4 ms·

I didn't find the Three Body Problem particularly compelling. Almost everything in it is goofy.

by nathan_compton 3y ago

protomolecule 3y ago
What would you recommend reading instead of it?
- riku_iki 3y ago
  Blindsight is my fav if you didn't read it yet.
  - nathan_compton 3y ago
    Blindsight was a little better.
- nathan_compton 3y ago
  Stanislaw Lem, Greg Egan.
  - protomolecule 3y ago
    Thanks! I've read a lot of both and still like 3BP)
riku_iki 3y ago
genuinely curious what is not goofy in your experience. While books are not perfect, imo they are one of the best hard fiction books available. I think I enjoyed only several other books more in this genre: Blindsight for example.
- nathan_compton 3y ago
  Pretty much everything about the premise seems silly to me. A civilization that can unwrap protons and build machines that violate energy conservation inside of them wouldn't need to care about taking over other species as basically all the material and energy of any solar system, regardless of whether it had life in it or not, would be available to them. And if you could build such objects you could probably find a better way to destroy our enemies than fiddling with their particle accelerators. The Dark Forest idea is also very dumb. The universe is so stupidly big that going out of your way to destroy other lifeforms, especially if you are a technologically advanced species, is a huge waste of resources for no gain whatsoever. Furthermore, even in a hostile universe there is much to be gained from alliances, especially for intelligent lifeforms for whom the idea of a "civilization" is not tightly coupled to a specific biological underpinning. I'm not saying a book couldn't be written with these premises. Obviously fiction can go all sorts of places. I just found the presentation of these ideas highly implausible in this text.
  - riku_iki 3y ago
    > A civilization that can unwrap protons and build machines that violate energy conservation inside of them wouldn't need to care about taking over other species as basically all the material and energy of any solar system, regardless of whether it had life in it or not, it is not obvious that such tech automatically gives large scale terraforming capabilities. Also, I think one of the book premises is that trisolars are stagnant civilization, they achieved some advancements in some areas, but couldn't make breakthroughs in any others. They restarted evolving fast after learning from human civilization. > Furthermore, even in a hostile universe there is much to be gained from alliances, especially for intelligent lifeforms for whom the idea of a "civilization" is not tightly coupled to a specific biological underpinning. Price of the risk is too high if contact with totally different species won't go well.

I didn't find the Three Body Problem particularly compelling. Almost everything in it is goofy.

protomolecule 3y ago

What would you recommend reading instead of it?

riku_iki 3y ago
Blindsight is my fav if you didn't read it yet.
- nathan_compton 3y ago
  Blindsight was a little better.
nathan_compton 3y ago
Stanislaw Lem, Greg Egan.
- protomolecule 3y ago
  Thanks! I've read a lot of both and still like 3BP)

riku_iki 3y ago

genuinely curious what is not goofy in your experience. While books are not perfect, imo they are one of the best hard fiction books available. I think I enjoyed only several other books more in this genre: Blindsight for example.

nathan_compton 3y ago
Pretty much everything about the premise seems silly to me. A civilization that can unwrap protons and build machines that violate energy conservation inside of them wouldn't need to care about taking over other species as basically all the material and energy of any solar system, regardless of whether it had life in it or not, would be available to them. And if you could build such objects you could probably find a better way to destroy our enemies than fiddling with their particle accelerators. The Dark Forest idea is also very dumb. The universe is so stupidly big that going out of your way to destroy other lifeforms, especially if you are a technologically advanced species, is a huge waste of resources for no gain whatsoever. Furthermore, even in a hostile universe there is much to be gained from alliances, especially for intelligent lifeforms for whom the idea of a "civilization" is not tightly coupled to a specific biological underpinning. I'm not saying a book couldn't be written with these premises. Obviously fiction can go all sorts of places. I just found the presentation of these ideas highly implausible in this text.
- riku_iki 3y ago
  > A civilization that can unwrap protons and build machines that violate energy conservation inside of them wouldn't need to care about taking over other species as basically all the material and energy of any solar system, regardless of whether it had life in it or not, it is not obvious that such tech automatically gives large scale terraforming capabilities. Also, I think one of the book premises is that trisolars are stagnant civilization, they achieved some advancements in some areas, but couldn't make breakthroughs in any others. They restarted evolving fast after learning from human civilization. > Furthermore, even in a hostile universe there is much to be gained from alliances, especially for intelligent lifeforms for whom the idea of a "civilization" is not tightly coupled to a specific biological underpinning. Price of the risk is too high if contact with totally different species won't go well.