The Three-Body Problem – Liu Cixin – Episode 90

The Buddies are jumping deep into the science fiction world again this week reading, The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (also a new series on Netflix)! Emphasis must be placed on the science part of this science fiction novel as the Buddies struggled to grasp everything that went on in this one. They had 99 problems and the Three-Body Problem was one of them… Anyway, they got to talking about the benefits of leaving your family in favor of drinking and playing video games, and why Superman (shouts to the Lois & Clark tv show), had it right all-along. So, get your physics textbook ready, learn to love ‘sophons’, and join us as we navigate our way through the Three-Body Problem.

Intro/Book Report (0:00-3:23)
Stock Up/Down (3:24-29:39)
Favorite Scene/Character (29:40-33:20)
Love/Hate (33:21-46:04)
TV Show/Conclusion (46:05-51:31)

NEXT BOOK: The Art Thief by Michael Finkel

Transcript for SEO purposes 🙂

All right.
Welcome by book.
I’m Dylan here with my one body problem.
Keith, what’s up, buddy?
Hello, comrade Dylan.
Here at the buddy book, we’re breaking down some best sellers.
And this week we’ll be discussing the three body problem by Lucian.
Lucian.
All right.
Looked it up.
I think it’s Liu.
Liu.
Yeah, that’s a shame.
I wrote a demonstration.
Yeah.
So I don’t know if that’s right or not.
Okay, cool.
Hey, we’re trying.
Honestly, we’re trying.
Yeah.
And then character’s names are not going to be our thing in this one.
If you’d like to recommend a book for us to read or reject us for many past episodes,
you can visit our website, buddybookup.com or sign to our DMs on Twitter or Instagram,
buddy book up podcast.
You can list us on iTunes, Spotify.
So please download and subscribe.
The three body problem, 4.09 on Goodreads and a Hugo award winner.
We love Hugo award winners.
I look at the Hugo award and I think I’ve said this on previous ponds as like the special
effects Oscar.
If you look back at all the special effects Oscars, they’re all just great movies.
It’s better than best picture.
If you’re wondering, hey, what movie should I watch?
Go to the special effects and check those out, especially if you like sci-fi either way.
We’re not here to discuss that.
We’re here to discuss the three body problem.
Keith, I did provide a book report for you.
If you’d like me to jump into that.
Oh, yes.
I want to know what this book is about.
I’m not sure this will help, but thank you.
Thank you.
Standing in front of the class.
The three body problem is a science fiction novel that puts the focus on science.
Like the monster book of monsters in Harry Potter, this book should also have a secret
way of opening it to see if you’re worthy of reading it.
In this case, you need to solve whatever equation Matt Damon solved in Goodwill Hunting to be
authorized to continue onward.
Alas, there was no test.
I was not barred from entry and was allowed to ride on the twisting and turning roads
that is the three body problem.
What did I glean from my journey?
I learned that it’s not just Activision that can invest heavily into a video game, but
still make it boring.
I learned that although you may lose faith in humanity, inviting some unknown species
to come conquer your world is probably not the best course of action.
And I learned that when you write yourself into a corner by presenting unbelievable and
inexplainable things into your story, just invent something even more unbelievable and
inexplainable, but then spend 20 pages explaining it so that readers are confused and just want
to move on from the whole thing.
I hope you’re reading this Damon Lindelof.
That’s the guy who created Lost.
In closing, cults are bad, even alien cults.
Thank you.
Wow, that was very very well done.
The first half I was like, I don’t know if he’s got it.
The second half you kind of really brought it home.
I’m going to give that an A minus.
Oh, really?
Yeah, I think that was very, very good.
You didn’t like the first half of the monster book of monsters.
You don’t want to tickle the spine so that it would let you in.
I don’t know what spines you’ve been tickling these days, but okay.
When Hagrid introduced the book to care of magical creatures and it would bite you unless
you tickled it’s fine.
Whatever.
You’re talking about some Hagrid what?
You’ve tickled their spine and what happened?
Sorry.
Anyways, all right.
Do you feel like you at this point have a good grasp of what happened in the book?
Do we need a quick.
I just read the whole Wikipedia page.
You probably feel pretty good about it now.
A little bit better.
Yeah.
I read the wiki page today and it was hard to read too.
It was a long read.
I was like, this all happened without further a Dua.
Let’s jump into some stock up stock down Keith stock up.
What do you got?
Stock up drinking alcohol.
Oh, hey, maybe throw a smoking cigar in there as well as a stock up, but if this book
taught us anything really, it’s just that you’re having problems in life.
You just hit the bottle.
That’s really what you got to do.
You got to get out of your own head sometimes.
You just go out drinking with some random cop.
That’s the keys.
If you’re at a dead end job, have a night out.
You think you’re a worthless podcaster.
Throw a couple of grand puzzle cop medicines back.
You’re seeing time counting down in your eyes and those in photos get looped up, you know,
just fucking go out there and have a good time and it’ll all resolve itself, which is
basically what we found out in this book.
And I wish at points I was drinking in this book.
So I was very confused and that would at least help me there.
I think that this is one of the few books that didn’t translate well to audio book.
I think one because of the names, mostly because when you’re reading a name, you at least identify
that name and so then you can identify with that character.
When someone’s saying it to you, it’s much harder to then remember, wait, who is that
person?
Exactly what I said for a show gun and you were gave me shit for that, but okay.
Well, yeah, a show gun was so different.
A show gun doesn’t count.
Yeah.
This one, the names hurt me a little bit.
I found it tough to fall.
I was like, wait, exactly who is this person?
So I needed a couple of drinks myself.
My first stock up is using video games as a recruitment tool.
Oh, nice.
The ETO, which is the Earth Trisolaris organization, they created the three body game to recruit
new members to their cause.
And it’s a pretty ingenious idea by them.
You pretty much can flesh out the people that you don’t want in just like right off the
bat.
Most people, you or I would start that game be like, nope, not interested.
But some crazy physicists would start it and be like, oh, this is, this could be interesting.
What’s going on?
But we could take this further into our world.
I mean, we got Call of Duty.
Just do that for your next soldiers.
You know, maybe tweak the game a little bit to make it more realistic.
I’m sure there are more realistic games.
I don’t mean realistic in that you’re like murdering people, but hey, maybe, maybe you
need the taste of blood to get going.
I don’t know.
But flight simulators for the next drone pilots, that seems like just a no brainer.
What I understand, they’ve adapted those controls to be like an Xbox controller or even some
other stuff that military personnel use on the ground, like the bomb robots and stuff
like that have video game type controllers because people are used to video games.
But I feel like you just do this with a lot of different things.
America’s army.
That’s a game that’s made by the army.
Oh, really?
Like 2009, it was like first person shooter, I think.
I mean, they already have like flight simulators where a pilot, my stepfather is a pilot and
when he, he has to train, he just goes in the simulator, which is just a super legit
video game realistically.
So why not do the same thing for bomb disposal guys?
And especially if you have these like haptic suits, you’re really feeling everything.
I’m sure the stress would be real if you’re in one of those haptic suits, especially if
you could then say that you’re doing the bomb detonation stuff like, you know, have some
sort of pain or something to be like, Oh, shit, bomb, bomb exploded.
So so yeah, using video games recruitment tool.
Good job by ETO here.
Yeah.
And I also had playing video games as a stock up, but I think you’re missing a one key element.
The key is similar to alcohol is if you’re having a tough time, don’t actually solve
the problems, don’t do anything around that.
Jump into a video games and drinking, which, you know, I’ve partaken in both.
But the funny thing was when we get introduced to a wings family and his wife, I think he
is like one or two kids and we get interested in for maybe two minutes.
And all we hear is this wife being like, I feel really worried about you.
And she’s like crying and he leaves.
That’s the last time we see these for us.
The book he’s playing video games, meeting up with terrorists organizations.
He’s drinking and he’s going to Panama.
I don’t think we ever ever hear it from her again.
She used to be like, what the fuck is going to do?
Don’t know.
Doesn’t have his dad anymore.
Don’t know.
It’s like, where’s my dad?
Where did my dad go?
So the other thing I was thinking about too is that video games is a recruitment tool.
I was almost a stock down to the opposite of yours.
But have you seen the people that are playing video games these days?
People streaming, teabagging, teabagging.
Oh, like when you used to do that on Halo, like you squat on someone’s face.
Yeah.
So you know, see that you’re the person I’m talking about.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just remember that was a thing.
People get really upset about that stuff.
I never let any of that stuff affect me.
It’s funny.
People like our buddy Magic get really upset in video games.
I love that stuff.
It makes me happy.
Like if you’re having fun, like what are we doing here?
The boring video game that you referenced in the book thing, where was like, there were
a couple of GTA cars in the desert so we can, or buggies so we can drive around.
The world’s walking for like simulated like 50 hours.
What?
Yeah.
What kind of game is this?
This is fucking terrible.
It’s so boring.
Yeah.
Who would continue playing that game?
No, no.
I guess that’s why it’s a good recruitment tool.
I had science fiction as opposed to just regular old fiction.
I feel like we read a decent amount of science fiction.
I’m a big sci-fi guy in general.
I didn’t really know there was like subgenres.
There usually is with fantasy you got high fantasy and you got sword and sandal and we
got dark fantasy.
I’ll different things like that.
This is something that is like hard science fiction emphasis on hard science because it’s
rooted in actual scientific things that happen.
Real physics and whatnot.
The book is called Three Body Problem which is an orbital mechanical problem that is supposedly
unsolvable.
I had to basically predict the orbits of three bodies that are connected to one another or
whatever the case is like we had to deal with in the entire video game which took up half
the book.
We got nanotechnology in this.
We got quantum mechanics, quantum entanglement, multi-dimensional planes in a previous pod
and a movie that we both love.
I think interstellar we talked about the fourth dimension.
We’re talking about eleven dimensions here.
I had a hard enough time even trying to conceptualize four dimensions and obviously you can’t even
conceptualize it but just trying to understand some sort of words around it that the guy
just throws out eleven dimensions and I’m like okay I don’t know sure whatever that is.
Lot of science.
Lot of science.
And I don’t necessarily dislike that.
I like the idea of a science fiction book that is science based.
I mean the Martian is an example of that and the other Andy Weir book we read not the
terrible one.
Yeah I compared this to Foundation Meets Project Hail Mary so two books.
Yeah Project Hail Mary.
Yeah exactly and Foundation is a good example though that’s obviously more out there you
know that’s not actual science.
This one’s kind of out there too.
Yeah but I meant like that’s like the psychology science like the science and psychology kind
of thing.
Either way I do like the idea and that’s why it’s a stock up for me of a science forward
science fiction but I’m a little bit more used to the Andy Weir type stuff than this
which was a bit over my head.
For me I realize that reading this book I don’t actually like science fiction books.
I like fiction books that have science in them.
Oh like Ender’s game.
Exactly I like when the lights ever gets pulled out and they say it goes wha oh and I’m like
oh cool and then they start hitting it.
I don’t want them to be like so the lightsabers origins actually come from the mountain of
a jet out you know there’s just like I don’t care and it’s like this is how the physics
work I’m like I don’t get any shit about any of that.
I’m all from thinking outside the box but once you start making things up to make things
up to make things up for none of this is real science but you’re talking about it like
this is how it would work if it were real science it’s like but that’s none of that’s
real you’re just making all these things up on top of things.
Yeah well I think for this a lot of it is real science except for once we get a little
too deep into the like so-fun type stuff and that’s more so-fos stuff so-fon stuff.
Yeah that’s more like theater.
Definitely it’s so-fos.
The idea of photosynthesis is science-y to me right I’m just like I don’t understand
it I get that it’s important but it doesn’t it’s over my head.
Yeah even that right and then they’re like you know photosynthesis now let’s show you
something that’s seven degrees further from that and describe it and I’m like I didn’t
like photosynthesis why would I like this show?
Yeah it’s funny you say that because I have plant growth related photosynthesis related
quote-unquote joke later it’s not really a joke but you know I love those jokes those
photosynthesis jokes.
But I agree with you like when I watch Star Wars I don’t need to know the background but
I am interested in that so I used to always love those compendiary books you’d see in
the library the bookstore that explained how a lightsaber worked because that would
be fun to read but I don’t want to watch a movie and have them explain to me how it
works.
They say oh yeah this crystal powers it I’m like yeah that’s cool and then later I’ll
get this book and I’ll be like oh this is interesting I can look into it more I want
to hear the story I don’t need so much.
You need to be invested first before.
It’d be like oh let’s like go watch baseball and first being like well let me describe
to you why OPS is important and just talking about OPS for like an hour.
Sure yeah.
I’m going to show you a baseball game.
That’s a really good example yeah.
I think that the movie we just talked about Andrew Steller did such a good job of that
because it has the sciencey aspects that you can pretty much fall around oh time dilation
I understand like time moves faster down there than it does up here whatever the case is
they didn’t go on for hours about exactly how the science of black holes work.
It was like just enough that I was like okay I can follow the story and then later on I
go on the science channel and there’s the science behind interstellar and I’m like yes
I will sit here for an hour and 30 minutes and watch this.
Be very happy that now I know a little bit more about the science of it.
This one toed the line in the other way I think.
My last stock up was Krypton or Kryptonians perhaps maybe specifically Jural but the planet
Krypton was having a similar epic end as Trisolaris granted Krypton was destroyed due to overmining
you know the Kryptonians were just kept mining all that stuff and you know that’s a that’s
semantics it wasn’t a three body issue either way what did Jural do he sent his only son
in a space pod to earth who did that son become Superman what did Superman do save the earth
countless times what are the Trisolarians going to do destroy earth so Krypton stock
up Trisolaris stock down.
Great point yeah I didn’t think about that I also didn’t know the history of Superman
so I appreciate that.
You didn’t know the history of America’s number one alien I like Lois and Clark after that
I was out on Superman.
Big fan of Lois and Clark what’s that woman’s name Terry something?
Terry Hatcher?
Terry Hatcher yeah I had a huge crush on her before I even knew what crushes were like
I came.
Oh yeah who didn’t.
Yeah I came for the Superman and I stayed for Terry Hatcher.
Did you also have because your family didn’t watch TV right did you have the Sunday night
exception and that was the one show that I don’t know where a lot of watch Sunday nights
and so obviously it was the greatest television it could have been any show honestly you know
it I loved it.
From what I remember weekends were kind of an exception so like Saturday morning cartoons
I was all in like I crushed all the Saturday morning cartoons and I think Sundays were
on board too so I mean I know I remember watching it like I don’t know why I was watching it
but it’s a weird to think too that you had one TV in a house like everyone had to agree
on what to watch.
That’s one thing like NCIS’s work it’s a little bit of murder and it’s a little bit
of a love story and it’s a little it’s like a little bit of everything but nothing too
aggressive all like wraps up by the end and everyone’s happy.
That’s my blue bloods theory that’s why blue bloods is still on because it’s a cop show
but it’s really a family show but there’s a backbone of Jesus so it really hits all the
marks.
Let’s jump into Stockdown what do you have for Stockdown?
Simplifying things Stockdown I think we’re all in the same wavelength here but this book
was relatively short I guess in length but this book felt very very very long for me.
We took two weeks to read this at this a 12 hour book it should take us one week.
We normally crush 12 hour books.
Yeah.
12 hours right in our wheelhouse.
Like the blade itself I think we both read in a week and you didn’t even love that book.
Yeah.
It wasn’t the greatest book ever yeah but I mean that wasn’t I wouldn’t say like the
biggest page turner but it was the pages turn this was like a what’s the opposite of a page
turner a page freezer.
Page turner?
I don’t know.
No that’s good.
That’d be a burning book through the book.
I meant like burn the page you don’t read anymore.
I needed Basil exposition in this I need someone to dumb it down for me.
I just needed things simplified this book and did not simplify it but even like the small
things I got annoyed with like there is an instance where Wang is in the meeting room
with all the military people and they’re like describing what to do to take this boat
down.
And they’re like going through this longest things I’m like all right this is kind of
cool I mean realistically the answer at the end which would turn this book completely
around is like there’s only one person that can go in here secretly and silently and get
the job.
Yeah.
You were above the same thing.
That’s what the answer was.
This book would have turned around in a flash if that happened.
No but they’re like is there any instance survivors going to be on the boat and the answer
is just no that’s it.
Yeah.
You’re trying to save the world here.
No.
Yeah.
They’re like yeah there’s going to be like four or five people there will do this.
I’m like why are we adding in complications?
No the shit out of me.
I also love how when they’re going through the different things that are going to be like
all right so should we drop a thermonuclear warhead on it.
It’s like come on guys like that’s that’s that’s that’s that’s crumpled up in a trash
can like don’t even bring that to the table whoever started that idea like you’re out
the door you know that we need the information that’s on this so why are we starting with
this someone else like oh well we can have some commandos go and blow it up it’s like
no what it has no one listening is no one listening to.
What the operations of blowing it up yeah well how about a like a nuclear bomb how about
a flame thrower how about it’s like what are we doing the idea of like some nano wire
that just like cuts through stuff is pretty cool idea though I will say that was cool I
didn’t there are like and then it won’t cut the computer at all like how they’re like
yeah don’t worry about that it’s fine it’s a computerably fine it won’t matter that we’ll
run it really a blade through the processes or everything that would be they recover both
they’re like oh you can just stitch it back together if it’s if it’s that thin of a wire
my first stock down and yeah I think you have video games as a stock up but it’s a is a
stock down for me and it’s because of the three body problem if I went to the store when I
was a we led and used to go to the store to rent video games like that’s all that’s really
what I did on the weekends is my mom would take me to the movie store and I would get
to rent a video game 64 oh my god it was the greatest times and every now and then though
you’d have a miss and it would just ruin your weekend even the rampage game like the rampage
64 when you’re just like destroying cities it’s like fun for two minutes and then you’re
like all right this is actually terrible yeah there was no like IGN where you could look
at the reviews of the oh yeah you’re just looking at the cover of the game and you look
at the back and like maybe you played it at a friend’s house maybe not maybe you watch
someone play it at like Toys R Us and one of those machines and you know you bring it
home and it ruined your weekend because it’d be like dang I was so excited to play this
and here we are and that’s how I’d feel like someone would be like oh this three body problem
game is great and it’d be someone that’s really smart they want to pretend they like
it just so that they feel smart and you get it home and you’re like oh my god what am
I doing here I have no idea what’s happening you played miss I was thinking exactly what
I was thinking of that’s exactly what I was thinking of my dad got me like you know my
desktop computer when I was a kid my dad took me to comp USA and it had the coolest cover
it was just you know some guy on a mountain with missed all around him I was like oh this
is gonna be super cool I didn’t know what to do I was just walked around and you couldn’t
even do anything so you just kind of walk around one enclosed space is like what is happening
here a lot of clicking points and zoom in on this oh it’s a clock that shows three thirteen
and then it’s like okay now I have to go and change the combination on this like lock basically
it was original escape the rest yeah it was escape room wow we’re we’re we’re synchronized
we are quantumly entangled right now because yeah that’s not so fast it’s so fast it was
escape room but I was not I was like seven so this is yeah I was wondering how old I was
when I did that I was just like clicking around me like what yeah like I want to play Duke
Nukem like that’s what I want to do so yeah video games three body problem not a good video
game I cannot believe they put this much into it not a good job I did you have any other
stockdowns last one dying on an an hill stock down I mean obviously this should be a stock
down but wait hold on a second dying on an hill is that was like the same thing is dying
on a hill I’ve never heard of it like dying on an an hill what’s the thing I don’t know
I think it’s a saying there’s not the hell you want to die on yeah I didn’t know it was
like an an hill but I’m down for that is that the idiom I thought maybe I’m just making
that up it’s not worth it’s like a tiny hill it’s not even a hill that’s worth fighting
for okay okay this isn’t the an hill I want to die on or this is I don’t know anyways
you don’t see it she gets set up for reading Rachel Carson essentially and writing some
stuff she didn’t actually do but they come to her prison she’s like freezing she is like
uh no like barely a blanket it’s like the worst situation ever and they’re like yeah you sign
this doc get out of prison easy peasy right honestly yeah I’m signing that a thousand
of the time it’s gonna affect no one you know if her dad was so alive and it was like gonna
condemn him I get it you’re not gonna sign that I’ll fucking take one for the team here
but it’s he’s already dead who cares none of this shit matters she refuses a sign which
I’m like okay she’s just giving up on life that’s fine you know but then this is the same person
that has the hatred or revenge in her heart like 10 years later to condemn the whole world to
kill every single person in the world so if you’re at that logic of like fuck everyone I’m gonna
get my revenge why would you not sign that doc I just asked what I didn’t understand that like
the time I was like this is not the an hill you the hill you die on you you’d find the next hill
to die on there’s not worth fighting for you can get rid of an inch later I have a vague memory of
what exactly was on the document was it other people like other of her dad’s scholar friends
you know his peers that she would then have to say were whatever the word is for like intellectuals
like anti-communists or whatever the case is or was it her dad like basically saying yes my dad was
an anti-communist and like he’s a loser you know which then she didn’t know what I thought it was but
yeah I mean she didn’t want to besmirch her dad’s name but apparently like everyone had signed it
already so the fact that she signed it didn’t really have any didn’t change anything it’s a moral
thing it’s a moral thing it mattered to her you know she felt like she was the one that had stuck
by him you know in her heart and by by not doing that she would be she’d be turning on him in her
heart even there’s dead it doesn’t matter I need some John Wick share and then she meets with like
the three people that end up killing her dad and she’s like oh I do feel bad for these people like
no like they were like giving their sob story like I don’t give a shit she met with these three
people that killed her dad and they’re talking about how terrible their life has been since then
like do you would you have the same sympathy for I don’t know any any people that were like in a
terrible art like the Nazis we did the same sympathy for them if you met three of Nazis I’d
be like yeah you should you should have seen Germany after it was really tough for me it’s like who
gives a fuck you’re on the bad side I don’t yeah you killed my dad who I don’t care about what
happened to you after that yeah I mean annoyed me I totally understand where you’re coming from
and I think that’s a very fair take although the cultural revolution in China I don’t know much
about it all I enjoy that that was part of this book and I don’t know what it would be like to
be that person you know and also this just the the like the brainwashing element of and like just
the general upheaval of the people getting kind of caught in that if you if you agree with that and
just say listen I got brainwashed I was an idiot I was a kid I shouldn’t have done that I feel
really really bad for everything I did instead they come and just complain for 30 minutes about
their problems yeah no yeah now you get killed now I’m fucking knocking you out they’re like what
you want me to repent and she’s like yeah you know don’t you want to and they’re pretty much like
who’s gonna repent for this stuff that I suffered you know yeah I don’t give a shit what you said
right through yeah it’s like those are two different things like let’s you know I don’t know who’s
gonna do that but like you can apologize for killing my dad like that’s like seems pretty
national seems pretty easy you beat him to death of a belt but I also had a tough time one time
yeah they gave her they gave her the yeah but still and it wouldn’t work for me I agree with you
yeah if someone like yeah yeah but still like I lost my arm it’s like okay not my fault a tank
ran over your arm that was like the two years later there was literally nothing to do with me
you killed my dad with a belt your your hands so and then they pinned it on the person that uh
and they’re like yeah that person that actually killed your dad she had your
room it wasn’t us right yeah that was us right so that kind of leads to my next and final
stock down which which is isms personally I’m not a big fan of communism totalitarianism
capitalism feudalism really any ism I can’t get behind people that are staunch supporters of one
type of ism those are people that concern me because it’s proven out so far that there really
isn’t something that works you know people like oh America’s great it’s like yeah but oh I saw an
interesting thing I follow this Lord of the Rings Instagram page and go on and they had someone
went and calculated how much money Smaug had in his horde under the mountain and basically
Smaug’s horde would make him the 16th richest American like all that gold and everything I don’t
know I don’t but I don’t care I don’t care how they get it I’m just gonna yeah I like it I
believe it but it was fun to it was like holy smokes talk about uh who is the the duck from
ducked Scrooge McDucker whatever that just is just a duck tail swim in his money and duck tail
yeah that was awesome it’s like that’s that’s what it’s like so people have been capitalism’s
right like this is stupid to all these people with all this money it’s crazy so yeah just we get it
you know we get a peek into the Chinese cultural revolution you know prosecuting intellectuals
and scientists doesn’t seem like a great way to move forward as a species hoarding all the money
doesn’t seem like a great way to move forward as a species so I do understand the idea of
shouting out to aliens that they should come and conquer us to even the playing field to some
degree or like move us forward the problem is you don’t know what these aliens are about you’re just
saying come here I also think there’s very very low stakes if you were told today hey 450 years
from now the earth’s gonna implode and would you would your life change in any way would you do
anything differently 450 years that’s not even your kids or their kids generation it like so
doesn’t even matter would you do anything differently you’re saying this is going to be
just for me because I think the world would change for sure what do you think I don’t even
know if the world would change well I think climate change wouldn’t matter anymore if you’re
saying that there’s an asteroid that’s 450 miles away there’s nothing we can do you know like this
there’s like all these restrictions on hunting all these restrictions on fishing yeah yeah so you’re
just saying we just be exploitative to the max yeah I think that’d be actually an interesting
store like a tv show or something where that happens and we just deplete the earth over the next 200
years or so but then it it misses us or something like that and it’s like oh shit what do we do now
it’s a good idea it’s a post-apocalyptic thing even though like we’ve created this apocalypse
because we thought the world was gonna end but it was like psych me personally no I don’t think
my life would change although I’m sure we’d have something sort of psychological impact and I would
think about things different you know I compost now I probably wouldn’t compost anymore I’d say
it doesn’t fucking matter you know what’s the big deal yeah I don’t know it’d be it’d be interesting
to say but yeah the stakes are definitely low but the stakes weren’t low for the ETO or whatnot you
know they had plans to keep going their children we’re gonna take over or their children we’re
gonna meet them and then even the ETO it’s it’s interesting how these organizations always work
because then they start to fracture and there’s fact and there’s factions yeah and that makes a
lot of sense to me that’s like a really interesting perspective because then there you know these
different factions are created one that looks at the aliens as like gods like oh okay these aliens
are you know they’re godlike creatures they’re gonna do some godlike shit when they get here
another one that’s like cool aliens are gonna kill everyone else but we’re gonna be the survivors
and like will be what’s left of the human race and I can’t remember the third the event is
they’re known as just we want everyone dead oh yeah yeah they were just like yeah we don’t care
about humanity anymore they’re the instances are humans so let’s have some new species take over
which is just they’re all they’re all pretty wild and hot takes that American kid sucked
too so didn’t didn’t care for him oh my gevons yeah he was the leader of that that group yeah
great scores a lot of touchdowns though that guy yeah it was weird that he went from yes going
on any touchdowns just going off to the woods yeah it wasn’t interesting yeah he obviously had
a screwless too I I appreciate someone that’s gonna try to save some birds but just planting a
bunch of trees that at the same time there’s an entire government that’s tearing them down maybe
that’s why he loses sort of falcons all the time all right we’ll be here only a guy okay he’s on the
box he plays the Falcons all the time oh plays the valgens yeah that’s why they lose there he doesn’t
want to hurt them doesn’t want to enter the Falcons yeah yeah yeah he was he was an interesting
kid all the characters not really fleshed out what is your uh did you have a favorite scene it wasn’t
really a scene kind of book I don’t think DFL no no I don’t okay yeah uh what about a character I
liked the uh I think we’re gonna say the same person but gone no I don’t think so the person that
went sees the playing the three body problem game uh the woman and they’re just yeah she’s gonna
be gonna want to answer yeah stop I liked her I don’t know what her deal was and then she just
gets into a gun shoot out which we don’t see but yeah I like to add also I was so confused I thought
she was yeah when see his daughter but do we ever find out what happened to his daughter I didn’t
know and that was the other thing too her daughter was murdered or killed or something and we don’t
know why at least I don’t think so and then because at some point she’s like oh I killed two people
I’m like oh she killed her own daughter but it wasn’t her daughter it was her husband and
and another guy but at the same time I was like wait did we ever get to the bottom of
higher daughter died or this for a sequel or something like that because people have been
a little bit sentenced and then like they broke in and we’re like everyone’s hands up and I’m like
something gonna finish that story and I thought it might have happened when I was in the middle
of talking about Sophos for 45 minutes but I don’t know yeah so I guess the woman was just like uh
another physicist that was also just into the three body game don’t know exactly but I did
appreciate that yeah she’d be on the phone just like wouldn’t say anything like she’d pick up the
phone he just silenced it’s like when you pick up the phone for a telemarketer he’s just like so
my favorite character was uh she kang the the cop I like oh yeah yeah he’s I like 10 the most I mean
even like kicked out of like eight different police organizations but now he’s working for this
clandestine organization I just like the cut of his jib at one point you know we don’t have we
don’t have a potent quotables on anymore but at one point he says I’m a simple man look down my
throat and you can see out my ass I am hoping that was not poorly translated and that’s exactly how
it is in Chinese because it’s a great line and I almost want to use it all the time if someone’s
like trying to make it seem like things are more complicated I’m a simple man look down my throat
and you can see out my ass it’s like what what what but I loved it I actually have to pause it and
like rewind big is that exactly what I did he just say what I think he said when they have the shoot
out at the end which was also just a little weird it was like the cops jumping into enamel
convention in self park which is like wait what the cops are just all of a sudden shooting people
and there’s a nuclear bomb and he’s like yeah that just shoot it and he’s like that could have a shot
that he just can just like there’s radiation everywhere and it blew up and I’m like so
so everyone’s dead there’s a nuclear bomb went off and they’re like no what yeah yeah
he’s like no they scrubbed me inside and out I got no radiation anymore I was like I don’t know I
saw that Chernobyl miniseries I’m pretty sure that’s not how it works but yeah I just I like him in
general I like I like this vibe I do like to at the end of the book where they all the military
minds are meeting and they’re like who the fuck’s this guy and he’s like I’m the guy who does my
fucking job you must be other that guy like Mark Marky Walpark and departed that’s basically sad to
him yeah it’s so good oh fuck the departed is such a good movie I’m actually I’m actually
a match that it’s your favorite movie all time yeah it’s funny because the first time I watched
it I didn’t like it I was like yeah this movie is okay and then I saw it again I was like this
is the best movie I’ve ever seen I guess got by watching it over and over I had a similar thing
I think I watched the first time I was like yeah not score Sazy’s best and then I watched it again
and I was like wow this is like equally entertaining funny and awesome okay what do we love what do we
love about the three-body problem Keith I think the general idea is cool I think first of all I
didn’t know the three-body thing was a real quantum mechanics or whatever you said it was
a bit of a problem yeah I was like I wonder what the three-body problem is the whole time I was
like and I said at the end I was like I don’t know what it is still I’m interested in the tv show I
heard the tv shows good but I also heard the books good but I’m gonna watch the tv show I think
this kind of book lends itself well to a tv show because all the scientific stuff is backed by it
and now they just got to make a better story which this didn’t have which might have been a more
behaved but still you know Sam’s back yeah yeah I was actually gonna think about putting a stock up
for my perceived intellect as a stock up because like two people had said oh you should read three
body problems great and I’m an idiot I didn’t understand anything so they must think I’m a lot
smarter than I am so that’s nice either that or it’s one of those things kind of what I talked
about earlier the video game stuff or whatever when someone suggests it to you to show how smart
they are yeah yeah that’s like why I bring up rise and fall the third Reich all the time because
it’s a right 55 hour long history book so it’s like I bring up a coming yeah you and you and Michelle
Obama yeah Michelle Obama yeah I’m like no one’s gonna read 55 hours of the rise and fall of the
Nazi party so like that makes me seem like hey just that’s just me saying hey just so you know
I spent 55 hours learning about Germany between 1932 and 33 and 45 so it’s a weird one to select
so I feel like you could probably make something without a Nazi symbol in a cover but yeah you know
it was interesting my first love and it’s similar to you I love the sci-fi stuff I love aliens
the Fermi paradox is something that I find to be pretty interesting and the Fermi paradox is
basically okay if there’s infinite stars out there with just as many planets there has to be
intelligent life and then the follow-up to that is well if there is intelligent life why haven’t we
heard about it yet so that’s that’s the paradox and I find that to be really interesting because
I personally am of the mindset that of course there’s intelligent life out there I think if you
don’t think so you’re an idiot Keith do you think there’s intelligent life out there I do okay so
then you’re not an idiot my book yeah so uh but I don’t know why why they haven’t talked to us I
think they did into it in the later books a little bit more about the Fermi paradox basically saying
and I’m not spoiling anything because I think this is a really interesting answer to it which is
that civilizations are consumers of everything as a civilization grows it just consumes and
consumes and consumes and eventually there’s nothing left so they have to then go somewhere else or
take take from somewhere else so basically if you let another place know that you exist you’re
inviting them to come and just take all your stuff so if no one knows you’re there it’s like living
out in the woods during the apocalypse it’s like well no one knows I’m here no I can take my stuff
so there’s no reason for me to shout out and tell everyone okay that’s interesting yeah so
that’s the reason why I suppose like no one’s it reached out interesting but uh just science stuff
in general I thought aliens all fun stuff I enjoyed the science did get a little too too much for
me I think we’ve talked about that though anything else you love I did like that uh Wang visits
yeah I wouldn’t see it and she’s like super nice to him and all this stuff and he’s like
and it’s nice to talk to this person then she’s like oh I want to take some I think it was like
ginger or something with you I’ve got a lot of things yeah and she’s like and he’s like no what
now I’m gonna come visit you all the time I was like wait just like free gift is what makes you
come back wasn’t her being nice wasn’t her giving you all the information it was like it wasn’t
her like daughter just died it was like you know what free gifts yeah I’ll be here all the time now
I was like all right bro what’s that saying did you ever watch that show on history channel or
whatever about those Appalachian guys who go out there hunting for ginseng go digging for ginseng
no oh so it’s like a big ginseng’s like a big thing in eastern medicine oh okay so it’s super
valuable yeah it’s okay oh so it was all right so it was just driving it one of the places it grows
naturally and is like super coveted by the by the east is in some middle of nowhere Appalachia so
like people are going around in the wild like finding these ginseng if you find like a big
you know she was even talking to the book like oh I had this ginseng that was this long or whatever
that case is it’s like ginger you know it kind of grows like ginger root so yeah it’s it can be a
big money thing so someone’s give you some good sang then uh yeah you’d be worth coming back you
know I keep that sang anyways the other thing I loved was the cultural perspective I thought it
was interesting I feel like everything we read comes from a western perspective it was just
refreshing and interesting to see something come from a totally different culture that’s as different
from ours as it can be past the industrial age like in the technological age it’s completely
different side of the world and comes from different customs and and everything so seeing that was
interesting I’m not a very well versed on Chinese history or Mao or cultural revolution or pushing
everyone back out to the farms whatever that thing was so getting a little peek of that and seeing
how that would affect people down the line in this story was interesting to me the beginning of the
book or based on Wikipedia the beginning the book was supposed to be more of the revolutionary stuff
of like how bad that was but he moved it to more than middle of the book so that it didn’t get censored
so apparently oh china it’s like oh okay first 20 pages are fine good to go and then like one
thing eventually realized that it’s in the book yeah it becomes big yeah I was like I didn’t get
it why that would matter I don’t know sensors well that’s probably why they had all that boring
science stuff right at the beginning because it’s like sensors picked up and like oh my god I have
no idea how many of them putting this thing back down but also by the end of the book I was like
is everyone in china just a physicist because these is talking to you like yeah and everyone knows
obviously all these famous people and their theories and all these I’m like I don’t know what’s going
on yeah some little kids are coming up to her in a village being like explain to me how gravity
how terminal velocity it’s like what you what do you explain terminal velocity like explain to me
I’m 37 years old like teach me terminal velocity how does that work oh wind resistance oh okay that
checks out what about hates I already mentioned I don’t know if I like science fiction books this
is kind of proved it like in that last 30 minutes I thought that lasted like six hours I was like oh
my god just end for the love of god oh I also thought the most unrealistic part of the whole book is
that prominent people in the civilization were coming together to end the world and end us and
bring the aliens here you’re telling me government officials like celebrities people that are rich
the people that are the most selfish people in the world are the people that are also trying to
to end our society I was like no chance that doesn’t make any sense that’s why
fight club makes so much sense it’s because it’s all the people that are
hey all these people are told that they’re gonna be special and that like you know they’re gonna
achieve the American dream and see all these successes and their middle management low class
people that are stuck in their life and like sick of everything that’s happening that makes
sense so that you’d create a revolution there you’re not clear revolution of the most selfish like
fucking egotistical people that you know I guess those people would also be like 450 years from now
let’s fucking destroy this planet but yeah in Independence Day it’s not Donnie Trump on top of
the tower like you aliens come aliens come here aliens you know that’s just not all works it’s the
strippers there there is that what her friend did shit maybe I’m making that up they’re both strippers
yeah okay excuse me she’s a she’s a dancer exotic exotic oh good movie yeah so what happened in
that last 30 minutes that you didn’t like what was it just proton no it was so fawns that’s what it
was the last friggin hour of this book was about so fawns and that’s so me I was like they kept saying
and I was like more like borafil agree yeah I was like oh I was honestly I finished the book this
morning I was having a nice it was really early in the morning no one out I took the dog for a walk
I said I’m gonna go finish this book on this walk have a real peaceful morning I was just angry I
was just see the whole time I was there explaining how so fawns worked and it doesn’t make any sense
it’s a device they use to explain the numbers and explain why all this stuff isn’t happening
that people think is happening why the you know the microwave background is flickering is because
of sofawns it could have been anything it really didn’t matter but they have to then go and talk
about how it unfolds and covers the whole world and then refolds and it moves faster than light
but it only looks like a proton it’s the size of a proton in three dimension it can be everywhere
it wants like it’s hearing me talk about it now is making me angry it was just it’s project
how merry all over again that’s why I was getting flashbacks like no stop it with it and it was
frustrating to me because they built all these things that happened up like the numbers and the
countdown and all this different stuff like very lost esque and I didn’t really need an explanation
I was okay cool aliens can do some crazy shit with their minds right ever like they could have used
anything but to then spend the last 45 minutes of this book explaining it but then at the same time
it’s like okay if they can be everywhere and they can decide like what people see and don’t see and
what people here and don’t hear and they can hear exactly what’s happening because of quantum
entanglement so they’re basically like it’s like a cup phone in a tree house with the wire attached
like they can hear the other side why would they then let the guys on earth cut the ship in half
and do all that stuff they didn’t have to do that so the whole sofon thing I honestly hated
everything else in this book seemed like okay this is fairly plausible and then that’s like wait
if you can create this proton size 11 dimension thing like wrap it around one of your sons and
disintegrate it and then do it again and now you’re in a single solar system with one star you’re
fine don’t leave at that point honestly the first thing I wrote down was that this book it had me
at a special place in my heart along with the inheritance game and the last thing he told me
I was at the bottom of the barrel for every of the books you’re mourning I can see that
but yeah I feel like they could have just been like they have an advanced nanotechnology that
they could really send here and manipulate scientists and that’s why they didn’t want scientists to
keep on progressing in the nano field because that would be something that could defend this
yeah the thought process of it all makes a lot of sense like oh they’ve realized how
fast we have increased our technological abilities that by the time they get here we’re going to be
even more technologically advanced in them so we can fight them off so how do they fight against
it it’s like oh well they create these friggin siphons to go and particle accelerator so they’d
stop science it’s like what you know just oh they don’t want it they want to stop nanotechnology
because we’re going to create a space elevator and go to space and start building stuff just give
me something else it really didn’t matter just have them lead us down a different trail or something
yeah so it was it was a bit much and the only other thing I really hated was and this might just be
because this is translated it was originally written in Chinese the translation to English
I’m sure there’s a lot of ways that this could be translated you know and I’m and the guy who
translated it said he tried to stick with best as possible like the cadence and the feeling of
the characters and whatnot I’m sure it was a Herculean effort so it might be some of that it might not
be either way the characters just didn’t seem that interesting to me at all like none of the
characters I was like oh I’m you know I’m here to I’m at bat for this guy or this gal so
well I was really like Wang’s family they seem like like a lot of the interactions the conversations
were were confusing and didn’t do didn’t do much for it so yeah wasn’t a big fan
so you were talking about being interested in watching the Netflix show this showed was
recently released by Netflix but I think like a couple weeks ago it’s like top five in shows
right now or something so it’s somewhat of a hit who knows though because Netflix pushes those
things on to people as they should you know they have a right to do that got 7980 okay because like
when that red notice movie came out the red notice number one in movies that movie is fucking terrible
yeah 7980 I did a little binge binge today while I was because it’s been pouring rain here so I was
working and I watched basically up until the end of the book there’s a few more episodes so it goes
into the next book yeah it goes into the next book which which is interesting because I would be
interested to see the following books I don’t know if I would definitely wouldn’t read them shows
good so far I will say that this show is the book but in a much easier to digest manner and
they blend some characters together into other ones they create new characters but it all seems
to flow pretty well considering I just finished reading the book at no point was I that interested
because I knew all of the things that were gonna happen so it is it is fairly true true to the book
so I’d be interested to know what someone thought about it who didn’t read the book but I would
suggest in our would you recommend this book just go watch the show it’s it’s pretty much the same
thing there’s like better visuals it’s got it’s got Sam is not his name from Game of Thrones the like
the nerdy one he’s in it and the acting’s good the the characters are good it’s exactly the same story
the the three-body world makes sense oh I forgot to mention during the three-body world that I did
enjoy when they created a computer out of the army with like binary yeah that was pretty I still
don’t know how computers work and I’ve built one and I was still a little confused by it but I think
that is what you’re saying you put the pieces to how fucking dare you but you’re not like soldering
you know I went in and I actually built computers yeah people do that no yeah people don’t even
build websites everything’s just taken from other things now it’s everything’s building blocks
is when I say I built it I mean I fucking put together but I built it well I did see on Reddit one
time I think it was a kid but I could be made that up who built a computer in Minecraft doing
this same idea just built tons of inputs that are just binary like on or off and if you set it up
for something it’ll do computer-based problems in Minecraft but it’s probably pretty basic right
like I like can do math maybe but not yeah it wasn’t gonna give you the answer to the world but yeah
it would do it would do stuff that I was very amazed by and like you zoom out because it’s you
know it is these blocks that are either on or off or whatever cases and you zoom out and it was
like a legit data farm that this person had created so talk about how we should be using video games
to recruit people like Harvard Google whatever these places like someone’s out there creating
computers in Minecraft yeah they’re super smart enough too much time on their hands go
so Cavill create sofans yeah so I would just I’d recommend I’d recommend the show as opposed to
the book for this one and I apologize to the people who recommended this book and said you’re
gonna love it because honestly I didn’t then I’m not afraid to say it I’m not smart enough but
yeah I’ll say the same thing I was not a fan this may be question all science fiction I don’t even
know if I want to read another science fiction book again that’s how bad I thought it was yeah well
luckily we don’t have to go down that road for a while we can you know get the get the taste out
of our mouth and I apologize people that did like this book because I could see ways that you would
like it it was just not not for me so like I said we’re not gonna I don’t think the Hugo award
winners are not I’m not a fan other than Harry Potter and enders game okay thank you all the
other ones we’ve read of not been good I did not like American God yeah you didn’t like American
Gods the NK jemisin one yep didn’t like that I don’t know but yeah we’re gonna leave the sci-fi
space Keith what do we get coming up next this is a reader recommend or listen to recommendation
the art thief by Michael Finkel I believe this is a true story so we’re getting into the non-fiction
side which is a rare rare scene for yeah I wonder how non-fiction is also when you said we’re reading
the art thief I was like oh great I love this book but I was thinking of the book thief which is
the children’s book and then I was like oh no it’s the art thief and I was like wait I have this
book on my shelf it’s Caroline’s and I look at the book and it’s the art forger so now I’m just
confused I don’t know what’s happening but there is a book called the art thief and we will be reading
it next okay so we’ll probably catch you pretty soon probably for I don’t think it’s a very long
short one yeah so so we’ll catch you guys for the art thief don’t get the book thief don’t get the
art forger get the art thief by Michael Finkel yeah yeah Finkel is Einhorn Einhorn is Finkel all right
laces out Keith all right Keith that was this was fun even though we didn’t love the book it’s
always good to talk to you so I’ll catch you for the next one all right all right bye now bye now