62 pages • 2 hours read
Liu Cixin, Transl. Joel MartinsenThe Dark Forest
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 3, Chapter 5, Page 433-Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3: “The Dark Forest”
Part 3, Chapter 5, Pages 433-493 Summary: “Year 205, Crisis Era”
Zhang Beihai addresses the crew of Natural Selection and the crews of the other four ships via hologram. After news of the fleet’s destruction, they give him command of the last five known ships in the fleet. He names them Spaceship Earth and begins making plans for their survival as Earth’s last hope.
On Earth, society suffers a breakdown, although the hibernators adjust better, already accustomed to the feeling of impending doom. Shi Qiang is placed in command of his village and suggests they migrate in case Beijing collapses and people come to the surface.
On Natural Selection, the first Citizens’ Assembly is held, and they support Zhang Beihai’s plan to reach the star Cygnus: Two Jupiter-like planets will provide them with enough fuel to change course for a solar system with a known Earth-like planet. It will take them nearly 2,000 years to reach Cygnus and there is a possibility that they will never find a new planet and will live forever on the spaceship. They declare their independence from Earth and the UN gives its blessing. They debate potential governmental structures and Zhang Beihai asks Dongfang Yanxu to retain his captain privileges as a reward for his work, ensuring her that he won’t interfere with her command. She grants him this and he retires from service.
Lan Xi, the chief psychologist of Natural Selection, prepares for Problem N, the crushing nostalgia for Earth, but instead finds a different psychological shadow descending upon the crew. They feel disconnected from Earth and humanity and describe feeling non-human. Someone shoots their bunkmate in a fit of paranoia. When Lan Xi asks this individual if he wants to undergo hypnotherapy, the man refuses and attacks Lan Xi. Lan Xi consults with another chaplain who cryptically says that the Garden of Eden is growing dark, and that people will be expelled. He suggests Lan Xi eat the fruit. To understand him, Lan Xi self-reflects and falls into a deep depression. A deep depression also leads the captain of Ultimate Law to kill himself. The darkness of space is creeping into everyone’s minds.
Dongfang Yanxu meets with her vice-captains and, by communicating with only looks, realizes that there are too many people for their resources and that they must kill the other ships if they are to survive. As they plan an attack, they realize that Zhang Beihai already planned this and has hydrogen bombs primed and aimed at the rest of their small fleet. These bombs will send pulses that will kill all life on board but preserve the ships and their resources. Dongfang Yanxu tries to join him, not wanting him to bear the responsibility alone, but they are soon killed by a strike sent from Ultimate Law. Each of the ships realizes their need to attack at the same time and the Battle of Darkness begins. The Natural Selection crew are annihilated but Blue Space create a vacuum in their ship, protecting themselves from the bomb’s waves. Ultimate Law’s bombs kill the crews of the other two pursuing ships and is destroyed itself by a counterstrike from Blue Space. Blue Space is the only surviving ship, and it harvests the fuel and resources it can from the other ships before holding a funeral and leaving. On the other side of the solar system, Bronze Age attacks Quantum in the same way, taking its resources and continuing its flight.
On Earth, news of these attacks reaches humanity. While others lament, Luo Ji celebrates. He knows that his theory from 200 years ago is correct. He also believes that the probe, predicted to arrive at Earth in ten hours, is coming to kill him. Shi Qiang and Luo Ji descend into Beijing and meet with the new mayor, a hibernator himself. He cannot help as he is dealing with the chaos around them. Escapism once again rises and falls and people gather around space ports and space elevators, destroying them with concentrated laser blasts to prevent anyone from leaving Earth.
As the probe approaches Earth and will arrive within hours. Luo Ji and Shi Qiang return to the surface and drive out to the plain where they part. Luo Ji drives further, not wanting to endanger Shi Qiang if the probe does strike him. Shi Qiang does not believe that the probe is coming for Luo Ji, but the news confirms that the probe is heading for their corner of China. As he waits, Luo Ji reflects on his life. When the probe arrives, it stops above the surface and emits an electromagnetic wave toward the sun, blocking the sun’s amplifications threshold, meaning that humanity can no longer send messages into the stars.
Luo Ji finds Shi Qiang and they return to their village, where they stumble upon a group from the underground city. They call Luo Ji an angel of justice. News breaks that star 187J3X1 was destroyed, proving Luo Ji’s theory correct. He is restored to Wallfacer status. Luo Ji and Shi Qiang leave the village and go out into the darkness where Luo Ji explains his theory. He explains “cosmic sociology”: No matter if a civilization is benevolent or malicious, the chain of suspicion will push them to eliminate any other civilization to protect their own. Luo Ji compares the universe to a dark forest where the only path for a civilization’s safety is to preemptively eliminate any other civilization they encounter. His theory is correct, but now the sun is locked down by the probe and he cannot put his plan into action, as he needs to sun’s amplification. They part, with Shi Qiang heading to work to restore order in the city and Luo Ji attempting to wake his family.
The government refuses to wake Luo Ji’s family because he must work. He tells them that his plan is now meaningless with the sun locked down. The government wants him to keep up the appearance that he is working toward humanity’s salvation and tasks him with leading the Snow Project. They want to make a dust cloud around the entire solar system by using hydrogen bombs to disperse oil film so they can track the probes’ arrival. This will give the world a chance to send out some ships to survive the invasion. The project is near-impossible, and it has no support among the fleets or the public. Despite this, Luo Ji puts his life into the project. His involvement causes him to lose popularity and support among the public as they see the project as a form of Escapism and believe that the destruction of star 187J3X1 was a coincidence.
Part 3, Chapter 6 Summary: “Year 208, Crisis Era”
The village council votes to expel Luo Ji from the village, as his unpopularity attracts protests and the media. He leaves with only a bag and a shovel, catching a ride with a family passing through town. When they recognize him as the Wallfacer, they kick him out of the car. He finds a public bus but is soon expelled from that as well. He finally makes his way through old Beijing to the graves of Yang Dong and Ye Wenjie. He digs his own grave next to them. As he takes a break from digging, he decides to confront Trisolaris one last time. He calls out to the sophons and explains that he has a kill switch on his wrist that will detonate the bombs he placed in space for Project Snow if his heart stops. He takes a pistol and points it at his heart, explaining that the bombs are placed in precise locations that, when detonated, will disrupt the lockdown of the star and transmit the locations of both Trisolaris and Earth out to the universe. According to the dark forest theory of protection, this will mean mutually assured destruction for both civilizations. He gives them 30 seconds to respond.
The sophons appear and tell him to stop. Communication opens between Earth and Trisolaris and Luo Ji makes his demands. The probe must stop blocking the sun and the other probes must change their course. The Trisolar fleet must change its course away from the solar system. Trisolaris agrees to all his terms and admits that they knew the universe to be a dark forest. They recognize their failure in guessing Luo Ji’s real strategy: They thought he took special care in the placement of the bombs because he wanted to distract himself from his life by throwing himself into his work. From this point forward, the two civilizations must cooperate to save the Trisolar fleet as it will be abandoned in space after passing the solar system. With his demands met, Luo Ji will hand over the kill switch and retires with his Wallfacer duties fulfilled.
Part 3, Chapter 7 Summary: “Five Years Later”
Luo Ji and his awakened family visit the new gravitational-wave antenna the Trisolarans helped them build to communicate with the universe. He and Zhuang Yan watch Xia Xia play and have a conversation through looks that exemplify their love for one another. A sophon appears and a Trisolaran protests recent statements made by Luo Ji that asserted only humanity is capable of love. The Trisolaran insists that they have love as well but, because of the harsh conditions of their survival, they have suppressed it. The Trisolaran speaking to Luo Ji is the Trisolaran that sent the warning to Earth over 200 years ago to not respond to Trisolaris. He wants these two civilizations to foster love in the universe and illuminate the dark forest. Luo Ji agrees and believes that it is a risk worth taking.
Part 3, Chapter 5, Page 433-Chapter 7 Analysis
This final section of The Dark Forest constitutes the darkest part of the novel, showing humanity at its lowest ebb before the relief of survival at its conclusion. It dwells on the aftermath of the probe’s destruction of the starships both on Natural Selection and on Earth. Zhang Beihai finds validation in his prediction of Trisolar superior technology and sees his vision of Escapism come to fruition. The vastness and darkness of space destroys his fleet until only one ship survives, leaving the solar system behind. This Battle of Darkness proves to Luo Ji that his 200-year-old theory about the nature of the universe is correct, leading him to formulate his final plan as a Wallfacer.
When Luo Ji hears of the Battle of Darkness, his theory of the dark forest is confirmed. He realizes that entities in space struggle to communicate but operate on the principle of survival, forcing them to be more aggressive in their interactions with each other. He explains his theory to Shi Qiang, emphasizing the chain of suspicion:
It’s something that you don’t see on Earth. Humanity’s shared species, cultural similarities, interconnected ecosystem, and close distances means that, in this environment, the chain of suspicion will only extend a level or two before it’s resolved through communication. But in space, the chain of suspicion can be very long. Something like the Battle of Darkness will already have taken place before communication can resolve it (482).
Civilizations operate on the information they have available to them, and on Earth, that information can be easily attained. When lightyears lie between civilizations and information takes hundreds of years to travel, decisions must be made quickly. In the theory of the dark forest, civilizations lash out to protect themselves from malicious civilizations. This means that they will strike another civilization before that civilization can create a situation of Survival Through Mutually Assured Destruction as in the case of Earth, who in order to reveal Trisolaris’s location would also have to reveal its own. Therefore, in the dark forest of the universe, it is better to eliminate another, whether they are known as a threat or not, before they can eliminate both civilizations.
Luo Ji briefly enjoys another rise to fame as a restored Wallflower, but as he consistently insists that his plan will not work with the probe blocking the sun’s amplification abilities, and works on the Snow Project, the world turns on him. His treatment recalls that of previous Wallfacers, and the novel thus sets up the suggestion that he, too, could fail and be killed. At this point, the novel focuses on experience the negative side of Expressive Communication:
Luo Ji could read the words in their eyes: Not being able to save the world isn’t your fault, but giving the world hope only to shatter it again is an unforgivable sin (498).
Luo Ji usually perceives others’ character from their expressions and rarely discerns their perceptions of him. In this case, when he is kicked out of the family’s car on his way to Beijing, he feels their critical gaze and must bear the weight of their disappointment. They do not want to be openly critical to him and use their expressions to convey their discontent. He understands this, receiving the information by looking in their eyes. After many positive and helpful expressive interactions, Luo Ji feels the bitter disappointment of those around him.
In the final stand against the Trisolarans, Luo Ji makes a threat of Survival Through Mutually Assured Destruction. Having found a way to counteract the lockdown of the sun by the probe, Luo Ji levels a threat against the Trisolarans that would ensure the death of both civilizations. His plan, unlike Rey Diaz’s, doesn’t wait for Trisolaris’s natural demise from their volatile suns, but seeks to eliminate the Trisolarans’ home planet alongside Earth. His threat is decisive and leaves no time for the Trisolarans to counter-strategize:
But unlike last time, the position will contain the transmission of Trisolaris relative to its surrounding twenty-nine stars. The sun will be a galactic lighthouse casting that spell, in the process, of course, also exposing the position of the sun and Earth (502).
Luo Ji knows the power of transmitting a star’s location to the universe, seeing first-hand the destruction of star 187J3X1. The Trisolarans know that the universe is a dark forest and that if Luo Ji sends this message out, their planet will certainly be destroyed. Luo Ji knows that the only way to make this threat includes exposing the Earth as well, and gambles on the principle of Survival Through Mutually Assured Destruction. The hope is that this threat will force both civilizations to help each other instead of engaging in conflict. Despite their differences, they are now in a situation that will lead to annihilation in the absence of cooperation, positing that a kind of love between civilizations can be cultivated through mutually assured destruction.
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