4 ms·

Yeah, the whole "planet's climate is stable enough for a sapient species to evolve and become hyper-advanced yet so unstable they're going to be wiped out" is s

by causi 3y ago

Yeah, the whole "planet's climate is stable enough for a sapient species to evolve and become hyper-advanced yet so unstable they're going to be wiped out" is so, so stupid.

endisneigh 3y ago
What’s stupid about it?
- causi 3y ago
  It's dumb on two levels. Firstly, for a planet to evolve sapient life it must be inhabitable for, at minimum, millions of years if not billions, therefore if this orbital instability was going to wipe out the trisolarans it would've done it already. Secondly, the trisolarans are hyper-advanced. They turn individual protons into sapient robots and play with antimatter, therefore they can make a damn air conditioner. Manufacturing habitats to isolate them from the effects of their orbit would be easier than almost every single other thing they do in the entire series, including transporting their whole species across interstellar distances. Some of the things they do would be harder than keeping their planet in a stable orbit by force.
  - endisneigh 3y ago
    > Firstly, for a planet to evolve sapient life it must be inhabitable for, at minimum, millions of years if not billions, therefore if this orbital instability was going to wipe out the trisolarans it would've done it already. This is not a fact to begin with, and in the book their civilization was repeatedly wiped out. > Secondly, the trisolarans are hyper-advanced. They turn individual protons into sapient robots and play with antimatter, therefore they can make a damn air conditioner. Manufacturing habitats to isolate them from the effects of their orbit would be easier than almost every single other thing they do in the entire series, including transporting their whole species across interstellar distances. Some of the things they do would be harder than keeping their planet in a stable orbit by force. This is not the failure mode they’re concerned with. You also seem to drastically overestimate their capabilities.
  - azulster 3y ago
    broad strokes yes, you are right. however you missed some explanatory details: !!!SPOILERS BELOW!!! the trisolarans specifically evolved to survive their chaotic orbit, by being able to completely "dry out" and wait in stasis for a safer time. this is based on how some worms and bacteria on earth have the ability to survive extreme conditions by similar protective stasis methods. the trisolarans are very intelligent but their advancements are constrained by the need to rebuild the civilization at unpredictable intervals. this actually drives their technological innovation as they are existentially motivated to figure out how to predict the orbital intervals. its also implied that the trisolarans did not think themselves very far advanced compared to humans, only that they had a few centuries head start on understanding the fundamental nature of physics. they conclude that all they need to do is sabotage our particle colliders to confound our ability to gain any more insight into subatomic mechanics to prevent us from achieving what they have moving their civilization across interstellar space is far less difficult than it would be for humans mostly because the civilizations can be dehydrated and kept in storage, not needing supplies to live out the years in transit. even so it still takes incredible engineering and resource investment to achieve because the fleet must move semi-autonomously and reliably for centuries because FTL travel is beyond their ability. it would be impossible to stabilize their orbit because the planet is being chaotically thrown between 3 large stars. they are also not just concerend with surviving the next "hot cycle" they had predicted true apocalypse for even their survivable species. IIRC the planet was doomed to eventually fall into one of the stars based on their predictions
    - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
      > its also implied that the trisolarans did not think themselves very far advanced compared to humans, not quite. they are aware that they are significantly ahead of humans, but have also observed human scientific and technological progress following an exponential curve, since we do not get our civilization(s) wiped out periodically. they fear that we will easily catch up with them in 400 years unless they somehow intervene.

by causi 3y ago

Yeah, the whole "planet's climate is stable enough for a sapient species to evolve and become hyper-advanced yet so unstable they're going to be wiped out" is so, so stupid.

endisneigh 3y ago

What’s stupid about it?

causi 3y ago
It's dumb on two levels. Firstly, for a planet to evolve sapient life it must be inhabitable for, at minimum, millions of years if not billions, therefore if this orbital instability was going to wipe out the trisolarans it would've done it already. Secondly, the trisolarans are hyper-advanced. They turn individual protons into sapient robots and play with antimatter, therefore they can make a damn air conditioner. Manufacturing habitats to isolate them from the effects of their orbit would be easier than almost every single other thing they do in the entire series, including transporting their whole species across interstellar distances. Some of the things they do would be harder than keeping their planet in a stable orbit by force.
- endisneigh 3y ago
  > Firstly, for a planet to evolve sapient life it must be inhabitable for, at minimum, millions of years if not billions, therefore if this orbital instability was going to wipe out the trisolarans it would've done it already. This is not a fact to begin with, and in the book their civilization was repeatedly wiped out. > Secondly, the trisolarans are hyper-advanced. They turn individual protons into sapient robots and play with antimatter, therefore they can make a damn air conditioner. Manufacturing habitats to isolate them from the effects of their orbit would be easier than almost every single other thing they do in the entire series, including transporting their whole species across interstellar distances. Some of the things they do would be harder than keeping their planet in a stable orbit by force. This is not the failure mode they’re concerned with. You also seem to drastically overestimate their capabilities.
- azulster 3y ago
  broad strokes yes, you are right. however you missed some explanatory details: !!!SPOILERS BELOW!!! the trisolarans specifically evolved to survive their chaotic orbit, by being able to completely "dry out" and wait in stasis for a safer time. this is based on how some worms and bacteria on earth have the ability to survive extreme conditions by similar protective stasis methods. the trisolarans are very intelligent but their advancements are constrained by the need to rebuild the civilization at unpredictable intervals. this actually drives their technological innovation as they are existentially motivated to figure out how to predict the orbital intervals. its also implied that the trisolarans did not think themselves very far advanced compared to humans, only that they had a few centuries head start on understanding the fundamental nature of physics. they conclude that all they need to do is sabotage our particle colliders to confound our ability to gain any more insight into subatomic mechanics to prevent us from achieving what they have moving their civilization across interstellar space is far less difficult than it would be for humans mostly because the civilizations can be dehydrated and kept in storage, not needing supplies to live out the years in transit. even so it still takes incredible engineering and resource investment to achieve because the fleet must move semi-autonomously and reliably for centuries because FTL travel is beyond their ability. it would be impossible to stabilize their orbit because the planet is being chaotically thrown between 3 large stars. they are also not just concerend with surviving the next "hot cycle" they had predicted true apocalypse for even their survivable species. IIRC the planet was doomed to eventually fall into one of the stars based on their predictions
  - PaulDavisThe1st 3y ago
    > its also implied that the trisolarans did not think themselves very far advanced compared to humans, not quite. they are aware that they are significantly ahead of humans, but have also observed human scientific and technological progress following an exponential curve, since we do not get our civilization(s) wiped out periodically. they fear that we will easily catch up with them in 400 years unless they somehow intervene.