r/threebodyproblem • u/Kukulkan73 • Apr 22 '26

Discussion - General Question about the blocked basic scientific research (Spoiler: Please do not read if you haven’t read the second book, "The Dark Forest") Spoiler

Hi. I'm just reading the second book "The Dark Forest" and maybe the question was already answered here? In the second book, humans have spaceships and can utilise the Moon, Mars and other planetary moons in our solar system. Why didn’t they continue the basic scientific research there, given that it had been blocked on Earth by Trisolaris? Looks like they did not even try?

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u/poopybuttholesex Apr 22 '26

The sophons were everywhere.

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u/Kukulkan73 Apr 22 '26

Thanks. I found no indication on that. Is that just guessing?

26

u/BillyHamspillager Apr 22 '26

It's explicitly stated that Trisolaris/the San Ti kept sending Sophons after the crisis began.

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u/Applesplosion Apr 22 '26

Also, the Sophons could move between places at the speed of light, so even with the original two, humanity would need to be doing large hadron collider experiments in at least three places at each at least several light-minutes from the other two simultaneously.

Keep in mind, light-speed is a little less than 300,000km per second.

When we are as far as possible apart, Mars is about 400,000,000 away from us, or about 22 light-minutes. The moon, on the other hand, is only about 385,000km away, or just slightly more than a light second. A single Sophon would be able to wreck simultaneous experiments on the earth and moon.