3 Body Problem 1x3 Reaction: Destroyer of Worlds ● Game over... 

It's definitely been a pretty engaging ride, so far. I can't wait to read the first novel when I'm done with this and the Tencent version. So far, I've only had one big thing spoiled by someone who got perhaps a bit too excited in the comments. There are a few other things I knew, going in, mostly terms and phrases without context, such as "Do not answer," "You are bugs," Sophon, and Wallfacer. I see that the finale is called Wallfacer, so I guess I'll be finding out what that means soon. Hopefully tonight!

Reading it now. I finished 3 body in about 4 days. Now I’m on Dark Forest. I love it so much.

@@HoundsBane Ooh, it must be good, if you inhaled it like that. I've heard from a lot of people that The Dark Forest is the best one in the trilogy, so you must be loving it!

I was reading up a bit on Alpha Centauri, and it looks like it might be able to get a civilization going because two of the stars partnered up, leaving Proxima to have a decently stable habitable zone. So I guess people in such systems would definitely be way more rare than people in systems such as ours, but still out there *somewhere*.

@@reverseBLT Proxima Centauri, however, is a variable flare star which happens a lot with small red dwarfs. And because they are so small, the habitable zone (where water is liquid for life like ours to develop) lies very close to the star. This means the flares will often hit a potentially habitable planet at high intensity and very short notice. Also, planets this close to a star typically end up being tidally locked like our moon, with one side always facing the star at scorching temps and the dark side being extremely cold.

@@berlindude75 So, anything that *does* get going is going to have a really rough time of it. Poor guys. I guess the likelihood would be subterranean critters that stick to the terminator, if anything manages to arise at all.

Sure, but it still boggles my mind that you can (technically?) make one out of rocks being moved around on a beach. Scenes such as the human abacus are so much fun for me because they mess with how we think about these concepts, rooted in really specific forms of technology.

@@reverseBLT the book (and Tencent adaptation) has a fun extra scene explaining how the human computer works: each person or group of people is both an input and output. They're watching other flags for input, switching their own flag according to some basic rule, and then someone else is watching their output as their own input. You can then get basic logic functions - like an AND-gate, where (iirc) one person only shows YES if both of their inputs show YES. And then there are some slightly more complex gates for calculations, cavalry to run data between sub systems, and a group of scribes to serve as memory. (It's understandable that they cut this though, it would have really slowed down the pace of this episode to do a whole tutorial on how computers work.) Here's the really fun question though: if humans actually did that, it'd take a very long time to calculate n body physics simulations. What does it say about the San Ti that they could have a "human" computer running fast enough to get results despite the constant threat of sudden catastrophe? Just one little data point to keep in mind going forward as you keep speculating about what the San Ti are like :)

🤔🤔🤔

Even while I was sitting there reading too much into it, I was thinking to myself, "You're reading too much into this." 😅

@reverseBLT your not really reading too much into it. Those are important points to the overall story.

@@spamfilter32 A good mystery sets up lots of red herrings. 😄

:forehead slap: I can't believe I didn't think about that. 😅

@reverseBLT Prior to Jack's death, the only other people who died who got headsets were the Iranian physicist and the CERN physicist. And both their deaths were ambiguous as to whether they were suicides. Clarence said they didn't know about the Iranian because Iran wouldn't let them have access, and Clarence said that people didn't believe that Oppenheimer's mistress committed suicide (I don't think she did either). Meanwhile, the scientists we do know got a countdown was unambiguously a suicide.

@@spamfilter32 And, in the context of what happened with Jack, we can probably assume they were also people who noped out of Level Four. Also, I didn't know about Oppenheimer's mistress before watching this episode. I'm going to have to look into that.

@reverseBLT Yes. That was my conclusion, too.

Thanks! I put a lot of time and maybe more thought than strictly necessary into the edits, so I'm glad they're appreciated! 🤗

We can hold out hope together until it's inevitably ground beneath the great cosmic wheel. 🥲

True, but I think history bears me out on this one because it didn't *have* to be that way. Each of those times, all it would have taken was wiser and more compassionate people in control, willing to set aside arrogance and fear to consider the other side and not be pieces of crap. At the very least, an effort should always be made.

@@reverseBLT true but then the problem becomes what if our side says let's give em a chance and they see it as oh they have lowered the guard this is the moment to strike to prevent them to do it to us in the future which is more or less the history of our own species and since we can't even work it out within our own species again history a testament to that how can we make an assumption that a completely alien species won't see us warring aggressive hairless apes as a threat immediately no matter what our intentions may be

Therein lies the risk that leads to tragedy. Both sides could be perfectly willing to be peaceful, to work together, to share, but that little worry that exists to protect a vulnerable, primitive critter from fangs and claws in the darkness will keep whispering about the hidden threat. And it's not *wrong* to worry. As the voice in the box said, without any fear, we wouldn't have survived. It's likely no species could. I won't assume advancement gets rid of that, but I hope it at least makes the other factors less of an issue, such as arrogance and dismissiveness. If it's only fear that remains, but both sides are still rational, I think they can carefully find a way past the impulse to strike out. I know we haven't quite figured that out, and it's probably one of the great crucibles an intelligent species must pass through, but I've still got hope.

@@reverseBLTi fully agree question is would an utter alien species that sees and experiences the universe in a fundemantally alien way that we could never imagine see things along those lines or would it be that for them what we deem utter irrational may be rational and mundane or would they even have such concepts at all ? that's what's interesting to ponder

@@Frequencydead Agreed. One of my favorite things about alien sci-fi is exploring mindsets and cultures that differ wildly from ours. Humans are all fundamentally quite similar, and even we have occasionally *massive* barriers because of fundamental differences in contextualizing the world. I really perked up when "Our Lord" asked about whether fear was experienced individually for humans. It was the first clue that the San-Ti might think in a very different way than we do, and I'm here for it. It's interesting to ponder how much reason can compensate for such gulfs. I guess there would have to be some gaps so large no amount of intellect could bridge them.

It's kind of interesting how each of the Oxford Five is oblivious and selfish in their own unique ways. I hadn't thought about that cancer metaphor theme with the DBs. It's going to be interesting to see if they stick a similar statement into everything they ever do, kinda like how you can always expect daddy issues to be front and center whenever Damon Lindelof is involved in something. Also yay about being on the right track about something! 😅

I like Auggie and don't find her irritating so it's not "universal." I appreciate her perspective and moral compass. I don't like how she acts about Saul's promiscuity, but I acknowledge that we don't have all the background details, AND the point is that even if she's treating him unfairly, it's emotionally realistic. Like, she's having a life or death issue and she's worried she's having a nervous breakdown over it - it's completely understandable that she might irrationally lash out at someone she needs help from who is fucking around like it isn't an apocalypse.

@@maxsilva11 Agreed. She's being unfair but it's pretty realistic behavior. And you're right that we don't have all the details about their past relationship(s). I assume they dated at some point, but went their separate ways. One thing I like about the characterization of each of the O5 is the self-centeredness we all have to some degree is pretty honestly represented with them. They all get focused on certain things at any given moment that they're worried about or obsessed with, and are prone to ignore the things on the periphery.

@@reverseBLT yeah, very cool to hear that you find them all compelling in their own ways! Their personalities and roles in the plot are all a bit mix'n'matched, relative to their closest book analogues, so we book readers are finding ourselves in the same fun position as with Wheel of Time - we get to be surprised by new stuff in a story we love, like we're experiencing it for the first time again!

@@maxsilva11 I love that about adaptations. I'll have that experience in reverse, reading the book after the season.

True. More % of LST.

Except their Ansible. 😉

It's funny because I tried looking during the edit to see if she stabbed him before the obvious one, and I thought maybe she got him in the side, but was trying to figure out why a trickle of blood was coming out of his mouth. Maybe I should have hidden the layer with my big old head blocking the view! 😅

See, this is why I don't let myself play certain games. I don't need to discover a new rabbit hole to disappear down that's *that* deep.

I'll try not to forget but, if I do, please remind me. Hopefully, it won't break my heart. 🥹

Right, and we would, theoretically, need to go back to the starting state of the universe to get it exactly right. And the planet(s) orbiting in the system would be additional bodies needing to be factored in. It's one of those things I realized I was way oversimplifying, after I said it should be doable in the first episode's reaction. I think it should be possible to predict well enough for *some* degree of planning, but blindsides would absolutely still happen. The sim did a great job of getting that across.

In the books it is mentioned to be Alpha Centauri. But I only read the first one so I could be wrong

@Fuar11 I haven't read the books, so I can't say what the books say. Only thing we can say for sure is that it is a trinary system with unstable orbits, is ~ 4 light years away, and is located in the area of the Sagittarius constilation.

It's absolutely canonically Alpha Centauri, this is very clear. Liu is just imagining that the three suns are close enough in size to have a more chaotic interaction. The Wow signal stuff is an unnecessary addition by D&D.

@@maxsilva11 was the Wow! Signal not in the book?

Interesting... I wonder if the DBs thought they could use the whole solar reflectivity idea to fudge it a bit?

I was hoping they wanted peaceful coexistence. 😅 But yeah, in for a penny, at this point...