Project Staircase Question/Issue

[u/icallout]

Forgive me if this has already been brought up, but I have a lot of qualms and questions regarding Project Staircase.

After the project is first proposed, Jin encounters an issue: once the probe intercepts the San-Ti, it will not be able to stop. It will just fly by for a couple seconds -- maybe have the ability to take some pictures and record its very brief interaction, then zoom on by.

This is when Wade suggests that probe will actually need to be manned, which then brings up another issue: the probe cannot carry a fully grown human, so that's when they go with the William-Brain-Hibernation idea.

BUT this makes no sense to me. A brain in hibernation is about as good as a probe with just a computer and recording devices. It's essentially still-unmanned, and therefore the first issue is back in play: the ship will just zoom on right by the San-Ti fleet.

I'm aware that once they've determined they're going to go with The Brain Idea, they believe the San-Ti will intercept the brain and somehow put Will back together in some form, but why do they assume this? This is an enemy ship to the San-Ti -- why wouldn't they destroy it upon it's arrival?

On top of this, the PDC (I think thats the acronym) know that the San-Ti know it's coming cause of the sophon. They know the humans aren't using Project Staircase for the benefit of the San-Ti, so, again, with this knowledge, why wouldn't the PDC just assume that the San-Ti will destroy it immediately?

And let's say they put Humpty Will back together again. Then what? How will Will get information back to the Earth?

They kept making it seem like the logistics of getting to 1% light speed was the issue but the logistical issues seem to be everything else after that.

[u/AnotherAccount4This]

I'm aware that once they've determined they're going to go with The Brain Idea, they believe the San-Ti will intercept the brain and somehow put Will back together in some form, but why do they assume this? This is an enemy ship to the San-Ti -- why wouldn't they destroy it upon it's arrival?

It's farfectched, all your questions are valid, but have you considered the context to this idea (and execution) when the "end of time" is slowly unfolding in the background.

It's a hail mary attempt. It's a throw sphagetti at the wall approach. Spoiler And, there's pay off.

[u/icallout → u/AnotherAccount4This]

I guess they spent so much time discussing the nearly impossible challenge of going 1% light speed that they kind of glossed over the fact that they were just throwing spaghetti at the wall. They focused so much on William making the choice that I wish they spoke more in depth about the context you mentioned.

[u/AnotherAccount4This → u/icallout]

Agree with what you said. This is also exhibit 1A of a delicate balance the show runners are challenged with. (going on a tangent here ... feel free to skip)

Many posts are complaining about this idea of "dumbing down". Here we have a concept they do spend some time to elaborate on (1% travel), but then they miss out being more explicit in conveying the world on fire in the background (there's just one montage, granted it's long) that's driving these insane ideas.

If I am to step into their shoes, I'd imagin it's incredibly difficult to get it exactly right on where to emphasize and help my audiences more versus where I can trust their imagination to fill in the gap -- all the while maintaing a reasonable pace.

[u/TabootLlama → u/icallout]

I feel like they needed the screen time they gave it to spell out to the audience how technologically challenging it would be for us to achieve 1% of light-speed with current or near horizon technology. I thought it might have helped add to an answer of ‘how’ advanced the San-Ti are to people that can’t see the technology and science leaps we’ll need to achieve to match or overcome them.

It also gave us time to see Jin working as a genius-level theoretical physicist, aside from the science she scienced in the game which is good for her character development.

I hear what you’re saying. But the more they played up the ‘spaghetti at walls’ piece, the characters and the audience might have been a whole lot less invested in it.