The Horrible Truth About Physics | Three Body Problem Series
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- čas přidán 16. 05. 2024
- Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s past series has become one of my top science fiction series since I read it last year. Keep in mind this video will have some spoilers for the series. There are many haunting philosophical questions brought up in the Three-Body Problem series, but there is one that stuck with me more than the others. One of the themes that weave its way throughout all of Cixin Liu's books revolves around whether or not we can actually trust that our understanding of the universe actually reflects its true nature.
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The thing that struck me about the series most was how believable it was. It didn't prey on base fears/emotions so much as it's hard to shake the feeling that there is a chance the universe works like this.
Lawrence Krauss has commented on a similar concept. Our current models tell us that there will be a time in the future, when the expansion of spacetime prevents light from other galaxies reaching the Earth. Cosmologists beginning their study of the night sky, at that time, would only ever be able to detect the stars of the Milky Way. Many of the things we've learned by studying the light from other galaxies would be inaccessible to them. He said, "We live in a very special time; the only time we can observationally prove that we live in a very special time." The intended implication is that we have no idea what permanent changes to observable universe have already occurred. It may already be impossible for us to come to correct conclusions about the nature of the universe; simply because, the nature of universe has already placed the necessary information forever beyond our reach.
@@t3tsuyaguy1 Yes!!! Another Krauss Fan!! XO
Wouldn't that then be the nature of the universe?
no, it specificly did prey on ”base fears/emotions” fear of the unknown etc it has no plausible way of being realistic, just like the spaghetti monster that always is behind you but youre just too slow to see it
@@t3tsuyaguy1 what about the Andromeda Galaxy?
I don’t normally comment before watching a video, but I have to thank you for introducing me to the Three body problem and it’s sequels. It’s one of the only pieces of science fiction that I considered to be truly “science horror”.
Same here. Thanks to Quinn i "rented" the first book from my local library. After that I couldn't wait for the 2nd book to become available so I just went ahead and bought the 2nd and third e-books from Amazon.
Wouldn't the same existential problem be true for both the shooter and the farmer?
@@nahtesalinas1917 I’m excited so I had to tell someone! He got me into this and Hyperion! Did you happen to read The Hyperion Cantos?
Also I just finished Deaths End last night and couldn’t wait to watch these videos he made. Then this one comes out!
Do you know anything about Ball Lightning ?
@@DeathmetalPersian probably. But the “horror” I’m referring to is related to the current scientific evidence relating to Liu’s narrative. It’s frightening(at least to me) that what he postulates could be probable.
Pretty sure lovecraft did this with the call of Cthulhu (or was it shadow over innsmith) with the mathematical alignments.
Ironically, an earth / trisolaran alliance would have been unusually powerful in the universe as they evolved so close to eachother and could share in their technological explosion
Yeah you're right. [spoiler]
It's been a long time since I've read the series, but if I recall correctly the Trisolarans and humans left wandering in the 3rd book after the destruction of Trisolaris and the solar system eventually made peace. And both species survived to a point where they both developed technology capable of accessing pocket universes, and even earned a spot among the universe's final surviving civilizations. Personally I'd guess that the Trisolarans and humans' relations wouldn't have been completely devoid of teamwork.
@@flow_987 which book is this in?
@@flow_987 Yeah I don't remember this in the books at all
@@flow_987 What? No they destroy each other lol. Or rather Trisolarans get FWOOMPED by another civilization
@@HierophanticRose nope. There was another book by another author. Remnants of humanity and trisolarian form a small alliance and make pocket dimensions
"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." -Eric Andre
He then proceeded to smash his desk
@@gasstationgilgamesh4325 *AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!*
But what if it were PURPLE?
Who is Eric Andre? That is H. P. Lovecraft.
@@johnpaulcolthrust8207, look him up and you'll understand.
The Three Body Problem series managed to do something I didn't think was possible. They managed to take Lovecraftian horror, and turn it into mainstream sci-fi stories.
Really? That sounds awesome 😃. But scary 😲
tell me more
It also inserted believable science into the plot instead of just relying on mystery.
That was part of what made it so chilling. Particularly that part where they discuss the scale of what civilizations did to each other…like, oh man I felt like a speck of dust on a kitchen floor lol
@@billl2903 I mean there are ALOT of sci-fi stories that incorporate REAL SCIENCE into their stories for it to be believable and credible to what it’s trying to do in its world.
Incorporating science and mystery can both be one utilized into a story like this at the same time, it’s been done before.
@@Gadget-Walkmen I think the point of what he was saying is that even with all we think we know, that those types of concepts might be meaningless in the scope of the greater reality. We might never reach the level of understanding that the higher plane beings are capable of, concepts we can't even dream of because we are limited by the physics we have to certain dimensional perspectives. Lovecraft was brilliant because he dared to try to envision the unimaginable and give it some kind of face. It could never work in a practical sense but it does create a sense of just how far we have to go and how unlimited the possibilities might be.
I have a physics degree and have since really been looking forward to finding this kind of hard sci Fi to read. I feel like this series was made for me and can't wait to read it after finishing up children and God emperor of dune.
Imo don't read it, it's a waste of time. I would recommend reading 'The Expanse' series, 'Anathem' by Neil Stephenson and 'Ringworld'
I'm going to slightly disagree with the other guy. While I've never read the other series they mentioned, I quite enjoyed the three-body trilogy and would recommend them to anyone interested. It was a great cosmic horror in the sci-fi medium, which isn't to mention the other stuff it had to offer on the human experience (or maybe I should say, the experience of being life in the universe). As someone also with a physics background, it definitely tickled my science brain as it was filled with interesting scientific questions about the universe, some of which were touched on in this video. Although, the books were not without their flaws when it came to scientific accuracy, they definitely "bent" the rules of quantum mechanics in ways that were never really talked about (using an example from this video, the whole quantum entanglement being used for communication thing). However, I got the sense that it was knowingly done to make the books more interesting or to play into the scientific cosmic horror this video talked about. Regardless, for my enjoyment of the series, I didn't mind it much as that is pretty common with sci-fi; I just thought I should mention it.
Read it. This book series is a love letter for physicists and physic enthusiasts. When Cixin Liu explains how the trisolarians "embedded" the supercomputer AI into the proton, it's just too much.
Try Greg Evans work
@@hi__im_zack4890 I have to agree with Sahil. Was expecting a lot during the first book and.... It was lackluster to put it mildly at least for my taste, I guess it could be exciting if you haven't read a lot of sci fi and philosophy before? Anyways seeing how many seem to like the series I guess I will try to find the motivation to give book nr 2 a go.
It is puzzling to me that so many stories assume that discovering the universe is more mysterious, uncontrollable or unknowable and possibly hostile leads to madness and suicide. Most of human religion and myth has worked on this assumption for millenia and many of those the gods are not kindly towards humnas, yet most people can accept such a world and live in it.
not only that. What if most religions are out there to prepare humanity for such a future, when the deity overlord will exert its will on al things?
Religion, at it's core, is a way of coping with the otherwise terrifying unknown. I'm shooting from the hip here, but from my experience, people will go with a scary known space vs. the completely unknown. Having some info at least gives you the idea that there's a possibility of navigating the danger.
@@phuturephunk endless scrolling on social media and watching hundreds of CZcams videos are also a way of coping. The difference is that, activity vs passivity
That's an interesting observation. But I believe it is a misleading comparison between science fiction and religion. A more precise analogy could be: humanity discovering that our knowledge of the universe is wrong down to the core, is like a Christian discovering that God isn't real and Jesus was a fraud.
@@flow_987God real so is Jesus... but the Narrative that Romans taught the world ruined his name.
Jesus lived as a real person... but he's not God just as how Roman priests taught everyone
The end of this series was chilling in a way that even the classic cosmic horror artists couldn’t measure up to.
I felt really empty and insecure when I looked up at the night sky for like 3 weeks after I finished the last book lol
Bill L , yes same here.
Listened to a Mr Alan Watts.
Realised it was my ego that feared this outcome.
Then embraced the black abyss of the void. 😀
Meh, I had to trudge through the last part of the first book. What garbage work.
@@SahilP2648 yea it’s a pretty cerebral series, kind of in the same vein as Dune. Definitely not a genre for everyone in that sense, especially if you prefer books that rely on action sequences or straightforward character arcs.
There’s always Warhammer 40k lol, those are fun for sure.
@@billl2903 it's not a cerebral series by any means. I am currently reading Anathem on the side and I consider it to be a cerebral book. Obviously Dune is such a series but I don't consider it a sci-fi series. It should come under science fantasy.
Yeah me too. Especially after The Dark Forest, the night sky felt like thousands of enemies looking at me XD
That trilogy was incredible. Especially the "Dark Forest" analogy. I loved the long timescale, the interresting technology (dimention collapse bomb, nice), the societal shifts, etc.
Love the cosmic horror in this series. wallfacers vs wallbreakers is such a dope concept, cant wait for that video. my favorite sci-fi series of all time, nothing has hit quite like that since reading it a couple years back :( I think about the concepts explored in the books constantly.
Ive had an existential crisis while reading this series lol. To be reminded of how truly small I am, how limited I am, and what a minuscule fragment even our entire galaxy is of the whole. I’ve just finished The Dark Forest, can’t wait to start Death’s End. It’s reignited my wonder and terror of the universe, and I got out of that crisis remembering I should more thankful every day for this incredibly strange experience.
Lovcraftian horror seems a reasonable assumption about the universe if you approach it from an Atheistic perspective. After all, if God does not exist, it is to be assumed that He, or something we would see as Him, would come about through evolution, technological innovation or something else, and if we are not made in God's image then He would be indescribably strange, Eldritch, to us.
Same! A real existential crisis, especially after closing The Death's End.
Death of the ego will set you free.
Deaths end is easily the scariest book imo.
Same.... Really messed me up for a few months ... I am still recovering from almost going mad with nihilistic thought.....
The ways he delt with concepts of deep time in the later books were really frightening and perspective shifting for me as well.
I had to stop reading a few times and go for a walk to break the sense of dread. Fantastically powerful books.
Frightening from our primitive monkey brains...
Perhaps artist's imaginations tap into a reality that regular folk never visit??🤔🤔
I mean if you think about how much time has already passed its pretty shocking. 1 million years is NOTHING.
I don't know. Everything has its time and what happens outside of that is almost irrelevant to us apart from for our personal interest. But think about it, how many details do you even know about your own grandparents? What about great grandparents?
Even on the scale of a few decades most of our memories will not endure.
@@inthecouchproductions8103 Did it give you the same sense of dread as reading 'All tomorrow's' book? If you ever read it of course. All tomorrows definitely gave me that same feeling.
Also, are the "three body problem" books good? Might try it.
I'm happy to see this series get some attention. I read it a couple years back and i was sad it wasn't discussed now. It's so imaginative and powerful.
I've read this series a few years ago, and was so moved by it that I searched on youtube for videos about it. Sadly, I couldn't find any, and now you've done it! Thank you!
just finished the series this past week, definantly one of the most beautiful yet existential sci fi books ive read, i love how cixin liu constantly puts characters in situations that seem so unfathomably hopeless and somehow humanity still prevails this is especially true in deaths end theres like a world changing event every other page
Thanks for this video. After being introduced by your previous videos I gorged myself on the three books. I finished a month ago yet I'm still suffering from the existential horror of the series. It's epic and wide in scope. The physics is a little over my head but not so much as to be a distraction. And the final ending bent my brain into different shapes at the prospect of the final end of everything. A good series.
Again, thank you Quinn. Love you, brother. You rock.
The paraquel “The Redemption Of Time” is similarly mind bending, and really delves into more detail about some of the more glossed over events. Can’t recommend it highly enough
Hope I get to read it one day!
I had to trudge through the last part of the book, it was so bad. I am sure I wasted my time on it. The first part was engaging and mysterious but the lackluster ending is disappointing. The author took the idea of the real world physics three body problem and just wrote some garbage narrative around it, and apparently made profit out of it.
@@SahilP2648 didn’t read the books yet but I’m more than certain your wrong. Looks like no one had this whiny complaint your having other than yourself and I’m SURE it’s not at all “it was so bad” at all, or AT ALL a “gArbAgE nArRatIvE” in the slightest with this problematic attitude of yours.
@@SahilP2648 bot
Thank you for continuing these works! Hearing the breakdown of material, and presenting the sum of the deeper issues, serves as a great reminder of what makes the Three Body Problem great - easily a series I wish to return to!
Awesome to see your channel doing well, man. Really appreciate your content and professionalism.
Ahhh yes. I can't believe that I didn't know you reviewed this series till now, and I'm sure glad that I found it! I tremendously enjoyed the ideas that the Three Body Problem presented, and I thoroughly enjoy your commentary about it, because it brings a different perspective to many of the aspects of the book. As always, great job, and keep up the good work!
Can't wait for more 3 body videos, your original video turned me on to the series. Thanks Quinn! Really enjoy your vids
Awesome content Quinn. Thanks to you i've considerably expanded my SF books repertoire, though i only watch your videos of stuff i've read to avoid spoilers :)
Quinn Thank you so much for these! I picked up the series after you made your first video on it and just finished it last night ! It was awesome
I don't know how you do it, but you bring back that magical sensation of fantasy i lost somewhere along the way.
I love your videos dude! Don't ever stop.
This channel made me discover the series, it sounded so intriguing I immediately closed the video that mentioned it after the spoiler warning and got to reading it. Now that I finished the trilogy I finally came to watch the videos and I gotta wholeheartedly thank Quinn for letting me know about it, it has become one of my favourite sci-fi, up there with even Dune!
Wow, thank you for your video series on those books! I read them two years ago, they still haunt me, and did change my perception of life (that might sound naive). I can't say it made me optimistic at all, but for some reason it also helped me through some mental illness issues, I mean it didn't heal me at all, but it helped me getting some perspective. I could never watch the sky as I used to do. Greetings from France! :) look forward to watch your other content!
I’m so happy you are doing a set of videos for “remembrance of earths past trilogy”… another massive sci-fi epic in timescales as grand as the Foundation, Dune, and Hyperion Cantos series… looking forward to your videos…
This series is so interesting! Thank you Quinn for your passion maybe I’ll read the series sometimes in the future
Will watch these videos after I read the rest of the series. 'The Three Body Problem' was a mind-blowing read. Terrifying and awe-inspiring all at once, can't wait to read the next book!
Yessss!!! More Three Body Problem content. No one's doing it like you, appreciate all that you do!
this was terrifying....the idea that an older, more advanced race could just wipe us out like a child killing an insect without even a second thought, that there could be unimaginable horrors lurking in the darkest reaches of our own galaxy, watching over us intently like horrible elderich gods...just WAITING for us to make a mistake and fall right in to their trap....gives me chills, man.....
An absolutely fantastic series! I have recommended it to a couple of friends who were after some high concept serious sci fi and they loved it too. If you’re thinking of trying it, be aware that it takes a while for the different story strands to come together but when they do it is highly satisfying.
Quinn you have got me to read so much stuff lol. I finished the Foundation series and then you start making THESE. I came for Dune(even though I had read the entire series before you started doing the lore vids) and I've stayed for everything else. Keep up the good work.
Read the series, and stumbled on your videos. Thank you very much! Personally, my favourite science fiction series. Very deep and stupefying.
I would love if you would upload more videos on this series in the future. I think the series can be analysed and discussed endlessly!
Thanks you, Quinn, this was very interesting. I fell out of Science Fiction a long time ago; I just can’t find the will to muster any interest in a lot of the contemporary stuff. However, I’ve been thinking about reading these series after I saw the three book bundle in a bookstore I frequent. Your video has convinced me to read it. In fact, tomorrow I’ll go and buy that bundle thingie!
Quinn ur spoiling us with these frequent uploads! 😍
I love your videos and this is my favorite series ever, so I literally gasped when I saw this video was up. Thanks for all the great stuff.
Quinn, isn’t it amazing just how much those books stick in your head? I’ve been thinking about them since I read them last year. It’s still haunting.
Thank you for more, please if possible can you do a complete in depth reading of this trilogy you're videos are so amazing and keep me immersed in the experience
Dude thanks for making these videos. If I hadn't started watching the first one I never would have paused it so I could start the series, and boy would I have missed out
You are my first introduction to the series I am new subscriber. Your oratory style and proficiency is what drew me in. Always been a fan of science fiction as Im in my 50s and had to use my imagination when I was young. We did not have the resources of today. Keep up the awesome work bud
Big fan of cosmic horror. I have to be honest, I lost count of the number of times these books gave me goosebumps. There is terror embedded in the vastness of space that we human beings just cant comprehend. We are all living in a bubble thats relatively safe here on earth. Out there is a different beast... "If I destroy you, what business is it of yours?"
I'm re-reading this series AND listening to the audiobook. The argument against the farmer/shooter metaphor, however, is the universe looks the same in all directions. While it may be possible that one corner is totally redesigned by life, but that every corner is redesigned exactly the same becomes much more unlikely.
The point is that we don’t know how big the universe is; maybe what we see is a small portion that is already been controlled by aliens. Or even worse maybe the light that we see coming from other stars have been meddled with and we’re not really seeing the true thing
I have seen the Turkey Houses in the middle of nowhere. They are bigger than airplane hangers and a Turkey doesn't ever move more than a few feet from its original position its entire life. To them "The Universe" is the Turkey House and they have no idea it was built by the farmer to protect them from the dangerous elements until it's time for them to be killed. The concept of "building" is too advanced for a Turkey to even comprehend. What you have isn't an argument, its an assumption that nothing exists outside of our Turkey House, and because we don't know how to make one, no one else can either.
It's plato's allegory of the cave all over again.
Thank you for making me aware of this series. Everything a out it appeals to me, and I wouldn't have known about it without you Quinn. Cheers
Man! Your voice is very soothing. Your cadence and measured tones are very pleasing to the ear. You could become a very prominent voice over one day. I really do believe you have what it takes.
The problem the series delves most deeply into I think is the problem of induction. That’s what the shooter and farmer examples highlight, just because things have happened in the past doesn’t mean they will continue to happen in the future. Both the turkeys and the 2D people observed past events and concluded that these were immutable laws of nature when in fact they weren’t. This is also illustrated by the Three Body Problem video game in which there is no way to accurately predict the future. This problem has made it impossible for science to generate lawlike knowledge.
@The Adjudicator sorry the instant I saw you typed out "full stop" I stopped caring what you were talking about. Bye
@The Adjudicator So was heliocentrism and humor-based medicine for some epochs. While our scientific theory and praxis has gotten more accurate and encompassing along the times, there is always room for improvement exactly because of the assumption that every theorem is an attempt at phenomenological explanation, and not a perfect one. That same room for improvement is also room for failure. Your example is a very good one, because while General relativity works very well on a macro scale (thus being used for satellite coordination, communication etc.), it fails on a micro scale (which is one of the next, uncovered major steps in physics: a unifying theorem that works on both). So while they definitely are better than "educated guesses", it's folly to think they are absolute truths. In time, they will either be revised or disproven to incorporate better knowledge.
As such, the possibility that our theories and science is gravely eschewed is low, but not zero. There is too much yet to learn to be sure that we know the universe for what it is. The mere fact that the majority of our physics experiments are made on earth (and as such, under the influence of its environmental factors) and\or in satellites inside our solar system (same), makes it so that despite whatever efforts in isolating parasitical variables we undertake in them, there is always room for unforeseen ones to be in place (due to, well... being unforeseen).
Edit: Taking your example again for explanation, while GR is quite effective for those uses, the engineering involved in those devices always allows tolerance parameters exactly due to predictive imperfections, much like most of engineering.
I finished Three Body Problem and didn't think much of it. I really didn't expect to spend quarter of the book in a video game... It's all justified by plot twist in the end but still.
These videos motivate me to continue in the series because it looks like the next two books dive deeper into the ideas and cosmic horror. That shooter hypothesis blew my mind knowing about higher dimensions and how blind we are to what they are and what happens in them.
I'm so glad you made a video about this.
I've always wondered this but didn't know how to put it into words
I read the three body trilogy and it’s subsequent spinoff because of your first video on the series. Thank you so much for introducing it to me. :)
Thanks Quinn ! You single handedly got me into sci-fi and I been goin hard ever since watching your first video a few months ago!
After Quinn made the first video on the trilogy ,it grasped my interest.
I ordered the 1st book . I've also completed the Dark forest .Can't wait to dive into death's end.
I like how every one of the videos on this series is very compact, like its own story. Thank you
Always got time for your content. Top notch as usual.
Great job. If you decided to add a channel and do just straight up science videos. You would own that spectrum on CZcams, make lots of money. The voice the visuals, its perfect. I really mean that having, subscribed to many of them.
👍👍
Orbital mechanics kicked my butt. Even Newton had trouble with it. I don’t like differential equations either. Thank god for numerical methods, fast computers and MATLAB. Not sure I like the Fermi paradox either
Are you seriously going to lend so much credit to numerical analysis? Sure its a practical set of techniques but one only limits themselves if not including asymptotic and perturbative analysis. Check out the yt playlist of lectures by Carl Bender on Mathematical Physics. His grad student, amongst many others, have comprehinsive texts authored on the subject which honeslty in my veiw, blow numerical methods out of the water.
Cheers!
dif.eq is no problem after asymptotic and perturbative . methods
@@9WEAVER9 thanks for the suggestion. I’ll give it a look.
You just blew my mind. Love your content
you really have the perfect voice for telling us about what you have read.
thank you!
I've never been particularly impressed by these existential questions. There aren't many possible answers to them, though in the end it's either 'you're worrying about something that doesn't exist so there's no reason to engage in it' or 'it's beyond your capacity to control it, so there's no reason to engage in it.'
Either way, the outcome is the same.
A legitimate emotional response to overwhelming and existential threats, I think.
I feel the same way about the prospect of a Zombie Apocalypse; there's no reason to believe or fear one, so I don't, but if ever that was the reality of the world, I'd rather just die anyway, neither prospect is stressful (or personally interesting).
The best cure for fear of the unknown is a brew with the boys
Existentialist dread is boring. Once the novelty wears off youve still gotta pay your bills and take a shower.
@@MBEG89 the real existential dread is realizing you'll be paying your bills till the bitter end lol
But seriously, this is either creative paranoia, or compensation for being bored with the current state of affairs -- namely that there are no aliens, no hyperdimensional beings, just us floating alone on Earth, paying our bills.
The sad part about that, is that if hyper dimensional beings are the only thing that gets your juices flowing, you're missing out on a helluva lot! Like, there is plenty day to day miracles worth perceiving -- and Moreover, what we currently are confident about regarding the physics of the universe involves blackholes, neutronstars, quasars, supernova, galactic webs, and super clusters -- like seriously! The world we understand is is plenty exciting if you know how to manage your insatiable one-up-man-ship.
The point is to not be terrified by the unknown and mystery of existence. If one is aware and isn't interested, that's one thing. But, if one must turn away or shield themselves, that's usually a sign of immaturity or mental/emotional fragility.
*I really enjoyed this video. Great job as always, Quinn!*
*Reality is a hallucination and our brain's interpretation and processing. We do not sense "reality" . As for Physics not existing* , there is some speculation that the laws of Physics may be different in different parts of the Universe. In the initial novel, there is that incident at the billiards table where it is brought up that the laws of Physics may not be invariant. As for Quantum Mechanics, a civilization which can master QFT (Quantum Field Theory) would be like gods. Depending on their power and abilities, they could materialize, move, create planets, stars, and galaxies. They would use this power to engineer the whole Universe. Interesting enough, the galaxies in our Universe are organized like a neural network...aka giant brain...a giant computer. I'm not saying this was done by intelligence, but this is something a godlike civilization at Kardashev Level 4-5 would do. As for the 3 body problem or n body problem (generalized), it's an interesting plot device as a 3 star system would not have a solution and would be chaotic (in the novel: Chaotic Times). This chaotic orbit of the planet from the novel does not apply so much to the classical definition of the 3 body problem which is the Sun, Earth, and the Moon or even something infinitesimal small such as the Helium atom and two electrons "orbiting" the atom (won't go into the wave function and decoherence).
I loved this book series. I hope you continue making videos about it.
Liu’s trilogy is both exciting & mind boggling. The horror builds slowly as even the mathematics become as riveting as the languages. Quinn, stumbling across your videos last year has introduced me to realms of books & their worlds abandoned in there midst of living a busy life. In the final pages of “The Three-Body Problem” now. Wow! Thanks, Quinn!
The vast scope of this story and its sheer volume of interesting ideas (especially in Death's End), has me worried that all other sci-fi will just feel collapsed and folded in comparison.
They do. I read this series a few years ago, and even the bog greats like the Foundation series seemed, small, and simple.
I would recommend the Xeelee sequence by Stephen Baxter if you like crazy big ideas. The Vacuum Diagrams anthology is a great introduction of the universe, but there are tons of other novels.
@@k1anky Thanks for the recommendation. Read some summaries and I'm already hyped.
@@k1ankyi know I'm late to the party but the xeelee sequence immediately popped into my head! For me, Ring was my favorite full stop
I haven't read the book, and I am glad for this reading. But I do want to address two things brought up by this fiction: life couldn't have existed from the beginning of the universe because only the lightest elements existed after the big bang. Heavier elements require one or two generations of stars as well as supernovas to be created, and not even all stars undergo a supernova when they die. As for the Fermi Paradox, the assumption that we should expect advanced alien life to use radio to transmit for thousands of years is a little humanocentric.
The more eldritch part of the video reminded me a bit of Infinite Space on the Nintendo DS.
I havent read the books or watched this video yet, but I'd like to address your comment.
The larger the star, the shorter the generational time, the largest stars go through a life cycle of millions of years. After the Big Bang when space was much more compact, matter formed into many supergiant stars, the first generation of stars. From these the heavier elements came in a much shorter time scale and in a much more compact universe. Even if space-time cannot be folded, the first intelligent life in the universe will have spread far.
Looking at gravitational waves, black holes, how space-time is curvedwhich Einstein's theories predict, space-time can be folded.
You're killing it bro. Futurama and 3 body problem, phenomenal
Commenting before watching. I started reading the three body problem a few years ago, but never finished it, although what I did read was really good and had me hooked. I can't watch this vid yet, but I promise Ill be back after I finish the series. Thanks for reminding me it exists!
The Farmer bit reminds me of a couple of books written in the original XCOM game universe, where Earth is just one of many planets that the advanced aliens in the game had seeded with life millions of years ago, with the intent to travel the cosmos and harvest what they had planted.
I'm half way through the final book. It's a wild ride and definitely worth reading. Scify literature has been known to forecast the future. Sometimes you can’t See The Forest For The Trees. Cheers
It's always a good day when you upload
Yesss I found your current channel! I love the theme of this channel!
The only disappointing thing for me in The Three Body Problem was the instantaneous quantum entanglement communication. The No Communication Theorem put this to bed before the book was even published.
For future reference, here's some help pronouncing 刘慈欣. Liu sounds like the name "Leo" but shortened. Cixin sounds like "Ser-sheen" without the R. Leo Se-sheen. Líu Cíxīn. But family names come last in English, so Cíxīn Líu.
i’m really enjoying this channel. can’t wait to finish the third book before i start watching in earnest.
Great vid, your script for this video conveys the necessary information at a pleasant pace.
This series is so mind botteling… seriously though, I haven’t had a day go by that I don’t think of a concept from one of these 3 books. I find some people have trouble getting into it and all I can say is read it slow and allow yourself to catch up. Has anyone read the “4th” book that was written by a fan or something?
First time I hear about a book that puts minds in bottles.
Aliens with the power to change physics but can't make a habitable planet. Sounds about right.
Because these changes are irreversible, unless time is reversed (which is against the laws of science) or the universe is restarted.
Haven't watched the video, but I tossed you a like anyways. I didn't want to spoil the book in any way. Your recommendation of the Hyperion Cantos turned out to be just a fantastic read, and I thank you. I'm looking forward to digging into this series.
Your content looks great, brilliant imagery. Thanks for making this video.
Hey man, i’ve started reading the books cause of you and i am now on the third one, can i ask you to do a video about the battle of darkness and the droplet? About its consequences for the dark forest theory and the deterrence era
I found the first book really hard to read.. I remember pages and pages of a guy asking to borrow a camera.. and the other guy being shocked as to why he as asking for a camera...Bizarre rehydration scenes.. that and it was hard to keep track of who anyone was.. However I really enjoyed hearing the voice of a none western author.. you can feel the cultural differences in the page.. I do need to finish the series..
👍👍
Yeah the guys hobby is photography right? And he develops the film in his own dark room and the aliens are etching numbers into the prints. Very weird stuff, man. I love it.
Yeah the camera was to capture the number sequence the MC was seeing from his personal vision
I feel like Chinese names were hard for me to follow bc I’m just not used to it.
@@nahtesalinas1917 oh yea I knew what he was asking to borrow the camera for.. I just remember being on the train and nearly shouting "just give him the god dam camera already!!!" Lol
I finished Death's End today. The series reminded me of the works of Asimov and the golden age of sci-fi during which the books were tools to understand ourselves and our society. But one of the things that the Three Body series does that I have never seen before is that, with the character of Ye Wenjie, it asks should humanity as it currently is really be in charge of this planet?
Love your videos Quinn.
@quin’s ideas thank YOU for introducing me to the series!
The question I ask myself (haven't read the books yet) if the Trisolarans technology is so advanced, that they are seemingly able the change the very fabric of reality itself, why weren't they able to fix their home?
I imagine leaving ones home and travelling for centuries is a demanding journey, even for a society as advanced as the Trisolarans
Apparently their home is in Alpha Centauri which has 3 suns. 10 of 11 planets in their system have been swallowed by the suns which move so randomly cause 3-body problem. And the last planet is where the inteligence life developed and will definitely be swallowed as well but unknown when.
They have 3 suns bruh, how you going to deal with that with stuff in protons
It's interesting to see Liu Cixin's books got discussed in this way,and I believe thousands years of recorded history in China actually shaped his view profoundly.
If you compare people from ancient writing and the ones in contemporary society,you maybe found out human nature rarely changed .Hence for example,if human want to live peacefully without intervention(it's also chinese common folks wish for in thousand years),you maybe found out this peace time hard to last long due to all sorts of reasons(except for common pandemic and wars,changes in galaxy also effect earth which cause volcano eruption and so on).So " turkey farm" example just refect people who has this wish to persuade the "paradise" ,and maybe from Liu Cixin's impression during decade long cultrual revoultion era ,the paradise dream just from "hard to reach "to "almost impossible ".
So I think some classic sci fi novels depsite have wonderful versions,but in my view lack of relatively to contemporary world,but I guess that's why people want to read them also back then, in order to" escape current world" .Maybe now atmosphere in society are changing again?
Hey man, you got a great channel. Like come to look for your advice about awesome science fiction books and great directions to start off with to further expand my consciousness. You do a great job man. Keep up the good work for all the strange and awesome kick ass nature of science, fiction and whatnot.
Yo never watch these videos after eating weed brownies, holy cow
This series frustrates me so much, everything about it seems perfect for me, the themes, ideas, mix of scifi & horror, the grounded physics etc but for the life of me I cannot cope with the writing style, it's really a matter of personal taste here but man I've already put down the first book 5 times and literally forcing myself to go back to it every now and then for the sake of the story. Dammit.
I guess you have to keep in mind it’s originally written in Chinese and the translation job is “not stellar” to say the least
your videos on these books are amazing , i really enjoy them.
I've been watching your videos for a year and its time I give you my appreciation-this video really captures an aspect of the series in a smart and articulate way, the regular great production values you give other sci-fi. I also appreciate you making a lot of videos about this one novel series, which is harder to talk about in part due to the science and also novel theories about ET civilizations.
Recently I've been watching physics tutorials, and this video popped up just when I was thinking about uncertainty over physics theory. The sophon doesn't just screw up experiments, it is able to provide test results that predict a future experiment which should have provided only random data, unreproducible data. A physicist finds living in such a world where nature, or the science process, is proved false or deceptive, is one in which she cannot live.
SO this makes your comments on life shaping nature, or what is nature anyway, very pertinent. I agree we are in re-thinking a lot of assumptions, I look forward to viewing your 4th dimension video. Until I have seen that, it reminds me of the uncertainty of biology before Schrodinger attempted to define life, before the discovery of DNA. Biology had a lot of false or dead-end schools of thought. Physics ended up informing or reforming biology, for example thermodynamics theory or systems ecology. But if physics itself may be uncertain, many other sciences be also prove to be false. Can we as a species survive a collapse of faith in science?
As someone who took first year physics and astronomy at university and came out thinking at least half it was b.s., I love it when you upload stuff like this.
good thing you got away before coming to think the same of the other half : p
@@user-sl6gn1ss8p I hear you, but fear that most who follow academics careers actually tend to succumb to thier doctrines eventually, else be expelled to oblivion. The further you go, the more your success depends on believing the status quo.
Also, I said half as more of an allusion to half truths and not like an actual measured quantity. But, again, your humor is appreciated, as well as your intended message.
@@KittyBoom360 makes sense : )
I think we could ask how much of it is a matter of people eventually caving vs a selection bias (specially in something like physics, with such a high drop-out rate), but I get your point
Another very solid and interesting video! That being said I'd also like to insist on asking why alien life should be bound by our math. As much as it seems to probe the ideas of the alien, why does a lot of it fall back onto basic game theory? The axiom the book follows is basically that if the prisoner game where it is assumed life must always choose to betray other life in order to continue existing. The truth of this is currently entirely unknowable, since we only have a sample size if life bearing planets is exactly one. It is therefore just as likely that life on other planets actually requires trust and cooperation instead of betrayal to survive and thus it may have a completely different outlook. Or perhaps it has nothing to do either model, and simply exists. Perhaps life does exist in other dimensions, just as curious, but incapable of interacting with our 3/4 dimensions in a meaningful way and we are merely ships passing in the night. I think it is still a very interesting question to raise, but one in which I don't think the answer is inevitably dark. It could be, but it just as easily could not. For every scientist who would die as a result of the inversion of modern physics, I think just as many would be intrigued by the possibility of studying a device that could warp physics itself. That being said I think it would be a very different series to have a quackjob physicist with theories about how physics is wrong because of aliens, but still.
Another option could be a very Douglas Adams absurdist view. Maybe we are all just an experiment gone horribly wrong that a bunch of white mice made up to go on the talk show circuit. It is equally plausible to the dark forest, we just have no idea.
For whatever reasons, the Killing Star argument is one of those things that seems to really scare people, so it's fun to write. But in the real world, the argument is complete bunk. There's no particular reason the argument makes sense on the level of species but doesn't make sense on the level of countries, or cities, or neighbors. You better murder your neighbor before he murders you!
But somehow the Killing Star argument taps into some sort of xenophobic paranoid instinct so it "gets" people.
So here's the thing. In terms of evolutionary survival of the fittest, a certain amount of paranoia has a survival benefit. Consider the Farmer thing. If you only learn knowledge based on one's lifetime of experience, the farmer is a friend who lovingly provides and cares about you. But some turkeys with a paranoid instinct will not simply accept experience's lessons, and will try to escape into the unknown. Those turkeys might have a chance to survive and escape to other environments.
Our own ancestors would have had some amount of this sort of paranoia, compelling some to escape the comfortable - but sometimes doomed.
So, I think the appeal of the Killing Star argument comes from tapping into this instinctive paranoia. This paranoia is not entirely a bad thing. But it's a tool that was helpful in the past which may not be so helpful today.
Always happy to see one of your videos
Came for your Dany Dragons series and stayed for the Lovecraftian perspective on everything
Thanks for suggesting my next audible adventure Quinn!
I just read Three Body Problem. Gotta say, it’s probably in my bottom 5 sci-fi books. But apparently it needs the other two to flesh it out. So since I trust Quinn’s recommendation, I’ll read the second book. I can’t think of any book I’ve ever read that is part of a series that begins so broadly and slowly.
What came from it? Did you like it?
Many years ago, the topic was usually presented in the form of a book entitled 'Flatland." But reality can be far stranger than we think Try studying the Electric Universe material. So long as the concepts of Plasma Physics are recognizable to you, their ideas make a great deal of common sense. For those in denial of the obvious functions and power of electricity in space, well, some are lost at sea and never found again.
I’m always starved for more TBP content from you. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched the first one lol.
Quinn this video was fire🔥... Something about how you narrate and your voice just commands your attention and draws you into the story.. You got direct or narrate some movies..
Like many nerds back in the '70s I was very excited by the Drake Equation.
It was a very hopeful equation: even if the filters were tight you could still get pleasing results by throwing quadrillions of candidate planets at it.
It was a seductively simple idea.
Carl Sagan loved the Drake Equation. He never actually said "billions and billions", but he was sure that we'd find intelligent life "within our lifetimes", because of the supposed probabilities.
But I think that "billions and billions" has led us in the wrong direction. I think it's time to call it quits on the Drake Equation.
One problem is that the Drake Equation is not a predictive model. It is of no practical use; not only don't we have usable values we can plug in to it, but we don't even know most of the useful ranges.
So, we make guesses and we try to fit them in to the equation. The guesses can be tarted up to sound fancy and informed. But they're just guesses, and the Drake Equation isn't a complete description of the problem. (It's not much concerned with the nature of reality or even the definition of sentience.)
The results range from near-zero to one, depending on whom you ask, and the phase of the moon. Great. Very useful.
Notably, the results are influenced by the enthusiasm of the observer. SETI types somehow seem to produce larger values from the equation than people who are less invested in the outcome.
Why? Well, it's obvious. We're biased. We *want* there to be other life. And so we come up with all manner of explanations (and, yes, excuses) to explain the lack of evidence for any other life. And criticisms of the Drake Equation are hand-waved away as "lacking imagination" or "hubris" or the like.
But I suspect we have grossly inflated the probability of other sentient life by directly linking it to the number of candidate planets, and have simultaneously underestimated the difficulty in sentient life arising in the cosmos.
PROBLEM: don't know the odds of other sentient life arising, but we DO know that it took almost the entire life of the universe for sentient life to arise on Earth. And we know that couldn't have happened very quickly. First, other stars had to live and die and explode before our solar system and Earth was formed. And after that it seems that simple life arose relatively quickly. But it then took billions of life for that abundant life to evolve sentience.
PROBLEM: due to the Sun's own lifespan, the Earth doesn't have billions of habitable years left. It is old. At best, it probably has 1 to 1.5 billion years left, due to the sun's lifespan. So, we're lucky we arrived when we did.
This strongly suggests that (1) it takes a long time (possibly much of the age of the universe) for simple life to arise in a system, and (2) the transition from simple life to sentience is an extremely unlikely one.
Look, I get it. I'm a nerd. I look at the night sky and I want there to be other life. I read all the nerd books. I subscribe to this channel. I like the Big Ideas. There is something deeply compelling and comforting in the mathematical simplicity of things like the Drake Equation.
But science is an honest process where you test your theory against the results, and then reframe your assumptions and thinking accordingly.
What if the basic assumptions are wrong? What if the odds of sentient life arising in any given universe are truly infinitesimal?
An interesting read, thanks for sharing. One rather significant factor to consider when approaching questions about the universe from an anthropomorphic point of view - despite all the many changes that have occurred on Earth, life gained a foothold on it within it's first 1.1bn years and has proven to be extremely tenacious ever since. I think perhaps if one is going to be critical of the Drake Equation, one does need to consider that it was created in the absence of observable data to support it. Consider the number of earth-like planets that have only very recently been discovered that seem to be situated in various forms of 'habital zone'.
Here's a concept that will blow your mind: We speak of seeding the galaxy, but what if we are one of many planets that have been seeded. After all, since you're sending life to develop, and with the vastness of space, a billion years before it bears any fruits, wouldn't be that big of an issue. You'd want the planets you're seeding to develop on their own, they would need to. That also thwarts stagnancy of an advanced alien empire. Let's say there's an upper limit to social development, technology, and exploration. Once you've reached that limit, there's nowhere to go but down. At some point a civilization could become soo advanced that it could endure another billion years and not progress anymore at all. It will have done everything, explored virtually every state of being, every form of government, every movement they could make, has been made.
At that point there are only two options: Stay as you are as a civilization, forever unchanging. Or start anew. If you're playing a video game, what would you rather do once you've beaten it at 100% but still want to play.....roam the world with nothing new to do? Or start a new game from scratch? Seeding a galaxy might not even entail seeding things with ones own species, but rather, seeding with life in general, to develop whichever ways it can. Perhaps it was even a species that was completely alone in the galaxy or universe. A complete fluke, that managed to develop, and seeded the galaxy because it had reached the end of the road, and because it was trying to reshape the galaxy/universe into something that would be teeming with life eventually, and we could merely be in the earliest stages of that, the stage where life has barely taken hold enough to even reach out and contact each other. And that is why you must follow the path of Xenu, your lord and savior!
Amen?
This is just an extrapolation of your ideas; please don't take it as a counterpoint or confrontation.
By creating new life, observing it, and interacting with it, they would create an immeasurably vast range of experiences and metaphysical insights. I doubt whether they could create and experience *everything* in the expected lifespan of a universe (no matter which "ending" or "transformation" scenario you go with), and even if they could, that vast body of experience would be contained within their race, not within an individual.
But even if an individual could live long enough, and had advanced enough technology, to go everywhere, do everything, create everything and see everything run its course... I imagine it should have a vast range of ways to deal with any boredom or stagnation resulting from that. Mind-altering substances are one example and nostalgia is another. Using your video game example: After this being has done everything, it may want to start again with the same game which it already knows. If it started another game instead, even if already played, it may have been eons since the game was last played. Maybe the being won't remember everything about it, but even if it does, whatever RNG behaviors, glitches, mods, etc. are present in that game will extend the range of possibilities exponentially.
Consider a board game like Go or Arimaa. The number of possible gamestates is astronomical, and outnumbers the atoms of the observable universe. Can even an immortal, invincible being, who is born from the singularity and witnesses the big crunch/heat death/etc, see ALL of even one such game? It's definitely interesting to think about. Kind of a variant of the "infinite monkeys" theorem, I guess.
Unless they sent single celled organisms this is not substantiated whatsoever in the fossil/geologic record. The idea of a single species seeding this planet for fun and evolving into every facet of life is frankly ridiculous
@@TheJerbol Not really. When you become soo advanced, there's nowhere to go but down. Seeding with specifically their final form, would be foolish. It'd have all the benefits of genetic engineering and such, but it would also be quite obvious, and affect the development of a planet. You would not want them beholden to foundations built from the past, as it would limit their divergence in development. A seeded planet with intelligent life, wouldn't even bother to develop medical technology if it was always in perfect health. You also need something for that seeded planet to consume and interact with, for development. So really, a survival of the fittest model for seeding, would create a lot of diversity. When you're seeding planets with different environments, you'd also likely not want to seed specifically with your own kind, you'd want them to develop to be suited to the environment. Another factor would be that the final form of an intelligent species is FAR more reliant upon technology and refined resources. If you were to seed a planet with humans far away, with no memory of where they come from, they would literally freeze to death in the wild without the proper knowledge. Giving them knowledge is no different than erasing your peoples memory and subjugating them, because they will become reliant upon the technology. So seeding from scratch would be more desirable. If we've endured for a billion years, we may also decide that instead of seeding planets with humans, we'll just send the sparks of life itself to different planets and let them develop however they can.
@@TheJerbol Send out self replicated probes that cooks up basically single celled organisms, adjusting its base chemistry to the planet below. Then spam the surface with drones to deposit the seeds. Monitor until success then replicate by eating a rocky body too cold to seed life in to like here the asteroid belt is now, and move on in the millions. Some back after X millions of years to sample and inject updated DNA for random designs.
In geological time scales we got the Cambrian explosion awfully fast. More or less the Uplift series.
Your videos are great and have served as great recommendations for more reading. Keep doing your thing. :)
Great video. Definitely a thought provoking series.
Wouldn't the same existential problem be true for both the shooter and the farmer in these examples? Why should we concern ourselves if the truth is actually just infinite fractals of awareness and existence? Infinite scale and infinite scope, Ouroboros consuming itself for eternity.
It's the fundamental difference between experiencing reality vs knowing the purpose of reality. We right now, have no idea how life came into being from non-living things. We know big bang happened but we don't know too much about it. Main point of contention being what came before the big bang if there was any beginning at all. Scientists are also debating whether time itself existed before the big bang or not. Some believe time is a by product of something that we don't yet understand which I believe too btw. We already know space time curves and bends with respect to mass. But what is mass and why does it need to interact with space time in the first place? All these questions I am supposing the author must be implying that the shooter and farmer know. Btw I haven't read past the first book. I think the concept of a 'three body problem' of physics was just explored by the author as a joke and then some garbage was written to fit the premise of the actual three body problem of physics. Overall, I think I wasted my time reading this book. I read Dune and liked it a lot. But it shouldn't be coined as 'science fiction' it's more like 'science fantasy'. The actual good series I know for sure is 'The Expanse' and while I haven't read the books, I have watched the TV series and it is one of the best TV series ever. The Expanse is pretty grounded in reality while having some alien aspects which are not out of this world in terms of believability. Another book I am reading on the side right now is 'Anathem' by Neil Stephenson. As much as I have read it, it seems like a really good book. It is believable but in the far far future. Another book series I want to read is 'Ringworld'.
@@SahilP2648 what I'm saying is that if scope is infinite than its impossible to ever fully realize the scale of existence and awareness no matter what point of the scale you peer from. There will always be existences too large and too small to fathom from any one perspective. Context will always be necessary in life no matter how big or how small you are. If the universe and existence are truly infinite than you will always be limited to what you can perceive from any specific mountain top. Do you get my point?
@@DeathmetalPersian we do not know if anything in this universe is actually truly tangibly infinite. I hope you know what tangibly means. Obviously a lot of maths and physics concepts assume infinite as theoretically infinite but we don't yet know if anything is actually truly infinite right now. So I don't know what you mean by infinite. If you think the universe is infinite then I ask you why do you think that? We know that universe is constantly expanding. So it might not be that the universe is infinite but that the boundary on the outer edge is expanding faster than the speed of light for example. So to us it might look infinite because we can never reach the boundary but the boundary itself is not infinite. And if you are thinking about infinitely small or infinitely time divisible then no, we know for a fact that there's nothing smaller than the Planck length and Plank time. Anything smaller than that we can't discern between the two. So yes believe it or not, it is entirely possible that the whole universe is a simulation based on whatever evidence we have right now.
@@SahilP2648 yes I get what you are saying. The wisest man who ever lived said that the only thing we truly know is that we know nothing. I am of the believer that math and physics has done a good job at proving the infinite scope of the universe. I agree that it's impossible to know and that there are more than likely limitations and errors to our understanding of math and physics that may fix that problem in the future, but as far as we know today it seems more than likely that reality is infinite. Look at the differences between binary computing and fully analog for instance. Maybe the universe isn't comprised of 1s and 0s. Maybe the universe adjusts itself like the dial on mechanical computer. Infinite ability to adjust to the needs of reality. I believe if infinite options are available it only proves the infinite scope of everything.
@@SahilP2648 if you want to understand what I'm saying better look up string / gage theory.