my thinking has become deeper and broader. Human beings have been estimated to be only 5 million years old since the discovery of human fossils, and the history of civilization is only 8,000 years old, but compared to the long time of this universe, it is too small. What are these joys, sorrows, sorrows, and joys? The appearance of human beings is accidental, and your appearance is even more accidental. Your life is only 100 years at most. What is there to be afraid of? You might as well be bolder when dealing with life, and be more enthusiastic about every day, because you don’t know whether we are all in the “painting” if you are a two-way foil.

The classic quotations of the three-body problem are attached: https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv1248329/