Many of the characters in The Three-Body Problem spend their lives thinking about abstract theory, but many of them then struggle to merge these theories with the complexity of the real world. Scientist Ye Wenjie comes from three generations of theoretical astrophysicists. Mathematician Wei Cheng devotes his life to solving the impossible problem of the book’s title. And, finally, protagonist Wang Miao spends all of his free time on a video game that asks players to theorize the rules of another planet’s solar system. Each of these thinkers is able to conceive of brilliant new ways of looking at the world. But thinking of these theories in practical, everyday terms proves difficult—especially during the aftermath of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, when certain communist ideas were supposed to apply to both everyday life and scientific fact. All of the novel’s characters must then struggle with the question posed by Ye Zhetai, Ye Wenjie’s father, at the beginning of the book: “should philosophy guide experiments, or should experiments guide philosophy?”
Arguably, The Three-Body Problem answers this question in the figure of Shi Qiang, a crafty policeman without a college education. When faced with the threat of alien attack, many of the world’s most acclaimed theoretical minds cannot respond to the crisis at hand. But Shi, who boasts of his ability to focus only on what’s in front of him, is able to rise to the occasion. And as other characters like Wang Miao follow Shi’s lead, they begin to realize that abstract ideas are actually complicated and enriched by the messiness of everyday life. Indeed, theory is meaningless unless it incorporates fact, observation, and experiment. The novel thus shows that paying attention to lived experience is a scientific necessity.
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Theory vs. Lived Experience ThemeTracker
Theory vs. Lived Experience Quotes in The Three-Body Problem
Should philosophy guide experiments or should experiments guide philosophy? […] Truth emerges from experience.
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.”
The farmer hypothesis on the other hand has the flavor of a horror story: every morning on a turkey farm, the farmer comes to feed the turkeys. A scientist turkey, having observed this pattern to hold to that change for almost a year, makes the following discovery: every morning at 11, food arrives. On the morning of Thanksgiving, the scientist announces this law to the other turkeys. But that morning at 11, food doesn't arrive; instead, the farmer comes and kills the entire flock.
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.”
Her father left behind some records. She listened to all of them and finally picked something by Bach as her favorite, listening to it over and over. That was the kind of music that shouldn't have mesmerized a kid. At first, I thought she picked it on a whim, but when I asked her how she felt about the music, she said she could see in the music a giant building, a large, complex house. Bit by bit, the giant added to the structure, and when the music was over, the house was done […] I failed. Her world was too simple, and all she had were ethereal theories. When they collapsed, she had nothing to lean on to keep on living.
Buddy, when I work at night, if I look up at the sky, the suspect is going to escape. […] To be honest, even if I were to look at the stars in this sky, I wouldn't be thinking about your philosophical questions. I have too much to worry about! I gotta pay the mortgage, save for the kids’ college, and handle the endless stream of cases […] You think that's not enough for me to worry about? You think I've got the energy to gaze at stars and philosophize?
“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.
From time to time, I would gaze up at the stars after a night shift and think that they looked like a glowing desert, and I myself was a poor child abandoned in the desert […] Sometimes I thought life was precious, and everything was so important; but other times I thought humans were insignificant, and nothing was worthwhile. Anyway, my life passed day after day accompanied by this strange feeling, and before I knew it, I was old. It's hard to predict the future. I live my life day to day.
“This is Galileo,” said Aristotle. “He advocates understanding the world through observation and experiment. He is an unimaginative thinker, but his results demand our attention.”
“Mozi also conducted experiments and observations,” Wang said.
Galileo snorted. “Mozi’s way of thinking was still Eastern. He was nothing more than a mystic dressed as a scientist. He never took his own observation data seriously, and he constructed his model based on subjective speculation. Ridiculous!”
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.
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.
“Who was that young woman’s mother?” Wang asked.
Da Shi grinned. “Fucked if I know. Just a guess. A girl like that most likely has mother issues. After doing this for more than twenty years, I’m pretty good at reading people.”
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.
The ETO had once tried to develop membership among the common people, but these efforts all failed. The ETO concluded that the common people did not seem to have the comprehensive and deep understanding of the highly educated about the dark side of humanity. More importantly, because their thoughts were not as deeply influenced by modern science and philosophy, they still felt an overwhelming, instinctual identification with their own species. To betray the human race as a whole was unimaginable for them. But intellectual elites were different: Most of them had already begun to consider issues from our perspective outside the human race. Human civilization had finally given birth to a strong force of alienation.
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.
The metallic Trisolaran spirit has infiltrated each of our cells and solidified. You really believe it can melt again? I'm an ordinary man living at the bottom of society. No one would pay any attention to me. My life is spent alone, without wealth, without status, without love, and without hope. If I can save a distant, beautiful world that I have fallen in love with, then my life has not been wasted.
“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.
