Cixin Liu - The Three-Body Problem

“What did the man who threatened you on the phone sound like?”

“You’re asking if he sounded like Pan Han? I don’t know. He was speaking very softly, and I couldn’t tell.”

Several more police cars arrived, sirens blaring. A group of white-gloved policemen came upstairs with cameras, and the house hummed with activity. Da Shi told Wang to go back and get some rest.

Instead, Wang walked into the room with the minicomputer to find Wei. “Can you give me an outline of your three-body evolutionary algorithm? I want to… introduce it to some people. I know my request is abrupt. If you can’t, don’t worry about it.”

Wei took out a CD and handed it to Wang. “It’s all on here: the whole model and additional documentation. Do me a favor and publish it under your own name. That would be a big help.”

“No, no! How could I do that?”

Wei pointed at the disk in Wang’s hand and said, “Professor Wang, I noticed you the first time you came here. You’re a good man, a man with a sense of responsibility. That’s why I’m counseling you to stay away from this. The world is about to change. Everyone should try to live out the rest of their lives in peace. That would be best. Don’t worry too much about other matters. It’s all useless anyway.”

“You seem to know even more than you let on.”

“I spent every day with her. It’s impossible to have no inkling.”

“Then why not tell the police?”

Wei smiled contemptuously. “The police are worthless. Even if God were here, it wouldn’t do any good. The entire human race has reached the point where no one is listening to their prayers.”

Wei was standing next to an east-facing window. Through the glass, beyond the distant cityscape, the sky was brightening with the first light of dawn. For some reason, the light reminded Wang of the strange dawn he saw each time he logged on to Three Body .

“In reality, I’m not so detached. I haven’t been able to sleep the last few nights. Every morning when I see the sunrise, it feels like sunset.” He turned to Wang, and after a long pause, added, “And it’s all because God, or the Lord she talked about, can’t even protect Himself anymore.”

The start of the second level of Three Body wasn’t too different than the first: still the strange, cold dawn, still that colossal pyramid. But this time, the pyramid was back in the Egyptian style.

Wang heard the crisp sound of metal striking against metal. The clashing only highlighted the silence of the chilly dawn. Searching for the source, he saw two dark shadows flickering at the foot of the pyramid. In the dim light, metallic glints flashed between the shadows: a swordfight.

Once his eyes had adjusted, Wang saw the figures more clearly. Based on the shape of the pyramid, this should be someplace in Three Body ’s version of the East, but the two fighters were Europeans dressed in a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century style. The shorter one ducked below a swinging sword and his silvery wig fell to the ground. After a few more thrusts and parries, another man appeared around the corner of the pyramid and ran toward the fighters. He tried to get the two to stop, but the swinging blades whistling through the air prevented him from getting close.

He shouted, “Stop! Don’t you two have anything better to do? Where’s your sense of responsibility? If civilization has no future, what good is this supposed bit of glory you’re fighting over?”

Both swordfighters ignored him, concentrating on the duel. The taller one suddenly cried out in pain, and his sword fell to the ground with a clang. He turned and ran, holding his wounded arm. The other gave chase for a few steps and spat in the direction of the loser.

“Shameless!” He bent down to pick up his wig. As he straightened up, he saw Wang. Pointing in the direction of the escapee, he said, “He dared to claim that he invented calculus!” He put on his wig, put a hand over his heart, and bowed courteously to Wang. “Isaac Newton, at your service.”

“Then the one who ran away must be Leibniz?” Wang asked.

“Indeed, an unscrupulous man. I don’t really care about this little claim to fame. Inventing the three laws of mechanics has already made me the greatest, God excepted. From planetary motion to cell division, everything follows the three great laws. Now, with the powerful mathematical tool that is calculus, it will only be a matter of time before we master the pattern of the motion of the three suns.”

“It’s not that simple,” said the man who had tried to stop the fight. “Have you considered the amount of calculation that’s needed? I saw the differential equations you listed, and I don’t think an analytical solution is possible, only a numerical one. However, the calculating capacity required is such that even if all of the world’s mathematicians worked without pause, they’d still not be able to complete them by the time the world ended. Of course, if we can’t figure out the pattern of the suns’ movements soon, the end of the world will not be too far away.” He bowed at Wang as well, a more modern bow. “Von Neumann.”

“Didn’t you bring us thousands of miles to the East specifically to solve the problem of calculating these equations?” Newton asked. Then he turned to Wang. “Norbert Wiener and that degenerate who just ran away also came with us. We encountered some pirates near Madagascar. Wiener fought the pirates by himself so that the rest of us could escape, and he died valiantly.”

“Why did you have to come to the East to build a computer?” Wang asked Von Neumann.

Von Neumann and Newton looked at each other, puzzled. “A computer? A computing machine ! Such a thing exists?”

“You don’t know about computers? Then what did you have in mind for completing the vast amount of calculations?”

Von Neumann stared at Wang with wide-open eyes, as though his question made no sense. “Using people, of course. Other than people, what else in the world is capable of performing calculations?”

“But you just said that all the mathematicians in the world wouldn’t be enough.”

“Instead of mathematicians, we’ll use common laborers. But we need many of them, at least thirty million. We’ll do mathematics using human wave tactics.”

“Common laborers? Thirty million?” Wang was amazed. “But if I recall correctly, this is an age when ninety percent of the population are illiterate. Yet you want to find thirty million people who understand calculus?”

“Have you heard the joke about the Army of Sichuan?” Von Neumann took out a thick cigar, bit off the end, and lit it. “Some soldiers were being drilled, but because they had no education, they couldn’t even follow the drill instructor’s simple orders to march LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT. So the instructor came up with a solution: He had every soldier wear a straw shoe on the left foot and a cloth shoe on the right. When they marched, he shouted”—here he switched to a Sichuan accent—“STRAW-CLOTH-STRAW-CLOTH…. That’s the kind of soldier we need. Except we need thirty million of them.”

Hearing this modern joke, Wang knew that the man before him wasn’t a program but a real person, and almost certainly Chinese.

“It’s hard to imagine such a large army,” Wang said, shaking his head.

“That’s why we’ve come to see Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor.” Newton pointed at the pyramid.

“He’s still in charge?” Wang looked around. He saw that the soldiers guarding the entrance to the pyramid really were equipped with the simple leather armor and ji -style halberds of the Qin Dynasty. The anachronistic mix of historical elements in Three Body no longer surprised him.