The Biology of The Trisolarans | Three Body Problem Series

Just a heads up, this video will have spoilers for all three of Cixin Liu’s Remembrance of Earth’s past book and also for the spinoff novel Redemption of Time by Baoshu. This series details the story of mankind after they discover that there is a race of alien beings 4 lightyears away from our solar system that seek to destroy humanity and inhabit the earth. It will take about 400 years for the aliens to reach earth but in the meantime the cripple technological progress on earth so that humans could not advance enough to match them. Humanity was nearly fully destroyed in its struggle against this technologically superior alien race. The great war between humanity and the Trisolarans drives the main narrative of the series and yet we never see the appearance of the Trisolarans described in the original trilogy, it’s not until the spinoff that we finally get a glimpse of what they actually look like. However we do receive information in the first book about their biology and their life cycle.

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[RSK]

The size of the Trisolarans reminds me of a quote by Douglas Adams, it goes: "...the mighty ships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the first planet they came across - which happened to be the Earth - where due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog." 🤣

[JayChampagne]

The lack of culture among the Trisolarans highlights an interesting idea that Liu touched on, but then abandoned: the idea that the stagnation and death of art can be an existential threat. We see the Trisolarans become obsessed with Earth culture in both the second and third books. This could potentially been used as a weapon by Earth to destabilize Trisolaran society or force a symbiotic relationship, even though it ultimately wasn't.

[saucevc]

Tiny nitpick: The Trisolarans did actually solve the Three Body Problem in the book. The real issue was that when they used it to predict the future of their civilization, they realized it was doomed to fall into one of their suns eventually. That's why they needed to invade Earth.

[Kosstheraidboss]

*SPOILERS* - I think it was a very important part of the original trilogy that earth never saw the Trisolarans. It gave them an even greater psychological advantage because an imagined threat can be far more intimidating than a known threat. It also allows the reader to constantly change their perception of them as the story continues. And, it makes scenes like the living computer even more crazy to imagine when you think about human size creatures trying such an endeavor.

The revelation of them being insect like, canon or not, was great because when you look back and apply it to their decision making process it produces a lot of AHAH moments. Like how they were willing to force humans to survive by cannibalizing each other. I think humans would be more reluctant to use a tactic like that, even on an alien race, because it is a barbaric concept to us. But for them, they put little value on the individual life, so they have no issue forcing that mentality on another race.

[genericallyentertaining]

The Trisolarans being so tiny also makes the scene in the first book where they're said to have arranged themselves into a circuit board seem a lot more plausible.

[jaykrizzle]

Trisolarans seem to be partially inspired by Tardigrades. It was also quite obvious in other aspects from the trilogy they were very small, especially with all the stories of the ant watching humans.

[chrisbourantas]

The 3 body series was a much needed breath of fresh air in sci-fi literature. And the Dark Forest, the best entry in the series, IMO!

[Chuckf]

I keep imagining tiny, pissed off Daleks squawking "YOU WILL BE REHYDRATED! REHYDRATE! REHYDRATE!"

[smurphy]

Feels like the Trisolarins could have easily terraformed Mars with their tech. Coexistence would be feasible. Hell, we could have given them Australia.

[patreekotime]

One of the things that Trisolaran mass cognition implies is that Listener was not a lone dissatisfied actor. If Trisolarans are truely incapable of individual thought to such an extreme degree, then the Listener must represent an aspect of Trisolaran group thought... an undercurrent that constantly runs counter to the mass desire. And there is good evolutionary reasoning for this. A truely singleminded group consciousness would be inflexible to change and not adaptable, and adaptability is the most important trait for a species on a planet in a three-body system. So the species has to have a mechanism to cultivate undercurrents of subversive thought, even while the totalitarian impulse remains the dominant force. So the Listener is then perhaps a focal point for a collective subversion, which is why he desires things like love and art that he cannot possibly really have personal references for. Its why he feels this strong empathy towards Earth culture, because of the subversive leanings of other individuals. He is then the Listener not just Earth signals, but of those kinds of thoughts within the collective. This also explains the need for extreme martial law. Deviants are then not lone bad actors in Trisolaran society, but focal points for mass anti-social thought. Which makes them far more dangerous to the totalitarian body than a lone actor. But it also explains how they were suddenly able to lie when we are told explicitly they are incapable of lies... the main body of totalitarian thought maintains the party line that all thought is known and contained, while the undetected undercurrents keep different forms of thought alive as resevoirs for survival. This in itself is subterfuge, lying is therefore part of the Trisolaran deep nature. Just one that they hide from themselves.

This all reflects back on Chinese history and the need to purge intellectuals and provacateurs who were far more dangerous to the revolution than individual dissidents would be. Im reading Ai Weiwei's book One Thousand Years of Joy and Sorrow and it is actually a really excellent companion piece to the The Body Problem books for someone from the West to understand some of the background of the revolution and how the Chinese political body became so hyper-focused on stamping out reactionary thought.

[askani]

The size and intelligence of the Trisolarans, in Baoshu's sequel, sent chills through my spine as I read about them. I don't consider the rest of the sequel to be canon (because it's weird loll). But those small details about Trisolarans' biology was spot on! It just made so much sense!!! I felt as if I should have known all along, as if it was now so obvious!

Suddenly, the lack of individuality within their social structure seemed perfectly normal, without the actual cognitive ability for an individual to be something complex. Individuals have tiny minuscule brains, they are extremely simple creatures, barely sentient. Communication generates intelligence, complexity. Therefore, when an individual becomes weak, sick or dysfunctional, it's not immoral to destroy them, it's necessary. Like a broken cell in our body. Even the Trisolarans themselves don't even seem to care that much when they must be killed. Even having sex kills them loll.

What I would have liked to know are the demographics of the Trisolarans. There's a quadrillion ants on Earth (a million billions!)... So... Loll

[ikenosis]

"They're bugs!"

This blew my mind. Quinn, I am so grateful for your work and exposing me to this book trilogy. All that I know of it is what you have progressively revealed, but I have learned of and been horrified by the Droplet, all the history of Earth in dealing with the menace and now to learn that they are tiny little beings the size of grains of rice, it feels wonderfully appropriately weird and just the kind of impossible that bears the mark of sincerity. I've been thinking on it all day. Thank you so much for the compelling ideas, I really value them! Godspeed, Quinn!

🌟

[stepfitz]

"Surviving and existing are very different from living and thriving." Today's my birthday and I swear this channel was the best present I got. So happy I discovered this! Thank you!

[ShadeNightwolf]

I find it interesting that the Trisolarans also sound much like another scifi race, but this time from anime. The Zentradi from Macross/Robotech were a race bred for one thing, war, to be soldiers. When they encounter the humans personally, they are shocked by men and women together, by love, by music, by culture. The Zentradi did not have a culture all their own.

[Greyinkling]

I'd recommend the zones of thought series. It explores more the idea of a society where thoughts and intelligence is a shared thing requiring multiple individuals, but in another way. The dog-like Tines require a pack of 3 to 6 individuals in order to make a singular full self aware person. So they have a culture built on the science of creating and cultivating minds by mixing and matching individual bodies within a group. However the twist on the usual hive mind concept is that they're only able to function with an optimal number. Too many and they become dumber, until they become something too incoherent to be a single mind.

[nelsinki]

For me The Listener Trisolarian and Da Shi are the best characters of the saga, they help to move the plot and are crucial to the events on their books.

[cmdrmiketv]

Loving more frequent videos and stuff about the 3 Body series.

[adamgroszkiewicz]

Probably the most epic scale science fiction ever written. I put the Three Body Problem series up there with Dune, Foundation, The Expanse, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, etc as a genre defining work of literature.

[brentstoughton]

I dont know what changed so that you can upload this much but im so glad it did. I have listened to everything at least 3 times. This stuff and dune stuff more than I'm willing to admit. Keep up the awesome content!

[brianstiles]

Just finished Death's End last night. What a gorgeously bleak tale of "deep time." It bears some similarity to John C Wright's "Eschaton Sequence." Like Da Liu's series, it follows three characters from a near Earth future, all the way to then end of time. It starts wild and over 7 books it never stops getting wilder.