Spoilers 3 Body Problem

[Ryujin]

Anybody else have an issue with nano-shredding Judgement Day? Don't get me wrong, the scene was brutal and well worth filming. My issue is that the fella in charge wanted to incapacitate the cultist and get their hard drives, mainframes, etc... without a bloody fight. Though, the nano-shredding turned the ship into a pile of scrap. They got very lucky that all the data wasn't destroyed with the JD.

I definitely had a, "What the hell are they doing?!" moment over that one. The odds of damaging a very specific item with a single molecule wide cutter are quite small, but non-zero. The odds of maiming or killing dozens of innocents were, by comparison, incredibly high.

 

[payn]

I definitely had a, "What the hell are they doing?!" moment over that one. The odds of damaging a very specific item with a single molecule wide cutter are quite small, but non-zero. The odds of maiming or killing dozens of innocents were, by comparison, incredibly high.

I got the distinct idea that the cultists were seen as culpable, dangerous, and expendable. The data was the primary target. They could have destroyed everything. Maybe not by the precise cuts of the nanofibers, but the result was a pile of smoking scrap!

 

[Ryujin]

I got the distinct idea that the cultists were seen as culpable, dangerous, and expendable. The data was the primary target. They could have destroyed everything. Maybe not by the precise cuts of the nanofibers, but the result was a pile of smoking scrap!

They had to know that there were entire families on board, at that point. It would be like if the Ruby Ridge incident kicked off with mortar fire on the house.

 

[payn]

They had to know that there were entire families on board, at that point. It would be like if the Ruby Ridge incident kicked off with mortar fire on the house.

Sure, you are looking at this from a humanitarian perspective. Unlike Ruby Ridge, you could argue that Judgement Day is an existential threat. Im not saying I agree with that take, but it seems to be the one they are going with.

I know that storming the ship with marines would likely cost some lives, but it seems more logical to me than scuttling the ship and killing all thousand or however many on board to prevent soliders from being in harms way.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Anybody else have an issue with nano-shredding Judgement Day? Don't get me wrong, the scene was brutal and well worth filming. My issue is that the fella in charge wanted to incapacitate the cultist and get their hard drives, mainframes, etc... without a bloody fight. Though, the nano-shredding turned the ship into a pile of scrap. They got very lucky that all the data wasn't destroyed with the JD.

I wondered about this, too. Apparently in the book, they used a similar method and got into more details about how it wokrks. But I haven't read the book, so I don't know the details.
What I figured - they had a rough idea what kind of hard disks they might use, and what material they would have. The nano-wire does still impact energy and momentum on what it's hitting, only if it provides too much resistance does the wire cut through. (Probably something to do with the energy required to break the material bond compared to the energy required to drag the object or something?). Many things - like people, helicopters, ship hulls - are way too heavy to not be cut through. But smaller items - like a flash drive or hard disk would instead just be dragged around. The wires probably also need to be far apart enough so the drive fits between two lines of the wire at whatever is the worst angle for it. Maybe it was also fitted to the expected gauge of the ship and the deck heights - eventually it would fall to the floor and be safely between the wires. I guess the biggest gamble here is the hard disk stored in the server? Though if they knew the serverracks used, they could estimate the height there, too?

 

[briggart]

Sure, you are looking at this from a humanitarian perspective. Unlike Ruby Ridge, you could argue that Judgement Day is an existential threat. Im not saying I agree with that take, but it seems to be the one they are going with.

I know that storming the ship with marines would likely cost some lives, but it seems more logical to me than scuttling the ship and killing all thousand or however many on board to prevent soliders from being in harms way.

Spoiler for the book

Spoiler

In the book, the assault on the Judgement Day feels more like a clear-cut situation, with one or few innocent casualties in exchange for vital intelligence and a significant blow to a terrorist organisation bent on extermination of humanity.

The main concern is recovering the data. Several methods were considered but deemed too risky, either because they posed a significant chance of destroying the drives, or because they would leave enough time to the occupants for deleting the data. The filaments were chosen because they were basically immediately lethal to everyone on board (Da Chi even suggested using them during he day to make sure most people would be standing rather than laying in beds), and even if they would cut drives, storage, etc., the cuts were expected to be very clean, allowing for the recovering of most information.

The internal dynamics of the Earth-Trisolaris Organization in the book is also different than in the TV show. The ETO is divided into various factions. The main two are the Adventists, lead by Mike Evans, and the Redemptionists, lead by Ye Wenjie. The former are basically working toward humanity extinction, while the latter are followers of the Trisolaris faith, hoping to save their Lord, either by solving the 3 Body problem, or having the aliens settle on Earth. The two factions are bitter enemies, and are engaged in internal semi-open war, with members of one faction plotting against and killing members of the other.

The JD is crewed almost entirely by Adventists. When planning the assault on the Judgement Day, Wang Miao, the scientist who developed the nano filament in the book, is concerned about possible innocent victims. He's told that an external pilot has to guide the ship during the canal transit, and possibly few of the crew members may be unaware of the ship real nature, but no mention of children, families, etc. It's possible they were onboard and not considered as innocent casualties, but given how the Adventists are portrayed in the book, and the fact they believe some members of the crew to not be part of the ETO, it seems highly unlikely.

 

[MNblockhead]

Anybody else have an issue with nano-shredding Judgement Day? Don't get me wrong, the scene was brutal and well worth filming. My issue is that the fella in charge wanted to incapacitate the cultist and get their hard drives, mainframes, etc... without a bloody fight. Though, the nano-shredding turned the ship into a pile of scrap. They got very lucky that all the data wasn't destroyed with the JD.

They go into the planning in a lot more detail in the book. Still, it was a risk.

If a drive platter had been cut, it would almost certainly had been a single nanothin slice. You'd likely be able to recover a lot of the data from it.

 

[payn]

They go into the planning in a lot more detail in the book. Still, it was a risk.

If a drive platter had been cut, it would almost certainly had been a single nanothin slice. You'd likely be able to recover a lot of the data from it.

Do they explain why some stuff cuts nice and clean and people go jigsaw puzzle?

 

[MNblockhead]

Do they explain why some stuff cuts nice and clean and people go jigsaw puzzle?

The book doesn't go into a description of the effects from the perspective of the people on the ship. There is a description of one person on the deck that the narrator (Professor Wang) can observe from shore, who falls to the ground and spits in half. The show obviously works hard to make this important scene visually impressive and are going to take liberties that favor drama and on-screen visuals. The TV show also ups the ethical issues in terms of "collateral damage" and highlighting the families and children. Families and children are not described in the book. It is described as the core base and command center of the Adventists, where the group's leaders usually reside. I suppose one could infer (and the show writers did infer) that the leaders may have kept their families on the ship.

The books description of the sliced boat's 40 half-meter slices spreading like a deck of cards seems a bit unrealistic. I would expect that the slices would be "nice and clean" but that machinery and internal construction would start falling apart and that the pieces would not slide smoothly enough to fan out like card deck.

 

[payn]

So, I noticed Amazon Prime has a 3 Body Problem series also. I think the one they have available was made in China. I watched the first few episodes. Noticed they didnt include anything (yet) about the revolution which seems to track with the publication in China.

Anyways, I was impressed how much more intellectual the writing and plot are of this version. they actually go into the science, not very deeply, but not the cosplay level of the Netflix series either. I appreciate demonstrating the struggle of someone who spent their entire life dedicated to s discipline and having to deal with that being turned on its head. The Netflix version seems like the characters dont want to do science at all, but damn why do they have to be so smart???