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Liu

May 12 2017 - tags: books

Cixin Liu, The Three-Body Problem

There's a strange contradiction revealed by the naivete and kindness demonstrated by humanity when faced with the universe: On Earth, humankind can step into another continent, and without a thought, destroy the kindred civilizations found there through warfare and disease. But when they gaze up at the stars, they turn sentimental and believe that if extraterrestrial intelligences exist, they must be civilizations bound by universal, novel, moral constraints, as if cherishing and loving different forms of life are parts of a self-evident universal ode of conduct.

I think it should be precisely the opposite; Let's turn the kindness we show toward the stars to members of the human race on Earth and build up the trust and understanding between the different peoples and civilizations that make up humanity.

The creation myths of the various peoples and religions of the world pale when compared to the glory of the big bang. The three billion year history of life's evolution from self-producing molecules to civilization contains twists and romances that cannot be matched by any myth or epic … I seek only to create my own worlds using the power of imagination, and to make known the poetry of Nature in those worlds, to tell the romantic legends that have unfolded between Man and Universe.

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