Qin Shi Huang

Character from three-body-problem by

The First Emperor of unified Qin, recast as a Three Body NPC who solves the three-body problem in the only way that scales — by ordering thirty million soldiers into the world's first human-formation computer.

Qin Shi Huang in the game is the same merciless unifier of history, only with a different problem. Von Neumann and Newton have brought him a proposal: a mechanical computer made of human beings. Three soldiers form a logic gate. A million form a CPU. Thirty million, drilled and signaling with raised flags by day and lanterns by night, can run a numerical simulation of three suns and a planet. He orders it built. He executes the soldiers who fail to keep formation. The resulting Computer Formation runs successfully — until a sudden chaotic era flash-freezes the entire plain mid-calculation, and the civilization, having very nearly understood the universe, dies. The player understands then that this is what the Trisolarans have always faced: brilliance is not enough.

Appearance

An imperial figure in lacquered black armor over deep crimson robes, a square crown with hanging beads obscuring half his face, a long bronze sword at his hip. Behind him, the player sees a plain so vast it curves with the planet, and on it thirty million soldiers in geometric formations — each a logic gate.

Also known as: First Emperor, Ying Zheng

What They Know

Connections

View full profile at Simulacra.Ink