New Scientist 2018 sep

42 | NewScientist | 8 September 2018

Your Three-Body Problem trilogy,

first published between 2006 and

2010, describes the 20-million-

year-long fallout from humanity’s

attempt to make contact with

extraterrestrials. How well

prepared are we for the arrival of

an alien race like your Trisolarans?

We are totally not ready yet. The

technology we have is still

primitive. If other civilisations

visit – aliens who are able to travel

distances of hundreds or even

millions of light years to get here –

the gap between our respective

technologies would be about the

same as that between humans

and ants. How will a group of

such highly civilised aliens even

know that we are intelligent?

Actually, that problem works

both ways. How does that ant

wandering across your desk know

you are the planet’s dominant

species? You don’t know how

to dig a hole, you don’t fondle

delicious dead bugs and you don’t

protect your queen. All you do is

hit those square-shaped things

in front of you – an activity that

generates absolutely no food

whatsoever. Ants don’t think

humans are intelligent at all.

In Dark Forest, the middle volume

of your trilogy, you wrote “Each

civilization’s goal is survival”. This

sounds like a Darwinian process,

applied at a civilisation level.

Is it possible to have a galactic

ecosystem that is ethical?

First, we haven’t discovered any

extraterrestrial life form, not to

mention any other civilisation!

And if we are to picture what the

universe would be like if there

were an enormous number of

civilisations out there, we can

only derive assumptions from

our own experience. A glance

over human history tells us that

the rise and fall of a great many

civilisations is the result of war.

It is even more depressing when

we think about inter-species

interactions. What happens

when a species meets a stronger,

more intellectually developed

competitor? That thought gives

me shudders. The Cretaceous-

Paleogene extinction was a

horrible event. Dinosaurs and

many other animals and plants

were killed. But consider what we

are witnessing now. Every year,

thousands of species disappear,

because they ran up against

humans. So, the survival theory

in Dark Forest is reasonable.

There could be a highly civilised

cosmic ecosystem with high

moral standards, but I think the

possibility is low, given what

we know about Earth’s history.

If we receive a message from the

stars, should we respond?

How to respond will be a decision

for the entire world. We would

need a consensus, as this would

affect every one of us. I think we

should be cautious, rather than

recklessly respond to the message

and expose our location. We

simply don’t know whether we

are talking to friends or enemies.

Some people think if a

species enjoys a high level of

civilisation, it is bound to

maintain high moral standards.

That’s very naive; we have no way

of knowing whether that’s true.

Most of your stories have sad

endings. Are you pessimistic

about the development of

civilisation?

I’m absolutely positive about

human survival. We will continue

to develop our civilisation and

expand not just on Earth, but

also across the solar system, the

galaxy, even the entire universe.

But I’m absolutely pessimistic

about the survival of the other

species who currently share Earth

with us. The development of

human civilisation will eventually

force other living things to go

extinct or become our food.

Are you not concerned that the

destruction of Earth’s ecosystems

will threaten human survival?

We are almost wholly reliant on

science and technology for our

survival already. We can create an

environment to sustain ourselves

with technology, even if the

ecosystem collapses. The new

system could be on Earth or in

space; we might develop one

system or hundreds of them.

Frankly, these environments

could probably only support

humans, although we probably

wouldn’t care about other species

anyway. Humans are selfish, and

because of our innate selfishness,

I’m very confident that we can

overcome any amount of

environmental destruction.

CULTURE

Among the cruel stars

China’s leading sci-fi author Cixin Liu tells Yvaine Ye that the future is

bright for our species – partly because we kill everything in our path

“Because of our selfishness,

we can overcome any

amount of environmental

destruction”

ZACHARY BAKO/REDUX/EYEVINE

PROFIL

Dubbed “China’s Answer

to Arthur C. Clarke”

by The New Yorker,

Cixin Liu worked as a

computer engineer for

a power plant before

winning accolades in the

late 1990s as a writer of

galaxy-spanning science

fiction. In Liu’s thrillingly

pessimistic space

operas, intelligence does

not breed virtue, and the

most advanced cultures

live in fear of each other.

His 2004 novel Ball

Lightning has just been

published in English by

Atlantic Books.

Can we work together as

civilisation develops further

in the future?

I believe we can work together.

Even though we still have

defined nations, and each nation

pursues its own self-interest,

the borderlines between nations,

ethnicities and religions are

disappearing. Technology is

improving communication and

accelerating cultural exchange.

So, I think the concept of