Finished listening to Three Body Problem.
Von Neuman Human Formation Computer was one bit that I found funny. The idea that if you had infinitely organized civilization, like ants, you could build a “computer” from all of them.
Other than that, I found the story to be quite boring. The premise seems to be interesting: imagine Mayans discover that Spanish are headed their way, a civilization that is much more powerful than they are. What would they do? Some would resist, futilely. Others would welcome them, in hopes that a higher civilization would help fix the flaw of their civilization. And maybe some even would think that their civilization is not worth saving. Now replace Mayans with humans, and Spanish with that alien race and you got the second part of the book.
The story takes another turn to the weird with nine-dimensional-proton arc. Ironically, the idea of higher-dimensional being is not new. No other than Lovecraft was exploring it some hundred years ago. Maybe this is novel to someone, though.
Since the author is Chinese, all the main characters are Chinese as well. Besides the guy that wants aliens to destroy everyone. He’s an American, obviously.
Another nice bit is cutting a tanker with a nanowire. Because it ties up nicely with a joke made at the very beginning of the book.
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