Chapter 301 The Life Form of the Trisolaran

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(This chapter is a speculation about the appearance of the Trisolarans. Those who do not like such speculation should avoid this section, but those who are interested are welcome to discuss it together.)

Humanity's Sophons have been monitoring the Trisolaran world for ten years now, and have basically come to understand all aspects of it.

Currently, Trisolaris remains the primary residence of the Trisolarans. Due to resource issues, the population aboard the constructed Starship Trisolaris still makes up less than one percent of the total population.

The most interesting question naturally is, what exactly do Trisolarans look like?

The life form of the Trisolarans is both unique and within the bounds of reason, representing a brand new and distinctive life form.

There are some universal laws among life forms. For example, higher life forms inevitably have strong, balanced sensory organs that enable them to explore and understand their environment.

While Humanity does not lead in every sense, such as vision, hearing, touch, smell, and taste, each of our sensory capabilities is among the best on Earth, without any weak points. In combination, they are absolutely the strongest among all species.

Trisolarans are carbon-based life forms with similar sensory organs, but their structure and functions are quite different from those of Earth species.

Trisolarans have eyes but no ears, or rather, their ears are a patch of skin on their abdomen. They have a mouth but no vocal cords, and they lack speech organs as well.

Their eyes are deep black but covered with a layer of white outer membrane. This protects them from overly strong sunlight and also allows them to survive in dark environments.

Their sense of touch and smell is extremely acute. Their tactile organs can even feel the vibration of air. Their main tactile organs are their hands and abdomen.

Their olfactory organs are somewhat like a snake's tongue, sensing the world around them through scent.

The tops of their heads are very smooth, like mirrors, and this is the most critical part for using brainwaves to communicate.

At the same time, this "mirror" on their heads can display very faint thought images, which makes communication easier when Trisolarans are close to each other. Thinking doesn't automatically transmit thoughts to other Trisolarans, as that kind of brainwave communication would be too energy consuming.

The most prominent characteristic of the Trisolarans is their energy efficiency.

For Trisolarans, brainwave communication is not just about seeking faster exchanges; it is an inevitable choice for the survival and development of their underground civilization.

Like ant societies in their organizational structure, the Trisolarans have also formed a closely-knit group society in their subterranean world.

However, general subterranean societies rely on pheromones for simple communication, which is too primitive and cannot support the emergence of an advanced social civilization.

In the dim underground environment, the absence of light makes the spread of knowledge and learning through communication exceedingly difficult. At the same time, the complexity of underground caves makes voice communication impractical as well.

Against this backdrop, the emergence of brainwave communication was undoubtedly a revolution in Trisolaran evolutionary history. It not only broke through the constraints of the underground environment but also greatly increased the efficiency of communication, laying a solid foundation for the birth of an advanced society in the Trisolaran world—otherwise, they would always remain mere bugs of the underground.

For survival, the Trisolarans must tirelessly dig caverns underground, using these cavities as shelters to ensure their safety. They also rely on eating the roots and stems of surface plants to sustain life, a lifestyle that also shapes their physical characteristics and habits.

Trisolarans typically stand about 60 centimeters tall. They are short and agile, a body size that allows them to navigate freely through subterranean caverns.

More uniquely, they possess six limbs—two arms and four legs.

Unlike humans, Trisolarans have no hard bones but are made of numerous cartilages and special muscles tightly integrated to form their bodies.

This unique bodily structure grants them astonishing speed and agility, especially their four short legs, which allow them to run at very fast speeds in the underground world and easily confront various challenges.

Despite their remarkable speed, Trisolarans' stamina is relatively limited. This characteristic may stem from their unique physiological structure and specific survival methods that naturally limit their sustained energy expenditure; in underground caverns, when facing danger, hiding is more important than fleeing.

The arms of the Trisolarans, although short, display an astonishing intricacy and flexibility. Their control over force is impressively precise.

Especially at the tips of their arms, the sensitivity is extraordinary, allowing them to easily detect subtle vibrations and temperature changes that are difficult for ordinary people to perceive.

This outstanding perceptual and control ability is key to the Trisolarans' remarkable achievements in the field of technology.

It is worth noting that since Trisolarans have six fingers, their mathematical system is also unique, commonly using base-12 for calculations. This distinctive numerical system not only reflects their physiological characteristics but also shapes their way of thinking and direction of technological development to some extent.

Although Trisolaran technology is powerful, their damned bodies can be called weak. If it comes to a contest of strength, Humanity has every reason to confidently declare, "I could take on a hundred of them!" However, this does not mean that Trisolarans are at a disadvantage in their own living environment.

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In fact, in the survival rules of the underground world, excessive physical strength is not a necessary condition for survival. Instead, this environment emphasizes more on dexterity, agility and the fine utilization of resources.

The Trisolarans' moderately sized and moderately strong traits are precisely the product of their long-term adaptation and evolution in the underground environment.

Excessive strength usually means that more food energy is needed for maintenance. In the resource-limited underground environment, this is clearly a luxury.

The body tissue of Trisolarans is similar to a special kind of latex tissue, both soft and tough, which can adapt to various extreme environments. Their skin is a pale blue that seems capable of absorbing and reflecting ambient light.

This latex-like tissue endows the Trisolarans with an astonishing physiological function. In a dehydrated state, their metabolic rate can drop almost to zero. This is the Trisolarans' dehydration ability.

Even more peculiar is the Trisolarans' mode of reproduction. During procreation, the bodies of both partners undergo a wondrous fusion process, after which they nurture 2 to 6 embryos.

These embryos hatch and grow within the fused parental cavity, absorbing all the nutrients from the parents until they burst out, ready to start their own life journeys.

The Trisolarans have a unique slip-ring structure between their neck and torso, which is also their gestational organ.

When Trisolarans prepare to procreate, their heads will burrow into each other's slip-rings until the two rings become completely fused, with the fused rings taking up almost one-third of their bodies.

During the merging process, their brain nerves and other tissues intertwine to jointly nourish the new embryonic tissues.

As time passes, the embryos grow, expanding the slip-ring as well, and the other two-thirds of the parents' tissues also become nourishment for them.

This unique mode of reproduction results in Trisolarans often inheriting many memories and skills from both parents, giving them a foundational ability to survive that better equips them to withstand harsh environmental challenges.

The biosphere of the Trisolaran world and Earth's have significant differences, particularly in their dependence on sunlight and the habitats of their life forms.

Earth's biosphere is a typical heliophytic one, where sunlight is an important element for the survival and reproduction of life. Herbs, shrubs, trees, and various other flora and fauna depend on sunlight for photosynthesis, which results in a thriving and diverse biosphere.

However, the biosphere of the Trisolaran world is drastically different; it belongs to the sciaphilic category. In this world, aside from some surface plants, most life forms choose to live underground.

The Trisolaran surface plants are almost exclusively clinging to the ground, and the energy they get from sunlight is used for growing roots rather than stems and leaves.

This is due to the peculiar conditions of the Trisolaran world, where the surface environment can be extremely harsh, with extreme temperatures, intense radiation, or lack of stable liquid water, making the underground a more suitable place for life to thrive.

In the original story, the Trisolarans are always shrouded in a mysterious and awe-inspiring veil, with their physiological structure, social organization, and cultural traditions all profoundly inscrutable, spurring limitless imagination.

However, as the veil of the Trisolarans is lifted, everything about them becomes clear and visible, and all sense of mystery vanishes instantly.

When Lin Sen saw the Trisolarans for the first time, he couldn't help but be greatly disappointed. At least make them look somewhat like aliens, but these were just oversized bugs, weren't they?

Today, the Trisolarans are no longer that awe-inspiring unknown creature; every detail about them is laid bare in front of humanity, with no secrets left to tell.

The Trisolarans once said humanity was like bugs, and initially, humans took this as a contemptuous view from the Trisolarans.

It wasn't until after seeing the Trisolaran world that Lin Sen realized, humanity's form was actually quite similar to a species of bug in the Trisolaran world; even more peculiar was that these Trisolaran Bugs were a form of small-sized vertebrate mammals.

Of course, in human understanding, Trisolarans were crawlers without a backbone, essentially bugs.

It turns out that humans and Trisolarans each considered the other as bugs.

PS: The fact that Trisolarans live underground is mentioned in the original work, not fabricated by the author, and this makes the most sense.

Therefore, the author believes that Trisolarans are quite similar to bugs, resembling a combination of the Hexapod Subphylum and Phylum Mollusca.

The original work describes the Trisolarans' reproduction as a fusion of one-third of the parents' cells into 2 to 6 embryos, with the other two-thirds of the cells providing nourishment, and nerve memory cells also being passed down.

But Trisolaran skin must have strong resistance; otherwise, it would be disadvantageous for survival, and bodily fusion should not be a direct merging of bodies. Thus, the author believes that this body fusion is facilitated through the slip-ring, with both parties entering each other's bodies before merging.

The slip-ring of Trisolarans is also similar to the collar of an earthworm. Earthworms reproduce by burrowing into each other's collars, though their cells cannot merge.

The sensory organs of Trisolarans, these will surely be different from those on Earth, but they must also have commonalities. The laws of physics in Trisolaris are consistent with those on Earth, and Trisolarans must also possess keen senses for sound, light, electricity, pheromones...etc., although the shape and structure can be different, corresponding sensory organs definitely exist.