New Reporter
19-10-21, 11:54
Writer Liu Cixin on How His Visions of the Future Collide With Reality
The bestselling novelist’s ‘hard science fiction’ books and short stories have explored the fate of humanity—and how the universe might end
Natasha Khan
Oct. 5, 2021
The Future of Everything covers the innovation and technology transforming the way we live, work and play, with monthly issues on education, money, cities and more. This month is a digital edition on Entertainment & Culture, online starting Oct. 5.
Catastrophe has often befallen the worlds created by novelist Liu Cixin, from the threat of alien annihilation in his 2008 book “The Three-Body Problem” to an exploding sun engulfing the planet in his 2000 novella “The Wandering Earth.” China’s most prominent science fiction writer has attracted a global following for his epic stories, counting among his fans Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama.
Mr. Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy—which chronicles humanity’s first encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization in a tale that spans from the 1960s to the end of time—is now being made into a Netflix series by “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
In China, fans grappling with the country’s breakneck changes are keenly interested in Mr. Liu’s takes on science, technology, the cosmos and humankind’s fate. His work is credited with heralding a renaissance for the genre in the country, and he is now working with a local tech company on an immersive entertainment experience based on his books.
The 58-year-old worked as a computer engineer at a power plant in China’s northern Shanxi province as he crafted his earlier works. He has written dozens of short stories and several novels, which have been recognized by various awards in China. “The Three-Body Problem,” which kicked off the “Remembrance” trilogy, won the 2015 Hugo Award for excellence in science fiction writing.
Weaving the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary advances in technology, his plots involve characters who come up with myriad ways to save humanity: cryogenic hibernation, underground cities, escaping space ships.
Mr. Liu recently spoke with The Future of Everything about how his work informs his vision of where China and the world are headed culturally, and how humanity will deal with change.
What made you focus on the future in your work?
When I was a child, changes in society happened slowly. At that time, I was not very interested in the future because I subconsciously felt that there wouldn’t be a big difference between reality and what life would be like in the future. After China’s reform and opening up, the development of Chinese society accelerated dramatically.
This experience has shaped my concept of the future. I believe that the development of human civilization is an accelerating process. The world will undergo monumental changes in the future: These will turn everything upside down, and at the same time, they will be unpredictable, even unimaginable. I’m very attracted to this kind of future, and it is also the reason why I became a science fiction writer.
Chinese culture was dominated by realism, where culture mainly represented reality, and a considerable part of it reflected its historic past. My work is trying to make Chinese culture a forward-looking culture.
In your books, nations often band together against extraterrestrials. Do you think this is a realistic portrayal of what might happen?
In the past, we used to have an assumption: that if humanity was faced with a collective threat, people would throw away their differences, unite, join forces and overcome the crisis together. Now I realize that might have been too perfect of a wish. Looking back at the past two years, the pandemic has pushed nations toward more divisions. The events of the past few years have made me feel the uncertainty of the future, and made me realize that we cannot use straight-line thinking to predict what is to come. Sudden twists and turns that we haven’t anticipated could happen at any time.
So if the aliens really come to Earth, I see two possibilities: One is that we all pull together to face their arrival. The other: They will come to Earth and we will become more and more fractured. It’s hard not to admit that the second possibility is probably more plausible. It’s the most likely conclusion that can be reached from what we’ve seen over the past two years.
In ‘Death’s End,’ the final book in the ‘Remembrance’ trilogy, there is a future society driven by feminine influences. What needs to happen for that to become reality?
It’s not about whether it can occur, it has already occurred! In China, South Korea and Japan, in the past the movie stars in this region certainly had more “traditional male” attributes. But now, many of the most famous male stars here embrace their feminine qualities. What people are looking for in terms of idols and beauty ideals are shifting.
Perhaps in the past there was a need for more “masculine” energy, when living conditions were cruel and violent. But now life is more peaceful—one of the only times you need brute strength might be when someone needs help carrying a particularly heavy suitcase up the stairs during a business trip. So those “male attributes” might not be as useful in modern society, which in turn changes the way people define beauty. That change seems to be happening very rapidly in the East.
What is the biggest technological shift we’ll see in the future?
It’s definitely going to be artificial intelligence. I don’t think AI will overtake humans in the short term, but it will have a profound impact on society. Recently, I stayed at a hotel near Beijing, and I didn’t encounter a single human worker during my stay. From checking in to ordering takeout, there wasn’t a single human interaction, everything was done on apps and with AI-powered bots.
This is more and more common in China. I used to think that AI would displace simple and repetitive jobs, but now I think the opposite: It will replace more “senior” positions like doctors, lawyers, teachers and stock analysts. On the other hand, it’s the jobs that are more labor intensive that will be harder to replace. I renovated my house recently, and needed an electrician to rewire the entire living room. I really can’t see a situation where AI can replace that kind of a job in the short term.
But AI’s effect on people will be sweeping, and an issue we will have to grapple with in the very near future. We’re past the agricultural and industrial age and firmly stepped into the era of AI.
Interview has been condensed and edited.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/writer-liu-cixin-on-how-his-visions-of-the-future-collide-with-reality-11633446000
The bestselling novelist’s ‘hard science fiction’ books and short stories have explored the fate of humanity—and how the universe might end
Natasha Khan
Oct. 5, 2021
The Future of Everything covers the innovation and technology transforming the way we live, work and play, with monthly issues on education, money, cities and more. This month is a digital edition on Entertainment & Culture, online starting Oct. 5.
Catastrophe has often befallen the worlds created by novelist Liu Cixin, from the threat of alien annihilation in his 2008 book “The Three-Body Problem” to an exploding sun engulfing the planet in his 2000 novella “The Wandering Earth.” China’s most prominent science fiction writer has attracted a global following for his epic stories, counting among his fans Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama.
Mr. Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy—which chronicles humanity’s first encounter with an extraterrestrial civilization in a tale that spans from the 1960s to the end of time—is now being made into a Netflix series by “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
In China, fans grappling with the country’s breakneck changes are keenly interested in Mr. Liu’s takes on science, technology, the cosmos and humankind’s fate. His work is credited with heralding a renaissance for the genre in the country, and he is now working with a local tech company on an immersive entertainment experience based on his books.
The 58-year-old worked as a computer engineer at a power plant in China’s northern Shanxi province as he crafted his earlier works. He has written dozens of short stories and several novels, which have been recognized by various awards in China. “The Three-Body Problem,” which kicked off the “Remembrance” trilogy, won the 2015 Hugo Award for excellence in science fiction writing.
Weaving the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary advances in technology, his plots involve characters who come up with myriad ways to save humanity: cryogenic hibernation, underground cities, escaping space ships.
Mr. Liu recently spoke with The Future of Everything about how his work informs his vision of where China and the world are headed culturally, and how humanity will deal with change.
What made you focus on the future in your work?
When I was a child, changes in society happened slowly. At that time, I was not very interested in the future because I subconsciously felt that there wouldn’t be a big difference between reality and what life would be like in the future. After China’s reform and opening up, the development of Chinese society accelerated dramatically.
This experience has shaped my concept of the future. I believe that the development of human civilization is an accelerating process. The world will undergo monumental changes in the future: These will turn everything upside down, and at the same time, they will be unpredictable, even unimaginable. I’m very attracted to this kind of future, and it is also the reason why I became a science fiction writer.
Chinese culture was dominated by realism, where culture mainly represented reality, and a considerable part of it reflected its historic past. My work is trying to make Chinese culture a forward-looking culture.
In your books, nations often band together against extraterrestrials. Do you think this is a realistic portrayal of what might happen?
In the past, we used to have an assumption: that if humanity was faced with a collective threat, people would throw away their differences, unite, join forces and overcome the crisis together. Now I realize that might have been too perfect of a wish. Looking back at the past two years, the pandemic has pushed nations toward more divisions. The events of the past few years have made me feel the uncertainty of the future, and made me realize that we cannot use straight-line thinking to predict what is to come. Sudden twists and turns that we haven’t anticipated could happen at any time.
So if the aliens really come to Earth, I see two possibilities: One is that we all pull together to face their arrival. The other: They will come to Earth and we will become more and more fractured. It’s hard not to admit that the second possibility is probably more plausible. It’s the most likely conclusion that can be reached from what we’ve seen over the past two years.
In ‘Death’s End,’ the final book in the ‘Remembrance’ trilogy, there is a future society driven by feminine influences. What needs to happen for that to become reality?
It’s not about whether it can occur, it has already occurred! In China, South Korea and Japan, in the past the movie stars in this region certainly had more “traditional male” attributes. But now, many of the most famous male stars here embrace their feminine qualities. What people are looking for in terms of idols and beauty ideals are shifting.
Perhaps in the past there was a need for more “masculine” energy, when living conditions were cruel and violent. But now life is more peaceful—one of the only times you need brute strength might be when someone needs help carrying a particularly heavy suitcase up the stairs during a business trip. So those “male attributes” might not be as useful in modern society, which in turn changes the way people define beauty. That change seems to be happening very rapidly in the East.
What is the biggest technological shift we’ll see in the future?
It’s definitely going to be artificial intelligence. I don’t think AI will overtake humans in the short term, but it will have a profound impact on society. Recently, I stayed at a hotel near Beijing, and I didn’t encounter a single human worker during my stay. From checking in to ordering takeout, there wasn’t a single human interaction, everything was done on apps and with AI-powered bots.
This is more and more common in China. I used to think that AI would displace simple and repetitive jobs, but now I think the opposite: It will replace more “senior” positions like doctors, lawyers, teachers and stock analysts. On the other hand, it’s the jobs that are more labor intensive that will be harder to replace. I renovated my house recently, and needed an electrician to rewire the entire living room. I really can’t see a situation where AI can replace that kind of a job in the short term.
But AI’s effect on people will be sweeping, and an issue we will have to grapple with in the very near future. We’re past the agricultural and industrial age and firmly stepped into the era of AI.
Interview has been condensed and edited.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/writer-liu-cixin-on-how-his-visions-of-the-future-collide-with-reality-11633446000