3 Body Problem
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I read the book a few years ago - it was a bit confusing but pretty decent nonetheless. I'm told the TV series differs significantly from the book. For your sake I hope any additional seasons also vary from the 2nd and 3rd books in the trilogy. I found them to be completely unreadable.
I hated the audio book. I was listening to it and noticed I was about 32% of the way through the book before I thought I knew what the plot was. At half way, I stopped listening as it didn't make any sense. I agree with most of the [1 star reviews](https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032#customerReviews) on Amazon.
Hogan
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You don’t need such far fetched metaphors. See Cargo cult[^] and Cargo cult science[^]
Mircea
In the framework of the "3 body problem" story the metaphors were meant to help advanced scientist deal with their nervous breakdown when settled theories and experiments that had been done hundreds of times all over the world suddenly started producing random results. Products developed with the practical application of those theories (cell phones, nuclear fission reactors, etc.) all still worked but the high energy colliders were now producing random results throwing everything that had been settled science for the last 50 years into question. Science research had come to a screaming halt. Just think about it. What would happen if the career that you had chosen, all the knowledge you had acquired in a lifetime of work were suddenly shown to be false. Yet the products you built were working just fine. But the future products you are envisioning (using the same successful techniques that you know built the products in use today) don't work! Impossible you say. See it must work, it worked before in the old products but not the new ones. You might have some psychological distress and question the meaning of your existence. This was the point of the unexplained suicides among the best and brightest in the scientific community in the story. In the story there is a reason for this phenomenon. I won't spoil the story by revealing it here but there is a reason.
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In the framework of the "3 body problem" story the metaphors were meant to help advanced scientist deal with their nervous breakdown when settled theories and experiments that had been done hundreds of times all over the world suddenly started producing random results. Products developed with the practical application of those theories (cell phones, nuclear fission reactors, etc.) all still worked but the high energy colliders were now producing random results throwing everything that had been settled science for the last 50 years into question. Science research had come to a screaming halt. Just think about it. What would happen if the career that you had chosen, all the knowledge you had acquired in a lifetime of work were suddenly shown to be false. Yet the products you built were working just fine. But the future products you are envisioning (using the same successful techniques that you know built the products in use today) don't work! Impossible you say. See it must work, it worked before in the old products but not the new ones. You might have some psychological distress and question the meaning of your existence. This was the point of the unexplained suicides among the best and brightest in the scientific community in the story. In the story there is a reason for this phenomenon. I won't spoil the story by revealing it here but there is a reason.
Wow - apply that hypothetical to code development... Let's say your wrote a simple "Hello World" program on Monday, and it worked as expected, displaying "Hello, world!" on the screen. On Tuesday, you simply recompiled the same program, and it compiled successfully, but the compiled application doesn't do what it used to do. At all. We wouldn't be able to write working software (so no change at Microsoft, right? :) )
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Looks interesting, thanks for the link. We're winding up 4th season of Manifest and it's been getting weirder and weirder. Be glad when it's over!
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame. PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
Mike Hankey wrote:
We're winding up 4th season of Manifest and it's been getting weirder and weirder. Be glad when it's over!
Then do not watch "Fringe"
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Wow - apply that hypothetical to code development... Let's say your wrote a simple "Hello World" program on Monday, and it worked as expected, displaying "Hello, world!" on the screen. On Tuesday, you simply recompiled the same program, and it compiled successfully, but the compiled application doesn't do what it used to do. At all. We wouldn't be able to write working software (so no change at Microsoft, right? :) )
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013There would never be a Windows 12!
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Mike Hankey wrote:
We're winding up 4th season of Manifest and it's been getting weirder and weirder. Be glad when it's over!
Then do not watch "Fringe"
M.D.V. ;) If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about? Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
That would be good but once we get into a show, we go to the end just to see it through. We watch about 2 hrs. each night Netflix or Prime and that's all the TV we get. A lot of times we're so tired we just stare at it anyway.
Definition of a burocrate; Delegate, Take Credit, shift blame. PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.1 JaxCoder.com Latest Article: EventAggregator
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In the framework of the "3 body problem" story the metaphors were meant to help advanced scientist deal with their nervous breakdown when settled theories and experiments that had been done hundreds of times all over the world suddenly started producing random results. Products developed with the practical application of those theories (cell phones, nuclear fission reactors, etc.) all still worked but the high energy colliders were now producing random results throwing everything that had been settled science for the last 50 years into question. Science research had come to a screaming halt. Just think about it. What would happen if the career that you had chosen, all the knowledge you had acquired in a lifetime of work were suddenly shown to be false. Yet the products you built were working just fine. But the future products you are envisioning (using the same successful techniques that you know built the products in use today) don't work! Impossible you say. See it must work, it worked before in the old products but not the new ones. You might have some psychological distress and question the meaning of your existence. This was the point of the unexplained suicides among the best and brightest in the scientific community in the story. In the story there is a reason for this phenomenon. I won't spoil the story by revealing it here but there is a reason.
I've seen just the first episode but the skeptical me thinks that the metaphors instead of "help advanced scientist deal with their nervous breakdown when settled theories and experiments that had been done hundreds of times all over the world suddenly started producing random results" they rather help not so advanced script writers/producers deal with the hypothesis of the "capricious God" :-D . There is a good chance that any scientist worth his salt, and even more so "advanced scientists", has considered the idea of the Simulation hypothesis[^]. The discussion here would be too long and would probably run afoul of lounge rules. Besides, as I've said, I've seen only the first episode and I am probably prejudging.
Mircea
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I've seen just the first episode but the skeptical me thinks that the metaphors instead of "help advanced scientist deal with their nervous breakdown when settled theories and experiments that had been done hundreds of times all over the world suddenly started producing random results" they rather help not so advanced script writers/producers deal with the hypothesis of the "capricious God" :-D . There is a good chance that any scientist worth his salt, and even more so "advanced scientists", has considered the idea of the Simulation hypothesis[^]. The discussion here would be too long and would probably run afoul of lounge rules. Besides, as I've said, I've seen only the first episode and I am probably prejudging.
Mircea
Yes, keep watching. As I said before this version cuts out the Turkeys and Sharpshooter discussion entirely. (I watched the Chinese version that covered the same ground in 43 episodes (25 min each)). In that version several episodes were dedicated to the mysterious Frontiers of Science organization and the Turkeys and Sharpshooter stories. I started reading the first book but stopped in the brutal Chinese Cultural revolution and did not pick it up again. It was not until the Chinese version (with subtitles) that I was exposed to the rest of the first book.
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Quite possibly the best science fiction available right now... I really enjoyed season 1. I hope there's more and it doesn't get ruined (as most series often become).
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013 -
Amazon Prime also has "Three-Body" which is a chinese(?) version which runs to 30 hours. Not sure how either corresponds to the original book even though I read it. There are 4 books in the series.
Where do the books end in the 400 year timeline?
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
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You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
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When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
