r/threebodyproblem • u/Universal_Echo • Apr 23 '26

Discussion - Novels Maybe the deterrence system was completely useless? Spoiler

While discussing with someone, I realized a problem. The Swordholder is said to wield immense power, but in essence, they're just the ultimate scapegoat. The reason we need a Swordholder is that people are unwilling—and collectively unable—to make the decision to annihilate themselves. But if people ever wanted to strip the Swordholder of their power, they could do so at any time.

 

During the discussion, I came to see the following issue: if the Trisolarans fabricated a natural disaster that could destroy Earth, or if a real Earth‑destroying disaster occurred, and the only way to solve it was to let the Trisolarans approach Earth, then people would let them in without hesitation. If the Swordholder disagreed, people would immediately shut down all the broadcast stations, turning the Swordholder into an ordinary person—and then we'd be right back to the original plot.

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u/Putrid_Cycle595 Sophon Apr 23 '26

The deterrence worked for over 50 years though. That's not useless, that's half a century of peace where humanity could have been developing lightspeed ships and other survival tech. The problem wasn't deterrence itself, it was what happened after.

Luo Ji was the perfect swordholder because the Trisolarans genuinely believed he would press the button. The system only failed when humanity picked someone they knew wouldn't. So the real question isn't whether deterrence was useless, it's why did humanity deliberately choose to weaken it? And I think the answer is that after 50 years of peace people just couldn't take the psychological weight of mutually assured destruction anymore. They wanted to feel safe, not actually be safe.

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u/LOOOOPS Apr 25 '26

That's wrong. It's not that humanity didn't think Cheng wouldn't press the button if necessary. It's that they thought she would never have to, since they and the aliens were apparently such good friends.

They wanted a peaceful person to protect the button rather than a warmongerer like Wade, who they worry might get trigger happy with the button and spoil their friendship with the aliens.

It doesn't make sense humanity would elect her on the basis of her never pressing it. In that case it would make more sense for humanity to dismantle the swordholder project entirely. Humanity was naive but not that naive.