Spoiler Alert

Please do not read this post if you have not read The Three Body Problem or The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin and ever intend to.

I just finally finished The Dark Forest, the middle book of the three body trilogy. Boy howdy!!! How cool were those last 50 pages!?

So, there's much to discuss for bitcoiners concerning the parallel between the dark forest and the byzantine generals' dilemma, but, for now, can we just talk about the ultra-brief mention of lasers in that chaotic part after the destruction of Starship Earth?

If I got it right, in that era, the general population possesses en masse handgun style lasers. These lasers are powerful enough for self defense, but individually, not powerful enough to take down a spaceship trying to launch. HOWEVER, and this is the cool part, all together they CAN take down a spaceship because...you know, how lasers work and stuff. They compound their energy together or something like that. Correct me here science nerds.

What an interesting, but basically-just-mentioned-in-passing idea! I feel like the implications of this could have been fleshed out a whole lot more, although I can see how it was just a creative idea he came up with to serve a totally different story.

Anyway, it reminded me of bitcoin...but violent. I've long had an idea in the back of my head for a fantasy story in which the magic system is decentralized, but Cixin Liu came up with a really great sci-fi equivalent here. I wonder if some creative storyteller might want to jump on a similar idea?

...and yeah, I know, a WAY bigger discussion could be had about how the dark forest and the byzantine generals' dilemma are similar and the implication that a bitcoiny response could shed light in the dark forest. I just think this whole laser thing is more of a cool parallel right now.