Whoever thought I would love a Chinese book?
I admit to cultural prejudice. I don’t like it, but I suffer from it. I am American, Californian if you want some nuance. I believe in the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I believe in individual responsibility rather than collective progress.
The Three-Body Problem is perhaps the first Chinese book I have read since Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. And I can only say Wow! Aliens that come to invade because a disaffected scientist invites them. Advanced physics that prompted me to return to school to wrap my mind around the concepts. A viable strategy for breaking science and preventing the advancement of technology. And a negative view of the future that diametrically opposes all we try to portray with SlingStar Myth.
Like I said, Wow!
Netflix
I saw the Netflix series before reading the book. I related to the characters and was fascinated by their problems. What could put a countdown on your eyeballs? What would make brilliant scientists commit suicide? How could science be broken? The show captured my interest with these compelling questions.
The first scenes about life in China conformed to my ideas of the Cultural Revolution and lack of freedom in China. I can’t really say if these beliefs are valid, but they felt realistic to me. The main character, Wengi Ye was the brilliant daughter of a scientist. She witnessed her father’s brutal mob execution for the terrible crime of being a scientist. She was sent to a work camp to cut down trees, devastating the natural forest. She met an American ecologist, the heir to an oil fortune, who gave her a book about the connection between all living things. The authorities found the hidden book, resulting in further torture for her. Her suffering formed her belief that the human race was not worth saving and could not be salvaged without outside help.
Later, she went to work as a scientist in a radio telescope that searched the stars for aliens, like Jodie Foster in Carl Sagan’s Contact. The Chinese sent greetings similar to the American Voyager attempts. They wanted to be represented as an equal power on Earth. When aliens answered, Wengi invited them to come and invade. She did not do this innocently; she believed that humans did not deserve to live on Earth.
But Wengi’s negation of the human race is not even the most terrible idea in this book.
The aliens decide to accept Wengi’s invitation. Realizing the distance and time it will take and the exponential growth of Earth’s technology, they recognize that Earth will probably surpass them during the four-hundred-year journey. Unwilling to risk annihilation upon arrival, they embrace a strategy to recruit followers on Earth and to prevent the natives from advancing. Their diabolical plan involves altering perceptions using multi-dimension quantum particles. They manipulate the experimental results of particle accelerators. Inconsistencies cause Earth physicists to doubt their understanding of the universe. Scientists conclude that science is broken, leading many to suicide and others to renounce their research. The aliens believe that without an understanding of particle physics and multi-dimensions which can only be obtained by testing and scientific methods, the Earth will never reach technological supremacy. I find this idea frightfully plausible. Without observed and repeatable results, science cannot advance. Without science, we will degrade into ignorance and savagery.
Understanding the technology the aliens used to achieve this requires knowledge of physics well beyond what I learned in high school or can find on Wikipedia. The ideas are so mind-blowing that I decided to try to learn physics again. I am happy to report that anyone can study (online for free) basic physics at MIT and many other places. I am unhappy to report that I couldn’t understand any of it and had to get a refresher course on algebra first. Then I will need to relearn calculus. I don’t remember anything! But I can’t stand being a science fiction writer who can’t contemplate the concepts another writer wove into such a brilliant story. So, back to school!
The other crucial idea involves the basic challenge of the aliens: The Three-Body Problem. Essentially, they lived in a solar system with three stars. Gravity and widely varying orbits meant that their planet was subject to brief periods of stability and unpredictable periods of extreme heat or cold or lack of gravity. We learn about this in an apparent video game. Very cool in the Netflix series (not from the book), a sleek, high-tech helmet invited brilliant scientists to experience a virtual reality far beyond our current tech. The players were invited to solve the problem, only to prove that no solution exists to the inherent instability. Hence, the decision of the aliens to abandon their solar system and find a more compatible planet: Earth.
The Netflix series covers these deep concepts in a masterful way. The acting is compelling. The visuals are stunning. I enjoyed it very much and can hardly wait for season two to commence.
The Book
So I bought the book. I liked it less than the Netflix series, mostly because I found it difficult to relate to the Chinese characters. But I really enjoyed the obvious and authentic foreign nature of the book. Reading an author’s words, though translated into my language, is so much more interesting than reading an interpretation from someone else. The perspective is different. The details varied. But the brilliance of the original ideas comes through loud and clear.
I understand why this novel won the Hugo Award. I applaud the choice. I recommend it to anyone who searches for truth from the source.
In closing, I would like to address the inherent pessimism in this story. I understand that Star Trek’s galactic federation is not any more plausible than aliens who want to displace us and take our beautiful planet for themselves. But I don’t find any hopeful outcome arising from the perspective of humans who don’t deserve to exist. I think writers design dystopian futures to highlight and help us learn from our mistakes. But this story poses only one lesson: the value of scientific research. And I think the people who watch or read this story already believe in that. What about the rest of humanity? How can this story reach and influence those who don’t value facts and truth?
I hope the rest of the series will help me find a sliver of hope for us all.
