Death's End (The Three-Body Problem Series, 3)

Cixin Liu's Remembrance of Earth's Past series seemed to end nicely with Dark Forest. Alas, with Death's End, we see that the "end" was not really an end. This book goes way beyond the worries of our mere instance on earth to explore questions of the universe over time periods of millions of years. 

The book primarily focuses on the experiences of a few key figures. They often enter hibernation only to awake in a time that is very different than what they recall. The shifting mores of society can make the heroes of one time period become the villains of another. The earth is in an uneasy truce with TriSolarans. There is a single person that has the ability to trigger the "message" that can lead to the destruction of the solar system if the "invaders" try too much. The two species have gradually become closer, adopting parts of each other's culture and technology. Meanwhile, humans have become effeminate and light on defense. They seek to bring back the few ships that are at the outer reaches of the galaxy to try them for crimes against humanity. There are also attempts to limit technology due to fears. Alas, it is only through some of these that "slip through the cracks" that humanity is able to continue to exist.

The earthlings finally try to swap out the "man on the button" with somebody new. Alas, she is not as callus as the man that had been their previously and the Trisolarans take the opportunity to wipe at the signal transmission technology. The Trisolarans then show their "compassion" by given humanity one year to transfer everybody to Australia. Seems an obvious parallel to the "reservations" that conquerors have consigned native populations to. These humans must live a  primitive life with no technology. Due to severe overcrowding, they are also expected to fight each other to the death in order to survive. A few select people are part of a military force that rounds up stragglers on the other parts of the earth. 

Things look bleak for humanity. Luckily one of the ships that was flying away happened to be outside the realm of the Trisolarans communication mechanisms. They see they are about to be overtaken and send out the message, telling the world about the TriSolaran home world (and identify earth.) The TriSolarans immediately give up their hopes of earth. Humanity is given a reprieve. The people that had been "lucky" enough to be on the police force are now tried for crimes against humanity. (This seems to be a recurring theme.)

Now humanity is in a race to build technology to survive after an impending attack. Luckily they get a communication from a human that is embedded with the Trisolarans. He tells a story with hints of requisite plans told a few levels deep in a story. They attempt to decipher it and use it to work on some technology development. However, concepts of slowing light speed or building light-speed travel are shunned in favor of bunkering people near Jupiter. Alas, the attack comes via a different means than expected and light speed travel is the only solution. Luckily, some technology was created (even after it was prohibited.) A few humans escape.

Things jump forward millions of years. We learn that some  people are hidden behind a "Slow light" world that makes them safe, but eliminates outside contact. Beings have been fighting using the laws of physics that ultimately will lead to the destruction of the universe. The dimension-shrinking weapons are used to eliminate threats. Alas, these will eventually shrink the entire universe to smaller dimensions, leading to the destruction of the entire universe. This end seems to be rushed, as it quickly changes the scale of problems.

The underlying assumption is that the universe is a cruel place. Species would rather inhiliate others than attempt to peacefully interact. Humans are also prone to focus on the moment. Long term planning is difficult and politics often force dumb decisions to be made. People are also very prone to judge people of the past, applying standards of today to very different situations in the past. Identity frequently shifts based on needs. When at peace, people splinter off to individual subgroups. When there is a big conflict, people unify. (Though for some reason, hibernating people are still supported through these great upheavals.) Human existence is ephemeral. It is hardly a blip on universal or geological time. Should we be concerned of out lasting legacy?

The Dark Forest

The population of earth now knows that the Tri-Solarans are approaching and will arrive within a few centuries. Some people initially plan on fleeing. However, that plan is quashed. The earth instead is focussing on plans to battle the invaders. Many of these plans rely on the people of earth taking advantage of not-yet-invented technology. The Tri-Solarans have sophons on earth that allow instant access to all human communications. However, their society doesn't have a difference between "thinking" and "saying". Can this help the humans?

Part of the plan is to have "wallfacers" who are given the power to do whatever they want. The hope is that they can create some plans to defeat the aliens without communicating it out loud. The Tri-solaran allies have "wall-breakers" that attempt to find the wallfacer plan. The wallfacers come up with some interesting plans - sometimes based on their particular interests.

The novel focusses primarily on a few periods of time. One is shortly after the earth knew about the impending invasion. Many of the main characters then enter hibernation and come back over a hundred years later. The earth has gone through a great catastrophe. However, now everyone is much more optimistic about the prospects of humankind. There is a large space fleet that humanity thinks will easily dispose of the invading force. Alas, things do not go according to plan and humanity becomes pessimistic. (We also wonder the role of a wallfacer innovation that can "imprint" beliefs on people - even something like "water is bad" can become a deeply held belief.)

In the end, it is social science that becomes the deciding factor. One planet is "cursed" and then later found to be destroyed. While this appeared to be magical, it just took advantage of interplanetary sociology. Social relationships also contribute to the fall of the Earth space fleet and the eventual fate of the earth. The vast amount of technology have their role, but without the understanding of how beings work together, they are of minimal use.

The Three-Body Problem

The Three-Body Problem is a "hard" science fiction book from Chinese Author 刘慈欣 and the first book in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. The novel alternates from a few different time periods. It begins with the cultural revolution in China and the fate of some scientists that dare espouse modern scientific thought. Most of the novel takes place today. There is also some parts where we hear the internals of the nearby "Three Body" world. Some of this is directly told, while others are told indirectly through a game.

The Three Body civilization occupies a single planet caught in the middle of a system with three stars orbiting each other. Depending on how they orbit, the world could experience vastly different situations. However, it is impossible to precisely predict how the orbiting will be done (hence the three body problem.) On earth, there is also a three-body civilization game that is played by many of the brightest. They use some experiences from earth to try to solve this three body problem.

Earth sends out a message to try to discover if there is additional life. It is retrieved by the three-body world. However, they are unable to accurately tell where the message came from. They can tell the direction, but not the distance. One of the people on the three-body world sends a response that they should not respond. They know that the world is looking to settle a new planet. If they know where to look, they may seek to destroy the current inhabitants. Alas, a disgruntled earthling decides to send a response, seeing that as a better option than the horrid state of earth.

The three-body world sends a fleet to earth. However, they realize that earth is advancing at an exponential rate and may be more advanced than they are before they arrive. They hatch a plot involving proton folding to restrict scientific progress. This seems to work. On earth many maddening things are happening to scientists. There are also groups on earth that are intent on using the aliens to help "fix" man's wrongdoings. The other planet views humans as no more than "bugs". However, what is they status of "bugs"?

This is a well done science fiction book. The Chinese background makes it different enough, while still being very accessible in translation.