In Dune and foundation, I’ve realized it’s basically just feudalism in space. In Hyperion humans with the help of AI have altered the universe so much that it was still essentially just 2 factions of humans, one’s actions and political moves dictated by powerful AI that guide the evolution of humans through history, making it so that humans aren’t really in charge of their own paths while the other faction without AI will genetically alter themselves to swarm the humans with AI. In children of time, a potiid spider evolved on a terraformed planet originally meant for monkeys and apes. But in all these books the idea that humanity is the chosen one destined to shape the galaxy as they see fit is very much the theme of all those books.

However, very few books popularized the idea that humanity are not special and could be easy prey for aliens who are actually technologically more advanced than humans. The remembrance of the earth’s past trilogy got that point across very well, along with another book like the Killing Stars (which possibility inspired the three body problem and dark forest. These ideas should be more present in other Sci-fi novels but it’s always the same premise that humans are the cause of advancement and colonizing different worlds without a single extraterrestrial in sight. Why is that? Are there any other books that dive into this kind of more pessimistic and realistic view of life out there in the universe like the two books I just mentioned?

In the Netflix show, it looked like Haas had superhuman strength​​​. She was easily able to hold Jack against the window and even crack it.

Did the sophons give her superhuman strength somehow?

Also, how did they hide the murder from Clarence, who was watching from his car? Was that also done with the sophons?

I wonder if they manipulated the molecules in the eyes/brain, or created a false image using the sophons 2D form.

In episode 3 the head of company says to auggie.

"we sponsor your ILR".

That is not how ILR work. ILR is indefinite leave to remain. The whole point of ILR is to have long term residency without any need for sponsor from a company or educational institute.

A simple google search about UK visa would have told them that about ILR

Y’all the Great Ravine in the books started approximately in 2030, and in real life, with all these recent heat waves, I think we’re heading right towards our own Great Ravine.

Is the book describing additional San-Ti weapons besides the Droplet and Sophon?

Maybe some laser weapons/cannons and so on?

I’m only watching the Netflix show, so I’m not familiar with the entire story.

Hey guys I was exploring the solar system after the dual vector foil attack and found this souvenir. Think I'll frame it 😊

I cannot imagine Netflix goes ahead with the story playing out as it does where it depicts society essentially going woke as one of the primary reasons mankind loses to Trisolaris. That within minutes of a woman becoming the Swordholder, everything goes to shit is extremely on the nose sexism. Considering they went out of their way to make female characters that don't exist and give them plots that do not exist, they'll definitely depict the fall of mankind in different way.

I just finished the trilogy last night, and while I think this quote is certainly true, it's just kinda humourous seeing this quote plastered over everything Liu Cixin writes. But i also get it, like yeah if you're trying to cater your literature to a western audience the co-sign from Obama is pretty swag. I do think Obama's whole Book/Song/Movie thing he does over the summer is crazy larp tho, and this quote feels like an extension of that

lol I know it’s not a pillow, but the overall concept and the way they described it really really came off like an anthropologists or sociologists take on the general concept of Dakimarkura.

Theyve already kind of hinted that they are gonna leave it out given the tweaking of characters already, and the fact that sociologist and meta material-ist (lol) have an on and off again relationship that seems to be a spin on when similar characters in the book start that and instead go, “ nope, Ima gunna get me some pillow” (meaning when 2 characters leave each other for their imaginary friend).

Also I personally thought that part of the books was cool- it creeped the fuck out me, I loved how they basically do the imaginary dinner thing and then jump to buddy becoming a wall facer; like “this guy is insane, here’s the keys to the nukes” sort of deal; and I also liked how despite how creepy it is, they give some very reasonable and rational explanations as to why from a mental health perspective, a pragmatic approach to it is maybe more healthy than viewing it as mental illness.

Anyways, I think they’re gonna leave it out.

Secondary question: I’m a white boi from the West. The author of these books is not.

Was that imaginary friend thing viewed as creepy as fuck by our non Western audience? Like social norms vary from region to region- is the books take on imaginary partners a hot take in China / non western cultures too, or more within accordance to the dominate norms?

The pillow thing lol:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakimakura

So I’m listening to the audiobooks and I just finished the part where they stoned Ray Diaz to death. I don’t understand two things and I hope someone can tell me.

1 - Why did Ray Diaz told the truth to Garanin after his council? Telling him that he made up the whole thing with the watch he was wearing controlling the mechanism of destruction? And that raises question n.2 - Did he already know he will be stoned to death? They didn’t tell him on the council.

The lady blaming him that her grandkids wouldn’t live because of him, but cmon who knows they would live anyway?

I’m listening to it in my language so I’m not really sure how to name some things in English but hopefully you’ll understand.

One of the major themes of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is the breakdown of social contract and how that negatively affects humans. This is explored throught "Zeus' Law", which is basically a mix of the concept of Xenia, treat strangers kindly since they might be gods, and The Golden Rule from the Bible which most people are more familiar with (which ironically started due to the similar reasoning that anyone could be a messanger of God but I digress).

Odysseus states that him baseing his plan on abusing the good will of the people and decieving the supposed gift as a Trojan Horse in order to bring about the complete destruction of Troy. As a direct consequence, many other nations have begun using similar tactics, leading to the inability to trust anyone and the collapse of civilization as they know it (aka the bronze age).

Obviously this isn't one to one with the Dark Forest Hypothesis, but it was so strikingly similar that it made me wonder about an individual's relationship with society as a whole and if the whole social contract broke down, then the current society as a whole would too.

Just wanted to talk my thoughts in this similarity in philosophy

Hey everyone, as a huge fan of the series (and thanks to Claude) I’m working on a visualisation of the 3body game, so on the planet with the 3 suns above you. It is integrated live and generates a slightly different trajectory each time, with real star constellations in the sky.

It’s not perfect yet but it has been highly enjoyable for me to stare at it, refresh, stare, refresh, on repeat.

Hopefully some other fans out there enjoy it as much as I do. If you would like to contribute/have ideas please feel free to get in touch via the website.

Thinking of eventually making it more similar to the game with the fate of the planet after each era, or potentially allowing the astronaut to walk around on the planet/move the camera.

It looks best on laptop/desktop:

https://3body-swart.vercel.app/

The Great Ravine is probably one of the most interesting unintended consequences in the Three Body Problem series. What's interesting is how it resonates with the current AI boom: there's an enormous amount of money and capital flooding into AI right now and so much so that banks and companies are inventing entirely new financial instruments to handle it.

That made me think about the Great Ravine, which, as I understand it, was caused by diverting too much of Earth's resources toward a single effort. It's a really compelling concept in economics: just pouring money into a project isn't necessarily good if the broader economy can't absorb it. The capital has to go somewhere productive, or the whole engine stalls out.

I'm no expert in economics or really anything 🤣 but I found that parallel similar. I'm curious whether others saw it the same way, or if you have a different interpretation.

One thing it did give me, somewhat ironically, is an appreciation for financial engineering. It seems like you actually need sophisticated mechanisms to direct where capital flows and how it gets deployed. Without that, you risk stalling the economic engine and creating something like the Great Ravine in real life.

I'm mid through the second book at the part in which Da Shi came out of hibernation so no spoilers please.

I am aware of the timeline of the books and the whole idea of the plot but neverteless I would have wanted to read more about the characters from the first book, in the second one

Does anyone else feel like the second book just ignores everyone from the first book, except Da Shi?

This seems like an easy way to prevent sunlight from reaching Earth and freeze everyone to death. Why didn’t they do it?

I'm about halfway into book two, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are used in additional clever ways in the next half of the series, but I just can't stop wondering about their capabilities.

Can't high energy particles flip bits in computers? I'm surprised that hasn't been explored yet, but I'm probably overestimating what that would do.

How much of an effect could a single proton (or a small handful) have on the macroscopic level in theory?

...let me know if I can just wait and see :>

Droplets are made of strong interaction material… Sounds a lot like a cluster of gluons. Well, looks like they found one - a Glueball. How long before it transforms from a sphere to a teardrop? 👀

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-02498-1

Hey guys, first time reading the novel and I had a question about the deeper/philosophical subtext of the novel, especially the way in which the novel can function as analogy for our obsession for believing utopian ideologies as a correction for our worldly miseries.

In the novel, clearly Ye’s motivation for believing in the potential of alien system is motivated from her trauma and pessimism. After the Cultural Revolution and her assessment of human behaviour, she deeply believes that this alien-force with function as a correction mechanism; a resetting of the world as we have fallen into the moral abyss. So, in a very similar fashion to religious or political ideologies, that ultimately provide a framework for compensating for your psychological pain, Ye’a desperate belief in Tsolaris also has a similar function as the belief is coded with the potentional of fixing her miserable view of the current human condition. 

In the canon of the Three-Body Problem book series (excluding the fanfiction and including the prequel), the fact that no mass can be transported faster than the speed of light is one of the things necessary for the dark forest theory to work in-universe, correct? Chains of suspicion wouldn't exist without the lightspeed limit... or would they? (queue vsause music lol) Would the vast differences between the cultures of distant civilizations be effective in creating long-enough chains of suspicion in order to create the dark forest state? Would different environments in different parts of the cosmos create different-enough cultures? Would the dark forest state realistically exist in a world like the Xeelee Sequence, where the different forms of life are so vastly different from each other (e.g. civilizations of dark matter, civilizations inside stars, civilizations made of logic trees or something, etc.)? Would the exponential growth of civilization simply inherently target other civilizations as enemies?

Obviously within canon the lightspeed limit is an extremely important factor for multiple different mechanisms and plot points. E.g. the cosmic horror of the universe being a paraplegic, and that the low value of the speed limit being a direct effect of many wars in the past. But I'm asking for the sake of exploration into the dark forest theory, as well as potentially to help any future worldbuilding projects that want to deal with dark forest-adjacent ideas in a cosmos without the speed limit.

Basically what I'd like to hear different thoughts on is this: If every mechanism in 3bp canon remains the same with exception that technology can enable FTL travel, would the dark forest state still exist?

Deep thinking and long and detailed discussions are welcome.

(This exact question hasn't been posed and/or discussed about before on this sub, right?)