'3 Body Problem' ending: What does Dr Ye Wenjie's 'joke' about God really mean? | 5491605 | 2024-04-01 10:08:01
'3 Body Problem' ending: What does Dr Ye Wenjie's 'joke' about God really mean? | 5491605 | 2024-04-01 10:08:01
The difficulty with a show as mysterious as Netflix's 3 Body Problem is you need to know the solutions now — and that feeling gets amplified with the information we might have to wait one other yr to get them.
One of the largest cliffhangers David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, and Alexander Woo's sci-fi epic leaves us on is actually a two-parter: What was the actual which means behind the "joke" advised by Dr Ye Wenjie (Rosalind Chao) to Saul Durand (Jovan Adepo) on the park bench in episode 7? And in what means might it assist with Saul being made a "wallfacer" in the finale, one in every of three individuals tasked with plotting their own secret, inner scheme to greatest the approaching aliens?
We have poured over the clues to attempt to work it out. The first part of this article analyses the present itself, whereas the ultimate part accommodates spoilers from Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past novel trilogy, on which the present is predicated (we'll mark it with a spoiler warning in case you need to bow out then).
What's the "joke" that Dr Ye Wenjie tells Saul?
In episode 7, Wenjie is launched from custody, exposed as the religious leader of the alien-worshipping Earth-Trisolaris Organization (ETO). Now that she is aware of the aliens she initially contacted all those years ago aren't coming to play nice, Wenjie contacts Saul and tells him an extended, strange joke about Albert Einstein and God. This is the joke, in full:
"So Einstein dies. He finds himself in heaven, and he has his violin. He's overjoyed. He loves his violin greater than physics. Much more than ladies. He's excited to learn how nicely he can play in heaven. He imagines he'll be fairly rattling good. So he begins tuning up, and the angels rush at him.
'What are you doing?' they say.
'I'm on the brink of play.'
'Don't do this. God will not prefer it. He's a saxophonist.'
So Einstein stops. He does not play. However it's troublesome. He loves music. And there's truly not much to do in heaven. And positive enough, from excessive above, he hears the saxophone. He is enjoying 'Take the 'A' Practice', have you learnt that one? Einstein is aware of it too. And he thinks, I'll do it. I'll play with him. We will sound great together. So he begins enjoying 'Take the 'A' Practice'. The saxophone stops, and God seems. He marches over to Einstein and kicks him in the balls, which hurts, even in heaven. Then he smashes Einstein's beloved violin to bits. Eternity without music. Heaven has develop into hell for Einstein. And as he writhes on the ground, holding his smashed balls, an angel comes over and says: 'We warned you: By no means play with God.'"
Not precisely a rib-tickler, is it? However the level of the joke clearly is not to make Saul snort. There's a hidden which means in there. The query is, what?
What does Wenjie's joke mean?
Once Wenjie realises the aliens at the moment are afraid of humanity and need to wipe us out, she clearly makes a plan.
"I am an previous lady, whose previous beliefs have led us down this horrible path," she says in episode 6, addressing the aliens immediately. "However I nonetheless have an concept or two left in me. And centuries from now there might be a fair struggle — or no battle in any respect."
The subsequent time we see Wenjie in episode 7, shortly before she calls Saul to satisfy, she appears at two books (each of that are precise, real books): K.H. Erickson's Game Theory: A Simple Introduction, and Michael Bodin's Fermi's Paradox: Cosmology and Life. Except for the joke itself, these books are the most important clues we now have as to what Wenjie is perhaps making an attempt to communicate to Saul. The first ebook on Recreation Concept is actually a social science e-book about strategy, while the second guide addresses the question of life in the universe. Briefly, Fermi's Paradox poses a simple query: If there are other species within the universe, why have not we encountered them but?
Hidden somewhere in Wenjie's joke, it might seem, is a technique for both preventing the aliens, or avoiding a struggle with them altogether. Might the God in Wenjie's joke be a metaphor for the aliens travelling across the universe to destroy us? If that's the case, perhaps Einstein represents humanity. By enjoying music, he alerts God to his presence. Is the joke a warning for humans not to attract consideration to themselves? But when that's the case, is not it a bit too late for that?
Warning: The following part incorporates spoilers from Liu Cixin's novel trilogy. We have tried to keep them mild, however they'll probably spoil some parts of the present's future seasons.
What do Liu Cixin's books inform us?
For anybody who cannot wait, the answer to the joke lies in Liu Cixin's second novel in the trilogy, titled The Dark Forest. The title itself truly types a part of the reply. "The Dark Forest" is actually a potential answer to Fermi's Paradox, suggesting that the rationale we've not encountered different alien races is because the universe is like a forest at night time — everybody stays silent with a purpose to stay unnoticed. Alien races do not broadcast their places because they do not need other races to detect them — and probably assault them.
With this in mind, Wenjie's "joke" abruptly makes a lot more sense. Einstein enjoying the trumpet and incurring the wrath of God isn't a warning — it is the darkish forest analogy in code. A social technique answer to Fermi's Paradox, and probably something Saul might use in his position as wall-facer.
The way to watch: 3 Body Problem is now streaming on Netflix.
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