Dark Forest

Chaos! Chaos! Chaos! This book is the second volume of the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" series, which you may have heard of as the Three-Body Problem series! If you consider spoilers won't affect you, you can keep reading, but believing there are still those who haven't read the first book is harder than believing in Trisolaris itself…

When I reviewed the previous book, I was sure that my next move would be to pick up the second book. Indeed, true to my word, as soon as I finished the first book in two days, I took just a day's break and then dove into the search for the second book.

In The Three-Body Problem, we were introduced to a sentient life form called Trisolaris living in space, who set out towards our Earth because they couldn't sustain life on their own planet. During this time, their biggest supporters became the Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO), who believed that humans had destroyed the world and that aliens could make it more livable. However, towards the end of the book, we discovered that Trisolarisians distrust these humans, who are capable of lying, and fear and want to destroy an alien they don't understand with the most primitive instinct. Their calling us insects has also been a bit offensive, frankly.

Dark Forest takes us through a slightly more crisis and future-oriented period and introduces us to my favorite character, Luo Ji. (Actually, the series features standout characters rather than a main one, and new people are always being introduced, but I wanted to highlight Ji because he's one of my favorites…) As you might expect, Luo Ji is a scientist, but he's comfortable, aimless, and doesn't even bother to ask a woman's name when he hangs out with her. Unaware that his life would change on such a morning, he goes out of his house with a girl whose name he can't remember. When they started walking out, he barely escaped being crushed under a vehicle that suddenly maneuvered. Unfortunately, the girl whose name he couldn't remember breathed her last there. Luo Ji, who had not yet recovered from the shock of the event, realizes that he has been locked in a room to give a statement when he came to himself. The person questioning him is none other than Shi Qiang, whom you may remember from the previous book. The questioning takes place in a manner that lacks seriousness, and Luo Ji tries to clear himself for no reason. Finally, Shi Qiang tells him not to worry and that he will help him, asking him to prepare. As for Luo Ji, who doesn't understand where they will go, an unwanted future awaits.

Dark Forest refers to the chaotic world created by extraterrestrial beings we cannot comprehend, the impact of public psychology on Earth, and the efforts of Trisolaris beings in this war with aliens, and, of course, the boundaries of science and technology that develop in spite of their efforts. While reading, I really couldn't stop myself from thinking if humanity would proceed exactly like this if we encountered such a thing tomorrow, would we be much more confident, or would we just let everything go because we are already prone to depression? In the end, I was sure that I preferred reading to living in this period. At the beginning and end of the book, the "ant" references made me wonder if they were mentioned after the insect was called the last book or simply that a tiny creature witnessed the events. Of course, when I reached the end of this book and struggled to figure out what else could happen, I started searching for the third book - I'd like to say, a bit proudly. If you've read this far and haven't decided to start this series, what can I say…

Finally, if you're up for some mental gymnastics, let me explain what "Dark Forest" means and why the book is titled this way. Don't worry, I'm sure your enjoyment of the book won't change even if you learn this information. This is actually a "solution" proposed by Cixin Liu to a very famous paradox called the Fermi Paradox. The Fermi Paradox suggests that considering the vastness of space and the number of observed stars, it's contradictory that we haven't encountered intelligent extraterrestrial beings. In response to this paradox, numerous theoretical explanations have been put forward, such as there being no other civilizations currently existing, or that extraterrestrial beings exist but we haven't found evidence of them yet. The Dark Forest hypothesis, on the other hand, allows us to view this paradox from a different and unsettling perspective. It suggests that other life forms in space are hunters, driven by survival instincts, and are "paranoid" about the existence of other civilizations. When they detect the presence of another civilization, they have no idea whether that civilization will destroy them, so their safest option is to preemptively eliminate the other intelligent species before they have a chance to do the same. While I find this hypothesis somewhat overly paranoid and ruthless, it's considered an important viewpoint in this field. What are your thoughts on this?

Click here for the review of the first book

Make time for civilization, for civilization won't make time.

Time is the one thing that can’t be stopped. Like a sharp blade, it silently cuts through hard and soft, constantly advancing. Nothing is capable of jolting it even the slightest bit, but it changes everything.