> A sophon is a proton-sized computer that is capable of surveiling any and all human communications, from private conversations to electronic messages to records stored in offline data banks. It transforms the entire planet into a terrifying panopticon. Effectively, it allows Earth's alien antagonists to see and hear everything.
Notably, the spark for the surveillance is because the aliens hear from their human contact that humans lie. So the alien deduction is that humans cannot be trusted, and so they are afraid and conclude that they cannot coexist.
I have not read the book (or seen the series) so I already hit a few spoilers in the article before bailing to avoid more.
But whether it's the Chinese state or aliens, the idea of a panopticon where everyone's thoughts can be known seems kind of pointless. I guess I'm thinking that if you know everyone's thoughts then no one's thoughts are interesting.
You dont know everyones thoughts in this case. You know an unknowable to the observed number of peoples actions and words. Its a subtle yet important difference
For a person that has read the books a couple of times (and loved the Tencent show) the Netflix version is so shallow and lacking nuance that I barely finished it. Benioff and Weiss have picked some "wow" moments from the book without any understanding of it or the emotional and existential weight of it all. As an adaption it is extremely poor. There are some good actors in it, but they are all wasted and not given enough to shine. Pacing was extremely poor. Another thing that made an impression of me was the quality of the dialogue. It's the most dumbed possible version you could think of. Ye Wenjie saying "Time is a motherfucker" was such a disservice to such a complex character from the book/Tencent show that I couldn't believe it when I heard it.
If you want something that stirs your mind and makes you truly ponder, especially if you're science/engineering/philosophy inclined, read the books and/or watch the Tencent show (very slow burn, but it's worth it because it's made with love and let's you think, although I do have some critiques on it as well).
As an aside I'd like to say that the whole trilogy is fundamentally not a product of Western thought. You need some context on Chinese history and culture to truly appreciate it. I think many people in the West don't know enough about China and society there to fully grasp the nuance in most of it.
On a much more superficial note, you gotta love the casting decisions too. Make the Chinese people ultra trendy diverse and make the terminal cancer patient whose brain is being scooped out and shipped to the aliens the only white guy. ;D
Honestly, I think the actor who played Will (him being Yun Tianming) was the closest to his book counterpart as a character. He was the best part of the show for me. For example, I'm sure Benedict Wong can play Da Shi because he's a very good actor, but in this show the character is utterly ruined. He's not the glue or the do-it-all no bullshit policeman that he's supposed to be. Yu Hewei (Da Shi from the Tencent show) was so good in that role that I honestly cannot compare him at all. It's night and day. Also the Netflix show suffers a lot for being only 8 episodes. I think being 12-13 would've worked much better and left a bit more for the plot to breathe, but nope. We gotta jump because we're in a hurry somehow.
Haha. I actually thought Da Shi was pretty spot on, but maybe I was spellbound by the fact that they cast the same exact actor for him that I cast in my head when I read the books! :D Gruff Chinese detective guy? It had to be the detective guy from Contagion.
It is poorly written, with some atrocious dialog. I watched it all because the story intrigued me, but all I kept thinking was, "The last season of GoT was shit for THIS?"
I recommend everyone who enjoy the story to try the TV series by Tencent, especially for original book lovers. The Netflix version is somewhat a glimpse.
> A sophon is a proton-sized computer that is capable of surveiling any and all human communications, from private conversations to electronic messages to records stored in offline data banks. It transforms the entire planet into a terrifying panopticon. Effectively, it allows Earth's alien antagonists to see and hear everything.
Notably, the spark for the surveillance is because the aliens hear from their human contact that humans lie. So the alien deduction is that humans cannot be trusted, and so they are afraid and conclude that they cannot coexist.