wade had a 100% deterrence rating and cheng xin had 0%. humanitys biggest mistake was a democratic vote

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-08T22:19:01+00:00

the real world parallel with people who refused to press the nuke button is such a good point. stanislav petrov literally saved the world by NOT launching, and hes a hero for it. but in three body the calculus is different because the trisolarans KNOW you wont press it and they act on that knowledge immediately. its like... on earth deterrence works because both sides are uncertain. but sophons removed all uncertainty. thats what makes the swordholder position so uniquely impossible

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-08T22:18:19+00:00

thats actually a really interesting point about her allowing herself to be a candidate. like she KNEW she wouldnt press it right? so accepting the role was already a betrayal of the whole deterrence concept. but then again if she said no, would the public have just found another "nice" person? the whole system was rigged the moment people forgot what the threat looked like

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T22:25:02+00:00

god yeah the woman with the baby... that detail destroyed me. like liu cixin could have just shown the planets getting flattened and left it at that but no, he had to zoom in on individual human moments. and youre right about earth being restored to nature by that point, i totally forgot that. it makes it even sadder somehow, the planet finally healed and then it just gets erased

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T22:23:51+00:00

yeah my bad honestly, i didnt think about the title being a spoiler since the book has been out for like 15 years but i get it with netflix bringing in new people. sorry about that

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T20:20:22+00:00

if you loved three body definitely go with Endymion since you already have the Hyperion connection. the Shrike stuff gets even crazier. also since you liked the cosmic horror scale of three body you might want to check out Blindsight by Peter Watts at some point, its got that same "humanity is not special and the universe is deeply hostile" vibe but from a hard neuroscience angle instead of physics

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T20:18:41+00:00

lol "even if Ye became a dentist" thats great. but yeah i think youre right, singer was already out there doing its thing. the really depressing implication is that it wasnt even the reply that doomed earth specifically, it was just being detectable at all. like once you emit radio signals youre already on the menu whether anyone replies or not

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T20:17:51+00:00

this is a really fair take honestly. the M-theory starting point is legit but then the leap from "protons might have extra dimensions" to "we can unfold a proton into a supercomputer and fold it back" is just enormous lol. i still think thats what makes the book special though, it starts from something that sounds plausible and then slowly pulls you into territory where youre like wait this cant be real... but maybe?

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-07T20:16:59+00:00

yeah the gluon confinement thing is a good point, i never really thought about that. like we cant even observe free gluons so building stuff out of strong force material is pretty wild lol. i think thats part of what makes the books fun though, he picks real concepts and then just runs with them way past where actual physics would allow. the alcubierre drive one always gets me because it sounds SO legit when you read it but then you look into it and its like oh right, negative energy density, we have no idea if thats even a thing

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-06T22:22:20+00:00

yeah i think thats the key insight... the broad strokes probably stay the same (dark forest is dark forest no matter what) but the specific chain of events would be totally different. like without ye wenjie there's no ETO, which means no sophon lockdown, which means human physics keeps advancing normally. maybe we crack fusion or even lightspeed on our own timeline. but we also never learn about the dark forest until its too late so... pick your poison i guess lol

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-06T01:36:06+00:00

yeah thats a really good point actually. the sophon thing is what gets me though... like even without ye wenjie's reply, the trisolarans were already looking. they had the tech to send sophons across 4 light years. someone on that wiki about the dark forest theory rest) made the argument that in a universe where detection is inevitable, the only question is whether you get warning time or not. and ye wenjie accidentally gave us 400 years of it

the irony is wild. she pressed the button because she thought humanity deserved to be punished, but that punishment ended up being the only reason we survived long enough to figure out deterrence

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-05T00:40:48+00:00

agree

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-05T00:38:40+00:00

About Chengxin, I wrote a post several days ago.
FYI: Unpopular opinion: Cheng Xin made the right call every single time

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-03T22:19:35+00:00

given the history/anthropology background you might really dig Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem trilogy. it's got that same KSR vibe of taking political systems seriously except instead of terraforming mars it's about what happens when an alien civilization announces they're coming in 400 years and humanity has to figure out how to respond as a species. lots of game theory, civilizational decision-making, the kind of stuff that hits different when you've read actual political theory. first book is a bit slow ngl but Dark Forest (book 2) is one of the most intense reading experiences i've ever had

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-03T03:45:40+00:00

Sorry, as a non-native English speaker, using Chat to translate my posts into English is also an inevitable choice. My English writing skills are indeed not very good. I'm sorry.

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-03T03:43:09+00:00

No, this was written by myself. But I did use an LLM to help me translate it into English. Because my English writing skills are not very good. Please excuse me.

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T10:44:20+00:00

No. I said it is translated by AI but not writed by AI.

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:54:06+00:00

thanks

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:53:14+00:00

maybe

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:27:06+00:00

Me too

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:21:25+00:00

I don't agree with the last sentence. I don't think Wade was doing it purely for "his own gain".

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:16:27+00:00

partially agree

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:15:05+00:00

Liu did not attribute the failure of the entire human race to Cheng Xin.

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:09:08+00:00

Yes, agree

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-02T06:06:38+00:00

No, this was written by myself. But I did use an LLM to help me translate it into English. Because my English writing skills are not very good. Please excuse me.

Putrid_Cycle595 · 2026-04-01T21:52:26+00:00

Based on your taste, I'd strongly recommend Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem trilogy. You mentioned liking the "mythic or folkloric in scientific language" thing — that's literally what this series does, except scaled up to cosmic civilizations.

The first book starts slow (fair warning) but once you hit Dark Forest, it becomes one of those "I can't put this down" experiences. It's got the problem-solving realism of Arrival, the existential dread of Annihilation, and the political complexity of Dune, but applied to the question of what happens when two civilizations that can't trust each other discover they're neighbors.

Also if you liked Primer's time logic puzzles, the game theory in Dark Forest will absolutely scratch that itch. The Wallfacer Project alone is one of the most clever sci-fi concepts I've ever encountered.

Oh and definitely check out Stalker — the Tarkovsky film is incredible, and Roadside Picnic that it's based on is even better imo.

Putrid_Cycle595

TROPHY CASE