The Three-Body Problem is the first book of the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Chinese author Cixin Liu, and translated by Ken Liu, a well-known science fiction author in the United States. The book is getting a lot of attention since Netflix put out the first season of a television series, with eight episodes. We don’t yet know how many seasons or episodes are coming, but word is they plan to cover the entire story. I have not yet watched the series, and I’m only discussing book one of the trilogy here, although all three have been translated into English, and are available.

The book can be intimidating to the non-scientist, and it is easy to think you are in too deep. With some reading in Wikipedia, and this helpful article from Scientific American (https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-3-body-problem-whats-fact-and-whats-fiction/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=tfd_dsa&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwu8uyBhC6ARIsAKwBGpRI1toeKQxmdnii2IY0FpXGMLoQ6E1FFnwUK7FhaDTp1nc4mzyAz9saAhbXEALw_wcB), you will get your bearings on some of the scientific fact and fiction. Push through— the story is interesting, and character development is pretty good.

In brief, the three-body problem is when a planet is stuck in a complicated game of ping pong between the gravitational pull of three stars, leading to unpredictable chaotic and stable periods on the planet. We here on Earth have a very stable climate, with relatively mild fluctuations of temperature and precipitation. Trisolara suffers from wild fluctuations, stable periods followed unpredictably by unsurvivable chaotic periods, where extreme temperatures cannot be sustained. Intelligent life has evolved the capability to dehydrate and store themselves, with the ability to rehydrate and continue, if the chaotic period is not too lengthy. In this way, their civilization has been able to advance, even beyond our own. Unfortunately, time is running out for this planet, since several other planets were destroyed by their suns, and theirs is the last in this unstable system.

The story starts in 1967, China, during the Cultural Revolution, when academics and other successful intellectual professionals are being killed by young radicals, spurred on by Chairman Mao. Ye Wenjie, trained astrophysicist and daughter of Professor Ye Zhetai, witnesses her father ruthlessly murdered in a public protest at Tsinghua University. Ye is sent to a camp for re-education and hard labor, a lumber camp in the north. After a time, she is recruited to Red Coast Base, a radar telescopic site on Radar Mountain, since her scientific background makes her useful there. It is revealed to her that this base has sent microwave signals to space, in hopes of making contact with intelligent life in the universe. Ye is alone when a message is received, and she makes the bold decision to respond. This is very risky, since that intelligent life could have nefarious, selfish purposes, spelling the end for all humanity. A return message would provide Earth’s location to the distant planet. Ye is despairing of humanity’s trajectory, and feels it is only an advanced race of aliens that could help us get back on track morally.

I don’t want to give any more plot away. The reader will see an amazing demonstration of nanotechnology, use of our sun to amplify and direct a radio signal to space, and quantum entanglement to create a means of communication and eavesdropping by the alien race. Don’t be scared off— it is an exciting story, posing interesting moral and social questions. Do technologically advanced societies also advance morally? Is our moral and social development unique, or is this a normative way societies develop? Do most intelligent societies self-destruct when they achieve their atomic age? Science fiction is a great genre for such big questions, part of the reason I personally enjoy it. Read the book before you watch the series! Good for book discussion groups, too.