3 Body Problem - Sophons Explained

In season 2 of Netflix The Three Body Problem, Sophon scenes will likely be covered more, but so far the 8 episodes we got didn't do that very well. To those who didn't read the books this Alien technology may seem paradoxical. If it's so powerful, why doesn't it do more? That's why I'm making these videos.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[torque]

Sophones made this video, this is pro Trisolarian propaganda. I formally denounce

[DJDace]

it's not that the Trisolarans being a small fish in the Dark Forest isn't well communicated, it's that the Dark Forest concept hasn't even been established or revealed yet in the show.

[ucnguyen]

That is not why sophon didn't do those kind of things, the simple answer is just that sophon is not that OP in the book, the show makes it so powerful that unecessary plot holes arise. The aliens also don't care if humans destroy Earth, they just need a stable system, they can live on Mars, Venus or asteroid belt just fine, Earth is just a nice bonus

[Gingergeiger]

It’s not lost! That’s the whole point of Luo Ji’s revelation as a wallfacer. The audience will discover the dark forest soon enough. The show is doing a great job to mirror the moment of discovery with as it happens in the book.

[ControlAltPete]

Great explanation. In the book it is clearer that building the Sophons was the largest and most advanced project the Trisolarans had ever attempted, and in the book there were many failed initial attempts. The Sophons were just the size of a proton and they are only able to affect tiny things also the size of atoms. They messed up subatomic particle experiments; They shot light particles into certain people's eyes to make a countdown; They messed with observatories detectors to make the "stars blink" (the background cosmic radiation in the book). In the book they didn't make the stars blink for everyone one Earth. That would've been too big an effect for the tiny Sophons to pull off.

[matheusmterra]

It's kinda frustrating seeing the reception of the show. As a book fan, I thought it was impossible to adapt. All things considered, they done a stupendous job translating it from the book to a TV show. They got a few plot holes in for spectacle, sure: the sophons editing camera feeds, the fact Will's brain probe malfunctioned too soon and thus is too slow and so on.

However what I am seeing are people poking a lot of holes in the show that are things purposely convoluted meant to be revealed later. Why did they spend so much time with Will if the project was to fail? How did they develop cryotrchnology so quickly? Why was the stoner chosen to be a wallfacer if it's such an important job? Why are the sophons stifling progress on particle accelerators and not on the cryotech or naval engineering? If the San Ti are so powerful why aren't they coming faster?

All questions to which the answer is "keep watching", but it feels like everything about the show is mired in mistrust on the showrunners because of their big blunder on the final seasons of Game of Thrones.

People seem to forget that the GoT show was a masterpiece up until the point there was source material for them to fall back to, the show derailed once they ran out of source material and had to wing it. This is not the case here, the Rememberance of Earth's Past trilogy is already set in stone. People should get over the GoT blunder and take the show at its own terms, and just frigging WAIT FOR THE STORY TO UNFOLD!

[jaredsalazarofficial]

Are sophons are not responsible for CCTV feed manipulation? are they responsible for the "You are Bugs" messages? Surely if they are capable of digital data manipulation they are capable of controlling dgital devices, vehicles and weapons. That's a huge plot hole to fill.

[SmileyEmoji]

The sophons are still OP in so many ways:
1) They violate the laws of quantum physics in that they can be used for communication repeatedly without losing entaglement.
2) They violate the laws of conservation of momentum and energy in that they can be seen changing direction at near 90 degrees to accelerate into the path of a test particle travelling at near c. It was also never explained how they managed to slow down when they first reached earth. The enegies required for these accelerations and decelerations are more than enough to affect things at a macroscopic scale as demonstrated by the energies required for the particle accelerators on earth and E=mc^2.
3) They can apparently "see" these test particles travelling at near c, approaching so as to enable them to plan an intercept.
4) They can "see" macroscopic entities. How? They cannot use light as they are too small to be affected by rays in that part of the spectrum.

[merlinsrobe]

Many of the criticisms levelled at the show and the books mistakenly assume that TBP is supposed to be "hard" science fiction, when it's actually a fantasy sci-fi story like Star Wars and should be judged as such. Development of Sophons is explained to require actual physical manipulation of higher dimensions. This is so incredibly advanced and disparate from the rest of the San Ti story line that we have to assume the author consciously decided that he wasn't going to even try to maintain internal consistency and just tell what he believed was a cool story. So don't try to pick apart the story for its science -- it's fantasy sci-fi and no more.

[esbuenodun]

Think about this. A “small fish” on the universe level took a look at us and said “yeah I think we can take ’em”

[IdleDeathGambling]

Sophones: What have you done?
Butcher: Scorched Earff

[formedblackhawk_]

I don’t think the show failed at portraying the santi as a small fish so much as they chose not to do that, just like in the books they start off as the big bad guy before we learn more about the universe, it’s just the first season they don’t even know about the dark forest yet

[jcwoodman]

The netflix show didn't explain clearly that human loyalists are doing the physical hacking & creating items like the VR headsets etc..

[juangomezfuentes]

THe adaptation didnt forgot to say that the Trisolarans are small fish in the universe. It is done at the end of the second book.

[ryanhebert]

The Trisolarans used the sophons to mess with Thomas Wade’s jet. They did that specifically to show him that they are in control. So, I believe the sophons can do a lot more than what we know. Don’t forget each sophon is basically a super artificial intelligence.

[ScamallDorcha]

I'm pretty sure it has more to do with the fact that there are only 2 sophons and their capabilities are limited due to opportunity cost, they can only do so much at any one time. Due to that, they have to prioritize targets.
Also, we humans are good at fighting cancer, not great, but we can cure many cancers.
So focusing one sophon on killing one particular person instead of spying or sabotage would be quite an extreme measure.

[brengineering]

If the sophons can decrypt a hard drive and enter a virtual reality game and hack every display to display things then yes they are capable of hacking into cars as well.

[ufphk]

The show stepped up the ability and powers of sophons far more than the books, which is not a good choice. It opens loopholes.

[silentsilverstacker]

How could an Alien race the size of a grain of sand build a fleet of ships?

[NS-cswp]

Very well structured video. Nice and concise and to the point! Well done!