The Most Horrifying Science Fiction Series of All | The Three-Body Problem Series

Intro hi guys it's me quinn and as always if you appreciate my content consider hitting the like button it's the only way the youtube algorithm really notices me recently i had the pleasure of reading what is likely the most terrifying science fiction book series i've ever read i've always enjoyed scary stories as a kid i read anthologies like goosebumps or scary stories to tell in the dark but i didn't know true fear until i encountered the works of stephen king and h.p lovecraft in my teenage years lovecraft's work opened up such terrifying vistas of thought that i would while reading them become transfixed and filled with ultimate existential dread the cosmic terrors he wrote about in his story struck me as somehow realer than the monsters and ghost of goosebumps and that is probably because lovecraft in truth being the flawed man he was was expressing a very simple fear the fear of the unknown and what is more unknown than the blackness of space i must admit that not since my early teenage years have i felt such poignant terror while reading as i did when first encountering the work of lovecraft that is until i read the remembrance of earth's past trilogy The ThreeBody Problem there are three books in this series the three-body problem the dark forest and death sinned there is also an additional book not written by sixteen law himself called redemption of time the first book in the series the three-body problem starts off as a mystery as the story unfolds it starts to feel as though we are reading the unfolding of some grand conspiracy a conspiracy written into the fabric of the universe itself early on in the story you find out that scientists around the world have been killing themselves a note left behind by one of the late scientists yandong ominously adds to the mysteries saying only all the evidence points to a single conclusion physics has never existed and will never exist i know what i'm doing is irresponsible but i have no choice we base so much of our own perception of what we consider to be reality on what we can observe we look upon the universe and extrapolate from that point but what if we will never be able to know the truth about the universe what if the universal constants are not constant what if the laws of physics are not laws what if reality isn't real before we get any further into the video i have to give a spoiler warning if you have not read this series i highly recommend you stop this video and do so if you've read the series or just don't care about spoilers then continue forth now we won't be getting into all of the details of this series but i will be giving context on why exactly i think it's so unnerving ultimately the secret of the first book is this we are not alone in the universe we are not alone in the milky way just four light years from our own solar system lives another species they have heard the call of earth from the vacuum of space and because their own world is unstable in a constant state of varying extremes due to the three-sun structure of their solar system they have chosen earth as their new home they intend to exterminate the human race like bugs though their technology is great due to the great distance of space it will take the aliens named the tricelerians 400 years to arrive on earth but in the meantime through technology involving quantum entanglement they were able to stifle the progress of human scientific development scientific theories based on humanity's current understanding of physics were rendered useless the tricelerians had led humankind into a trap and the trap had snapped closed leaving humanity as a helpless victim only capable of waiting until the predator arrived to claim its prey everything that humankind did was monitored in real time by the tricelerians as their fleet made its way from their home world to the world of earth nothing could be concealed from them save the thoughts hidden away within the individual human minds for a while the world struggles to adjust attempting to find solutions it was briefly considered that a portion of the human species might be sent off into the vacuum of space on generational ships escapism would have had three potential goals the first option would be finding a new world among the stars where humanity could survive this would have been the most ideal option the next option would be a starship civilization its citizens aboard an eternal voyage the third option would have been for humanity to take temporary refuge among the stars they would hope to return after trisolaris had settled in the solar system and attempt to co-exist with the aliens but escapism could never truly happen not because humanity's technology couldn't potentially reach the level sufficient enough to allow it but because human nature would prevent it from ever getting off the ground it is simply a matter of who is allowed to leave and who is condemned to face the wrath of the tricelerians on earth no matter who got to leave whether they be elite or poor humankind's fundamental value system would ultimately collapse for the idea of equality would be utterly shattered human rights and equality have deep roots inequality of survival is the worst sort of inequality and the people and countries left behind will never just sit and wait for death while others have a way out there will be increasingly extreme confrontations between the two sides until there's world chaos and then no one goes the united nations realizing this simple fact overwhelmingly voted to ban escapism instead choosing to focus on what they could do from earth to thwart the tricelerians including the formation of a space force even with everything the world leaders attempted in order to maintain stability eventually society did collapse in an apocalyptic testing event known as the great ravine during the great ravine the space force was brought to the brink of collapse inflation skyrocketed credit systems unraveled it started with the slow economic transformation that often accompanied wartime the standard of living declined and the political climate grew more and more intense but instead of it just being one or a few countries it was the entire earth society was on edge and if you said something wrong they would say your eto or a traitor to humanity so nobody felt safe and film and television from the golden age began to be restricted and then was banned worldwide but eventually things got even worse humanity began to starve climate change had already been greatly accelerated with the coming of the tricelerian crisis humanity grew pessimistic even if they saved the earth made it into eden come again it would be an eden for the tricelerians not them only the space force was given thought and its continued development only further polluted the earth so climate change accelerated the environment changed the temperature raised forest and plains became desert the process of desertification had not been subtle or gradual the green of the earth had eroded simultaneously like a damp towel left out to dry in the sun food production halted for there was no grain being grown and for the next 50 years the planet was famished the population of the earth decreased by five billion during those years all while the triceleran fleet marched on steadily one of the most intriguing things about these books mainly the second book the dark forest is how they show the effect that the imminent tricelerin invasion has on humanity before the aliens even arrive within the solar system initially many people denied that the invasion was truly real once the truth became widely accepted a sense of dread crept over all mankind religions had to change to make way for the existence of extraterrestrials humanity could no longer hide behind the comforting fantasy of our own uniqueness we were not unique we were one of the potentially endless civilizations out there in the The Dark Forest dark the scariest part of this book series in my opinion is also in the second book the dark forest in this book we begin to unravel the truth about the state of life in the universe the book calls us to consider cosmic sociology if you supposed that a vast amount of civilizations were distributed throughout the universe based on the number of detectable stars those civilizations would make up the body of cosmic sociology cosmic sociology is based on two axioms first survival is the primary need of civilization second civilization continuously grows and expands but the total number of matter in the universe remains constant these two axioms are all that is needed to extrapolate the ultimate horrifying truth about cosmic society it is a secret that the tricelerians themselves knew and called the most important secret in the universe it was the secret that the universe itself was a dark forest the universe is a dark forest every civilization an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound even breathing is done with care the hunter has to be careful because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him if he finds other life another hunter an angel or demon a delicate infant or tottering old man a fairy or demigod there is only one thing he can do open fire and eliminate them in this forest hell is other people an eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out this is the picture of cosmic civilization it's the explanation for the fermi paradox the famous fermi paradox of course brings up the quandary if based on what we know about the universe it should be full of life then where is said life why is the universe seemingly silent this series provides a single terrifying answer we don't see them because they are hiding like all life on earth life in the universe must compete to survive it is a cruel fact about the nature of life itself if the location of a world is revealed it is marked in a way a metaphorical spotlight is shown upon it a blinking sign stating there is intelligent life here destroy it before it destroys you eventually the mark will be noticed it is only a matter of time it doesn't matter what motivated someone to leave the mark what's important is that the dead hand has stretched the nerves of the dark force to the breaking point and it's the most sensitive nerve that's most liable to make a move suppose there are a million hunters in the forest the number of civilizations on the billions upon billions of stars in the milky way could be thousands of times that perhaps nine hundred thousand of them will disregard the marking of the remaining 100 000 maybe 99 000 of them will probe the location and after confirming that it has no life disregarded but one of the remaining ten thousand hunters will surely make the choice to fire on that position because for civilizations at a certain level of technological development attacking may be safer and less of a hassle than probing if there's really nothing at that location then there's no loss the idea that the universe could be a dark forest strikes fear into my very core humans have always seemed to be fascinated with the idea of extraterrestrial life making contact for more than a hundred years we have blasted the sky with signals sending pieces of our world out unto the cosmos in the form of waves never thinking about exactly who might be listening though humans have revealed themselves to the tricelerics who only wanted to colonize the earth for themselves there were things far worse and far more powerful than the tricelerins ancient civilizations were shielded in the dark and armed with the power to rip apart dimensions another fascinating and also quite troubling concept sixth and low forces us to consider in his books is the potential effect that life has had upon the universe itself without life the earth would be a different plant there would be no oceans no rivers the entire surface of the planet would be as dry as mars life is not some tiny shell clinging to the surface of the world fragile waiting to be snuffed out in an instant life with the aid of time is powerful enough to move mountains and without life it is very possible that by what we now consider to be the modern era liquid water would not exist on planet earth plants animals and bacteria all have had important roles in the present composition of our atmosphere without life the atmosphere would be very different it's possible that such an atmosphere would not be able to shield the surface of the earth against solar winds and ultraviolet rays and the oceans would evaporate soon greenhouse effects would turn the earth's atmosphere into a copy of venuses and then water vapor would be lost to space over time after several billion years the earth would be dry the earth that we and all other life on this planet inhabit is ultimately a home constructed by life for itself if we take this idea and apply it to the universe itself then this thought occurs if life has had such a drastic effect on the earth then what effect has life as a whole had on the universe itself and what would the universe look like without life if life was exceedingly rare in the universe its impact on the evolution of the cosmos could be ignored but if the universe was in fact teeming with life as the famous drake equation suggests then a terrifying question arises how much has the universe from its original state been altered by life is the nature that we experience natural at all a terrifying revelation comes near the end of the final book in the series death sinned the universe had once been 10 dimensional a state of perfection but due to the destructive nature of life itself those dimensions have collapsed and the universe will continue to collapse until only a single dimension remained countless ancient civilizations potentially possessed the capability of initiating dimension collapses in parts of the universe it was one of the methods that hunters in the dark forest used to eliminate other intelligent species the problem was that once a dimension strike occurred it never ended the universe itself was dying drying up in patchwork formation as the earth had done during the great ravine the endless cosmic darkness that we saw as the universe today had been the result of the endless battles of the dark forest and we as humans would never know the true beauty and perfection of the original cosmos cryogenics aside from pure existential dread this series has so many great science fiction ideas that i just love such as the idea of cryogenics the philosophy behind frozen people being willing to freeze themselves in the present in order to wake up in the future is based on a very human but often not true assumption that the future will somehow be better than now many of the characters throughout this book series experience being frozen and unthawed in a different era i find it fascinating to read about how someone from a specific era interacts with the world and the people of a new era this idea is also at the heart of one of my all-time favorite science fiction shows the light-hearted animation show futurama whose main character after being frozen for a thousand years wakes up in the year 3000 and has to deal with the fact that not only is he living in a world completely alien to him but also everyone that he's ever known is dead six and lo's use of the concept of this helped to illustrate the idea that humans are humans even when coming from a different era long view sixth inlaw throughout this series also explores the concept of the long view of history he explores how certain events and figures throughout human history evolve in the way they are perceived by humanity men become gods gods become devils heroes become villains and vice versa we see this mainly with the characters luogi and changzin as their stories progress throughout the centuries and also the inhabitants of the ships blue space and gravity who at certain point in history considered to be the enemies of all mankind and at other points take on near mythic proportions in the mind of some humans all due to the varying perspectives created by the different vantage points of time on the whole humanity seems to possess fleeting short-term memories and ideas that aren't constantly reinforced instantly fade away in the midst of time this is the reason that humanity seems to constantly repeat its old mistakes we as a species simply forget pessimistic view some would say that sixth in lewis trilogy is a quite pessimistic one and i have to agree to an extent sixteen look does seem to present a pretty pessimistic view of human nature as a whole though certain individuals can sometimes come up with solutions that could potentially help the human entity as a whole for some reason resist it is easy to see the tricelerin crisis in particular as a metaphor for climate change destruction is imminent perhaps distant but certain and it's likely that modern humans won't be affected nearly as much as the generations to come after can humankind come together to stop this crisis and ensure the survival of its future generations one of the most interesting parts of the series is when we get to see how the various governments cooperate when it comes to dealing with the crisis in the beginning at some point the book mentions that there was a push for socialized technology which would have given the human race as a whole a greatly increased chance of survival the major world powers flat out rejected this notion because they believed it would weaken them not even the sure threat of alien annihilation was enough to force the world to cooperate the us government said that no form of socialized technology was realistic that it was a naive idea and that under the present circumstances u.s national security was a priority second only to planetary defense humanity i would say that humankind as a whole is depicted as being rather selfish in this series and many times we see how the species cannibalizes itself humanity is often its own greatest hindrance the books are not all pessimism however the final book in the series that sin does in fact end with certain optimistic undertones by highlighting the endurance of the human race and its spirit sixth and look combines philosophy science and pure horror to create what is honestly one of the best science fiction book series i've ever read the series is endlessly bold and unpredictable even the spoilers i've mentioned in this video barely begin to get to the place where these books eventually go the third book death sin gets more into the idea of the interdimensionality of the universe which is endlessly intriguing and quite trippy actually conclusion the series feels boundless in a way that a lot of other books just don't the questions about humanity about the universe that are brought up in this series are questions that i've been pondering since i read it a few months ago the books aren't scary in the traditional sense but the it explores are chilling to the bone the remembrance of earth's past is science fiction at its best and i hope to cover more of the series and explore some of its other concepts in future videos thanks so much for watching guys [Music] you