Over the course of The Three-Body Problem, various characters develop mind-boggling new technologies: protagonist Wang Miao creates a razor-sharp, invisible, new substance known as nanomaterial, for example, while astrophysicist Ye Wenjie figures out how to use the sun’s rays to contact alien life. But even as the book dives deep into the mechanics of human invention, it also suggests that every new technology has the potential for violence and destruction. Wang’s nanomaterial is used to saw a ship’s entire crew into pieces, for example, while Ye’s decision to contact extraterrestrials eventually heralds the end of human civilization. Over and over again, what initially seems like technological advancement or ideological progress is actually more harmful than beneficial. Or as Ye Wenjie puts it, “I started the fire, but I couldn’t control how it burnt.”
Progress, as the book’s environmental scientist Pan Han likes to say, is often a “cancer”—people can invent a machine or conceive of an idea before they can fully understand (or control) the impact of their invention. On one level, then, the novel functions as a cautionary tale about the dangers of technology, as what seems like human progress can actually lead to terrible destruction. But the reverse is also true: for the characters in The Three-Body Problem, moving technologically backward can allow for emotional growth. When Ye Wenjie gets to know the villagers in a small mountain community, for instance, she learns to feel a sense of responsibility for others. Similarly, when Wang Miao spends time with his friends and talks to them over drinks about humanity’s troubles, he returns with a new sense of purpose and clarity. Therefore, just as technological advancement doesn’t always lead to progress, the novel hints that a retreat from technology does not always lead to decline.
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Technology, Progress, and Destruction Quotes in The Three-Body Problem
The weapons attacking her were a diverse mix: antiques such as American carbines, Czech-style machine guns, Japanese Type-38 rifles; newer weapons such as standard issue People's Liberation Army rifles and submachine guns, stolen from the PLA after the publication of the “August Editorial”; and even a few Chinese dadao swords and spears. Together, they formed a condensed version of modern history.
Chang gave him an inscrutable smile. “You will know more soon. Everyone will know. Professor Wang, have you ever had anything happen to you that changed your life completely? Some event where afterward the world became a totally different place for you? […] The entire history of humankind has been fortunate. From the Stone Age till now, no real crisis has occurred. We've been very lucky. But if it's all luck, then it has to end one day. Let me tell you: it's ended. Prepare for the worst.”
King Wen now pointed at Wang, his eyes sparkling. “Now you know the goal of this game: to use our intellect and understanding to analyze all phenomena until we can know the pattern of the sun's movement. The survival of civilization depends on it.”
“Based on my observations, there is no pattern to the sun’s movement at all.”
“That's because you do not understand the fundamental nature of the world.”
“The Stable Era will continue. The universe is a machine. I created this machine. The Stable Era will continue. The universe…”
Wang turned his head. The voice belonged to Mozi, who was already on fire. His body was encased within a column of tall, orange flame, and his skin crinkled and turned into charcoal. But his two eyes still shone with a light that was distinct from the fire consuming him. His two hands, already burning pieces of charcoal, held up the cloud of swirling ashes that had once been his calendar.
I then introduced a third sphere, and to my astonishment, the situation changed completely. Like I said, any geometric figure turns into numbers in the depths of my mind. The sphereless, one-sphere, and two-sphere universes all showed up as a single equation or a few equations, like a few lonesome leaves in late fall. But this third sphere gave “emptiness” life. The three spheres, given initial movements, went through complex, seemingly never repeating movements. The descriptive equations rained down in a thunderstorm without end.
Below them, a magnificent phalanx of thirty million Qin shoulders was arrayed on the ground. The entire formation fit inside a square six kilometers on each side. As the sun rose, the phalanx remained still like a giant carpet made of 30 million terra-cotta warriors. But when a flock of birds wandered above the phalanx, the birds immediately felt the potential for death from below and scattered anxiously in chaos. Wang performed some computations in his head and realized that even if the entire population of earth were arranged into such a phalanx, the whole formation would fit inside the Huangpu District of Shanghai. Though it was powerful, the phalanx also revealed the fragility of civilization.
“What is your impression of the Aztecs?”
“Dark and bloody,” the author said. “Blood-drenched pyramids lit by insidious fire seen through dark forests. Those are my impressions.”
The philosopher nodded. “Very good. Then try to imagine: if the Spanish conquistadors did not intervene, what would have been the influence of that civilization on human history?”
“You are calling black white and white black,” the software company vice president said. “The Conquistadors who invaded the Americas were nothing more than murderers and robbers.”
“Even so, at least they prevented the Aztecs from developing without bound, turning the Americas into a bloody, dark great empire. Then civilization as we know it wouldn't have appeared in the Americas, and democracy wouldn't have thrived until much later. Indeed, maybe they wouldn't have appeared at all. This is the key to the question: no matter what the Trisolarans are like, their arrival would be good news for the terminally ill human race.”
The insanity of the human race had reached its historical zenith. The Cold War was at its height. Nuclear missiles capable of destroying the earth ten times over could be launched at a moment's notice, spread out among the countless missile silos dotting two continents and hiding with ghost-like nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines patrolling deep under the sea a single Lafayette- or Yankee-class submarine held enough warheads to destroy hundreds of cities and kill hundreds of millions, but most people continued their lives as if nothing was wrong.
Then she substituted the universe in Feng’s heart for the real one. The night sky was a black dome that was just large enough to cover the entirety of the world. The surface of the dome was inlaid with countless stars shining with a crystalline silver light, none of which was bigger than the mirror on the old wooden table next to the bed. The world was flat and extended very far in each direction, but ultimately there was an edge where it met the sky […] This toy-box-like universe comforted her and gradually it shifted from her imagination into her dreams […] in this tiny mountain hamlet deep in the Greater Khingan Mountains, something finally thawed in Ye Wenjie’s heart. In the frozen tundra of her soul a tiny, clear lake of meltwater appeared.
Now is truly the age of mass extinctions! So, my child, what you're seeing is nothing. This is only an insignificant episode in a much faster process. We can have no seabirds, but we can't be without oil. Can you imagine life without oil? Your last birthday, I gave you that lovely Ferrari and promised you that you could drive it after you turn 15. But without oil, it would be a pile of junk metal and you would never drive it. Right now, if you want to visit your grandfather, you can get there on my personal jet and cross the ocean in a dozen hours or so. But without oil, you'd have to tumble in a sailboat for more than a month…These are the rules of the game of civilization: the first priority is to guarantee the existence of the human race and their comfortable life. Everything else is secondary.
If I tell you more, you really won't be able to sleep. Forget it. What's the point of worrying? We should learn to be as philosophical as Wei Cheng and Shi Qiang. Just do the best within your responsibility. Let's go drinking and then go back to sleep like good bugs.
“Even in nature, the destruction of universes must be happening at every second—for example, through the decay of neutrons. Also, a high energy cosmic ray entering the atmosphere may destroy thousands of such miniature universes…You're not feeling sentimental because of this, are you?”
“You amuse me. I will immediately notify the propaganda console and direct him to repeatedly publicize the scientific fact to the world. The people of Trisolaris must understand that the destruction of civilizations is a common occurrence that happens every second of every hour.”
Look at them, the bugs. Humans have used everything in their power to extinguish them: every kind of poison, aerial sprays, introducing and cultivating their natural predators, searching for and destroying their eggs, using genetic modification to sterilize them, burning with fire, drowning with water. Every family has bug spray, every desk has a flyswatter under it…this long war has been going on for the entire history of human civilization. But the outcome is still in doubt. The bugs have not been eliminated. They so proudly live between the heavens and the earth, and their numbers have not diminished from the time before the appearance of the humans.
