Three bodies

If alien civilizations exist, is there a common moral code in the universe?In a small way, this is a question that science fiction fans are very interested in; in a big way, it may be related to the survival of human civilization.

Domestic science fiction writers in the 80s tended to answer in the affirmative. In science fiction at that time, aliens all appeared with benevolent images, guiding the lost group of human beings with the kindness and tolerance of a heavenly father. lamb.In Jin Tao's "Moonlight Island", aliens soothe the wounded hearts of human beings; in Tong Enzheng's "Distant Love", the love between humans and aliens is poignant and magnificent; in Zheng Wenguang's "Earth Mirror Image", human morality is low, It even scares away alien civilizations whose technical level is several orders of magnitude higher but has a bodhisattva heart!
However, the saying that "at the beginning of human beings, nature is good" is very suspicious in the human world, and it is even more impossible to put it in the universe.

To answer the question of cosmic morality, only through scientific rational thinking can people be convincing.Here we can naturally think that the evolution history of various civilizations in the human world can be compared with the great civilization system of the universe, but the study of the former is also very difficult, and there are too many factors that cannot be quantified.In contrast, the research on the relationship between civilizations in the universe may be more quantitative and mathematical, because the long distance between the stars makes each civilization dotted, just like watching football in the last row of the stadium, the players themselves The complex technical movements of the game have been hidden by the distance, and what appears on the field is only a constantly changing matrix composed of 23 points (there is a special point is the ball, and only football games in ball games have such a clear mathematical structure. It may also be one of the charms of the sport).

I used to be caught in this kind of thinking game of cosmic civilization dotted. In the early 90s of last century, to pass the time, I often compiled some boring but self-consciously interesting software. The electronic poets that are now popular on the Internet are the products of that time.At that time, I also compiled a simulation software for the overall state of the point-like civilization system in the universe, simplifying the intelligent civilization in the universe into points, each point has only a dozen simple parameters describing the basic characteristics of the civilization, and then the civilization's The quantity is set to be very large, and the overall evolution process of the system is simulated in the software.To this end, I consulted a respectable scholar who studies power grid theory and is an expert in establishing mathematical models. He is not a fan of science fiction but is also a fan. He corrected my model that was full of errors.At one time when the software was running the most, 30 civilizations were set within a radius of 286 light-years. This program compiled in TUBO C, which seems very simple now, ran on the [-] machine for several hours, and the result was very interesting.Of course, I’m just an engineer, and I’m not capable of conducting research of this level. Whether it is correct or not, the evolutionary picture of point-like civilizations in the universe displayed is hard to imagine out of thin air.

I think it is entirely possible for a universe civilization with zero morality to exist. How can a moral human civilization survive in such a universe?This is the original intention of my writing "Once Upon a Time on Earth".

Of course, "The Three-Body Problem" did not reveal the picture of the cosmic civilization, and the two major civilizations themselves did not realize this picture, but only unveiled a corner of its veil.For example, since the stars closest to us have intelligent civilizations, the universe must be very crowded, but why does it look so empty?I hope to have the opportunity to continue the description in the second part of "Once Upon a Time on Earth".

The picture that will gradually unfold in "Once Upon a Time on Earth" will definitely make readers who are in awe of morality uncomfortable, but it is just science fiction and does not need to be taken seriously. :)

From the serialization of "The Three-Body Problem", it is somewhat surprising that domestic science fiction readers like science fiction novels that describe the ultimate picture of the universe.I came from the upsurge of science fiction in the 80s. I personally think that the writers at that time created a real Chinese-style science fiction that has never appeared on a large scale. The most prominent feature of this kind of science fiction is complete technical details. Metaphysical shadows.But now science fiction fans have opened their eyes and embraced the entire universe with their thoughts.This also puts forward higher requirements for science fiction authors. It is a pity that "Three-Body Problem" is not such an "ultimate science fiction novel".It is very difficult to create a sci-fi like "2001: A Space Odyssey", especially a long novel. It is easy to become a bunch of empty shelves without the vividness of the novel, the correctness of popular science, and the rigor of the text. I have no confidence in this .

Oh, this imaginary series is called "Once Upon a Time on Earth". It doesn't mean much. The difference between science fiction and other fantasy literature is that it still has a thin line with reality, which makes it a modern myth rather than a fairy tale ( The ancient myth was true in the minds of the readers of the time).So I have always believed that good-looking science fiction should write the most ethereal and craziest imaginations as real as news reports.Memories of the past are always real, and I hope to write novels like historians' true narration of the past, but whether it can be done is another matter.

The tentative title of the next part of "Once Upon a Time on Earth" is "Dark Forest", which is taken from a popular saying in the 80s: "The city is the forest, every man is a hunter, and every woman is a trap."

Oh, and the last thing to say is of course the most important: Thank you everyone!