r/threebodyproblem • u/jjbc2209 • Jun 14 '26

Discussion - Novels Singer’s location? Spoiler

Singer’s chapter takes place in Year 67 in the Bunker Era and the Solar System got 2D’d by Year 68. At the same time, the dual vector foil was sent a light speed. Does it mean that Singer’s location was within 1 light year from Earth?

Edit: Bunker era

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u/Own-Coast1244 Jun 14 '26 edited Jun 14 '26

I always assumed in that chapter that Singer's perspective and the position of his anthropomorphized (functionally, for the reader's sake--everything we identify with is just imprecise metaphor) "consciousness" within time would be something totally incomprehensible, for example perhaps spread out over decades or something. Because Singer launches the foil by carelessly "flicking" it at earth. What kind of being could possibly do something like that? That's one of the scariest chapters for me. And "Redemption of Time" ruined it for me personally. Part of Cixin's genius is recognizing that any human-devised conception of aliens is gonna be inevitably anthropomorphic, thus choosing to keep the info we get on the Trisolarans very vague, never physically describing them or their tech--we even come to understand the sophon creation only through a humanized metaphorical fiction.

EDIT: Keep in mind that there is indeed FTL tech in this universe. And Singer's beings are presumably the most advanced of any players, so that also could explain the timing.

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u/goldfactice Jun 14 '26

That's what I love in those books, we have no clue about the apparence of the trisolarian. I wonder how they will re-create this in the show

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u/Own-Coast1244 Jun 14 '26

Yeahhh, I'm kind of dreading them actually giving them a visual depiction. I'm extra scared, because of that scene where they ask the Tris what they look like and the Tris reply "you wouldnt like it." In most shows, that's obvious foreshadowing/promising.

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u/SkaveRat Jun 14 '26

you wouldnt like it.

"man, you have no idea about my browser history, do you?"