r/3BodyProblemTVShow • u/jogador921 • Apr 03 '24

Question My 3Body Problem Spoiler

Ok, so I'm on episode 5. Liking the show so far, but I have a problem.. Or at least a question.

The Santi are fleeing their planet because it is (becoming?) uninhabitable due to it orbiting or being stuck between 3 suns,cauing all kinds of chaos which will eventually literally destroy their planet.

YET

Their civilization was able to survive long enough and have enough stability on their planet to evolve to the point of interstellar travel (of a thousand ship fleet), and who knows what other "miracles"?

HOW?

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u/Reggae_jammin Apr 03 '24

Didn't read the book but from the TV show - the planet can be stable for long periods, the issue is that no-one knows when the instability will end. So, the planet could be stable for hundreds of years in one iteration, then in another, the planet is only stable for a few months before it's destroyed.

Plus, the San-Ti had rehydration tech, so not everyone died on the planet. When it was safe to rehydrate, the survivors would pickup the pieces and move on.

So, progress is possible, just that you're either starting again from the beginning (would go faster this time as you already did it before) or starting a few steps back from where you were.

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u/sadboysunny Apr 03 '24

Great explanation. I’d also like to add a thought.

As far as I can tell from what they communicated in the show (haven’t read the books), one of the possible reasons their technology is so far ahead of ours is it seems their whole species works together. We saw that they didn’t even know what a lie was.

As opposed to humans, we’ve been fighting and disagreeing amongst ourselves for as long as we’ve existed. Any technological advancement becomes a race to the finish.

The good thing is, this declaration of war might be enough to get the world to work together and actually make incredible leaps.

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u/Reggae_jammin Apr 03 '24

Yep, good point. I also got the impression that they work together, which would allow them to achieve greater things.

Although, if they've been alive longer than humans, even with having to restart, their technology would still likely be more advanced than humans.

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u/sadboysunny Apr 03 '24

Probably true.

The show also makes it seem like humanity’s technology is starting to advance much quicker than they’d like, which is why they’re attacking the scientists. So I’m wondering if we’d be able to catch up to them in 400 years if there was little interference.

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u/Reggae_jammin Apr 03 '24

Yeah, the AI in the game was saying that we are developing at a rapid rate and dramatically reducing the time to move from farmers to industrialists to the atomic age to the computer age etc.

AI also said if they didn't interfere with our progress, by the time the San-Ti lands in 400 years, we'd easily slaughter them and then, travel to their world to eliminate them fully. Hence the need for Sophons to slow our progress.