, Dark Forest 
, and Death's End 
What the frick is all the soyfacing "so heckin' mindblowing!" shit about?
Nothing is revolutionary or impressive compared to SciFi that was written years ago. The Dark Forest theory isn't new—it's already been proposed as a (dumb) potential solution to the Fermi Paradox. However, there are other explanations that make a lot more sense. For example, life might be rare, and intelligent life even rarer. The chances of two civilizations existing at the same time, where both their planets can sustain that kind of life, is minuscule—especially within a manageable radius.
So, unless some civilization invents interstellar travel, there's almost no chance of actually encountering aliens, aside from maybe microbes. But I doubt even that, since we've yet to discover any, even at the microbial level--but hey, gotta write a book and as long as it's well thought out, I can run with it.
The Trisolarans on the other hand, could never have evolved in the first fricking place. But reddit "science" worshippers (uh-oh a heckin strawman) would say, "Well, you don't know the different places life can evolve—maybe it could evolve on even the most hostile planets," my response would be: maybe, but in that case, why isn't there life on Venus? Why is there no life on Mars? Why don't we see giant floating octokitties in Jupiter's atmosphere or spiders on Mercury? Those planets can't sustain life, and Trisolaris, with its unstable three-body orbit, would be even worse. It wouldn't last long enough for life to develop—it would either be ejected from its solar system or collide with another planet or its sun. Although Alpha Centauri doesn't even have a fricking orbit like that.
All the stuff related to multiple spatial dimensions doesn't make sense scientifically. It's fricking ridiculous. There's no indication that other dimensions are actual physical planes we can visit, rather than just a way that a string folds in on itself and in which case, we're already in those dimensionrinos. The "escape velocity" of the 2-D vector higher than light from beyond the antipodal distance of the oort cloud and Pluto is just a handwave for "I need to kill everyone" because it doesn't make any fricking sense by any kind of spacetime metric that wouldn't rip the planets apart with tidal forces from its motion
The idea of the droplet being able to hit targets 40 kilometers underground is doubtful. We likely couldn't even dig that deep, regardless of technological expertise, unless we had some way to stabilize structures at that depth. Even then, the droplet has a set kinetic mass, and once it runs out of kinetic energy, it wouldn't be able to penetrate any farther into the bedrock, no matter how hard it is. Even with the most advanced thrust imaginable, there's just no conceivable way it could achieve that—it's not even relativistic.
On top of that, if you had a relativistic railgun and hit the droplet, even if it's "unbreakable," the deceleration from something like 4 million Gs would still wreak havoc on the electronics inside. So, while it might seem impressive at first glance, scientifically, if you apply any amount of common sense, it quickly becomes absurd.
The idea of spaceships accelerating at 125 Gs but only reaching 0.1% of the speed of light is completely absurd. If a ship can thrust that violently, why can't it get up to speed? You'd think with engines that powerful, we could extend their thrust duration by simply adding a larger fuel tank. You could build a fuel tank the size of a football field if needed. So, that doesn't make any sense.
The "Project Staircase" concept was flawed too. Why couldn't we accelerate something to even 1% of the speed of light? Back in the 1960s, we had proof-of-concept for Project Orion, which could theoretically reach anywhere from 15% to 50% of the speed of light using nuclear bombs for propulsion. So, the limitations being presented here are ridiculous, especially since Orion would be capable of carrying a significant payload.
Then there are the sophons, which are obviously ridiculous too. Pretty much everything is kind of absurd when you think about it. I'm not sure why this all appeals—it's an interesting read, sure, but it's essentially a fantasy novel set in space.
It also reflects a very Chinese worldview, where everyone is seen as the enemy, and you must defend yourself. People are portrayed as needing to be controlled because they're too stupid to handle freedom responsibly. But perhaps the most unbelievable part is the idea that humanity would submit to a gigaglobohomo government like that. I could see people agreeing to something like the UN or a coalition, but a global government suddenly having martial law over everyone?
I feel like this is the kind of shit the average 
parses as "mind-blowing" and "realistic"
The morality is abysmal, killing people is a-ok as long as you have good intentions but everyone is out to kill you anyway. Although actual data shows that despite chud and redditroid fears, people are actually hardwired for social cooperation and empathy.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002209651500168X?via%3Dihub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways
The characters are 2-D, Luo Ji is probably the most likable character and he's a literal manlet incel.
Shit just happens, the 4-D space handwave to disable the droplets was a unecessary Deus Ex Machina.
But, otoh, it's a decent read. I'd class it more like a comic or anime than actual literature but it's not terrible.
I think the writer makes books for people who cut their teeth on ridiculous Anime concepts, and maybe that's why it was so well received.
Anyway, I know nobody asked but I felt like bitching.
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It's very obviously this, but people will make up shit about robotic galactic purges or mega-predators or whatever. I guess it is largely done so to perpetuate the sci-fi content creation loop, but there definitely are people who buy into the giant world-exterminating robots and shit as real valid theories despite there being no evidence of such (this is somehow different from religion btw). What's more likely- that, or that we simply overestimate the likelyhood of life existing on other worlds? Occam's razor, b-word
The truth is that Fermi's paradox isn't even a real paradox as much as it is a perceived one, because until we can ascribe concrete probabilities to life evolving from nothing or emergence of inteligent life or said inteligent life developing spacefaring technologies, there is no numerical information that can be worked with and the whole argument gets reduced to 'well, but I feel like there should be more aliens'.
Anyways this isn't related to your books in any way, sorry for ranting but I get these 'New development in solving the Fermi Paradox!' videos in youtube recommendations all the time and sometimes I hatewatch them and I need to rant about it.
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I wish there was more scifi about intelligent aliens being non-existent. Do more stuff with space microbes/parasites instead or maybe something like that "Alien Planet" docu from Discovery Channel, make the intelligent aliens be akin to Homo Erectus
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Thank you for absolving me from reading
those books, !bookworms who else is /noslop/
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Because Proxima Centauri orbits the Alpha Centauri binary system at a distance of 0.21 light years.
Did the author state continuous acceleration at 125G? Because that's what is absurd, at 125 G of acceleration you would reach 0.1c in 6 hours and 47 minutes. And how long did it take for the ships to accelerate up to 125G?
I thought it was supposed to take decades to reach 0.1c
!ifrickinglovescience !physics
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I only support nonbinary star systems
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To be fair, Death's End implies and the fanfic fourth book outright says this all happens in a version of the universe that gets reset, the Big Bang happens, and in the next cycle/our version of reality, Trisolaris is stabilized and Proxima/Alpha Centauri is the way it really is because I guess nobody's throwing photoids or dual-vector foils around (yet).
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Shocking, pretentious lit strags read shit
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A lot of your critiques are valid because a lot are bullshit magic nonsense gets into sci-fi and you just have to accept is there for the sake of narrative. I don't understand why some nuclear propulsion scheme dreamed up in the 60's, never been tested, not being feasible is so offensive or world breaking to you?
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Plus a lot of sci-fi requires you to accept some total bullshit that would never work because it does work in the story. Like in Star Trek, the transporters don't bother me, even though they're ridiculous and what they can or can't do is always changing based on what they need to do for the story.
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was tested, just not pursued because it violates international partial test ban treaty
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It was tested on small scale with conventional explosives only, not nukes which is a shame.
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Project Orion was supposed to accelerate at only 1G though.
I think OP criticism is from redditors pretending 3BP is "scientifically accurate"
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Yeah, kind of like people who call The Expanse "hard sci-fi" when the protomolecule exists and does space magic. It's inspired by a lot of real science and weird theoretical shit that may or may not be real, but it has a bunch of total butt-pulls like most sci-fi. Also those fricking Wallfacers and Wallbreakers. Neat idea but every time a Wallbreaker shows up it's
time.
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The spaceship designs and the "Epstein Drive" on The Expense are also magical.
A real life fusion propelled spacecraft would have large fuel tanks and huge radiators to dissipate heat.
The ISV Venture Star from Avatar is more accurate on that regard (though producing enough antimatter to propel that ship is SciFi bordering on magic).
!spacechads
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I remember nearly dying of laughter the first time I saw that name.
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Is there any such thing as hard sci-fi where ships can travel between star systems with FTL drives? (In this context I'd say an FTL drive is anything that takes you across space faster than accelerating the old fashioned way, so stuff like wormholes or teleportation still counts)
None of that is based on any real principles. !ifrickinglovescience discuss
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The thing is if you can figure out how too do interstellar travel that is consistent with our current understanding of the world and could be done with realistically-attainable technologies, you are better off going too work as an engineer rather than writing a novel about it lol
Jewish lives matter
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Project Orion would work for interstellar travel within a lifetime (though life supporting systems which last a century are a different matter) and is all figured out. FTL is fantasy and fusion… well it's possible but engineercels still have to figure out how to build fusion reactors which produce more energy than the input.
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"Interstellar", but most physicists say there's no reason to believe wormholes exist, so far there's no observational evidence. They're consistent with general relativity but just because we have a mathematical model for them it doesn't mean they're real, much less that we can create one. I'm not a physicist so the !physics crowd can explain it better and correct me if I said anything wrong.
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Interstellar has him fall into a black hole and not get crushed.
What's more is that he goes into the black hole to gather data, but even his transmissions shouldn't make it out.
Explain that one
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You can survive entering the event horizon of a spinning supermassive black hole like Gargantua without being spaghettified, you'll eventually get crushed though. The tesseract and time travel at the end is fantasy, I was referring to the wormhole orbiting Saturn which they cross to get to the Gargantua System.
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Oh yeah, the wormhole sent there by the future magic energy people
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Yes, as you can see you can't make FTL travel a thing without entering the fantasy realm. To create a wormhole you need "negative mass" which the soyentists doubt is real.
Hard SciFi should stick to sub-luminical travel (0.1-0.2c with fusion engines) and generational ships.
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What's your favorite kind of spaghetti sauce? Pinoys put extra sugar in theirs and it's
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Bolognese, but unfortunately tomato is terrible for my stomach so ever since I got my reflux diagnosis I just eat spaghetti with olive oil.
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Some physicist was once asked if he gets mad at every time Star Trek gets something wrong. He said something like "No, I get really happy the few times when it actually gets something right."
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There hasn't been another mainstream sci-fi book so heavily filtered through the lens of Chinese history/politics/philosophy, so the unique perspective was the main appeal.
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thanks for this, now I dont have to read it
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Only read the first book, for me the most interesting take away was that the character who gave humanity away to the Trisolarins was presented as sympathetic because the cultural revolution sucked a lot and that some how made it ok for her to try and get the whole human race destroyed. Talk about a fricking b-word. Also remember that that there was a character who was described as a very hot woman named dong dong or some shit
Also I disagree with your characterization about it being a fantasy novel set in space. It's a horror novel set in space and it doesn't do nearly as good of a job as thing like revelation space (which is another horror novel set in space which also happens to be good sci-fi).
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Okay, it's obviously not hard sci-fi and the people calling it that are wrong. Maybe in a very relative sense. Just respecting the speed of light puts it beyond most soft sci-fi that people will run into (besides the quantum entanglement bs yes I know).
It is a entertaining read though and the general atmosphere of it is alien in an interesting way. The tech stuff is bullshit but it's fun bullshit, and I liked the mind games. It sounds like you just went in expecting too much from it, and it wasn't giving you what you were looking for. I liked it.
I loved the dark forest. Luo Ji's gambit was great. And especially in modern times I appreciated that they were willing to build up a girlboss character so much and then when she finally takes overshe just wrecks everything immediately
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I hope the Netflix show does it justice. They totally changed Ye Wenjie's dialogue that gives him the idea, so I'm not too optimistic about him telling people he cast a spell (I cast.... magic missile!), but her "joke" was pretty good.
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Trisolarans vs Humans are a metaphor for USA vs China. USA is foreign power with extensive inescapable surveillance, Humans is a totalitarian top-down one world government and the book demonstrates the interplay of various political structures within Human Race / China. Humans/Chinese need to figure out a way to survive in the face of an adversary that they can't keep secrets from.
It is essentially to china today what the forever war was for the USA during vietnam war, except if it was written before the vietnam war
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When I saw the title, I thought this was gonna be a literary discussion thread. You forgot to rant about them using quantum entanglement to communicate, that would have really shown us how smart you are.
I suppose you can somewhat blame certain fans for claiming this is hard sci-fi (it's obviously not). But the wacky science facilitates the story. Sophons are the platonic ideal of mass surveillance. The deterrence era is an exaggerated MAD (which is an insane idea in real life, that we let govern geopolitics for decades). Everything that's stupid is directly connected to stupid shit from real life.
I somewhat agree on the morality, though I think he leaves it a bit open to interpretation. The over-the-top psycho realpolitik obviously engages with atrocities committed by "advanced" societies over the last few hundred years. But Cheng Xin is an actual character, and you could make a case that she didn't really do anything wrong. The ending plays with the idea that over a long enough scale, cooperative solutions to the universe's various prisoner's dilemmas could win out. But it might take a long time.
I know the writing of the series isn't great, but the concepts and plots can build up on themselves until the whole thing feels powerful. "The Dark Forest" is blandly written, overlong, and like 70% filler. But I cried at the ending.
Gotta give the guy some credit for that one
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You had a chance to not be completely worthless, but it looks like you threw it away. At least you're consistent.
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Longy's an ayylmao spy trying to destroy our science (fiction)!
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I like when people bring up the Three Body Problem cause it lets me steer the conversation around to Peter Watts. Especially when you can tell they were about to gush over muh nonwestern PoC worldview but instead you're implicitly telling them how much better a white guy did it.
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you misunderstood, it's a fantasy
novel 
but the translation accidentally used scifi 
terminology
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What's funny is that most Chinese speakers that read it are like "no, it's even worse in Mandarin, the translator helped him de-autism his book a lot"
I unironically agree that it's space themed fantasy and not sci-fi
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Lol i coild see that actually. Imagine you are paid to translate something, painstaking over time and you know no one will read your work because its shit. You might be tempted to improve it a little
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I agree, but a significant portion of the population thinks Marvel and Star Wars are sci-fi
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Didnt read but I watched a few minutes of the three body problem netflix show a while ago and it was super bad.
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Same, I know the plot because I watched that awful TV show and then read the wikipedia summaries of the book series, didn't bother with reading the books.
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Theres a youtube series like finns ideas thats pretty good
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Quinn's Ideas, yeah. (playlist link) I think the books and Chinese show were too Chinese for a burger like me to really get. Not as an attack on Chinese people or culture, just that it seems like there's a lot that gets lost in translation. Things that would be totally normal to a Chinese reader or viewer that are just going to be strange to a westerner.
The Netflix show wasn't great, but it felt more digestible, although there was some terrible acting and Eiza Gonzales should have played some other character if she was going to be in this. (Molly O'Brien from TNG/DS9 was great though!) But between Quinn's deep dives into the books, the books themselves, the Netflix show, however many episodes of the Tencent (I think?) show I managed to get through, I felt like I "got it" as best as I can.
Would've liked it better if the western TV version wasn't from the Game of Throne guys, I bet. But the droplet attack should be absolute kino anyway.
Also, a big "thanks king" to Quinn.
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Oh ya quinns ideas ya I was good with just seeing what he had to say. Gave me the gist, didnt need to see netflix, i just dont have time for it
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Congrats on making it through that, I watched like 20 minutes and couldnt take anymore
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Do you think the Grabby Aliens hypothesis is more rigorous/believable than the Dark Forest hypothesis? One of the assumed axioms of Grabby Aliens is that sapient life is unlikely enough to emerge that even though other civilizations might try to expand as fast as possible, we likely wouldn't see others this early (the stelliferous era is predicted to last 100 trillion years, the universe has only existed for 13.8 billion years).
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This was exactly my thought years ago when it came out in Chinese.
Glad to see a western man who hasn't submitted to Communist thoughts, but you are probably Black or brown.
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Shit bait
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Wrong, sorry.
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meanwhioe Hitchikers Guide To the Galaxy is such a good scifi book i havent even wasted my time reading any scifi since.
!slots100
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I just like any book that dunks on commies. Simple as
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The author is a CCP shill, they're allowed to criticize the Cultural Revolution (Xi Jinping's father got purged after all) but not much else.
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Snapshots:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002209651500168X?via%3Dihub:
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways:
ghostarchive.org
archive.org
archive.ph (click to archive)
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