3 Body Problem by Liu Cixin - Summary

[@illisw5]

Hands down favorite book series of all time

[@TRYCLOPS1]

Yup. Just finished Deaths End last week. Mind blown 😂

[@anthonybha4510]

Sophon.

[@danielnorman531]

The greatest story ever told

[@laisa.]

😂​@@anthonybha4510

[@mrbeltr5833]

Just finished the book and omg I kept reading confused as to how they are manipulating us from so far. The last chapters blew my mind and hooked me for the next two books 😭

[@thequantartist]

Great. Have you finished the next two books?

[@mrbeltr5833]

@@thequantartist I’m on Deaths End bunker era. I flew by Dark Forest after Three Body haha. But my goodness the water droplet chapter 😫 so quick, so elegant, and beautiful yet so disturbing !

[@ryckarduhryckarduh180]

Are the next two books a continuation of the first one? Im asking that this book qas "sold" to me as a story about what humanity decides to do when they find earth will be invaded hundreds of years from now, and well, what I got qas a prequel, as far as I care the book stopped when the fun was just getting started. Maybe you can help me on this one

[@mobile_ingou]

@@ryckarduhryckarduh180 Yes, the sequels are sequels

[@helium3894]

did the book explain why sophons cant just go into people's head and expand while in there, thus, killing the humans? 1 kill per 10 seconds for 400 years would yield 1.2 billion kills...that's more than enough to kill all scientists...clearly the aliens dont shy away from killing humans

[@slash_em]

Ye Wenjie replied because she wanted humans to be be destroyed. The story explicitly explained this.

[@mistyk.1734]

No, she wanted trisolaris to make humanity better, not destroy them.

[@slash_em]

@@mistyk.1734 The alien warns her not to respond, and tells her that his people are destroyers. Ye is an environmentalist who was betrayed by her CCP boyfriend back in the tree-cutting days. She was forced into isolation and labor at the secret radar site. Later in the story the collaborators are all anti-human dissidents.

[@pauldavis1943]

IMO The story is really about the nature of evil- marginalizing life

[@jmb47kkamikaze80]

​@@mistyk.1734They said not to respond baas they would come to conquer the planet if invited.

[@myoldmate]

Because of her experiences, she was disillusioned with humanity. In her position, I would have done the same thing.

[@exginto8053]

Who would win? Kadishev 1,5 civilisation with habitats around every planet VS Thin piece of paper

[@thequantartist]

Haha that piece of paper was mindblowing.

[@FectacularSpail]

Deploy the dual vector foil!

[@krispykleen3404]

Bro I just finished this book last night. I’ve been watching reviews about it this morning. I’m listening to these videos while I clean, I had to stop cleaning and watch your video because your actually explaining a lot of the parts in the story and I love that. Thank you. This was a tough read for me and I was lost many places, I’m glad you went in depth explaining so much. Ur the man. Great video.

[@thequantartist]

Appreciate it bro! Glad you found the video useful

[@oldman-man6518]

Because of your comment to the short from earlier, I discovered your long form video. I really appreciate the way you described the dimensionality of Sophons and the ETO recruitment game. I have not seen any other video do it as much justice as you did, imo.

[@thequantartist]

Thank you, really appreciate it!

[@jwbowen]

I recommend reading the next two books in the series :)

[@thequantartist]

Did read them, going to make a video about them next!

[@davidkelley5382]

Death end is a mind fork 🍴

[@thequantartist]

@@davidkelley5382 Oh yes.

[@ImperatorSomnium]

True story

[@AntonsClass]

I read this and couldn't put it down! It was a trip. I just got part II and needed a refresher or part I before I dive in.

[@thiagof414]

Thank you! Best video on the book I found (for me)!

[@thequantartist]

Appreciate it. Glad you enjoyed the vid!

[@danielklassen1384]

She knew exactly why she replied.

[@cheza_cheza]

why did she reply?

[@l.-._.-._.-._.-._.-.l]

I love your doodles so much, please do the other books.

[@FebyKris_FPV]

I came here because of netflix...didn't know it was all explained here

[@JustinMShaw]

That nanofilament cutter is an old sci-fi concept and has been used by various authors. My first encounter with it was reading Larry Niven's books that were written in the 60s and 70s, but I'm not even sure that he was the first. He may have borrowed it from an earlier futurist.

[@BigMikeMcBastard]

Yeah, an equivalent as a weapon called monofilament wire was something that showed up in William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy from the 1980s too.

[@mosjeffinately7822]

Just finished the book. Great summary.

[@thequantartist]

Thanks!

[@lauraCPTN]

You mention that Ye Wenjie or we didn't know why she sent the reply to the Trisolaris despite the warning, this is not true..... Ye Wenjie was fed up with the way humanity was dealing with it's problem and how they were destroying the Earths environment, she was of the impression that humans would need an outside force in order to survive and progress or be wiped out.

[@mitchjaylenewilliamson2708]

You have a great explanation. Well done!

[@thequantartist]

Thank you!

[@charlesajones77]

For a book that has almost no action, the Operation Guzheng scene is surprisingly gruesome and graphic. I was astounded that this scene was left intact in the Tencent TV adaptation (which is quite good BTW). I did not think you could get away with something like that on Chinese television.

[@jamesday1295]

The scene in the book where judgement day is sliced is very short and hardly graphic at all. He sees one person get chopped in half from a good distance away. There is no mention of the carnage inside the boat at all.

[@mwfmtnman]

Just finished the first one, frigging great book. Can't wait to read the next 2

[@encyclopath]

Just finished the third, and was thrilled to find out there is actually a forth: Redemption of Time

[@mwfmtnman]

@@encyclopath oh cool. Looking forward to reading them. So interesting to read sci-fi from a different culture

[@encyclopath]

@@mwfmtnman avoid spoilers! The payoff will be worth it

[@mwfmtnman]

@@encyclopath wouldn't think of it. Not one of those people who read the last page lol

[@encyclopath]

@@mwfmtnman to be motivated to check out the books, i learned about the from watching Quinn’s video series. They contain some plot spoilers, which he did warn about, but I wouldn’t have known I would be so interested without that.

[@MbahMu9829]

My only problem with the story is that if they really want to kill human why didn't they do it with the sophons? Why wait 450 years for the journey to do it the traditional way when thay have practically invisible and indestructible robots roaming around the earth already?

[@darkamsable]

The books explained why the can’t use the sophons to kill, and it’s because they are so small that they can’t hurt humans in any way. I can’t remember where exactly but I believe it’s in the last episodes of the first book or in the first ones of the second where they explained why the sophons are not deadly.

[@Skyswindler]

​@@darkamsableYeah, it's towards the end.

[@xtrakt2024]

She knew exactly what she was doing when she sent that message though, at least that’s what I thought when I read it

[@seasidescott]

Came across this because of the Chi-Fi TV show and book must be a lot better. Still, this scientists going crazy because results are wacky doesn't add up. We get wacky results in real experimental physics all the time (as opposed to computer simulations) because we failed to take something into account. If a solution is particularly elusive, sometimes we have a beer but usually not suicide. Physics can't be broken because there aren't any laws, just some very good predictive modeling often called theories. Eventually everything gets fuzzy at some point and that's okay, it's the beauty of probability. Mathematics has unlimited number of dimensions to look at 3 body problems and that's not yet gotten near a closed-form solution but newer artificial neural network Skynets are working on it. With some other sci-fi from China, I'm getting the hint maybe that physics ain't their thing. I'll get to this book soon but in the past I've found so many small fallacies in Chi-Fi that I gave up on pondering the supposedly bigger questions. (Did I just make up the word "Chi-Fi"?) (update: chi-fi has been used about Chinese audio equipment - Chinese Hi-Fi. But don't see reference to Chinese Sci-Fi being called that)

[@StevenSiew2]

The the Chinese TV series, the subtitle kept saying "Physics is dead" but what it meant was "Physics is NOT progressing" because the Sophons are sabotaging the physics experiments.

[@seasidescott]

@@cybele_m - it's not a reaction actual scientists would have, they would be celebrating all new stuff to learn and discover. Engineer types would hate it. That's maybe the problem with Chinese viewpoint that doesn't see the difference. Scientists like physicists are more artist-like than usually characterized and outside-the-box. Engineers love it inside the box.

[@seasidescott]

@@mistyk.1734 - always happy to discover acceptable suicide context, it's like my thing.

[@S4iz4r]

When I saw the miniature "drop" it gave me chills and a feeling of anxiety...

[@FlanaFugue]

This doesn't really help when trying to get a grasp on the actual story in order to remember what happened before going on to the next book. (charaters etc.) It's a good summary of the main concepts, but more like a review.

[@peggygilmour8905]

It puts a quantum dimension on the "star crossed lover" theme.

[@rbtmckone1]

Amazing video, I hope to see similar videos from you going forward.

[@呵呵-h5g]

太棒了，竟然有人講解三體的故事

[@thequantartist]

谢谢！

[@happytrails151]

One of the coolest thing of the sophons is they are capable of quantum communication, instantly giving information 4 light years away and sending orders to the anti human terrorists

[@d4rthsidious793]

Damn good video

[@Rippershammer]

Screw those Game of Thrones writers. They fucking ruined the last season with their laziness. Never forget.

[@andrewbell2712]

Thank you, thank you, Quant Artist! I was completely flummoxed by the concept of the "sophon" that you so eloquently explained. I can't wait to start reading The Dark Forest. I'm almost done reading The Forever War, and will start TDF as soon as I finish. The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu is a wonderful novel. I was hooked immediately by Chapter One, called "The Madness Years," Liu Cixin's powerful description of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution from the point of view of 1960s Chinese physicist and his family members, as his daughters and wife have to watch his public humiliation and murder at the hands of Red Guard teenage girls, caught in the political madness of the times, who beat this elderly man to death. The scientific concepts introduced, especially the sophon idea, n-dimensionality, space travel, the evolution of the alien species on a nearby planet in the Trisolaris system, the description of the Trisolaris video game, the great characters, particularly Da Shi, the great detective who leads the investigation into what's happening within the ETO movement. What a powerful and entertaining book!

[@VectorOfKnowledge]

Have you read The Killing Star? I have a review of it. The Three Body Problem has some things in common.

[@thequantartist]

No haven't read it, how does it compare to The Three-Body Problem?

[@VectorOfKnowledge]

@@thequantartist The Dark Forest hypothesis is explored (though not by that name).

[@mandroid-rb4uy]

Hello great video it sounds complex but I am intriguedet Bonjour

[@dadballers]

Excellent explanation thank you

[@EhteshamShahzad]

2:09 "still without exactly knowing why she replies." She replies because she wanted revenge on humanity.

[@incognitomc5431]

Ims still waiting fir the summary of Dark Forest and the others. Ty

[@thequantartist]

It’s in the backlog, will come out after one or two videos I’m doing currently.

[@j.p.bumstead1174]

To appreciate the experience of the first book in visual form, avoid the Netfix version altogether. The TenCent Chinese version is sub-titled, and far superior and faithful to the book.

[@madleon81]

I was curious about the 3 suns but the whole sophon stuff etc .. meh..good for people with non-sci background to ponder on some stuff

[@justtosharefiles678]

Amazing video! Just subscribed.

[@thequantartist]

Thank you!

[@timetin]

I'm writing a defictionalized version, Chronorium 🥳

[@bollockjohnson6156]

lol

[@tietscho]

How you made this video

[@gungnir3926]

it shines through that a communist chinese wrote it. collectivism and authoritarianism requires a common cause, a common enemy and a generally afraid population that is therefore willing to sell freedom for security. the less afraid and more selfsustaining a population is the less it is willing to sell out to a larger authority or bureaucracy for safety. that is a simple law like gravity. it is a fantastic book and just as interesting a viewpoint as any other, even if, but also because of, its tendency and perspective.

[@emilyblade9676]

What? You might as well reverse what you wrote and say the collective will be less willing to sell out and the individual is more likely like anti-gravity

[@Subkubchik]

Wait, is that Layla's research topic irl

[@alexacevedo3732]

What is the name of the first background song

[@thequantartist]

Crossing That Bridge - Brendon Moeller

[@jaceacekalgoorlie]

Music is too loud

[@IngenieurKane]

Thumb down for title doesn’t match the content; this is an introduction, not a summary.

[@mineofilms]

Hey, this is the history of the Universe if you accept the 4th book lol...

[@fernandadp94]

this is not a summary of the book

[@billymandalay.]

your music is too intrusive

[@charlesajones77]

My only complaint with the first book is that it spends an excessive amount of time talking about, well, the three body problem itself. We already know it is unsolvable, so to anyone already familiar with the concept, it's obvious from the beginning that this has to ultimately be the conclusion. But the book spends a really long time trying to solve the problem, only to come to this conclusion. I'm currently reading the second book, and I'm finding it to be a lot more interesting as an actual novel.

[@SangSangC]

You are wat ahead

[@PedroThom-vs2nk]

This is not what a summary is.

[@anathardayaldar]

I loved the trilogy but the dimensional warfare is a turn off for me.

[@matcheer9909]

I'm subscriber 241

[@lemecordinair]

The dimensionality concept is known by some Muslim as the logical and practical explanation for the Jin's existence...

[@anteeko]

I doubt it is mathematical concept of dimensionality here

[@seasidescott]

@@anteeko how about multi-dimensional organic magnets then?

[@yanwain9454]

that scene on the panama canal with the boat getting sliced sounds profoundly stupid and unrealistic. i want to read this book but if it turns out to be this stupid the whole way through, i'm going to lose respect for everyone who claimed it to be a masterpiece.

[@freewheeler8924]

No matter what all the sheep say, this is a *BORING BOOK* .

[@chunyanmi5643]

This movie or book first thing tell you how much they have hate towards Mao's event. How their families got killed. So everything is really pointing directly and solely towards us, our land, our culture, our ancestors, our history, our children. Why the f don't you mention at the same time, that there was no raping happened during all these time? Why do you have to use certain something to humiliate and destroy everything that we have loved?

[@saganandroid4175]

3 Body Problem was slow, boring, and unoriginal. The only semi-original idea in the genre is the "humans are killing everything, so we're going to welcome alien management" (read: invasion). But even, they failed to explore the moral question as to whether or not ETO was right about humans being a cancer. The story's treatment of ecological problems and animal killing was so badly done as to not elicit any empathy from the viewer. It was the only thread that made the story possibly interesting and they flubbed it. IT'S CRAP!

[@thequantartist]

Hi Sagan, I think there’s good and bad in that book, and I actually agree with you. I like some creative descriptions: like the concept of dimensionality or the 3 body game, but the psychological depth of the characters is lacking.

[@MrSomethingdark]

The trilogy feels as if it were written by a child

[@Kognitosan]

I didn't read them but I suspect much is lost in the translation.

[@blsk8s]

Even taking into account the fact that most of us are reading a translation it is a horrible novel. Horrible narrative structure, horribly written. I started the 2nd of the trilogy thinking I'd give him another chance and it is just as bad.

[@antman2960]

@@blsk8syou got filtered

[@alexander53]

Bad troll

[@MrSomethingdark]

luckily it's aimed at an adult writer not an actual kid@@alexander53

[@GuruChandal]

F Boring

[@thebruceyang]

This video is fascinating and got me searching for a chapter by chapter summary (@chapter_chronicles) which was really helpful in catching up on the entire book

[@Rippershammer]

Screw those Game of Thrones writers. They fucking ruined the last season with their laziness. Never forget.