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The translator made a mistake in the introduction to this book. He said that dinosaurs existed for a billion years when the author might have originally meant 100 million years. This must be because of the difference between the Chinese and western number systems.
The translator made a mistake in the introduction to this book. He said that dinosaurs existed for a billion years when the author might have originally meant 100 million years. This must be because of the difference between the Chinese and western number systems.


The dialogue in this book is very nuanced for ants and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are believed by human scientists to have primitive lizard brains. Human brains have two more layers on top of the lizard brain. A primate brain layer and neocortex which is considered the seat of intelligence. Ants are essentially swarm creatures. Their intelligence on an individual level is no more than that of any other insect. Ants however form complex colonies sometimes spanning miles and engage in resource wars with other ant species that might go on for centuries.
The dialogue in this book is very nuanced for ants and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are believed by human scientists to have primitive lizard brains. Human brains have two more layers on top of the lizard brain - a layer of primate brain and the neocortex which is considered the seat of intelligence. Ants are essentially swarm creatures. Their intelligence on an individual level is too small even compared to lizards. Ants however do form complex colonies sometimes spanning miles and engage in resource wars with other ant species that might go on for centuries.
 


== Parallels to the "Remembrance of the Earth's Past" trilogy ==
== Parallels to the "Remembrance of the Earth's Past" trilogy ==


'''spoilers''' Baoshu in his sequel to the trilogy portrayed the Trisolarans to be some kind of tiny bugs, like ants. This assumption fits well with the trilogy. The trisolaran planet was ripped apart in one event when the gravity of the three suns aligned in a straight line. The smaller piece became a moon around the larger one. Life took 70 million years to evolve again from scratch on that planet. It is possible that the life that developed on this harsh planet wasn't of the complex multi-cellular form but much more primitive and involving group intelligence over individual intelligence. The first book also mentions that the evolution of their science and technology was at a linear pace as compared to humanity's exponential pace. This indicates that their civilization lacked creative thinking, to the extent that they couldn't even lie which a 5-year-old human is perfectly capable of. It is easy to draw parallels between humans and dinosaurs, and trisolarans and ants in this fable. But each civilization in the trilogy is individually more advanced than the Cretaceous civilization depicted in this book.
'''spoilers''' Baoshu in his sequel to the trilogy portrayed the Trisolarans to be some kind of tiny bugs, like ants. This assumption fits well with the trilogy. The trisolaran planet was ripped apart in one event when the gravity of the three suns aligned in a straight line. The smaller piece became a moon around the larger one. Life took 70 million years to evolve again from scratch on that planet. It is possible that the life that developed on this harsh planet wasn't of the complex multi-cellular form but much more primitive and involving group intelligence over individual intelligence. The first book also mentions that the evolution of their science and technology was at a linear pace as compared to humanity's exponential pace. This indicates that their civilization lacked creative thinking, to the extent that they couldn't even lie which a 5-year-old human is perfectly capable of. It is easy to draw parallels between humans and dinosaurs, and trisolarans and ants in this fable. But each civilization in the trilogy is individually more advanced than the Cretaceous civilization depicted in this book.
The individual creativity of the dinosaurs and the hive mind of the ants are illustrated very well in this book. This is a good parallel between Earth and Trisolaran civilizations. Most of the differences in culture of the two civilizations can be attributed to this singular fact. Maybe this book is a much easier sneak peek of what an Earth-Trisolaris cooperation would look like.

Revision as of 09:40, 20 September 2020

Author: Liu Cixin (Chinese name)
Category: Science Fiction

"of Ants and Dinosaurs" is a fable by Liu Cixin exploring the nature of intelligent life on earth.

This book isn't hard sci-fi like his famous "Remembrance of the Earth's Past" trilogy. Many reviewers who were first exposed to Liu Cixin's works through the trilogy tend to give lower ratings to his soft sci-fi works. These works are supplementary to his bigger works. They are focused on exploring a specific aspect (like intelligent life in this case) which might not get enough consideration in his bigger works. When a scientist explores a specific physical variable, they tend to keep the remaining factors constant. Many of the kinematics and dynamics problems we solved as students of physics assume that friction doesn't exist, for example. In my opinion, readers should focus on the aspect highlighted by the author in this book and choose to ignore the obviously scientifically wrong parts.

The introduction to this book is a delight to read. The author explores the vastness of time and the fragility of intelligent life. There are some brilliant passages like the following. Intelligent civilizations were like the sparks of fireflies in the vast night of time. The two intelligent species in this book are separated from humans by a timespan so vast that the continents literally looked different back then. The entire introduction serves to emphasize the plausibility of cooperation between these two species so greatly separated in physical size and individual characteristics.

The translator made a mistake in the introduction to this book. He said that dinosaurs existed for a billion years when the author might have originally meant 100 million years. This must be because of the difference between the Chinese and western number systems.

The dialogue in this book is very nuanced for ants and dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are believed by human scientists to have primitive lizard brains. Human brains have two more layers on top of the lizard brain - a layer of primate brain and the neocortex which is considered the seat of intelligence. Ants are essentially swarm creatures. Their intelligence on an individual level is too small even compared to lizards. Ants however do form complex colonies sometimes spanning miles and engage in resource wars with other ant species that might go on for centuries.

Parallels to the "Remembrance of the Earth's Past" trilogy

spoilers Baoshu in his sequel to the trilogy portrayed the Trisolarans to be some kind of tiny bugs, like ants. This assumption fits well with the trilogy. The trisolaran planet was ripped apart in one event when the gravity of the three suns aligned in a straight line. The smaller piece became a moon around the larger one. Life took 70 million years to evolve again from scratch on that planet. It is possible that the life that developed on this harsh planet wasn't of the complex multi-cellular form but much more primitive and involving group intelligence over individual intelligence. The first book also mentions that the evolution of their science and technology was at a linear pace as compared to humanity's exponential pace. This indicates that their civilization lacked creative thinking, to the extent that they couldn't even lie which a 5-year-old human is perfectly capable of. It is easy to draw parallels between humans and dinosaurs, and trisolarans and ants in this fable. But each civilization in the trilogy is individually more advanced than the Cretaceous civilization depicted in this book.

The individual creativity of the dinosaurs and the hive mind of the ants are illustrated very well in this book. This is a good parallel between Earth and Trisolaran civilizations. Most of the differences in culture of the two civilizations can be attributed to this singular fact. Maybe this book is a much easier sneak peek of what an Earth-Trisolaris cooperation would look like.