An amazing read, on a scale of unimaginable creation. The novel flips from reality, virtual reality, then across the Universe to another planet. It reflects not only on the history of China, but of Earth’s scientific progress. And then, the most mind-blowing; Cixin Liu walks us through the gate of future scientific breakthroughs – the ultimate goal of manipulating matter through hidden dimensions. The failed attempts of this experiment conducted by the alien race are magnificent, haunting, and tests what we think we know of reality. The abstract images of higher dimensions, seen only as a cross section within our limited three dimensions (or four if we allow for time), has made me appreciate the physicality, the definite walls of time and space, to which I can belong to here and now. Everything is still tangible. There are directions we understand: towards North, towards progressive, towards compassion. In higher dimensions, the mind must be bent the furthest we have ever pushed it to. What would our direction be if it proves that time wraps around us?
It is Cixin Liu’s message, concluded after much meditation and imagination, that science must evolve alongside art. Scientific progress for the sake of survival leaves nothing but dried bones in a sterile history. The result is a race without compassion. Only within a society that values artistic expression are we able to see Time and its effect on our insignificant hearts, making reality tangible, and therefore, significant, once again.
There are several scenes that will stay with me:
The human computer comprised of Emperor Qin’s 30 million army. The phalanx and their flags flashing like 0s and 1s, working as a computer network. Every comp-sci class should have this chapter on their syllabus.
The ship, Judgement Day, going through the Panama Canal and into a net of invisible nano-blades. It was gut wrenching. There was a sensational realism I experienced while reading, like I was in a VR, much like the one in the book.
The failed experiments conducted in Trisolars, of unfolding matter into lesser dimensions. The two-dimensional thin and infinite line that reflects light, distorting the air. The three-dimensional shapes with trapped the eyes of a microscopic universe. It was a beautiful nightmare.
And, of course, the character Da Shi, who maybe a favourite next to Jubal from A Stranger in a Strange Land. (I might have a literary character type: the gruff realist…)
“But she was a woman. A woman should be like water, able to flow over and around anything.”
“Is it possible that the relationship between humanity and evil is similar to the relationship between the ocean and an iceberg floating on its surface? Both the ocean and the iceberg are made of the same material. That the iceberg seems separate is only because it is in a different form. In reality, it is but a part of the vast ocean….”
“Qin Shi Huang lifted the sword to the sky, and shouted: “Computer Formation!” Four giant bronze cauldrons at the corners of the platform came to life simultaneously with roaring flames. A group of soldiers standing on the sloping side of the pyramid facing the phalanx chanted in unison: “Computer Formation!” On the ground below, colors in the phalanx began to shift and move. Complicated and detailed circuit patterns appeared and gradually filled the entire formation. Ten minutes later, the army had made a thirty-six kilometre square computer motherboard.”
JohannaAirth 