Four-body problem

    So, I haven't done any blog posts, and the blog era is like... maybe one generation behind. On the contrary, I have been watching so much cinema and talk about it that I could have filled lots of podcast episodes. For now, though, I will stick to blogging. It doesn't matter because noone was reading this blog back in the days either. 😆

    I, like most people following the trends, recently came across the '3 Body Problem' 2024 NETFLIX series. To be honest, I didn't watch it immediatelly. Instead, I went for something more original, and that is the 'Three-body' Chinese 2022 version. I ended up watching both, being a bit behind on the Chinese one, since it has aired more episodes. I am now in the 18th episode, while having watched all of the NETFLIX version, and already have so much to say.

    First of all, the Chinese version is way milder than the American. There is no blood! It has the mood of an adventure game, maybe something from the previous, romantic generation like me. The NETFLIX version, however, is exactly on the other end. Even showing merciless killing of children which totally shocked me. Note this is not the first time I see children being killed on screen and the first time I saw it I immediatelly said - oh! we reached THAT stage in filmography. But, let's admit it. It is happening right now. One of the rare times in history that war is not about the soldier, but the innocent. And one of those times that it is normal to see children being cut in pieces on screen in a series that is not even known for that, but instead, for how amazing the female scientists are and drawing the admiration of the people watching it. Yes, that is the times we go through. The times that we made a whole movie about the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima, without the deaths being the central part of the theme, but instead, the personal and relationship drama of the scientist that was involved (Oppenheimer). 

    I wonder when we arrived there as human race. Did we all axhausted our shock limits when we saw "Irreversible"? Or was it then that people being easily shocked stopped watching cinema?

    Now that we've let that sink in, let's move to the more important things for you gen Z's, less important things for us millenials: the science. Honestly, if you are a space engineer like me (not true, I just did a course in my MSc) you will know that since we have three suns, this should be a four-body problem just to include this planet that the game takes place. If you are a Physicist, then the answer is to just ignore the mass of this planet if it is sufficiently small. Then, you are left with trying to predict the movement of just the three suns (hence three-body problem). Taking this into account, this series (and probably the book behind it) is one of the more honest sci-fi works, which shows that it took some research to write - unlike many sci-fi films that are just trying to fry your brain. 

Honestly, now, who are modern sci-fi works addressing to? Because, back in the day (Star Wars) it was geeks, technicians, scientists, that sort of people. Are they now addressing to a wider public to make more money? I'm not sure. In my head, these type of proffessions are kind of mainstream. Or is it maybe my nightmare becoming reality, that we researchers don't have a clue what is happening beyond the narrow margins of our own subfield? Or is this the reality and I am just dreaming that scientists are some kind of enlightened creatures that can talk with ease about all sorts of subjects? If that is the case, I don't want to wake up!

    For other misunderstandings or inaccuracies in the series it's best to consult with an astrophycist (unfortunatelly only in Greek this one):

Now let's move on to the less important things for gen Z's, more important for the philosopher millenials: what is the 'deeper meaning' of this series, as per the original book - which I have not read, but will it;s the same assume anyway.

1) What do aliens represent to you?

    There has been some time now (maybe a year or two), that aliens came back in fashion. Various articles pop up in mainstream journals either related to work that secret services did in the past to come in contact with them, or whatever you can think of. My Google search right now returns this Daily Mail article titled "Have people really been 'killed by aliens?' Expert weighs in on fatalities linked to UFOs" as the most recent one. If you ask me, I'd say journals are doing everything they can to invent important subjects to write for, but the ones that are really important. Truth is ...aliens is a catchy subject. The fact that there is no real, widely acceptable proof of their existance leaves so much in our imagination and provokes many feelings. 

    I think it is important for someone to understand what aliens represent for them. One nice vlog (below) talks about how our perception and expectations of the behaviour of aliens is influenced by our core beliefs and values. So, to paraphrase a bit, if you think that intelligence comes hand in hand with expansion and dominance, then that's probably how you see things here on earth too. If you think that aliens are there but do not have the technology to contact us, and if we ever came across each other in the universe we'll just hug and kiss like Greeks do outside Greece, then well... you're probably Greek.

2) Aliens are God

    Neat. Now that you have paused a bit and thought about how are aliens in your head (or not), let's go back to the series. Here, there is an obvious metaphor. The aliens take the place of God (humans keep calling them so). They are THERE, up in the sky, haven't arrived yet, but we know that they will, in 400 years (remember the story about apocalypsis?). We know that they are coming to place their power upon us. That's what they said. They are more powerful than us - or maybe not - but we certainly feel weak in comparison to them. We are under their influence, evem though they are not here yet. They choose what we see and what we don't (visions, weather, everything is the choice of God, God is testing us). With one quick look, we would say that they are a wicked version of God. One that some religions see: God is the one who punishes us for our sins. He can send us to hell. 

    What does God want from us? For us to behave good, but most important of all to not make the mistake to believe that we are stronger than him. To not try to outsmart him or reach him in the skies (remember the story about Babel?). Remember our place and keep it.

    With a second look, we realise that what the aliens do to humans is a joke compared to what humans do between them to survive. They are sheep compared to humans. All they want is for us to always be truthfull to them, to not lie or try to 'eat' them, like the wolf did for little red-riding-hood's grandma. But humans? 

    Humans kill humans that believe in this new menace. They continue to overuse earth's resources. Not take any measures against over-exploitation, do not respect anything. Lie and compete. Overstep ethical boundaries.

    Here, the Chinese version is more detailed, raising many philosohical questions. The alien believers are separated in different groups, depending on what they think humanity deserves. Does it deserve to be annihilated? saved? or whatever, as long as they survive?

    One detail is common in both storylines: The one who starts all this is... a woman! Yes, that's it. She is Eve. She sees a message one day and is asked to not reply (NETFLIX version). After contemplation, and in a kind of depressive state, she takes the forbidden fruit. Now, there is two ways that you can see this: 1) Either that it is easier to forgive a woman for doing this as they are considered by many societies until today the 'weak' sex and they need protection. Or 2) that they are the strong sex, while a man would maybe be scared to act independently, and possibly take it to their superior. I guess this closes the triangle of women stories in the plot of this version, which is also the selling point: One woman succumbing to the greediness of making technological advances and paying the price, one trying to help humanity with her engineering ideas, and one becoming the top leader of the alien-loving cults on earth. 

3) Are the aliens lying? (NETFLIX version)

    So, we think that the aliens were honest from the begining 

"Please do not send a message on this line again. You are lucky you fell onto me. The others will see it differently. If they see your message, they will come to your planet and conquer it". 

    We assume that had Eve not send the second message, it would have ended there. 

    Now, we move on to the time where the aliens are coming. On the radio, they communicate with the male human leader. On the other side is a female voice. Don't you find it very convenient in terms of trust if an angelic female voice is on? A sort of a motherly figure. The same for the narrator in the computer game. A young woman, kind, but sure of herself, something that inspires trust and safety. 

    When asked why we don't see the real you in the game, they reply like they were already prepared the answer to this question (kind of me during my job interviews, except the opposite): 'You would not like it'. ... Really? So you are doing this to protect us? I don't buy it. We all know it's about trust. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe they are very scared of humans from the start, and they want to show them that they come in peace. So, they show them a calm, self-assured, beautiful woman just in case that an ugly, rude aliens gives the illusion of aggressiveness.

    And that is exactly where everything is so delicately interwoven. The answer comes like a breath of fresh air. They don't make it like they used to, do they? What is the answer? Fear! You see, the aliens are not like humans. Or so they say. They don't lie between each other, or they have some special lie detector, or they can just read thoughts (as per the exaplanation of the human cult leader). Humans, on the other hand, lie and deceipt, without fear. The human leader believes that we owe our survival to our tendency to follow fearless individuals, even when we don't know what they are thinking exactly. Aliens, on the other hand, believe that races survive by listening to their fears, because, 'a lack of fear leads to extinction'. Neat, huh?

    Now, slowly the story unfolds with the aliens realising that humans lie, there is no way to know what they are thinking, they can no longer trust them and they end the communication forever with the punch line 'We fear you'. Now the aliens start intercepting science experiments and all human observations, to stall their evolution.

    One neat detail in the Chinese version is that the myth of Babel comes up again. Lying and deceiving in humans (says the NETFLIX version) was an evolution that took place in temrs of their predecessors, whose emotions were all connected and they could feel each other. The fact that humans need language to communicate, and even more so (after Babel) they speak different languages, only added to the tension and lies between nations.  

4) What do the aliens look like?

    So, we previously passed through the point where the aliens state 'you would not like our real appearence', so let's try to explain it. Was it really a trick to make humans trust them? Was it all pre-calculated? Were they looking for some silly reason to stop communicating with the cult after they got the earth's coordinates, but at the same time not make it look like it's their fault? Am I so far into conspiracy theory type of thinking? Do we live in a simulation inside a simulation? Did I leave the iron on?

    Ehm... it turns out (spoilers on spoilers) the aliens are really scared of humans. And this is explained by the appearence of the aliens. They are actually... bugs! (as per the spin-off book that followed the 3body saga). They are tiny organisms that are very intelligent but primate in nature, which is explained (or not) by the many cycles of rejuvenation that their civilization goes through after their planet is destroyed.  They can also 'dehydrate' to save the seed of their species. They can also 'magically' communicate without language like our prehistoric ancestor organisms.

    OK, that explains many things! For example, the phrase 'You will not like our appearence' is more like that of one of my ex's 'I would make a relationship with you, but I will not, because you will not like me'. That is, it is more out of insecurity than anything else, so as humans don't lose the respect they have for the aliens.

    The message 'YOU ARE BUGS' which bugged me for a while, because I did not know if they were referring to the computer bugs or the real bugs... it's now clear it's the second. They are kind of projecting how they fear humans will see them if they find out how they look like. Because they do look like bugs. This projection is like the other phrase I heard from another ex 'I don't want you to get to know me, because you will fall in love with me, and I will hurt you'. Ah, no, that was the same person.

5) Propaganda

    So, that's all folks. Huh? What's that you say? I didn't mention that last point, the elephant in the room? Yeah, both versions have some sort of political propaganda. The US is making a superficial story about how violent the Communist Chinese regime is, while the Chinese side (are we sure this is a Chinese production and not Taiwanese?) is preparing the grounds for l'amour de Capitalism with a dystopian-totalitarian type of Communism that resembles a lot the US vision of it. Nothing new, almost boring. It's a shame, though, because if none of the two series goes any deeper than that, they are missing a huge opportunity to round up everything (with the overexploitation and wrong use of scientific advances) and make the plot the most complete of all times.

    

    If you have reached until here in the article, do not leave a comment below, so that if I don't see any comments, I will know that everyone on this planet read it... (ok, bad joke). 

    See you on the next one!