Finished reading The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu.
Quotes:
Page 27-28: Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and an iceberg floating on its surface? Both the ocean and the iceberg are made of the same material. That the iceberg seems separate is only because it is in a different form. In reality, it is but a part of the vast ocean....It was impossible to expect a moral awakening from humankind itself, just like it was impossible to expect humans to lift off the earth by pulling up on their own hair. To achieve moral awakening required a force outside the human race. This thought determined the entire direction of Ye's life.
foreshadowing here, teasing the reader (who knows its an alien book)
what about the innate evilness of humanity, is it true? seems like it, we are governed by greed, driven by power and money (that we made up). inequality rules the world. would we be changed/forced into a moral awakening if we knew aliens were coming? humans are so indifferent about climate change it feels like we would just carry on with our lives. in the book, most of humanity doesn't know about the communication with trisolaris, and the book never really touches what happens when they arrive (its a trilogy), makes me want to read more, but still wish some kind of contact occured. the longer humans are around, do we "melt down" and become more evil to each other, like ice melting into water? I think an argument can be made that this is the case, but also no (slavery doesn't happen any more). we can keep this quote in our head while reading the rest of the book to try and decipher what Liu believe/what they think about humanity and its evilness.
Page 84: Based on these two successes, Pan's opinions on social issues had grown more and more influential. He believed that the technological progress was a disease in human society. The explosive development of technology was analogous to the growth of cancer cells, and the results would be identical: the exhaustion of all sources of nourishment, the destruction of organs, and the final death of the host body.
Building off previous quote, is humanities ability to build and learn going to be its biggest downfall? too much growth in tech progress as it says? is this technological progress the evil being referred to above. The progress is what provides the vehical of inequality, allows groups of people to dominate another, etc. is hockey stick growth (golden standard for a startup) cancerous? What can we do to use technology in such a way that it doesn't eat all of the resources of the earth, are we already too late? Technology controls our lives and we are addicted to it, the cancer is taking over humans.
Page 195: Although the method is simple, it shows how, mathematically, random brute force can overcome precise logic. It's a numerical approach that uses quantity to derive quality. This is my strategy for solving the three-body problem. I study the system moment by moment. At each moment, the spheres' motion vectors can combine in infinite ways. I treat each combination like a life form. The key is to set up some rules: which combinations of motion vectors are "healthy" and "beneficial," and which combinations are "detrimental" and "harmful." The former receive a survival advantage while the latter are disfavored. The computation proceeds by eliminating the disadvantaged and preserving the advantaged. The final combination that survives is the correct prediction for the system's next configuration, the next moment in time.
I like this quote because it is describing delchamp's class (ECE 4271). Describes an evolutionary/genetic algorithm, and mentions the Monte Carlo method earlier too. I enjoyed that class a lot, and think its cool to hear about what I learned in a book. Makes me appreciate the book too because of the accurateness (as far as I can tell) of the scientific references throughout. They did a good job on that.
Thoughts on humanity, how people would react to hearing news like in this book. First off, they probably wouldn't, because government would cover it up, something like that. You wouldn't find a paper on archive talking about the recent contact with aliens. BUT, if they did. My view is that we would fight amongst ourselves, America or China or Russia would win, and then try to welcome or take on the aliens. The infighting could kill humanity. Other view is that academics around the world, probably the only people who can understand aliens, band together and refuse to work towards contact unless governments support them. When academics hold this power, communication with aliens is treated like an open source project, and people take advantage of it, and then humanity turns into bugs, like the book says.
Being a bug. I don't think this is the worst outcome, just a major adjustment. The books points about how much more advanced humans are but they still can't eradicate bugs was wierdly uplifting. A good reminder that extinction is hopefully not something we would face if aliens came to the earth. Hard to be fulfilled when you live this kind of life, but that problem is already existing and unsolved right now - the "rat race."
Proton unfolding and containing civilazation was mindblowing and possibly true. We may be really just living in a lower dimension of a single proton. Maybe even in some kind of simulation. Scary to think a lot about really. I am too simple minded for things like that sometimes.
I really liked the book and flew through it. Was kept interested throughout and enjoyed the story. Plot overall, left me wishing for more, want to know what happens when Trisolaris makes it to Earth, want to know how humans become bugs.
This is first book in trilogy, so I imagine rest of books unpack this and their plot lies on when Trisolaris comes to Earth.
I wonder what gets lost in translation when going from Chinese to English, and wonder if the book is read/received differently in cultures other than my own.
Overall, highly recommend the book, especially for people with interest in science and technology, looking for a quicker read that still makes you think on a deeper level. The book has won awards in China, maybe will win in the US too.