Three Body Problem in the book set the alien world in Alpha Centari, which is not a three body system.

Even a cursory analysis at the time of writing would have ruled out Alpha Centari.

It was shockingly bad research.

Alpha Centauri is a triple star, even if it is not the kind of three body system depicted in that story (mainly because one of the 3 stars is much smaller than the other 2, so it orbits stably around them like a very big and distant planet).

While the triple star Alpha Centauri does not have mass ratios between its stars that are compatible with the story plot, I think that ignoring this technical detail is a much less serious plot hole than those of the majority of the non-fantastic Hollywood movies, which are supposed to happen in the real world, but they still contain a lot of impossible actions.

Proxima orbits at a great distance from the inner pair of stars, around their center of mass. Proxima is also a small red dwarf star. This layout had to have been well-known by the time the book was written.

This is perhaps similar to the pursuit of "unobtainium" in Avatar.

Both just seem lazy.

Never mind that; how about sentient (AI) protons?

The Sophons are actually more believable. Much has been discovered since the first book was written, and that was actually a very good guess.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/inside-the-proton-the-most-co...

I don't see how. Yes, protons are made out of quarks. No, this doesn't mean that you can "roll out" proton "like a sheet", and then "etch a circuit" (!!!) on it, quantum or otherwise.