"The Three-Body Problem" — Correspondence to the Inhabitants of Trisolaris
Greetings, inhabitants of the planet Trisolaris. I accidentally found myself in your world, over which three stars hang. Life on your planet is more cruel than on my homeland. You have three stars, and their path is complex and unpredictable. But if life on your planet is alive, if intelligence has grown on it, then the chaos of your stars is not boundless, and there is magic of order within it. And I have brought you an observation that can be verified. Take three stars at a single moment. Through them, a celestial plane can be drawn. Take three such planes at three close moments in time: the day before yesterday, yesterday, today. Any two planes intersect in a line. Three lines converge at a single point — let us call it the Eye of Trimurti . When the Eye moves slowly, the celestial planes are in harmony. This is the Stable Era . Then you can build, sow, teach children, and prepare supplies. When the Eye begins to accelerate, the pattern loses its strength. It may still...