Sky Curtain: The Darwin Incident at the outset, the Declaration of the People's League

If civilization can easily disguise itself, or remain hidden forever, then the "hunting" in the dark forest becomes meaningless.

However, according to the established lore, once a civilization in this universe develops to a certain level, it will inevitably leave traces in the universe—electromagnetic waves, spaceship tracks, gravitational wave disturbances, the energy consumption of Dyson spheres, etc.

Even the mere existence of something can generate detectable signals.

At the same time, the original work also assumes that the civilization detection technology is powerful.

The first civilization had the capability to screen the entire observable universe, and any exposed existence could be precisely located.

[A reader asked: If a civilization with incredibly advanced camouflage technology exists, or one that never emits any signals outwards, would the Dark Forest theory still apply?]

The original author didn't delve into this detail, because otherwise the story couldn't be written.

[However, in theory, such civilizations are called "silent ones," and in the Dark Forest hypothesis—such civilizations do not exist.]

Chapter 112 The Three-Body Problem

"Oh, I see—for this theory to hold true, so many conditions are required, especially the most fundamental physical condition."

Once this part of the content behind the celestial curtain was revealed, the other worlds suddenly realized what was going on.

It's important to understand that the value of technology varies across different universes.

In some worlds, technology is so advanced that it can directly modify the laws of the universe and redefine the entire universe, making them almost equivalent to gods.

However, the fundamental laws of this so-called "Three-Body Universe" have too many limitations—the most fatal being the laws of physics themselves: the speed of light is the maximum speed in the universe, and there is no such thing as exceeding the speed of light.

As a result, communication became a problem, and threats hung over their heads at all times.

That analogy is indeed brilliant—a forest, where every civilization is a hunter with a gun.

Unable to communicate, unaware of each other's background, and fearing the other's superior skills, both sides are wary of each other...

But the root of all this, in the end, is still that cage of light speed.

However, this theory only holds true in that other world.

The Star World is the least concerned about this.

The physical laws governing them are minimal, and their space communication channels are bustling with activity.

Various civilizations were bickering, forming alliances, declaring war, and negotiating business on the communication network, creating quite a commotion.

Upon closer examination, their universe actually conforms to several of these premises.

First, there is the density of civilization.

The civilizations here are as numerous as hairs on a cow, some peacefully exchanging ideas, others engaging in fierce battles; all types are represented.

Secondly, resources are limited.

If resources were unlimited, they wouldn't need to fight and vie for territory everywhere.

Then, the primary goal—this really goes without saying, which civilization in any world doesn't want to continue?

The only difference is that the most crucial element is information transmission.

The speed of light is not the maximum speed in their world, and their methods of communication are completely different.

Information and supplies can always be transmitted and received quickly; faster-than-light communication is considered a basic technology here.

Without a breeding ground for suspicion, the foundation of the dark forest collapses.

So the "dark forest" is really just a conjecture for them—a very interesting conjecture, but ultimately just a conjecture.

They still fight when they want to fight, and they still form alliances when they want to form alliances.

forest?

The forest was so quiet; it was like a cosmic marketplace.

How did the theories about this world come about? Or rather, how did the humans here discover them?

That begins in a special era.

That was a red era, where thoughts were unified into a single color, and individual voices were swallowed up by the torrent of the times.

The protagonist of this story was crushed by fate and swept along by the times in that era.

Her name is Ye Wenjie.

In the picture, a young woman stands in the wind and snow, her hair blown about, her eyes empty and cold.

Behind her lay the figure lying on the struggle stage—her father, a top physicist, who was beaten to death for refusing to yield on the stage.

The mother chose to betray in order to protect herself.

At that moment, her world collapsed.

She no longer believed in humanity, civilization, or the beliefs she once held dear.

Later, she was sent down to a production and construction corps.

There, she unexpectedly came across an original English version of "Silent Spring".

[Silent Spring tells the story of the devastating damage to the ecological environment caused by human overuse of pesticides.]

The book states that humanity is destroying its own home, and what's even more terrifying is that humanity is completely unaware that it is destroying itself.

Ye Wenjie closed the book and made a decision in her heart that would forever change the course of human civilization.

She believes that humanity is beyond saving, and civilization is utterly rotten.

Rather than letting humanity perish on its own, it's better to let a more advanced civilization intervene.

Don't be surprised, humans had a lot of ingenious ideas during this period; if you had to say, it was the Russians who started it.

[Subsequently, taking advantage of her position at the Red Coast base, she secretly sent a signal into deep space.]

A beam of electromagnetic waves carrying information about human civilization travels at the speed of light into the endless darkness.

The transmission power of this signal far exceeded the limits of human technology at the time.

She used the mirror effect of the sun's ionosphere to amplify a tiny electromagnetic wave into a shout powerful enough to traverse interstellar space.

The signal traveled into the depths of space, its destination being the Alpha Centauri system, four light-years from Earth.

There, a civilization is listening to the universe.

The Three-Body Civilization

The scene shifts across the sky. Three suns dance wildly in a chaotic gravitational entanglement, while a planet is trapped between the three stars, repeatedly stretched, squeezed, scorched, and frozen.

The world of the Trisolaran civilization has three suns.

The three stars are entangled by gravity, resulting in chaotic and unpredictable motions.

When three suns appear in the sky simultaneously, the earth is scorched, the oceans evaporate, and all life is reduced to ashes in the flames.

When all three suns move away, the world is plunged into an eternal ice age, with temperatures so low that even the air freezes.

Civilization can only catch its breath when the sun is perfectly positioned.

This brief period of peace is called the "Eternal Era"; while the long and devastating period of destruction is called the "Eternal Era of Chaos".

In the scene, when the Chaotic Era arrived, the Trisolarans actively expelled all the water from their bodies, compressing themselves into shriveled sacs, which were then stacked and stored like bricks.

During the brief period of peace in the Eternal Era, we will revive by soaking in water and then reinvest in the construction of civilization.

Over tens of thousands of years of brutal evolution, the Trisolarans developed a unique way of survival—dehydration.

This is a cycle so long it's utterly despairing.

Civilization is built, but the chaotic era arrives, and civilization is destroyed.

For tens of thousands of years, the Trisolaran civilization repeatedly cycled between destruction and reconstruction.

Their unique environment prevented them from developing spiritual products such as love, art, and literature; it only instilled in them the obsession with survival.

Until one day, they received a signal from the depths of the universe.

[The signal conveyed by Ye Wenjie]

To be honest, they were stunned when they first received this communication; even the leader of the Trisolaran civilization remained silent.

Humans, compared to the Trisolarans, live in a paradise on earth.

The Trisolaran civilization made a decision: to send its first interstellar fleet to Earth at one-hundredth the speed of light.

A distance of four light-years would take four hundred and fifty years.

The fates of two civilizations were now locked together.

[The Three-Body Problem story takes a long time, so we won't go into detail for now; the Earth story is much more exciting.]

Ye Wenjie's signal not only summoned the Trisolarans, but also tore open a wound within human civilization that can never heal.

[Her colleague at the Red Coast Base—a person similarly wounded by the times and disillusioned with human civilization—discovered her secret.]

Instead of reporting her, they joined her in forming a secret organization.

Its members are scattered all over the world, hidden in every corner of human society.

[They include scientists, politicians, military officers, businessmen, scholars, and workers.]

They are all elites, leaders in their respective fields, but they share a common belief: human civilization is beyond saving and needs a more advanced civilization to "save" it.

Later they called it ETO.

It has to be said that this group has caused a great deal of trouble on Earth.

The Trisolarans, having examined the course of human history, are worried that humanity might experience another technological explosion, surpassing their own level of technology.

Four hundred and fifty years is a small number on a cosmic scale, but it is a long time in the context of life.

They didn't want to be killed in return.

Therefore, the Trisolarans also launched a weapon—the sophon.

[A microscopic particle transformed into a supercomputer by the Trisolarans]

It is only the size of a proton, yet it possesses computing power surpassing that of any human computer.

It can travel at the speed of light between Earth and the Trisolaran fleet four light-years away, transmitting information in real time.

It can interfere with human high-energy physics experiments, preventing humanity from ever making breakthroughs in fundamental physics.