3 ms·
(SPOILERS) Was the point of the sophon meddling to make the scientists commit suicide? I thought the point was to simply prevent the gathering of experimental e
by csallen 5y ago
(SPOILERS) Was the point of the sophon meddling to make the scientists commit suicide? I thought the point was to simply prevent the gathering of experimental evidence, which would stymie progress. The scientist suicides were just an unintended (if hokey and unbelievable) side effect, and it didn't seem like the plot depended on them.
- SkyMarshal 5y agoThat was my reading of it too. The suicides were only a side-effect of the real objective, and perhaps more credible in Asian culture where historically, suicides were a means of redeeming oneself for a great failure, shame, or loss of face. But they were not the main objective of the Trisolarians’ intervention. The main objective was to sabotage particle accelerators and thus prevent humanity from understanding the full subatomic structure of matter, which is the key to scientific and technological advancement. Thus humanity would not be able to defend itself when the Trisolarian fleet arrived to colonize Earth 400yrs later.