To be honest, I'm a fan of the Three-body Problem. I began to read The Three-Body Problem from the Dark Forest in 2008. In my debut novel The Shape of Time, published in 2011, I described the Three-Body Problem as a Chinese science fiction masterpiece. At that time, the Three-Body Problem had not broken the circle, and it was only circulated in the circle of science fiction fans. But today, when the comic and drama versions of the Three-Body Problem are broadcast at the same time, and Tencent Video even adds the word "Three-body problem" on the icon of the APP, there are probably not many people in the country who do not know the Three-Body Problem and Liu Cixin.

< I feel a little different >

At the time of writing, I've watched 7 episodes of the comic and 2 episodes of the series. It may be different from the feelings of most people, although I agree with the common ridicule of netizens for the comic version of the Three-Body Problem: "The animation level is not as good as ten years ago", "Luo Ji and Ye Wenjie are broken", and "Da History has become a silly big man and a stupid young man".

But I still watched with relish, at least the first three episodes can let me binge-watch, especially several of the Ding Yi team on the space station particle impact experiment plot, extremely exciting! The comic version began to drag on a bit later, but it was also not very friendly to viewers who had not read the original.

However, after I watched the first episode of the Three-Body Problem, I had no urge to watch the second episode. I also agree with the general evaluation of netizens that "the three-body version of the drama is more accurate than the comic version", but because I have never been a "original party", the degree of restoration has never been my criterion for judging the quality of the work. In my eyes, the main points of the Three-Body Problem version (the first 2 episodes) are:

The overall feel of the film (lens, lighting, color mixing, editing...) They are typical "TV series texture", and for people who have watched more of the movie texture of American TV series, they are somewhat disappointed and feel sorry for the title of "big production".

In addition to Zhang Luyi's "Wang Miao", I feel that I have the charm of the character, the other main actors make me feel awkward. Especially "Ding Yi", when he opened his mouth, I would play. Because the actors are just mechanically memorizing their lines and don't really understand what they're saying. It may be that the actor's own scientific literacy has not reached, and he insists on playing a scientist, so the traces of the performance are very heavy.

However, these are not the focus of my article, I want to say today, whether it is the comic version or the drama version, they only show the "form" of the Three-body Problem, but there is no "God" of the three-body problem, especially the drama version, in my opinion, I suspect that some places may misinterpret the original author of the original Liu.

"Discussion with Cixin Liu about sci-fi books" by petrOlly is licensed under CC by-NC-ND 2.0. "Discussion with Cixin Liu about Sci-fi Books "BY Petrolly is licensed under CC by-NC-ND 2.0.

< Liu Cixin's Writing Program >

There are many of his works, including 7 long pieces, 16 medium pieces and 18 short pieces, as well as many essays, interviews, dialogues and so on. In 2012, he also wrote a short fairy tale titled "Fire Worker" and gave it to Xiao Ji, who was the science editor of Guokr.com at the time. I have read all of the above-mentioned works of Da Liu, so I am quite familiar with his various views. In fact, he himself has a writing program, and it can be said that all of his works run through this program. The following points are all taken from Liu Cixin's own words:

01

My science fiction creation is divided into three stages.

The first stage: pure science fiction stage. Science is the source of science fiction's power. But the beauty of science has a completely different form of expression from the beauty of traditional literature, and the beauty of science is imprisoned in cold equations, and ordinary people need to go through great efforts to catch a glimpse of her light. Science fiction, on the other hand, is a bridge to the beauty of science, and it takes that beauty out of the equation and reveals it to the public.

The second stage: man and nature stage. Literature is a human study. This golden rule is not true. Traditional literature gives me the impression that human beings are super narcissistic, and literature needs to transcend narcissism. The literature that makes such efforts most consciously is science fiction literature, and the focus of the description of science fiction literature should be the relationship between human beings and nature.

The third stage: social experiment stage. Any kind of evil in the real world can find the corresponding world setting in science fiction, so that it becomes legitimate or even just, and vice versa, good and evil in science fiction only have meaning in the corresponding world image.

(" Return to Eden: A Decade of Science Fiction Creation ")

02

In China, science is still a small candle in the wilderness among the public, and even a small wind can blow it out. The first task now is not to predict the disaster of science; the real disaster facing Chinese society is the loss of the scientific spirit among the masses. The power of science lies in the public's understanding of it. And to let the scientific spirit take root in the masses is a great cause... Science fiction should not hurt the cause. Science is the mother of science fiction, do we really want to be her enemy? If science cannot attract readers without portraying it in a negative light, without making it scary, let us stop our pens.

(From the Sea to See a Drop of Water: Reflections on Some Traditional Literary Elements in Science Fiction)

03

The grand mysterious universe is the God of science fiction, and the teachings of SF teach are as follows: Feel the Lord's greatness, feel the Lord's depth, write this feeling out, show those busy people, let them have the same feeling as you, let them also feel the Lord's greatness and depth, in that case, you, those busy people, and Chinese science fiction, are blessed.

(" SF Teaching: On the Description of the Universe in Science Fiction ")

If you keep the above three in mind, then you will not deviate from Liu Cixin's original intention when reading any of his science fiction works.

There is only one reason that some reviews of The Three-Body Problem have interpreted something completely contrary to any of these three points, and that is the reviewer's misreading of the novel.

Liu Cixin and I are a little similar, we are relatively extreme scientists, he said in a science fiction conference in Chengdu in 2007 in a public dialogue with Jiang Xiaoyuan: "Whether my novel plot is pessimistic or optimistic, in fact, it is the need for expression." In all these years of writing science fiction, I haven't really changed my mind. I'm a crazy technologist, and I personally believe that technology can solve everything."

< How to interpret Da Liu's Writing Program in The Three-Body Problem >

For example, in the novel The Three-Body Problem 1, what is the best interpretation of Liu Cixin's science fiction writing program? I think it is mainly reflected in the following places:

first

"The beauty of science is imprisoned in cold equations, and science fiction can release this beauty from the equations."

The Three-body Game in the novel is a good example of this saying.

The three-body problem was originally a deep mathematical problem in astrophysics, he did not know how many genius mathematicians, in the eyes of mathematicians, the three-body problem is beautiful to suffocate, but it is difficult for us ordinary people to feel. However, all the readers who have read the Three-Body Problem 1, I believe that they will never forget the magnificent and fantastic, grand and ethereal pictures in the three-body game - the three SUNS transformed into a shocking picture in the three-body world, and the three-body civilization reincarnation in the test of ice and fire, which makes all this, in the final analysis, is the ancient three-body problem. For more than 300 years since the birth of the three-body problem, there have been numerous related articles and books, but only Liu Xin has released the mathematical beauty contained in it to the general public.

In addition, the human computer that appears in the three-body game is also a picture that impresses all readers. The audience with a little knowledge of computer programming should know that Liu Cixin tells readers what is logical operation and what is the five core components of the computer created by von Neumann through the working principle of the human computer, and the dry theory suddenly shows a vivid sense of picture.

second

"The real disaster facing Chinese society is the loss of the scientific spirit among the masses. To let the scientific spirit take root in the public is a great cause." Do you still remember what Da Shi said to Wang Miao in the novel? "The enemy is a tough guy, the top is scared. But everyone has something to be afraid of, even that tough guy; The stronger the character, the more deadly the thing it's afraid of. It's afraid of you. It's afraid of scientists. And the weird thing is, the more useless and far-fetched the stuff you're working on, the more scared it is, which is why it's so aggressive. If it were useful to kill you, it would kill you all by now, but the most effective way is to disturb your minds. When people die, there are others, but when minds are disturbed, science is destroyed." Of all the sciences, the Trisolarans are most afraid of the basic sciences. May I have your attention,

This is one of the most important scientific views throughout the Three-body problem novel, that is, basic science is the cornerstone of human civilization and progress,

Without the progress of basic science, high technology can only be a tree without roots. What is basic science? As far as physics is concerned, theoretical physics. More fundamental than theoretical physics is mathematics. In ancient China, there was only technology without science, so there is no need to talk more about it, because the reasons are too complicated. But even in modern times, Chinese society is still faced with the terrible wrong trend of thought that "science and technology must be practical". When I talked to several retired senior engineers about relativity, they all shared the same view that a theory like relativity that cannot be applied to production and construction has no research value. This view is actually common in China. The source is that Marx's famous saying that "science and technology are the primary productive forces" has been over-interpreted by the older generation of Chinese leaders, extending the wrong trend of thought that science and technology that cannot promote productivity is worthless. In the past, for a long period of time, China paid very little attention to the research of basic science, and this trend of thought still has a wide influence today.

In Trisaran 1, the first scientist to eliminate the Trisaran is a theoretical physicist, and the only thing that Tomoko needs to shut down human science is to shut down the particle accelerator. These storylines are emphasized throughout the novel, especially the fact that the particle accelerator is the most frequent scientific research device in the entire Three-Body trilogy, so many that every reader of the Three-Body Problem will never forget that the progress of human science and technology is not only based on the particle accelerator, but also the only sufficient and necessary device. I do not know how many people through the three-body first know the particle accelerator this scientific research equipment.

Through the design of these plots, Liu warmly eulogizes the value of basic science, especially theoretical physics, and counters the trend of thought of "practical theory of science".

Another important part of the scientific spirit is to see through pseudoscience, or not to be confused by the so-called "miracles". We can read a passage in the novel to reflect Liu Cixin's attitude towards pseudoscience.

Great History said to Wang Miao, "I have really invented an ultimate theorem, that is, if evil comes home, there will be ghosts." When I say ghost, I mean someone's doing it. You know what pseudoscientists fear most? Not a scientist at all. Many of the world's leading scholars have been duped by pseudoscience and ended up advocating for it. But pseudoscience is most afraid of another kind of people, magicians. In fact, a large number of pseudoscientific scams have been exposed by magicians."

third

"The priority right now is not to predict disaster for science. If science cannot attract readers without portraying it in a negative light, without making it scary, let us stop our pens." The Three-Body Problem can be seen as a thought experiment carefully designed by Liu. When human beings are faced with the extreme danger of alien invasion, which may lead to the extinction of human civilization as a whole, literature, art and philosophy cannot save human beings. The only thing that can save human beings is science, and science is the most powerful talisman of human beings. From the opposite point of view, the Trisolarans want to destroy mankind, making three plans, the first plan code-named "dyeing", using the negative effects of science and technology, so that the public fear and aversion to science, such as the environmental problems caused by technological development. The second plan, code-named "Miracle", is to show supernatural power to the Earth people and build a false universe that can not be explained by scientific logic. In the thinking world of the Earth, the non-scientific way of thinking will overwhelm the scientific thinking, which will lead to the collapse of the entire scientific thought system. The third plan is the "Wise Son Project", which uses the wise son to lock down the particle accelerator on Earth, thus locking down science. I don't know if you will like me, reading here can not help but start to think: in the real world, the dyeing project and the miracle project is already quietly happening? Are those literary works that denigrate science the weapons that aliens use to attack us? Could it be that all anti-science ideas are part of some great conspiracy, and that the paranormal phenomena that are so enthusiastically reported by various groups are also part of this conspiracy?

This, I believe, is one of Liu Cixin's purposes in telling these stories: to call us back to reason and to respect science. It's not that we have too much science, it's that we have too little. Some so-called scholars oppose what they call "scientism" under the banner that "science cannot solve all problems." This is a sneaky concept. There is no causal relationship between whether science can solve all problems and whether we should eulogize science enthusiastically and embrace it. It's like art can't solve everything, but we can also celebrate music and embrace art.

Science and Human Civilization

The time of human science is actually very short, it was enlightened in the ancient Greek period, really formed in the Renaissance (marked by Galileo), and now it is more than 400 years. If we define the beginning of civilization as the invention of writing, which is 3200 BC when the Sumerians created cuneiform, then the entire history of human civilization is 5,300 years. Please think about what glorious achievements human civilization has made and what great changes have taken place in human life in the last thirteenth part of the time. Let us think again: did literature, art, and philosophy slowly reach their peak almost a thousand or two years ago, and the development since then has been very uniform and slow, and is unlikely to advance rapidly in the foreseeable future? It is hard for us to imagine that in the future, literature and art works that are many times greater than the Four Books and the Five Classics, Tang and Song poems, Shakespeare's plays, Beethoven's symphonies, Mona Lisa, and so on, will be born. But science is completely different, and it is difficult for us to even imagine what progress science will make in 100 years, and it is likely to be magical beyond our wildest dreams. But what we can be sure of is that human science and technology are still accelerating. As early as the age of apes, apes learned to make tools, and from that moment on, human ancestors had technology, technology existed for millions of years before the birth of science, but in these millions of years, the development of technology has been more or less uniform. But after the birth of science, human technology has been explosively accelerated. Humans invented writing 5,300 years ago, and for more than 5,000 years after that, the fastest way for us to send messages was by carriage. 400 years ago, science was born. 180