Three-Body Problem Interpretation 08：Ye Wenjie

Though Wang logs off, he cannot stop thinking about the Chaotic Era. He reflects on a day in school, when he learned about information theory. To illustrate the concept, his professor showed the class two images: a painting called Along the River During the Qingming Festival—which was filled with many details—and a photograph of a wispy cloud in the sky. Surprisingly, the photograph contained more information because “its entropy exceeded the painting’s by one or two orders of magnitude.” Wang reflects that the Three Body game is the same way; though it seems simple, the game is actually quite complex.

Wang arrives at Yang Dong’s mother’s apartment complex, per his conversation with Ding Yi. He sees an old woman struggling with her groceries and guesses correctly that this is Yang’s mother. Upon offering to help her, Wang learns that Yang’s mother is in fact the scientist Ye Wenjie. Ye brings Wang up the stairs into her apartment, and he sees that she is watching several neighbors’ young children. Wang observes that Ye is a natural grandmother, and he wonders if she was sad that Yang Dong never had children. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Li36FmS2wlA